Black Agenda Radio - 09.17.18

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Why did Spike Lee use his movie to make a hero out of a cop that spied on Black activists. We’ll put that question to one of the nation’s most respected Black academics. And, we’ll get an assessment of the impact of the just concluded national prisons strike.

A civil rights organization in Washington, DC, has discovered that the Trump administration has plans to drastically raise the cost of staging protests in the Nation’s Capital. According to Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, President Trump’s people want to charge protesters for the cost of police, and to ban demonstrators from the sidewalk in front of the White House.

Spike Lee’s movie, Blackkklansmam. made a hero out of Black former policeman Ron Stallworth, who spied on both the Klu Klux Klan and Black political activists, in the 1970s. Black activist, entertainer and filmmaker Boots Riley wrote an essay, blasting Spike Lee for glorifying the police spy. We spoke with another prominent Black social critic. Robin DG Kelly is a professor of history at UCLA and a prolific author and essayist. The Boots Riley essay on Spike Lee’s movie really sparked Dr. Kelly’s interest.

Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal are optimistic that the nation’s best known political prisoner stands a good chance of winning a new trial. Mumia charges that his conviction in the death of a Philadelphia policeman was obtained through prosecutorial and judicial bias involving former prosecutor and judge Ronald Castille. Those charges were the subject of a court hearing, on August 30th. We spoke with professor Johanna Fernandez, of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home.

In an essay for Prison Radio, Mumia Abu Jamal says the State of Pennsylvania has put the U.S. Constitution on lockdown.