If the national (corporate) media is to be believed, we are now at the 50 year mark of Black civil rights, marked by the 1964 passage of the Civil Rights Act, signed into law by the late President, Lyndon B. Johnson.
While it is true that this happened, it is also true that for millions of Blacks in America, these are not the best of times.
For the Black bourgeoisie, it has been a rush of opportunity and entrée into doors once long closed to them.
For the Black poor and working-class, this is, in the words of legal scholar, Michelle Alexander, the ‘New Jim Crow’. They are, she argues, a dark caste who are subjected to targeting, imprisonment and lack of legal rights that makes mass incarceration in America the phenomenon that stymies the hopes and dreams of millions.
For them, civil rights is as ancient, and as distant, as Reconstruction.
They cannot drive in peace. They cannot shop in peace. They cannot walk the streets in peace, without some cop threatening them for Walking While Black.
For these millions, what can civil rights really mean?
They listen to their ‘leaders’ and are forced to wonder: ‘what world are they talking about?’
They feel little elation as politicians and corporate press propagandists praise events of 50 years ago, while their daily lives are lived in hell.
The promises of civil rights are lost in the networks of repression that poisons their days and shadows their twilights.
For them, ‘The New Jim Crow’, ain’t so new, after all.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
https://conta.cc/4ayDxlB](https://www.prisonradio.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)