Black Agenda Radio

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: Marxists have been calling on workers of the world to unite for more than a century and a half. But can workers still change the world. A new book says, Yes. And, Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal urge Philadelphia’s chief prosecutor not to stand in the way of possible pathway to freedom. The Democrats seem certain to step up their investigations of the Trump administration, now that they are a majority In the U.S. House. That also probably means even more frenzied efforts to link Russia to the Trump presidential campaign. Stephen Cohen is the nation’s best known expert on Russia, having studied that nation’s politics in both the Soviet era, and after Russia became capitalist. Cohen spoke with Black Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford, who remembers the tail end of anti-Russian hysteria during the McCarty Era. But Ford cannot recall anything during the McCarthy era that was as manic, loud and relentless has today’s hysteria against Russia. Professor Cohen, agrees. Russia may be capitalist, but socialists around the world still seek the overthrow of the rule of the rich. Michael Yates is an editor with the prestigious left publication, Monthly Review. He’s a longtime labor education and a prolific author. Yates’ latest book is entitled, “Can the Working Class Change the World?” Yates think they can, and must. But, most Americans don’t think of themselves as being in the working class, and very few know that 200 million Indian workers recently staged a two-day, general strike. Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, rallied in Philadelphia, last week, demanding that the city’s district attorney, Larry Krasner, do nothing to interfere with Abu Jamal’s chance to appeal his conviction in the death of a policeman, 38 years ago. A long list of people took to the microhone, beginning with a high school classmate of Abu Jamal, when Mumia was known as Wesley Cook.

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: The two corporate parties, the Democrats and Republicans, monopolize electoral politics in the United States. But the Black Is Back Coalition says there is still reason to pursue independent Black politics. And, after 37 years behind bars, Mumia Abu Jamal has won the right to another appeal, and a possible new trial – or freedom. But first -- President Trump’s “trade war” with China sometimes seems destined to escalate into a military confrontation. We spoke with Dr Gerald Horne, the prolific author and professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston. Some in the Trump administration have expressed pleasure at reports that China’s economy is slowing down, even though many economists believe that it was only a strong Chinese economy that kept the whole world from being plunged into a depression, following the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. Dr. Horne says the U.S. is shooting itself in the foot with its China policy. The Democrats are flexing their congressional muscle, having taken over leadership of the U.S. House, this month. But the Democratic Party seems divided into three factions. One faction believes that all they have to do to become a majority party is to run against Donald Trump. Another faction looks forward to collaborating with Trump as much as possible. And the third, more progressive faction believes the only way to win is by putting forward the kind of big programs, like Medicare for All, that large majorities of the public supports. Omali Yeshitela is no Democrat. He’s chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition, which will hold another in its series of electoral politics schools, in St. Louis, in April. Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal are ecstatic over a Philadelphia judge’s decision that could allow the nation’s best known political prisoner another chance to appeal his conviction in the death of a police officer, 37 years ago. We asked Prof. Johanna Fernandez, of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, if there’s finally a real pathway to freedom for Abu Jamal.

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: Mumia Abu Jamal wins a victory in court, and celebrates a legal win for sick inmates in Pennsylvania’s prisons; and a police reform group wants to safeguard mentally ill people from police violence. a New Year is dawning, and it’s been two years since investigations began into the so-called Russiagate scandal. But Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley says, the main charge against President Trump, Wikileaks and the Russian government remains unproven. If there is an anti-war faction in the Democratic Party, it’s been very quiet in the wake of President Trump’s decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria. We spoke with longtime peace activist Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center. Flounders is also active in the Hands Off Syria Campaign. The Democrats are screaming to high heaven with outrage at Trumps plans for a Syria pullout.. A Philadelphia judge has ruled that the nation’s best known political prisoner has the right to present another appeal of his 1982 conviction in the death of a police officer.  Mumia Abu Jamal proved his contention that a prosecutor in his case, who went on to become a judge, unconstitutionally influenced Abu Jamal’s previous appeal, which was turned down. Meanwhile, Abu Jamal continues to turn out award-winning journalism for Prison Radio. This week, he reports on another victory for Pennsylvania prison inmates. Millions of white people live in New York City, but you wouldn’t know that if you visited the courts and jails of the city’s five boroughs. The Police Reform Organizing Project, or PROP, reports that close to 9 out of 10 people facing arraignment in local courts on any given day, are Black or Latino.  PROP executive director Robert Gangi says his group’s new project is to change the way mentally ill people are treated in New York.

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: Is the U.S. empire coming apart at the seams? A Black political analyst says, “Yes, it is.” And, Americans think they are the nicest, most generous people in the world, even as they bomb a great portion of the planet. But a new book shows that American Niceness is a mask, and even a weapon. President Donald Trump shocked the U.S. military and imperial establishment with his decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria and to remove half of American military personnel from Afghanistan. The Black Alliance for Peace welcomed Trump’s withdrawals. Ajamu Baraka, the Green Party 2016 candidate for vice president, is the lead organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace. The Democrats and others in the U.S. War party act as if Donald Trump is the cause of the U.S. domestic and international crisis. But Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Dubosian scholar based in Philadelphia, says Trump didn’t create the acute crisis that U.S. imperialism is undergoing…that it’s been a long time coming. Americans, especially white Americans, seem to think that they are among the nicest people in the world, both personally and as a nation. Most of the world does NOT share that opinion. Dr. Carrie BRAY-man, a professor of English at Buffalo State University, in New York, has written a book on the subject. It’s called  “American Niceness: A Cultural History.” BRAY-man says smiling faces can be very dangerous.

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: Students at Seton Hall University say they’ll renew demands for African Policies Studies professors of their own choosing; a new study reveals how much force the police use against civilians in every city and town in New Jersey; and, we’ll talk with the author of a new book on the imperial presidency of George Bush, the Elder But first – There are some in the Black community that advocate all boys schools for Black males, as a way of combating high rates of drop-out and incarceration, and to install pride among young Black males. Keisha Lindsay has written a book on the subject. Lindsay is an associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin, at Madison. She’s author of the book, ““In A Classroom of Their Own: The Intersection of Race and Feminist Politics in All-Black Male Schools.” She says there is a long history of Black support for projects that promise Black-oriented education At Seton Hall University, in South Orange, New Jersey, Black, brown and other minority students have banded together under the banner of the “Concerned 44” to stage a series of protests. Chris Duran is a spokesman for the students, who say they represent the 44 percent of the student population that are members of ethnic or gender minorities. They plan to renew their protests, after the holidays, to push a list of demands Also in that state, New Jersey Advanced Media released a report documenting how police departments in every city and town in the state used force against civilians. Activists  on the ground have found the report very useful in pressing their case against police racism and brutality. Zayid Muhammad is a veteran organizer with the Newark Communities for Accountable Policing, or N-CAP. We asked him if there were any surprises in the New Jersey Advanced Media report George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st U.S. President and father of president Number 43, was laid to rest two weeks ago, with great pomp and ceremony. We spoke with noted author and professor of politics Anthony DiMaggio, who wrote an article for Counterpunch, titled, “Imperialist in Chief: A Critical History of George H.W. Bush’s War On Iraq.” DiMaggio says all U.S. presidents, of either party, seek to build and defend the American empire

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: A new book maintains that the real Russiagate conspirators are the CIA and the Deep State, which concocted the allegations in order to destroy any chance of peace with Moscow: Activists fighting for Community Control of the Chicago police have targetted virtually the entire city council for ouster in the next elections; and, the American Public Health Association endorses treating police violence as a national public health issue. The Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference gathered its forces for a conference in Atlanta, Georgia, this past weekend. Black Agenda Report was there. The Mueller investigation into the so-called Russiagate scandal is reported to be nearing a conclusion, but after two years, there’s still no hard evidence of collusion between Wikileaks, the Russian government and the Trump election campaign. Dan Kovalik is a longtime activist and author, whose new book is titled, “The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin.” Kovalik says the spinners of the Russiagate tale are ginning up war fever, trying to destroy any chance that a peace movement will re-emerge in the United States. Activists in Chicago are building on their unprecedented recent victory, with the murder conviction of the white cop that killed Laquan McDonald. Frank Chapman is a veteran community organizer with the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. He reflects on the state of the movement since the rebellion in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 Hah-Day Rivera is an activist with Critical Resistance, a group of health professionals and anti-policing organizations that recently got the American Public Health Association to endorse the principle of treating police violence as a public health issue. Ms. Rivera is co-author of the ground-breaking report that convinced the Association that fundamental changes need to be made in how policing is done in the United States.

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: After gaining an historic murder conviction of a killer cop, anti-police repression forces in Chicago are gearing up for a massive campaign to change the make-up of the entire city government; and, supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal preparingfor another court hearing in their 37-year long struggle to throw out his conviction in the death of a Philadelphia policeman. First Senator Bernie Sanders, who is presumed to be getting ready for another run at the Democratic presidential nomination, last month unveiled a ten-point domestic program, full of multi-trillion dollar initiatives for Medicare-for-All health care, a massive remake of U.S. national infrastructure, free college tuition, and a dismantling of the mass incarceration regime. But Sanders has little to say on foreign policy or about reducing the military budget that eats up most of federal tax monies. Frustrated with Sanders, over 100 noted intellectuals and activists sent a letter, calling on the senator to come out against U.S. militarism. David Swanson is a veteran anti-war activist and publisher of the influential web site, War Is A Crime. He was one of the framers of that letter. Black activists in Chicago plan to build on their recent victory, with the historic murder conviction of the cop that killed Laquan McDonald, by changing the balance of power of the city’s board of alderman. Aislinn Pulley is with Black Lives Matter, Chicago. She says the momentum is on the movement’s side. Supporters of the nation’s best known political prisoner scrambled to bring as many activists to Philadelphia as possible for another court hearing in Mumia Abu Jamal’s challenge to his life prison sentence in the 1981 death of a police officer. Johanna Fernandez is with the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home. She was interview by Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser. Pam Africa is part of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal and Minister of Information for the MOVE organization. MOVE has supported Mumia ever since his arrest in 1981, just as Mumia, as a young radio reporter, was one of the few that provided coverage to the MOVE 9, who were imprisoned in the death of a Philadelphia cop, in 1978. Pam Africa explained why they had to scramble to get to court for the latest hearing.

 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: Russiagate is all Democrats and other members of the War Party want to talk about, but the author of a new book says the whole affair was concocted by the former head of the CIA; a Black activist and writer from Canada cautions that the Great White North has its own history of racial repression and police brutality; and, Mumia Abu Jamal has a requiem for the fading U.S. empire. Dublin, Ireland, was the site of the world’s First International Conference Against U.S. and NATO military bases. The U.S. has between 800 and 1000 military bases around the world, and a military budget that equals all the other nations on the planet, combined. The United States has taken upon itself the duties of world policeman, waging war by military or economic means with no regard for international law. The U.S. is now the main military power in Africa, with an entire military command centered on the continent. Paul Pumprhey is a veteran Black activist and a founding member of Friends of the Congo. He told the conference in Ireland that the U.S. has been exploiting and causing mass death in the Congo for well over a century. For more than two years, the Democratic Party and most the U.S. corporate media have been waging a non-stop campaign to blame Russia for the myriad social and political conflicts that plague the United States. They call their conspiracy theory “Russiagate.” Ron Ridenhour is a longtime activist and author, now living in Denmark, whose new book is titled ““The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert.” Ridenhour says there is nothing the U.S. military industrial complex fears more than the prospect of world peace. He says the whole Russiagate affair is a misinformation campaign concocted by former CIA director John Brennan to rekindle the Cold War. Lots of folks in the United States think that Canada is a country of racial tolerance. But Robyn Maynard, a Black activist based in Montreal, Canada, says Don’t believe the Canadian hype. Maynard is author of the new book, “Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present.” She says there’s more to policing and repression of Black Lives than just brutal cops with sticks and guns. The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, reports for Prison Radio on the Twilight of U.S. Empire.

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: The world’s biggest corporation has chosen its two new headquarters cities, but some folks want Amazon to go back where it came from; we’ll hear from a Muslim liberation theologian, who says Islam should be on the side of the poor and oppressed; and, Mumia Abu Jamal files a report for Prison Radio The Republican Party lost control of the U.S. House in the recent elections, but strengthened its hold on the Senate. Historically speaking, President Trump’s party was not beaten as badly as presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama were, in midterm elections. We spoke with Dr. Gerald Horne, the prolific author and activist who teaches History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. Amazon, the biggest corporation in the world, owned by Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, has decided to move its second corporate headquarters to the  “power” cities of New York and Washington, DC. Cities and states across the country promised Amazon billions of dollars in tax incentives and subsidies if the corporation would bring 50 thousand jobs to town with it. The New York City half of the new headquarters will be located in the Long Island City, Queens neighborhood. But the city’s negotiations with Amazon have been super-secret. Maritza Silva-Farrell is executive director of Align, an alliance of New York community groups and labor organizations. She doesn’t trust Amazon one bit. When we hear the term “liberation theology,” most of us think of the Christian religion. But there are liberation theologians in the Muslim faith, as well. Shadaab Rahemtulla is a Muslim liberation theologian, who teaches at the University of Jordan. He’s the author of a new book, titled, “Koran of the Oppressed: Liberation Theology and Gender Justice in Islam.” Professor Rahemtulla says a pro-poor, pro-equality, and pro-peace Islam is part of the global Muslim conversation. The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, has filed a report for Prison Radio. It’s about A Man Who Knew Too Much.

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: A scholar of Native American and Black U.S. ancestry finds a path to greater unity among the two groups, in Hip Hop; Pan Africanists from the United States and elsewhere in the Diaspora make common cause with townspeople in Sierra Leone, West Africa; and, What role did the CIA play in the election of a fascist as president of Brazil? An educator who has long studied policing in the United States says efforts to curb law enforcement abuse of Black communities are largely misdirected. Alex Vitale is a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and coordinator of the college’s Policing and Social Justice Project. Vitale is author of the new book, “The End of Policing.” He says attempts to reform the police simply won’t work. Kyle Mays teaches at the Department of African American Studies and the Native American Center at the University of California, in Los Angeles. Mays is author of the new book, “Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in North America.” He gives equal attention to the histories of both peoples. On January 1st, Brazil, the colossus of South America, with the largest Black population outside of Africa, will fall under the rule of Jair Bolsonaro, a racist and fascist, by any definition. Bolsonaro was elected president after a long period of political chaos that saw the legislative overthrow of the left-wing Workers Party government of Dilma Rousseff and the imprisonment of her predecessor, “Lula” da Silva. The United States had long sought to undermine the Workers Party. We spoke with Alexander Main, director of international policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington. Main is a longtime observer of Brazilian politics. He says Brazilians suspect the CIA had a hand in the defeat of the Left, and the rise of Bolsonaro. Foday Ajamu Mansaray is a Black American Pan Africanist, now living in Freetown, the capital of the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Mansaray is executive director of the Black Star Action Network International, which includes many ex-patriots from the Black Diaspora who have chosen to live and work on the continent. The Black Star Network’s latest project is called the “Be Clean” campaign.

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: a researcher tells how solitary confinement has been used to punish Black prison inmates for political reasons since at least the 1950s; a new book traces the growth of the armed and violent white power movement in the United States; and an international tribunal finds the United States guilty of crimes against the lives and rights of the people of Puerto Rico. Activists in the prison abolition movement have been assessing the effectiveness of the latest national prison strike, which took place between August 21st and September 9th. Max Parthas is an internationally recognized prison slavery abolition activist, a spoken word artist, and former co-host of the Black Talk Radio program, Abolition Radio. Parthas and other abolitionists say slavery was legalized for prison inmates by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. He was interviewed by Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser, who asked, How did the latest national prison strike advance the cause of abolition? A new book shows that, at least as far back as the 1950s prison officials have used solitary confinement as a political punishment against Black inmates. Brittany Friedman is a professor of sociology at Rutgers University, and author of new the book, “Solitary Confinement and the Nation of Islam.” Kathleen Belew teaches history at the University of Chicago, and is author of a new book that puts the recent killings of Blacks and Jews in historical perspective. Belew’s book is titled. “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.” A people’s international tribunal put the United States government on trial for crimes against the people of Puerto Rico, an island country seized by the U.S. 120 years ago, and which was recently ravaged by a deadly hurricane. The people’s tribunal verdict was read in New York City.

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: Philadelphia activsts hold a two-day conference on the role central role of Black working people in reshaping U.S. society; and, Haiti is still occupied by foreign soldiers, but its people are in the streets, demanding that the U.S.-backed regime step down. The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations is gearing up for its annual march on the White House and conference, on November 3rd and 4th. This year the theme is “US Out of Africa.” Omali Yeshitela is chairman of Black Is Back. He says the U.S. military command in Africa, AFRICOM, is there to prop up foreign economic and political control over the continent. But Yeshitela says American global rule is in disarray. In Philadelphia, activists are gearing up for an examination of the role of the Black worker. The two-day event, November 8th and 9th, is part of a year-long celebration of the life and work of WEB Dubois. Dr. Anthony Monteiro is a Duboisian scholar and activist with the Philadelphia Free School, the organizers of the event on Black workers. The people of Haiti took to the streets, this month, to protest government corruption and massive hikes in the prices of fuel. In New York City, members of the Committee  to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti have been protesting outside the Haitian consulate, every Thursday, denouncing the Haitian government as a puppet of the United States. Committee spokesperson Daoud Andre says Haitians want an end to the regime.

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: It seems that everybody and their momma claims to be for reforming the police, these days. But we’ll speak with an author who says police reform is impossible, because violence is a the center of their contract with the state. And, some of the world’s wealthiest people try to reconcile their vast riches by giving billions to charity. But we’ll speak with an activist who says we need to get rid of charity, by getting rid of poverty Activists from around the country brought their anti-war message to headquarters of U.S. wars, last Sunday. Black Agenda Report was there, for the Women’s March on the Pentagon. Police reform is a watchword of Black politics. Most Black officials claim to be in favor of stronger measures to restrain police violence. Micol Seigel, an associate professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Stony Brook University, has a new book, titled “Violence Work: State Power and the Limits of Police.” She writes that “police reform” can’t work, because the rock-bottom function of the police is to do the work of the state – and the work of the state is violence. Rich people claim that they make the world a better place by giving a portion of their wealth to charity. But author and activist Julie Wark says rich people’s philanthropy is profoundly self-serving, because the system that makes them rich also creates poor people and the need for charity. Wark lives in Barcelona, Spain, and is author of the new book, “Basic Income: The Material Conditions of Freedom.”  

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: A new book makes the connection between mass Black incarceration, the growing police state apparatus besieging non-white immigrants, and the legacy of slavery in the United States: and, Ajamu Baraka says it’s time for a revival – of the Black American peace movement. Bobi Wine, the wildly popular Ugandan entertainer and national legislator who was hospitalized in the United States after being viciously beaten by President Yoweri Museveni’s police, plans to hold a giant concert in the central African nation’s capital city, Kampala. Wine says Museveni is “drunk on power” after more than three decades in office, and is worse than former dictator Idi Amin. In Brooklyn, New York, Ugandan native Milton Allimadi, publisher of Black Star News, agrees with Bobi Wine’s assessment. Four decades ago, Black politicians and grassroots activists could be counted on to at least pay lip-service to the cause of international peace. But nowadays, most Black elected officials behave much like other Democrats on foreign policy issues, and the Black peace movement is in disrepair. Veteran human rights activist Ajamu Baraka, who was the Green Party’s vice presidential candidate in 2016, is trying to revive the Black movement against imperialist wars. Baraka is director of the Black Alliance for Peace.   In the Black Radical Tradition, there is no fine line between foreign and domestic policy. Much the same can be said of the politics of Latin American  immigrant activists. Martha Escobar is an associate professor of Chicano Studies at California State University, at Northridge.” She’s author of the new book, “Captivity Beyond Prisons: Criminalization Experiences of Latina Immigrants.” Escobar says the U.S. mass incarceration system can only be understood as an extension of slavery.

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: The civil rights movement shook American racial apartheid to its foundations, inflicting profound defeats on white supremacy, but the defenders of the old racial regime have turned that history into a feather in the cap of American exceptionalism; and, the Pennsylvania prison system is using a dubious alleged drug-induced health crisis to impose unprecedented restrictions on inmate mail and visitation. Israel is the only nuclear power on Earth that has not only refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement, but enforces a vow of silence on U.S. presidents from both political parties. The Washington DC-based Institute for Research on Middle Eastern Policy has filed suit in federal court to make public letters that the New Yorker magazine says every president since Bill Clinton has signed, promising to never publicly discuss Israel’s arsenal of nuclear weapons or to pressure Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We spoke with Grant Smith, director of the Institute, and asked him, How could it be that, for two generations, all discussion of Israeli nukes has been forbidden in official Washington? The same people who fought the civil rights movement tooth and nail, defending discrimination and segregation, now use the movement’s victories as proof that the United States is an inherently good country, a nation that means well even when it is wrong. As proof, they point to the successes of the U.S. civil rights movement, two generations ago. Jeanne Theoharis is a professor of political science at Brooklyn College at the City University of New York, and author of the new book, “A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History.” Theoharis says the civil rights movement and its leaders have become props for American exceptionalism. Pennsylvania’s 25 state prisons all went on lockdown, last month, with no notification to inmates or the public. It eventually emerged that the state was claiming that prison guards and other employees had been poisoned by contraband drugs that were smuggled into prison. Medical experts and others questioned the state’s story. Among the most skeptical parties are the lawyers for the Abolitionist Law Center and the Amistad Law Project, who fight for prisoners’ rights in Pennsylvania. Kris Henderson is with the Amistad Law Project, in Philadelphia. Dr. Joseph Harris is a former member of the Black Panther Party, and currently the personal physician to Mumia Abu Jamal, the best known political prisoner in the Pennsylvania prison system. Dr. Harris has visited Mumia since the lockdown and shakeup of the state prison system. Harris played a key role in Mumia’s fight to be cured of hepatitis-C, for himself and thousands of other inmates.