|
|
|
Last Updated: Aug 8th, 2008 - 12:09:29 |
Slavery by Another Name: Author Douglas Blackmon on the Re-Enslavement of Black People in America
 |
| A new book discusses "neo-slavery" in America. |
A new book by award-winning journalist Douglas Blackmon uncovers the forgotten history of neo-slavery imposed on hundreds of thousands of African Americans that continued well after the Civil War and persisted right up to the 1940s. Using extensive archival sources, Blackmon uncovers the shameful system created to re-enslave African Americans. Under new laws, they were intimidated, arrested, charged with exorbitant fines, and then sold as forced laborers to corporations, mines and plantations or compelled into involuntary servitude.
Under new laws, they were intimidated, arrested, charged with exorbitant fines, then sold as forced laborers to corporations, mines and plantations or compelled into involuntary servitude. The book is called Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II. Author Douglas Blackmon is an award-winning journalist, also the bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal in Atlanta.
DOUGLAS BLACKMON: This was slavery, even though we didn’t call it that. The legal institution of slavery, the legal concept of slavery that had existed before 1865, had in fact been abolished, and there weren’t laws on the books anymore that authorized slavery, and you couldn’t file a deed on a slave down at the county courthouse anymore. But the reality was that in the years after the Civil War, all of the Southern states passed this array of new laws, which were specifically designed to intimidate African Americans out of the political process, to inhibit their ability to have economic success, and eventually to force first thousands, and then eventually hundreds of thousands, of African Americans back into a form of involuntary servitude. And it wasn’t called slavery, but it was slavery by another name.
Bush Administration Moves to Bail Our Mortgage Companies
The US Treasury and Federal Reserve have unveiled sweeping steps to possibly bail out the nation’s two largest mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that the government would inject billions of federal dollars into the mortgage groups and pledged to buy stakes in the two companies should market conditions worsen.
Henry Paulson: “As you know, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a central role in our housing finance system and must continue to do so in their current form as shareholder-owned companies. Their support for the housing market is particularly important as we work through the current housing correction.”
Many economists fear a collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could lead to a meltdown in global financial markets. The two quasi-public companies own or guarantee just under half of the country’s $12 trillion in mortgage debt. Shares of the two companies dropped about 45 percent last week and are down more than 80 percent over the past year. The Financial Times reports an outright government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could increase the national debt by $5 trillion.
IndyMac Bank Collapses; Second Largest Bank Failure in US History
In other economic news, the banking industry was dealt a shock Friday with the collapse of the Pasadena-based IndyMac Bank. The FDIC has taken control of the bank after it succumbed to huge losses from defaulted mortgages. Regulators say it was the second-largest bank failure in US history.
ICC Files Genocide Charges Against Sudan’s al-Bashir
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has filed genocide charges against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The charges filed today include masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in Darfur with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is asking a three-judge panel to issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir to prevent the deaths of those still under attack in Darfur from government-backed Janjaweed militia. On Sunday, thousands of supporters of al-Bashir rallied in Khartoum to show support for the Sudanese president. Sudan has said an ICC move against its highest officials could undermine attempts to end the conflict in the Darfur region. The African Union has also voiced concern that a possible trial could jeopardize peace efforts in Darfur.
Red Cross: CIA’s Handling of Prisoners Categorically Torture
A secret report by the International Red Cross warned the Bush administration last year that the CIA’s treatment of prisoners categorically constituted torture and could make Bush administration officials who approved the torture methods guilty of war crimes. One prisoner—Abu Zubaydah—told the Red Cross he had been waterboarded at least ten times in a single week. He was confined in a box so small that he had to double up his limbs in the fetal position. The details about the secret Red Cross report appear in a new book by investigative journalist Jane Mayer called The Dark Side.
Report: In 2002 CIA Warned 1/3 of Gitmo Prisoners Were Innocent
Jane Mayer also reveals that the Bush administration ignored warnings from the CIA six years ago that up to a third of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay may have been imprisoned by mistake. In 2002, a CIA analyst concluded that many of the prisoners were essentially bystanders who had been swept up in dragnets or turned over to the US military by bounty hunters. Mayer also reveals that the CIA is investigating whether its agents kidnapped at least six innocent men and held them in secret prisons as part of the agency’s extraordinary rendition program. Only one of the cases—that of Khalid El-Masri—has ever come to light.
Nine US Troops Killed in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, nine US soldiers died in Sunday after a US base near the Pakistan border came under attack. Militants fired machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars at the base for hours. It was the deadliest attack on US troops in Afghanistan in three years. More US soldiers have died in Afghanistan over the past two months than in Iraq. Meanwhile, in the southern province of Uruzgan, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up and killed twenty-four people. In central Afghanistan, members of the Taliban executed two women who had been accused of working as prostitutes on a US base.
Obama Calls for 10,000 More US Troops in Afghanistan
In campaign news, Senator Barack Obama is proposing that the United States deploy about 10,000 more troops to Afghanistan as part of his strategy to shift the military’s focus from Iraq. In an op-ed published in today’s New York Times, Obama writes, "We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there.”
Obama: US Should Not Commit to Long-Term Occupation
On Saturday, Senator Obama said the US should not commit to a long-term occupation of Iraq. He said recent comments by Iraqi leaders calling for a timetable for withdrawal of US troops added weight to his stand in favor of a timetable.
Sen. Barack Obama: “John McCain and George Bush both said that if Iraq, as a sovereign government, stated that it was time for us to start withdrawing our troops, then they would respect the wishes of that sovereign government, and given that I think it’s also in our strategic interests, it certainly strikes me that we shouldn’t be writing a status of forces agreement, for example, that locks in a long-term occupation.”
New Yorker Cover Depicts Obama as Muslim Terrorist
In other campaign news, The New Yorker magazine is coming under criticism for publishing a cover illustration depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as Muslim terrorists. The magazine cover shows Obama wearing Muslim garb standing in the White House with a photo of Osama bin Laden on the wall and an American flag burning in the fireplace. Michelle Obama is shown as a gun-toting black nationalist with an afro. An Obama campaign spokesperson described the illustration as tasteless and offensive. The New Yorker magazine said the illustration is meant to satirize the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the presidential election to derail Obama’s campaign.
McCain Distances Himself from Sen. Phil Gramm
John McCain’s campaign is trying to distance itself from former Senator Phil Gramm, who has been one of McCain’s top economic advisers. Last week, Gramm said the country was filled with “whiners” and that the United States is only in a “mental recession.” Over the weekend, two key McCain advisers said Gramm no longer speaks on behalf of McCain.
Lobbyist Caught Selling Access to White House
A former Bush administration official who now works as a lobbyist has been caught on tape selling access to the White House. An undercover video shot by the Sunday Times of London shows the lobbyist Stephen Payne saying he could help the former president of Kyrgyzstan set up a meeting with Vice President Cheney or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in exchange for a six-figure donation to George Bush’s presidential library. Stephen Payne was a top fundraiser for President Bush and sits on the influential advisory council to the Department of Homeland Security. Payne is also president of the lobbying company, Worldwide Strategic Partners.
Green Party Nominates Cynthia McKinney to be President
And the Green Party has nominated former Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney to be the party’s presidential nominee. The Greens also nominated hip-hop activist and organizer Rosa Clemente to be McKinney’s running mate. McKinney spoke on Saturday at the Green Party convention in Chicago.
Cynthia McKinney: “And when I got to Washington, I saw that public policy is really made in a room at a table. There were real seats at the table. Well, imagine what has happened to public policymaking now. There is a real room with a window and a door, and there’s two seats at the table. The window is for us to look through, while our representatives make policy for us, so we can see what they’re doing. At the table, one seat is for the Democrats, one seat is for the Republicans. Now, we don’t know who did it, but one of them put a lock on the door and slipped a key to the corporate lobbyists who can come and go at will and whisper what they want to Democrats and Republicans, and the result is that we the people, who pay for those seats and determine who sits in them, want one thing, but because the corporate lobbyists can come and go at will, our values get overridden and our representatives give us something else. That’s how we end up with everyone saying they’re against the war and occupation, but war and occupation still gets funding. That’s how we end up with everyone saying they’re against illegal spying on innocent people, yet end up with a telecom immunity bill being signed into law. That’s how we end up with everyone saying they’re in favor of universal access to healthcare and no one supporting what the physicians, nurses and healthcare really want, and that’s a single-payer healthcare system in this country.”
Read and search hundreds of news stories on SeeingBlack.com's 411 Channel.
Click here to view all our blogs and discussion groups, where you can comment on any news stories or post your own news.
© Copyright 2006 SeeingBlack.com
Top of Page
|
|
|
|
