The New Jim Crow

Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

 M A


Study Guide
Contributors:
Colleen Birchett
Tiauna Boyd
Iva E. Carruthers
Alison Gise Johnson

Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc.

 The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
 M A


Study Guide
Contributors:
Colleen Birchett
Tiauna Boyd
Iva E. Carruthers
Alison Gise Johnson

Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc.

 ISBN: 978-0-9765145-4-1

Copyright ©2011 Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc.

Copy Editors: Lois Johnson and Rhoda McKinney Jones
Cover Design and Layout: L. Julie Torrey Parker
www.sdpconference.info
773-548-6675 (p) 773-548-6699(f)
T  C 

Forward FIVE: The New Jim Crow........................................................ 31

Introduction Read
Study Guide Format Respond
Summary
ONE: Rebirth of Caste ...........................................................10 Discuss: Quotations & Concepts
Read Deeper Reflection: True/False & Short Answer
Respond Connect to Culture
Summary Connect to the Faith
Discuss: Quotations & Concepts Faithful Action & Notes
Deeper Reflection: True/False & Short Answer
Connect to Culture SIX: The Fire This Time ......................................................... 37
Connect to the Faith Read
Faithful Action & Notes Respond
Summary
TWO: Lockdown..................................................................... 15 Discuss: Quotations & Concepts
Read Deeper Reflection: True/False & Short Answer
Respond Connect to Culture
Summary Connect to the Faith
Discuss: Quotations & Concepts Faithful Action & Notes
Deeper Reflection: True/False & Short Answer
Connect to Culture Charts, Tables and Figures ................................................... 43
Connect to the Faith Who’s Behind Bars
Faithful Action & Notes Drug Arrests as Proportion of All Arrests 1980 and 2003
Changes in Drug Arrest Rate per 100,000 by Race, 1980-2003
THREE: The Color of Justice .................................................. 21 Total Female Prisoners By State, 2004 and 1977
Read Female Imprisonment Rates By State, 2004 and 1977
Respond Of Books and Bars
Summary State Spending on Corrections and Higher Education, 1981-2007
Discuss: Quotations & Concepts Cost Per Prisoner and Cost Per Pupil
Deeper Reflection: True/False & Short Answer State Felon Voting Laws
Connect to Culture Facts about the Death Penalty
Connect to the Faith State Employees in Corrections Workforce, 2006
Faithful Action & Notes Corporations that use Prison Labor to Make Products and Provide
Services
FOUR: The Cruel Hand .......................................................... 26
Read APPENDIX .............................................................................. 69
Respond Endnotes
Summary
Additional References
Discuss: Quotations & Concepts
Deeper Reflection: True/False & Short Answer
Resources & Websites
Connect to Culture
Connect to the Faith
Faithful Action & Notes

5
F
I
t is with much humility, a sense of sacred service and
privilege, that The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc.
(SDPC) publishes this study guide to support reading and
discussion groups of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in
the Age of Colorblindness by civil rights attorney and author
Michelle Alexander.
Michelle Alexander and I were introduced by a mutual colleague,
Attorney john m. powell. We immediately connected and I had
no doubt that our meeting was by divine purpose. During our
first conversation she suggested, entrusted and encouraged
me to undertake this project – a project that will propel a
national movement. We are indebted to john m. powell for his
introduction. His divine hook-up has afforded the SDPC and
its network of faith leaders another opportunity to further our
justice ministries.
I am most grateful for the gifts and willing spirit of Dr. Colleen
Birchett, Tiauna Boyd and Dr. Alison Gise Johnson to embrace
this assignment with me as a ministry of love. I am equally
grateful for our faithful staff, Board of Directors and supporters
of the SDPC who have accepted the challenge to dismantle what
Alexander has so powerfully documented as the New Jim Crow
system and its devastating, long-term effects on the African
American community.
With much faith, we release this guide as one more contribution
to the tributaries of education, advocacy and activism to
re-energize a national movement towards racial and class justice
in the United States.
6
We hope that the SDPC family, and all who use this study guide,
will find power not just in the words on the pages, but in the
creative and compelling conversations they will have with
others.
And most of all, we hope by its very publication, those who are
locked behind bars or trapped in the revolving cycle that is The
New Jim Crow, will feel a little more love coming their way.
Life has a way of teaching us that most unattended problems
undermine, disrupt or erupt into the “fire next time.” In the end,
both the people who are victims of the problem and those who
benefit from the problem must confront the moral imperatives
of looking in the mirror and asking, “where do we go from
here?” The choice is always in the hands of all and the hearts of
a few to make a difference. All of us are prisoners and bound by
chains in some form or another. The SDPC stands in unity with
all who are engaged in the just struggle to set the captives free,
for
“I, the LORD, have called you and given you power to see that
justice is done on earth…” Isaiah 42:6
Dr. Iva E. Carruthers
General Secretary
Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference
I 
T
his study guide is designed to accompany Michelle
Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in
the Age of Colorblindness. Attorney Alexander masterfully
describes an ugly reality that most of us see but don’t see. The
reality she describes is encountered whenever we come across
any group of Black high school graduates and observe the ratio
difference between males to females. We see it when, a college
class has 25 Black students, and there are only five Black men.
We stumble across it daily as we witness police officers routinely
“patting down” Black men, then driving them away in police cars
and “paddy wagons.”
There is a virtual absence of Black men from employment
sites, churches and polling places, while the numbers rise with
homeless Black men begging on streets and in places of public
transportation. We may think to ourselves “What’s going on
with our men?” Alexander points out what we see and don’t see
are the significant number of Black men now on virtual “lock
down.” They have been segregated from society via a complex
legal framework called the “New Jim Crow,” euphemistically
referred to as the “War on Drugs.”
The statistics are startling and The New Jim Crow forces its
way into our consciousness. African American males are 6% of
the U.S. population and 40% of those who are incarcerated.
One in three young African American men are now under the
jurisdiction controlled by the criminal justice system. Moreover,
drug offenses account for two thirds of the rise in numbers of
people who are in federal prisons and for more than half of
those in state prisons (p. 59)1. African Americans constitute
only 15% of drug users in the United States, yet 90% of the
incarcerated (p. 103)2. Black men have been imprisoned more
than thirteen times higher than White men (p. 98)3.
Alexander illustrates how the mass incarceration of Black men
sustains a racialized criminal justice system determining patterns
of arrests, sentencing and quality of life after release. Their
prison records ostracize them from mainstream of American life
for the remainder of their lives. African American men become
the permanent under caste, prison becomes the revolving
door and they are, “out of sight” and “out of mind.” She
defines this system as “The New Jim Crow,” a system that has
roots extending back farther than slavery and resurfacing in
contemporary times in different forms. The New Jim Crow has
become progressively more and more difficult to dismantle.
Today, The New Jim Crow system targets substantially African
American men, but it undermines and destabilizes African
American children, families and their communities. The New
Jim Crow is arguably as formidable a foe to the well being of
the African American family and community as the systemic
forces of the 19th century slave system or slavocracy. Alexander
concludes:
“The criminalization and demonization of black men is one
habit America seems unlikely to break without addressing
head-on the racial dynamics that have given rise to
successive caste systems. Although colorblind approaches
to addressing the problems of poor people of color often
seem pragmatic in the short run, in the long run they are
counterproductive. Colorblindness, though widely touted
as the solution, is actually the problem.” (p. 227)
7
In the preface of The New Jim Crow, Alexander writes, “This
book is not for everyone… I have a specific audience in mind-

people who care deeply about racial justice but who, for any
number of reasons, do not yet appreciate the magnitude of
the crisis faced by communities of color as a result of mass
incarceration… I am also writing it for… those who have been
struggling to persuade their friends, neighbors, relatives,
teachers, co-workers, or political representatives that something
is eerily familiar about the way our criminal justice system
operates, something that looks and feels a lot like an era we
supposedly left behind, but have lacked the facts and data
to back up their claims… I am writing this book for all those
trapped within America’s latest caste system.”
Alexander explains that only a mass movement can overturn
this current racialized caste system that now occurs in the form
of mass incarcerations and translates into life sentences of
marginalization. She also advocates for a paradigm shift from
traditional civil rights advocacy, fighting for affirmative action
and criminal justice reform, to movements that include the grass
roots in agenda setting for resistance, based on their felt needs.
8
S G F
T
his study guide is designed to assist each of us, no matter
into which group we fall, to become conscious, to be
guided into constructive conversations with one another
and God and to begin the redemptive work of engaging in
local, national, and global action that restores compassion and
community. It is designed in the spirit of Sankofa, confronting
our now situation in the context of lessons from our past and
with a lens to create a new future.
To facilitate our work together, we would like to employ a
simplified version of what Rev. Dr. Katie Cannon, scholar
theologian, has entitled the Dance of Redemption. It is a method
that assists us in valuing our own voices, confronting our fears,
and trusting our conscience as precursor to building a world,
which is hospitable to love, compassion and equity.
The study guide is separated into six chapters, parallel to the
book’s chapters. For each of the first six chapters, readers are
invited to Read a powerful excerpt from the book; encouraged
to Respond by free-writing, without editing any thoughts that
come to mind and heart; Review the Summary and Discuss
a list of key quotes and concepts for that chapter; Engage in
Deeper Reflection with a series of true false and short answer
statements; Make Connections to the African American
Historical and Cultural Lens, inviting experiential and ideological
clarity; Connect to the Faith with scriptural readings, inviting
theological reflection; and finally, Envision and Commit to
Faithful Action, embracing the meaning of Sankofa - to go back
and fetch knowledge from our past in order to move forward
with wisdom – welcoming a covenant to transform minds,
protect youth and create healthy families and communities
through Sankofa-inspired faith.
The final section of this guide includes a selected group of
data, charts and graphs to visually and demographically bring
to life the impact of the system of mass incarceration on local
communities, states and this nation. This chapter provides
a set of data to help identify and frame potential issues for
action. Lastly, the appendix to the guide contains references
for the guide and additional resources that might be useful for
further education and advocacy activities. Now, Let the Dance of
Redemption Begin!

9
C O: T R
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Read
“What has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow has less to do
September 1904 with the basic structure of our society than with the language
we use to justify it. In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer
socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for
discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don’t.
Rather than rely on race, we use the criminal justice system to label
people of color “criminals” and then engage in all practices we
supposedly left behind.” (p. 2)

Respond

______________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

“…Jim Crow is dead, but that does not necessarily mean the end
of racial caste. If history is any guide, it may have simply taken a
different form.” (p. 21)
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

10
Summary of Chapter: The Rebirth of Caste • Collapse of Resistance across the Political Spectrum (p. 16)
Chapter One traces the history of American strategies of social • Racial Bribe (p. 25)
control based on race. The chapter explains how a racialized • Reconstruction (p. 29)
caste system began prior to the creation of the United States • Redemption of the South after Reconstruction (p. 32)
and prior to the arrival of African Americans in large numbers.
• The New Deal (p. 47)
It illustrates how this basic caste system, based on race, has
appeared in different forms throughout American history, first
Statements for Deep Reflections
under slavery, then during the Jim Crow Era, and currently in
the form of mass incarceration of African American men. It also True or False
illustrates how, throughout this history, lower-class Whites have 1. A racialized caste system no longer exists in America.
been used by White elites to perpetuate the racialized caste
2. Specific actions of U.S. Presidents have perpetuated a
system.
racialized caste system.
Key Quotations 3. A racialized caste system would be capable of controlling
the entire Black community.
• “The emergence of each new system of control may seem
sudden, but history shows that the seeds are planted long 4. White supremacy is a religion.
before each new institution begins to grow.” (p. 22) 5. The Civil Rights Movement is no longer allied with key goals
• “With each reincarnation of racial caste, the new system, as of the poor.
sociologist Loic Wacquant puts it, “is less total, less capable of 6. During the New Deal, Blacks and Whites worked together
encompassing and controlling the entire race.” (p. 22) to achieve the same goals.
• “Moreover, as new systems of control have evolved, they 7. Mass incarcerations serve as deterrents against crime.
have become perfected, arguably more resilient to challenge,
and thus capable of enduring for generations to come.” Short Answer
(p. 22) Please explain your answers with examples from personal
• “It may be impossible to overstate the significance of race in experience and examples from the text.
defining the basic structure of American society.” (p. 25) 1. Describe the caste system in America prior to slavery.
2. Describe the caste system within the plantation system in
Key Concepts
the antebellum South.
• Racialized Caste System (p. 21)
3. Describe “Jim Crow.”
• Jim Crow (p. 35)
• Law and Order (p. 40) 4. How was slavery preserved in Jim Crow?
• Mass incarceration (p. 18) 5. Describe “Law and Order.”

11
 6. How was “Jim Crow” preserved in “Law and Order?”
7. Describe mass incarceration.
8. What relationship is there between mass incarceration and
a racialized caste system?
9. What roles have poor and lower-class Whites played in the
processes described in #1-7 above?
Connecting to African American History and Culture
T R  C

The capture, branding, removing, seasoning, and selling of
African humanity during the course of the Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade System lasted over centuries. From enslavement to various
forms of subsequent caste status as a function of race, color and
former slave status, the mass incarceration system today is but
a rebirth of a 21st century caste. The resistance to the continual
and various forms of dehumanization begins with an attack
against one’s identity and belief in God.
Michelle Alexander argues that The New Jim Crow is the
“Unfinished Business” of the ongoing quest for justice by
people of African ancestry or people of color in the U.S. How do
these quotations by others support her claim?
“The crisis had been a long time coming. It went back to the
Founding Fathers who gave in to Southern threats, compromised
and wrote slavery into the Constitution. They were not little men,
the Founding Fathers, and they were ashamed of what they were
doing: they could not bring themselves to write the ugly word
“slave”; they used instead weasel words like “persons held to
service or labor” and they contented themselves with the idle hope
that slavery would wither and die.” (Lerone Bennett Jr.)4
12
“I saw no African people in the printed and illustrated Sunday
school lessons. I began to suspect at this early age that someone
had distorted the image of my people. My long search for the true
history of African people the world over began…My main point
here is that if you are the child of God and God is a part of you then
in your imagination, God’s suppose to look like you. And when you
accept a picture of the deity assigned to you by another people you
become the spiritual prisoners of that other people.”
(Dr. John Henrik Clarke)5
“First the last two decades of the twentieth century produced a
penal system that is without precedent in American history, and
unlike any other in the advanced democracies…race and class
disparities in imprisonment are large, and class disparities have
grown dramatically…The criminal justice system has become so
pervasive that we should count prisons and jails among the key
institutions that shape the life course of recent birth cohorts of
African American men.”
(Bruce Western)6
Connecting to the Faith
Biblical Reference: Gen. 47 - Exodus 1
“Now a new king arose in Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to
his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more
powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will
increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us
and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them
to oppress them with forced labor… Then Pharaoh commanded all his
people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw in the
Nile, but you shall let every girl live.” (Exodus 1:8-10,22)
In African American faith traditions, accounts in Exodus, serve
as Biblical images that come to mind when we consider creation
of a caste system perpetuated through mass incarceration and fear and insecurity desires only relief from the immediate crisis
unmitigated violence against Black boys and the poor. To ease with no consideration for long-term consequences the “now”.
the potentially debilitating pain from which we have found (Gen. 47:13-25)
no relief, and to engender possibilities for hope, we focus our
attention on the divinely instigated mass liberation – a crossing Thirdly, the system establishes the moral keepers of caste. Two
through parted waters. laws were enacted that guaranteed policies needed to create
a permanent underclass and a perpetual class of wealth. The
However, reading the Exodus story as a continuation of the first law was an extension of the economic solution beyond the
Joseph narrative in Genesis is essential to fully understanding the end of the crisis (20% tax on the labor of the masses, none on
Exodus story, and more importantly, to answer the question of the wealthy). The second law was exemption from taxation,
“Why does this keep happening?” Paralleled with interpretations protection from loss of land, and uninterrupted stipend
of “what men meant for evil God turns to good,” is the payments for the priest supported by and supportive of the
systematic creation of a caste system implemented by unjust investments of the wealthy. (Gen. 47:26)
economic policies. On the surface, they seem compassionate;
but in fact, they simultaneously instigate the first mortgage crisis Faithful action and authentic freedom from this contemporary
precipitating loss of property and enslavement of both Hebrews caste system require us to divest in all of its components.
and Egyptians. How have we and the institutions we love participated in and
benefitted from any manifestation of these components? In
The question is, how did this happen? The answer is which ways are we willing to invite change?
“systematically.” First, a religious doctrine, (seemingly without
history) establishes the spiritual component of a caste system
as divine order. It destroys possibilities for intimate relationships
between peoples of different heritages who share a common
experience. During a time of famine, when it was difficult to find
food, it was an abomination for Egyptians to eat with Hebrews.
(Gen. 43:32)
Second, the system establishes the ethical component of a
caste system. An economic solution addressing the immediate
concern (eating), depletes financial resources (money and
investments), destroys possibilities for future generational
recovery (loss of land), extends political power of the wealthy,
and engenders complete gratefulness and loyalty (Hebrews give
themselves as slaves). Yet with such devastating effects, the
economic recovery plan was accepted by the masses because

13
Faithful Action
Kujichagulia (Self Determination) - To define ourselves, name
ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
Sankofa Statement: African American ancestors have acted
with Kujichagulia in the past as Freedom Riders courageously
made declarative statements of self-worth and equality. As we
move forward let us acknowledge that our silence in the face
of the War on Drugs (which produces and sustains an inhumane
radicalized caste system), is a betrayal of African American
worth, value and identity.
To explore what we can do to build on the self-determination
and the resilience of African American elders, we affirm the
self-worth and equality of all of God’s children and that African
Americans are equally and fully created in the image of God! Let
us walk with bold self-determination as we strive to disarm the
War on Drugs and dismantle the system of mass incarceration
and purse the unfinished business of the Civil Rights Movement
– with vision, by faith, through action.
14
Review some of the data in the Charts and Tables section,
and collect other facts about your community and the issues
surrounding The New Jim Crow.
Please note and discuss any specific ideas you and/or your faith
community might pursue to make a difference in our collective
efforts to dismantle The New Jim Crow.
____________________________________________________
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C T : T L
 

Read
“Those who have been swept within the criminal justice system
know that the way the system works bears little resemblance
to what happens on television or in movies. Full-blown trials of
guilt or innocence rarely occur: many people never even meet
with an attorney; witnesses are routinely paid and coerced by the
government; police regularly stop and search people for no reason
whatsoever; penalties for many crimes are so severe that innocent
people plead guilty, accepting plea bargains to avoid harsh
mandatory sentences; and children as young as fourteen, are sent
to adult prisons.” (p. 58)
Respond

____________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

“...thousands of people are swept into the criminal justice system ____________________________________________________
every year pursuant to the drug war without much regard for their
guilt or innocence.” (p. 88) ___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

15
Summary of Chapter: The Lockdown • “Snitches” (p. 87)
Chapter Two explains how and why the system of mass • Mandatory Minimum Sentence (p. 87)
incarcerations came into being and is maintained through • Drug Exception (p. 60)
the War on Drugs. It explains how police-led mass arrests • Stop and Frisk (p. 62)
and imprisonments are financed by enormous financial • Reasonable Suspicion (p. 59)
incentives and military equipment, donated by federal grants
• Pretext Stops (p. 66)
and legislation allowing them to keep money ceased in such
operations. It describes how defendants are denied adequate • SWAT Teams (p. 73)
legal representation. Then it explains how ex-offenders are • Legal Misrepresentation (p. 83)
systematically marginalized and kept out of the mainstream of • “Discretion” (p. 60)
American life for the remainder of their lives. • Federal Prosecutors (p. 86)

Key Quotations Statements for Deeper Reflection

• “The absence of significant constraints on the exercise of True or False
police discretion is a key feature of the drug war’s design.
1. The purpose of the drug war is to eliminate drug kingpins
It has made the roundup of millions of Americans for
and high level dealers.
nonviolent drug offenses relatively easy.” (p. 60)
2. The drug war is principally concerned with dangerous
• “Every system of control depends for its survival on the
drugs.
tangible and intangible benefits that are provided to those
who are responsible for the system’s maintenance and 3. The Bill of Rights to the constitution contains a “drug
administration.” (p. 71) exception.”
• “It does not matter whether you have actually spent time in 4. Usually just saying, “No” to local police officers protects
prison; your second-class citizenship begins the moment you against unreasonable “search and seizures.”
are branded a felon.” (p. 92) 5. Most people stopped and searched in the War on Drugs
are guilty.
Key Concepts
• War on Drugs (p. 59)
• Racial under caste (p. 56)
• Fourth Amendment to the Constitution (p. 60)
• Bill of Rights (p. 60)
• Drug Courier Profiles (p. 70)

16
Short Answer
Please explain your answers with examples from personal
experience and examples from the text.
1. In what ways does the War on Drugs relate to mass
incarceration? What are some incentives for local Police
Departments to engage in mass drug arrests?
2. What are the steps through which African American men
become permanent parts of a racial undercaste?
3. From which of the following has the Fourth Amendment to
the Constitution protected African American men?
Explain your answers:
• Unreasonable “Search and Seizures”
• “Unreasonable suspicion”
• Pretext stops
• SWAT Teams
4. What are some civil liberties for African Americans that
have been eliminated by the drug war? Explain how this
happened.
5. What is the role of federal prosecutors in racial disparity in
the criminal justice system?
Connecting to African American History and Culture
T L D
African American families have survived various forms of Lock
Down over generations. Their survival is a testament to faith and
actions of liberation. African Americans are able to stand and
declare, “We are still here, and still we rise. Through it all we look
to God for mercy and grace with the will to press on.”
Michelle Alexander argues that The New Jim Crow is the
“Unfinished Business” of the ongoing quest for justice by
people of African ancestry or people of color in the U.S. How do
these quotations by others support her claim?
“What makes you so strong, black people? No other race was
brought to this country in chains. No other race had laws passed
making it a crime to teach them how to read... No other race had
skin color as the determining factor of their servitude and their
employability. No other race was hounded and haunted when
they wanted to be free. No other race was physically mutilated
to identify them as property, not people. No other race was lied
to and lied on like the African race. No other race had its names
taken way in addition to its language and music. No other race was
denied more and deprived of more, treated as badly and treated as
less than human. No other race was treated like the Africans were
treated, and yet no other race has done so much after starting
out with so little, defying all of the odds and breaking all of the
records. What makes you so strong, black people?”
(Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.) 7
Johnnie Lindsey
Wrongful Conviction: Aggravated Rape
Age Entering Prison: 30
Age Leaving Prison: 56
Wrongful Time Served: 26 years
“I was handed a life sentence to be served in the Ellis Unit of the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice at Huntsville... I repeatedly
told myself, “where there is life, there is hope, and at least I am
alive... I was dying of colon cancer... heard a voice I had not heard
for twenty years once again say, ‘I will save you.’ ... I was finally
released from the Texas department of Criminal Justice’s penal
system with a full apology from not only the judge but also Dallas
County District Attorney...” (Johnnie Lindsey)8
17
Still I Rise
By Maya Angelou9
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
18
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Connecting to the Faith
Biblical Reference: Jeremiah 31:15 & Jeremiah 31: 21-22
“Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and
bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to
be comforted for her children, because they are not.”
(Jeremiah 31:15)
In every exile, there is a taking away of the leadership and
priesthood, leaving communities socially destabilized and
vulnerable. In this process of defilement, all resources and value
of the community are extracted and repurposed, serving the
social and economic desires of foreign powers.
The youth of the community are targeted as one of the greatest
resources to be manipulated and defiled. Like canaries in the
mine, the conditions of their existence, though often cast as
the problem, in fact are indicators that the social and spiritual
environment of the whole community is rapidly decaying.
Before miners had sensitive electronic equipment to determine congregation keep those who are incarcerated alive and valued
the health of the environment in the mines, they took canaries. in your community? Or are they merely forgotten?
The respiratory systems of the canaries were so small and
fragile, that they were able to detect high levels of explosive Faithful Action
and flammable gases, which changed the volume of oxygen
Imani (Faith) - To believe with all our heart in our people, our
present in the mines. If the volume of the hazardous gases
parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and
increased, the canaries would die, serving as an indication that
victory of our struggle.
the environment was unstable.
Sankofa Statement: Imani carried African American ancestors
In the text, Rachel, the ancestor to the tribes of Israel, weeps
through the middle passage and kept their eyes watching God
in the spiritual realm, because there is no comfort for her
during treacherous experiences during the Maafa. Indeed,
children who have been taken away. (v. 20) Ephraim responds by
African Americans have come treading their path through the
repenting for being seduced to participate in a system designed
blood of the slaughtered, and their enduring faith stands as a
to destroy his whole community. After being made conscious of
testament to the omnipotent character of God. Looking back
the process of defilement, he smites or strikes his thigh as a sign
at the sweet spirit of resilience that has sustained Africans in
of grief, precipitating shame and disgrace, having understood
the Diaspora, we are thankful for African American parents,
the larger costs to his community. (v. 18, 19)
teachers, leaders, and their allies who have not given up in the
Yet, in the text, he is still valued, remembered and yearned struggle for justice.
for and offered restorative mercy by his parent, the Lord; not
We move forward to disarm the War on Drugs and dismantle the
only because he repented, but also because the elders and
system of mass incarceration remembering the strength found
ancestors in the community, in this case Rachel, wept as a sign of
in faithful resilience as we pursue the unfinished business of the
continually valuing, remembering and yearning for his comfort.
Civil Rights Movement – with vision, by faith, through action.
(v. 20)
In your understanding of faith, what is the process of
repentance?
How does your congregation minister to those who experience
the grief and shame of having been incarcerated or having a
loved one who has been locked up?
Is forgiveness and restoration a practice in your church?
In African traditions, a person remains alive as long as they are
remembered. How do you as an individual and how does your

19
Review some of the data in the Charts and Tables section, _____________________________________________________
and collect other facts about your community and the issues
surrounding The New Jim Crow. _____________________________________________________

Please note and discuss any specific ideas you and/or your faith _____________________________________________________
community might pursue to make a difference in our collective
_____________________________________________________
efforts to dismantle The New Jim Crow.
_____________________________________________________
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20
C T: T C  
J 
Read
“Confined to ghetto areas and lacking political power, the black
poor are convenient targets….The enduring racial isolation of
the ghetto poor has made them uniquely vulnerable in the War
on Drugs. What happens to them does not directly affect- and is
scarcely noticed by- the privileged beyond the ghetto’s invisible
walls. [Though white youth are more likely to use and carry drugs]
…it is here …that the drug war has been waged with greatest
ferocity...Black and brown youth are the primary targets.” (p. 122)
Respond

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______________________________________________________

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_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________
“Would you close your eyes for a second, envision a drug user, and _____________________________________________________
describe that person to me…95% of responders pictured a black drug
user…” (p. 103) _____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

21
Summary of Chapter: The Color of Justice
Chapter Three focuses on the role race plays in the American
criminal justice system. It underscores the fact that, while
African Americans commit only a small fraction of drug offenses
(15%), they comprise up to 90% of incarcerations for drug
offenses in communities throughout the country. It illustrates
how there is no consistency between rates of crime in Black
communities and rates of imprisonment or arrest. This chapter
carefully traces each step of the criminal justice process,
showing how race plays a role at each step, even to the point of
creating a permanent underclass of Black male ex-offenders.
Key Quotations
• “The notion that whites comprise the vast majority of drug
users and dealers and may well be more likely than other
racial groups to commit drug crimes -- may seem implausible
to some, given the media imagery we are fed on a daily basis
and the racial composition of our prisons and jails.” (p. 97)
• “As numerous researchers have shown, violent crime rates
have fluctuated over the years and bear little relationship
to incarceration rates – which have soared during the past
three decades regardless of whether violent crime was going
up or down.” (p. 99)
• “The Supreme Court has made it virtually impossible to
challenge racial bias in the criminal justice system under the
Fourteenth Amendment, and it has barred litigation of such
claims under federal civil rights laws as well.” (p. 106)
Key Concepts
• 14th Amendment (p. 106)
• Crack (p. 106)
• Cocaine (p. 106)
22
• Racial Profiling (p. 121)
• Prosecutorial Discretion (p. 112)
• Judicial Discretion (pp. 115-116)
• Jury Selection (p. 116)
• Pre-Textual Explanations (p. 119)
• Criminal Black man (p. 105)
• McKlesky vs. Kemp (pp. 106-109)
• Armstrong vs. United States (pp. 112- 116)
• Purkett vs. Elm (pp. 116-120)
• Alexander vs. Sandoval (pp. 134-135)
Statements for Deeper Reflection
True or False
1. White young persons are more likely to engage in illegal
drug use than young persons of color.
2. The American criminal justice system is colorblind.
3. The Fourteenth Amendment protects African American
men against racial bias in sentencing.
4. The Fourteenth Amendment has protected African
Americans from racial profiling.
Short Answer
Please explain your answers with examples from personal
experience and examples from the text.
1. Are relative rates of Black imprisonment about the same as
crime rates in Black communities?
2. What does race have to do with the differences between
sentences for the sale of cocaine and the sale of crack?
3. What are some ways that it comes to be that, in seven
states, African Americans constitute 80-90% of all drug
offenders sent to prison?
 4. How have the court houses, including the Supreme Court,
immunized themselves from hearing claims of racial bias in
the criminal justice system?
Connecting to African American History and Culture
T C  J
all. It is easy enough to think when we sacrifice this canary, the
only harm is to communities of color. Yet others ignore problems
that converge around racial minorities at their own peril, for these
problems are symptoms warning us that we are all at risk.”
(Lani Guinier & Gerald Torres)11

The U.S. constitution and its founding documents, specifically
the Declaration of Independence, declared Africans 3/5ths of
a man. The principle of “liberty and freedom for all” was not
intended for or accorded to people of African ancestry. Justice in
America has never been colorblind, and to pretend that it is, only
worsens the racial and caste divide in America.
Michelle Alexander argues that The New Jim Crow is the
“Unfinished Business” of the ongoing quest for justice by
people of African ancestry or people of color in the U.S. How do
these quotations by others support her claim?
“I concur with the concern expressed by Chief Justice Warren
that the impact of our heritage of slave laws will continue to
make itself felt into the future. For there is a nexus between the
brutal centuries of colonial slavery and the racial polarization and
anxieties of today. The poisonous legacy of legalized oppression
based upon the matter of color can never be adequately purged
from our society if we act as if slave laws had never existed.”
(Leon A. Higginbotham Jr.)10
“Race for us, is like the miner’s canary. Miners often carried a
canary into the mine alongside them. The canary’s more fragile
respiratory system would cause it to collapse from noxious gases
long before humans were affected, thus alerting the miners to
danger. The canary’s distress signaled that it was time to get
out of the mine because the air was becoming too poisonous to
breathe. Those who are racially marginalized are like the miner’s
canary: their distress is the first sign of danger that threatens us
“...colorblindness, by discouraging discussions of racial matters,
and presuming that the best practice is to ignore the slithers of
racism, makes it more difficult to challenge this biases, and thus
increases the likelihood of discrimination...colorblindness not only
fails to remedy discrimination and racial inequity, it can actually
make both problems worse...colorblindness can perpetuate
and even deepen systemic racism. Encouraging individuals and
institutions to down play the role of race and racism in the lives of
the public, will only impede the ability to respond to the needs of
that public... In the final analysis, the problem with colorblindness
and post -racial liberalism is that they ignore the different ways in
which we experience the society around us.” (Tim Wise)12
Connecting to the Faith
Biblical Reference: Luke 22: 47- Luke 23: 12
“Pilate wanting to release Jesus, addressed the crowd again; but
they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” A third time he said to
them, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found no ground for
the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then
release him.” But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts
that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed.” (Luke 23:
20-23)
By refusing to separate the spiritual meaning of Jesus’ betrayal
and imprisonment from the circumstances and texture of those
events, we get a sense of the cruel inconsistencies of justice
systems. Greater still, we get a glimpse of how the Christ is cast
into the image of criminal.
23
Prior to being accosted in the garden on the night he was
betrayed, Jesus had created a positive social network among
masses of people that was socially, spiritually and physically
freeing and healing. The network had expanded so far, that his
ministry had become of interest even to Herod, who according
to the text wanted to experience it himself.
Herod’s desire was fulfilled. The elders and officials of the faith
ushered Jesus into Herod’s presence after marching Jesus
from unfounded arrests, to police brutality, to accusations of
being a subversive threat to national security, and finally to
unsubstantiated accusations of Jesus proclaiming himself “King
of the Jews.”
Through all of these moments of violence and injustice, the
crowd and the social network of people were present. They
heard Jesus being called a criminal. On Jesus’ body, they saw
scars associated with being a criminal. The crowd had no
dissenting opinions, no contrasting image because the followers
of Jesus were absent. Herod manipulates the crowd by placing
Jesus in royal garb. Seeing the robe, the crowd must have
thought, “surely, there must have been some truth to all of the
accusations made by the religious leaders.”
As Herod enrobes Jesus, and seemingly out of context, mends
his relationship with Pilate, it is apparent that Herod had become
less interested in the signs and wonders of Jesus and more
invested in the potential profitability of this social network,
called the crowd. With the placing of the robe, the iconic
embodiment of hope, The Christ now becomes incarcerated by
the image of a criminal. Similar to hip hop being perverted and
bastardized by gansta rap, the social network that once praised
with “hosannahs” becomes co-opted and shouts “crucify him.”
The greater atrocity is that the crowd and unintentionally, the
24
elders of the faith, now become the accusers and mask the
powers and principalities inherent in the Roman caste system.
How does your faith community’s understanding of the
following Biblical principles, or actions in the Biblical narrative,
help you understand the issues of mass incarceration in the
United States?
Forgiveness Justice Healing
Repentance Mercy Punishment
Redemption Sin Reconciliation
How does that get manifested in the life of your congregation
as related to those directly or indirectly impacted by
incarceration?
Faithful Action
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) – To build and maintain our
stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them
together.
Sankofa Statement: Ujamaa has empowered African Americans
to create holistic systems of support to foster liberation.
Manifestation of these efforts can be seen in the establishment
of nearly 100 historically Black colleges and universities. Yet,
as African Americans have built great systems of support,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s efforts during the Poor People’s
Movement revealed that the “real work of movement building
had only just begun” (p. 245)13 .
We move forward highlighting Ujamaa as a reminder that we
must invest our resources, talents, time, and gifts to disarm the
War on Drugs and dismantle the system of mass incarceration.
Let us build sustainable networks of support as we pursue the
unfinished business of the Civil Rights Movement – with vision,
by faith, through action.
Review some of the data in the Charts and Tables section, _____________________________________________________
and collect other facts about your community and the issues
surrounding The New Jim Crow. _____________________________________________________

Please note and discuss any specific ideas you and/or your faith _____________________________________________________
community might pursue to make a difference in our collective
_____________________________________________________
efforts to dismantle The New Jim Crow.
_____________________________________________________
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25
C F : T C 
H
Read
“Prisoners returning “home” are typically the poorest of the poor,
lacking the ability to pay for private housing and routinely denied
public housing assistance- the type of assistance which could
provide some much-needed stability in their lives. For them “going
home” is more a figure of speech than a realistic option… Aside
from figuring out where to sleep, nothing is more worrisome for
people leaving prison than figuring out where to work.” (p. 145)
Respond

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______________________________________________________
“Once labeled a felon, the badge of inferiority remains with you for the ______________________________________________________
rest of your life, relegating you to a permanent second-class status.”
(p. 139) ______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

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26
Summary of Chapter: The Cruel Hand Key Concepts
Chapter Four presents the details of the life of ex-offenders upon • Prison Label (p. 139)
release from prison. The chapter illustrates how race and the • Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 (p. 142)
stigmatization of the prison label play a role in every aspect of • Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1978 (p.
the ex-offenders’ attempt to cope with life outside of prison – 142)
from establishing a residence, to gaining employment, to being • Housing and Urban Development’s “One Strike Guide”
“at home” with his family and in the community. It explains in (p. 142)
detail the intricate network of laws and regulations that ensure • Debt Bondage (pp. 150-152)
the ex-offender returns to prison. Chapter Four also illustrates • Disenfranchisement (p. 154)
how this stigmatization associated with the prison label • Felony (p. 139)
damages the entire Black community. • Minstrel Show (pp. 168-170)
• Gangsta Rap (p. 168)
Key Quotations • Eerie Silence (p. 161)
• Stigma of Criminality (p. 138)
• “Today a criminal freed from prison has scarcely more rights,
and arguably less respect, than a freed slave or a black Statements for Deeper Reflection
person living ‘free’ in Mississippi at the height of Jim Crow.” True or False
(p. 138) 1. Black young persons embrace the “stigma of criminality.”
• “Practically from cradle to grave, black males in urban 2. Black minstrel shows are being displayed on television
ghettos are treated like current or future criminals. One today.
may learn to cope with the stigma of criminality, but like the 3. Black young persons are informed of the consequences of
stigma of race, the prison label is not something that a black pleading guilty to drug offenses.
man in the ghetto can ever fully escape.” (p. 157)
4. Most ex-offenders try to “play by the rules” and succeed in
• “Lying about incarcerated family members is another society.
common coping strategy – a form of passing. Whereas 5. Ex-offenders owe money to the government after release.
light-skinned blacks during the Jim Crow era sometimes cut
6. Ex-offenders can “raise themselves by their own
off relations with friends and family in an effort to “pass” as
bootstraps.”
white and enjoy the upward mobility and privilege associated
with whiteness, today many family members of prisoners 7. Churches are places where victims of the racial caste
lie and try to hide the status of their relatives in an effort to system cannot talk about it.
mitigate the stigma of criminality.” (p. 162)

27
Short Answer
Please explain your answers with examples from personal
experience and examples from the text.
1. Are relative rates of Black imprisonment about the same as
crime rates in Black communities?
2. What does race have to do with differences between
sentences for sale of cocaine and sale of crack?
3. What are some ways in which the stigma of the “prison
label” is similar to the stigma that was associated with “Jim
Crow?”
4. What are some consequences of pleading guilty to a felony
even though innocent?
5. Which laws, passed during the 1970’s and 80’s, make it
likely that Black men released from prison will likely return?
Explain how this system has operated.
6. Compare and Contrast the “debt bondage” of African
Americans after the Civil War with the same condition for
African Americans with felony records today.
7. What are some of the reasons that African Americans
convicted of felony drug offenses are not likely to be able
to vote, even after serving time? Explain your answer.
8. How might the changing of laws related to voting for ex-
felons have affected the outcome of the George Bush/Al
Gore election of 2000?
9. What are some ways in which the term “felon” make or
cast one as an “untouchable?”
10. What are some reasons that it is difficult for African
American men returning from prison to feel “at home” in
their original communities?
11. Who are some people who profit from racial stigmas? How?
28
12. What prevents the African American community from
openly discussing mass incarceration?
Connecting to African American History and Culture
T C H
When policies and actions of power and principalities have
targeted consequences for the sons and daughters of a people,
the peoples’ survival is at risk. And, the human contributions
they can uniquely offer the world are never realized.
Michelle Alexander argues that The New Jim Crow is the
“Unfinished Business” of the ongoing quest for justice by
people of African ancestry or people of color in the U.S. How do
these quotations by others support her claim?
“A heavy cruel hand has been laid upon us. As a people, we feel
ourselves to be not only deeply injured, but grossly misunderstood.
Our white countrymen do not know us. They are strangers to our
character, ignorant of our capacity, oblivious to our history and
progress, and are misinformed as to the principles and ideas that
control and guide us, as a people. The great mass of American
citizens estimates us as being a characterless and purposeless
people; and hence we hold up our heads, if at all, against the
withering influence of a nation’s scorn and contempt.” (Frederick
Douglass)14
“How can our government profess to be fighting a war on drugs
when it is subsidizing and protecting an industry that produces
and markets our most lethal drug? To my mind this is the height
of hypocrisy…We know also from the obscene amount of
billboards of tobacco and alcohol in African American and Hispanic
communities that these two industries have not only targeted
children but chosen to saturate particular communities. When you
target and saturate children and minorities with the top two killers
in America, that’s genocide!” (Rev. Dr. Michael L. Pfleger)15
“ You gotta start peepin’ game- soon, the government is going to
make the young Black male and young Hispanic male the prime
target of all of their resources, of all their jail sentences, and all of
their powerful weapons, and technology. We will be the enemy.
So unless we stop it now- regulate it- we will end up crashing
against the wall.” (Tupac Shakur)16
“We don’t want our children faced with the same powerful
temptations that many adults in authority have been powerless
to resist. Instead, we want to remove the incredible financial
incentives to sell these drugs to our children or recruit them into
drug trafficking. We don’t want our children to die as innocent
victims of gang violence. We want all nonviolent drug abusers,
regardless of class or race, to have equal access to rehabilitation
programs. And finally, we don’t want our tax dollars spent
enforcing ineffectual policies that undermine our faith in our
nation’s laws.” (Joy Strickland)17
Connecting to the Faith
Biblical Reference: Matt: 25:31-40
“Come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you
gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing,
I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
(Matthew 25:34- 36)
The world in which Jesus lived, worked and loved was not much
different from our own. There were social orders that sought to
determine the value of people in ways that served that particular
society. Commensurate with that definition were prescribed
ways of interacting and in many cases distancing ones’ self from
the experiences of others. Moral tutoring suggested that the
conditions people faced were due to their own choices or the
sins of their families. Their conditions, though constructed by
the system were presented as product of their essential nature.
For every society ordered by caste, there is a system of rewards
and punishment fueling its existence. In order for those
superficially valued by society to maintain their social standing
or even to move up in the social order, they are required to
internalize the values and practices of the system; and maintain
physical and emotional distance from those whom the society
despises.
So when Jesus, offers the parable of the sheep and goats, the
message is that sheep are familiar with and led by the voice of
the shepherd, feeding on that which is life-giving. Goats on the
other hand, tend to internalize anything in their path, that may
represent food, but has no nutritional value, in essence- trash.
As Jesus separates the sheep and goats, he also manifests a
system of rewards and punishment vastly different from Roman
society. By rewarding those who carve out spaces of compassion
for those who are “dismembered” from Roman society,
Jesus suggests that internalized values central to who God is,
embodied love. Love is the ability to see the potential and “God-
ness” in all of humanity. That means destroying the distance
between those marginalized by society and taking radical steps
to remove barriers that threaten fulfillment and survival of
families, communities and nations.
To what extent is a person’s condition or even criminal behavior
a reflection of a person’s alienation from God?
According to the Biblical narrative, what is the indicator for
being blessed by God? Are you and your faith community,
according to these indicators “blessed by God”?
29
Faithful Action
Ujima (Collective Work & Responsibility) - To build and maintain
our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’
problems our own, and to solve them together.
Sankofa Statement: Ujima has empowered African American
churches to act as fruitful sprouting beds for prophetic action.
Looking back at the Civil Rights Movement, Rev. Dr. Samuel
DeWitt Proctor suggests that churches stood as “fortresses
of faith” within poor Black communities (1999)18. Historically,
churches functioned as workshops for social transformation
(providing space to convene, discuss, and organize).
Ujima reminds us that in order to alleviate the tight grip of
recidivism among ex-offenders, churches must be places
that exhibit radical social concern and solidarity, making the
problem of mass incarceration our problem. We move forward
to disarm the War on Drugs and dismantle the system of mass
incarceration with Ujima reminding us that we are our brother’s
keeper as we pursue the unfinished business of the Civil Rights
Movement – with vision, by faith, through action.
30
Review some of the data in the Charts and Tables section,
and collect other facts about your community and the issues
surrounding The New Jim Crow.
Please note and discuss any specific ideas you and/or your faith
community might pursue to make a difference in our collective
efforts to dismantle The New Jim Crow.
_____________________________________________________
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C F : T N
J C
“Hundreds and thousands of black men are unable to be good fathers for
their children, not because of a lack of commitment or desire but because
they are warehoused in prison, locked in cages.” (p. 175)
Read
“When we think of racism we think of Governor Wallace of
Alabama blocking the schoolhouse door; we think of water hoses,
lynchings, racial epithets, and “whites only” signs…Because this
new system is not explicitly based on race, it is easier to defend on
seemingly neutral grounds…the current system invites observers
to imagine that those who are trapped in the system were free to
avoid second-class status or permanent banishment from society
simply by choosing not to commit crimes. It is far more convenient
to imagine that a majority of young African American men in urban
areas freely chose a life of crime than to accept the real possibility
that their lives were structured in a way that virtually guaranteed
their early admission into a system from which they can never
escape.” (pp. 178-179)
Respond
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31
Summary of Chapter: The New Jim Crow
Chapter Five draws parallels between the modern system of
mass incarceration and historic Jim Crow. It explains how huge
numbers of African Americans are currently legally discriminated
against, marginalized, and segregated into specific residential
patterns and jails. They are prevented from voting, from paid
employment, from education, from public benefits and blocked
from jury service. Moreover, the federal government has
blocked them from challenging their status in court, even The
Supreme Court. While the chapter explores the similarities
between the current racialized caste system and Jim Crow of
the past, it also details the significant differences between this
system and racism expressed through Jim Crow.
Key Quotations
• “The sense that black men have disappeared is rooted in
reality…The claim that we really know where all the black men
have gone may inspire considerable doubt. If we know, why do
we feign ignorance? Could it be that most people really don’t
know? Is it possible that the round up, lockdown and exclusion
of black men en masse from the body politic has occurred
largely unnoticed? The answer is yes and no.” (pp. 174, 176)
• “In recent years, advocates and politicians have called for
greater resources devoted to the problem of ‘prisoner re-
entry’ in view of the unprecedented numbers of people who
are released from prison and returned to their communities
every year. While the terminology is well-intentioned, it utterly
fails to convey the gravity of the situation facing prisoners
upon their release.” (p. 181)
• “Some might argue that as disturbing as this system
appears to be there is nothing particularly new about mass
incarceration; it is merely a continuation of past drug wars and
32
biased law enforcement practices. Racial bias in our criminal
justice system is simply an old problem that has gotten worse
and the social excommunication of ‘criminals’ has a long
history; it is not a recent invention.” (p. 182)
• “Mass incarceration thus perpetuates and deepens pre-
existing patterns of racial segregation and isolation, not just
by removing people of color from society and putting them in
prisons, but by dumping them back into ghettos upon their
release…By contrast, whites – even poor whites – are far less
likely to be imprisoned for drug offenses. And when they are
released from prison, they rarely find themselves in the ghetto.
The white poor have a vastly different experience in America
than do poor people of color. Because whites do not suffer
racial segregation, the white poor are not relegated to racially
defined areas of intense poverty.” (p. 191)
Key Concepts
• Invisible Punishment (p. 181)
• System of Control (pp. 195-197)
• Legalized Discrimination (pp. 186-187)
• Racial Boundaries (p. 185)
• Political Disenfranchisement (pp. 187-192)
• Closed Courthouse Doors (p. 189)
• Symbolism of Race (p. 192)
• Networks of Mutual Support (p. 197)
• Racial Indifference (p. 198)
• Collateral Damage to Whites (p. 202)
• Dual Frustration (pp. 203-204)
Statements for Deeper Reflection
True or False
1. Most people in state prisons due to drug charges have no
history of violence or significant drug selling.
2. “Getting Tough on Crime” translates into a “racial caste
system”.
3. It is the stigma that is associated with mass incarceration
that prevents the Black community from acting as a group
against it.
4. There is a difference between historic “Jim Crow” and
mass incarceration today.
Short Answer
Please explain your answers with examples from personal
experience and examples from the text.
1. For African Americans, what are the differences and
similarities between life during Jim Crow era and life in
the era of mass incarcerations, with respect to each of the
following:
• Legalized discrimination;
• Marginalization;
• Segregation;
• Citizenship rights;
• Access to the legal system;
• Meaning and Significance of “race”.
2. How is it possible to “see and not see” at the same time,
what is happening to Black men?
3. Use the cage metaphor to explain how the War on Drugs
entraps Black men.
4. What is the “invisible punishment?”
5. Describe the pattern of differences between the
incarcerations of Black and White men in your state. How
did this come to be?
6. Why did the penalties related to possession of marijuana
change?
7. In what ways is the Black community forced to work
against itself in combating attitudes towards mass
incarceration? What does this have to do with “dual
frustration?”
8. What are some reasons that it is difficult to convince so
many White people of the existence of a new racialized
caste system?
9. In what ways does the new racialized caste system hurt
White people?
10. Compare and contrast penalties for drunk driving with
possession and/or sale of crack cocaine.
Connecting to African American History and Culture
T N J C
Dismantling The New Jim Crow system in America requires
a values revolution that will permeate America’s culture and
ethical fabric at home and abroad. The Black community and
the Black Church has been the moral barometer for justice in
America. This is the unfinished business of the fight against the
3/5ths clause of the Constitution through and beyond the Civil
Rights Movement. In the end, the privileged and leaders of
the Black community and Black Church must decide whether
they are on the side of justice or the side of those who benefit
from the racism, militarism and materialism which props up the
privileged and denies and impoverishes the many.
33
Michelle Alexander argues that The New Jim Crow is the
“Unfinished Business” of the ongoing quest for justice by
people of African ancestry or people of color in the U.S. How do
these quotations by others support her claim?
“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world
revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of
values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented”
society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and
computers, profit motives and property rights are considered
more important than people, the giant triplets of racism,
materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
(Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)19
“…America has manifested a schizophrenic personality on the
question of race. She has been torn between selves – a self in
which she has proudly professed democracy and a self in which
she has sadly practiced the antithesis of democracy…For too long
the depth of racism in American life has been underestimated.
The surgery to extract it is necessarily complex and detailed. As
a beginning it is important to x-ray our history and reveal the full
extent of the disease.” (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)20
“The pipeline is not an act of God or inevitable; it is a series of
human choices at each stage of our children’s development. We
create it, we can change it…what it takes is a critical mass of
leaders and caring adults with the spiritual and political will to
reach out and pull children at risk out of the Pipeline and never
let go, who will make a mighty noise until those in power respond
to our demands for just treatment for children. This will not
happen unless we come together and do the hard work to build
a movement to save all our children and nation’s soul. Beginning
right now we can.” (Marian Wright Edelman)21
34
“Given our history, producing a racially defined nether caste
through the ostensibly neutral application of law should be
profoundly offensive to our ethical sensibilities – to the principles
we proudly assert as our own. Mass incarceration has now become
a principal vehicle for the reproduction of racial hierarchy in our
society. Our country’s policymakers need to do something about
it. And all of us are ultimately responsible for making sure that
they do.” (Glenn C. Loury)22
Connecting to the Faith
Biblical Reference: Luke 18: 1- 8; Deuteronomy 10:17-18
“For the Lord your God is God of gods and the Lord of lords, the Great
God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who
executes justice for the orphan and the widow and who loves the
strangers , providing them food and clothing.”
(Deuteronomy 10: 17-18)
In the text there is a judge who has no fear of God, nor any
respect for God’s people. So surely, he had no respect for a
woman, especially a marginalized person who had no social or
financial value. Her husband was dead and whatever wealth they
had accumulated was given to her brother-in-law. The judge
makes a favorable ruling on the case of the widowed woman,
not because he listened to the facts of the case, nor because
the widow’s request lined up with the law. He granted her
justice because he did not want to be bothered continually by a
persistent woman.
In a justice system that undergirds and maintains caste, there are
problems with the system itself and there are problems with the
people who work for the system. An appointed judge thrives in
his position despite the fact that he had no respect for the needs
of people, nor any regard for the ways of God.
The woman in the text did not allow the prejudicial judge to stop Faithful Action
her from demanding justice against her opponent. In fact she Kuumba (Creativity) - To do as much as we can, in the ways we
demanded that he be a just judge on her behalf. can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial
This is the pivotal moment in the parable. After telling the story, than we inherited it.
Jesus then plumbs the depths of the parable. The first lesson
Sankofa Statement: Kuumba has empowered African Americans
is that believers must be persistent, but that persistence is not
to engage the arts to ground their endurance. African American
unfounded; the persistence comes because there is a demand
spirituals painted the humid air thick with hope in Alabama,
for justice based on a different litmus test for what it means
as Dr. King marched from Selma to Montgomery alongside
to be a judge. That plumb line of judicial integrity is founded
hundreds of others singing “We shall overcome!”
on traditions of the faith articulated in Deuteronomy 10: 17- 18.
“For the Lord your God is God of gods and the Lord of lords, the We move forward highlighting Kuumba as a reminder that this
great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no resumed effort to restore our nation’s consciousness will best
bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and be sustained through an innovative approach- tapping into
who loves the strangers, providing for them food and clothing.” the creative arts. Let us be available to the renewing power of
music and spoken word. As we engage hip-hop, gospel, poetry,
Jesus goes on to say it is the birthright and spiritual mandate
and other spirit-invoking forces of truth, love, and redemption,
that peoples of faith cry out for justice; making injustice so
we aim to cultivate hope and sustain mobilization efforts as
uncomfortable that it has to shift. Finally, in a very strange and
we move forward to disarm the War on Drugs and dismantle
initially very mysterious rhetorical move, Jesus ends with the
mass incarceration. Let us pursue the unfinished business of the
statement “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find
Civil Rights Movement creatively – with vision, by faith, through
faith on earth?”
action.
What the Christ is challenging the chosen to see is that a
continual push for justice, a continual push for those who have
been marginalized is equal to and essential for faith. To be a
people of faith, persistence concerning justice is non-negotiable.
Does your faith community equate faith with justice? If yes,
how is that manifested in ministries to those affected by
incarceration both directly and indirectly? If no, what Biblical
principles or theological understandings keep your community
from equating faith with justice?

35
Review some of the data in the Charts and Tables section,
and collect other facts about your community and the issues
surrounding The New Jim Crow.
Please note and discuss any specific ideas you and/or your faith
community might pursue to make a difference in our collective
efforts to dismantle The New Jim Crow.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________

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36
C S : T F T
T
Read
“But if the movement that emerges to end mass incarceration
does not meaningfully address the racial divisions and resentments
that gave rise to mass incarceration, and if it fails to cultivate an
ethic of genuine care, compassion, and concern for every human
being-of every class, race, and nationality- within our nation’s
borders, including poor whites, who are often pitted against
poor people of color, the collapse of mass incarceration will not
mean the death of racial caste in America. Inevitably, a new
system of racialized social control will emerge- one that we cannot
foresee…” (p. 245)
Respond

__________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________
“If we can agree that what is needed now, at this critical juncture, is
not more tinkering or tokenism, but as King insisted forty years ago, a __________________________________________________
“radical restructuring of our society,” then perhaps we can also agree
that a radical restructuring approach to racial justice advocacy is in order __________________________________________________
as well.” (p. 247)
__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

37
Summary of Chapter: The Fire This Time
Chapter Six explores ways in which the African American
community might respond to the realities of The New Jim
Crow, the role of the War on Drugs and mass incarcerations.
It underscores the need for a paradigm shift in traditional civil
rights advocacy. It explains in detail why traditional approaches
such as Affirmative Action aids and abets rather than helps to
eliminate the racialized caste system. Chapter Six reemphasizes
the role that mass movements have played at every stage
of dealing with every historical form of the racialized caste
systems following the legal dismantling of slavery and the legal
dismantling of Jim Crow. This chapter argues why so-called
“colorblindness” and racially neutral strategies are futile in
attempts to dismantle the current racialized caste system.
It explains how the death of mass incarcerations will not
eliminate the racialized caste systems in America without a mass
movement to eliminate hierarchies in America based on race.
Key Quotations
• “Not surprisingly, as civil rights advocates converted
a grassroots movement into a legal campaign, and as
civil rights leaders became political insiders, many civil
rights organizations became top-heavy with lawyers. This
development enhanced their ability to wage legal battles
but impeded their ability to acknowledge or respond to the
emergence of a new caste system.” (p. 214)
• “Today, no less than fifty years ago, a flawed public consensus
lies at the core of the prevailing caste system. When people
think about crime, especially drug crime, they do not think
about suburban housewives violating laws regulating
prescription drugs or white frat boys using ecstasy. Drug
crime in this country is understood to be black and brown,
and it is because drug crime is racially defined in the public
38
consciousness that the electorate has not cared much what
happens to drug criminals – at least not the way they would
have cared if the criminals had been white.” (p. 222)
• “Some states have decriminalized marijuana, including
Massachusetts, where 65 percent of state voters approved the
measure. Taken together, these factors suggest that, if a major
mobilization got underway, impressive changes in our nation’s
drug laws and policies would be not only possible, but likely,
without every saying a word about race. This is tempting bait,
to put it mildly, but racial justice advocates should not take it.
The prevailing caste system cannot be successfully dismantled
with a purely race-neutral approach.” (p. 228)
• “King argued in 1968, ‘The changes that have occurred to date
are basically in the social and political areas; the problems we
now face – providing jobs, better housing and better education
for the poor throughout the country – will require money for
their solution, a fact that makes those solutions all the more
difficult.’ He emphasized that ‘most of the gains of the past
decade were obtained at bargain prices’ for the segregation
of public facilities and the election and appointment of a few
black officials cost close to nothing. ‘White America must
recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved
without radical changes in the structure of our society.’”
(p. 236)
Key Concepts
• Jena Six (p. 210)
• Colorblindness (pp. 227-231)
• Racial Profiling (pp. 212-215)
• Racial Stereotypes (pp. 212-215)
• Grass Roots Movement (p. 212-213)
• Washington Insider (pp. 213-214)
• Exceptionalism (p. 235)
 • Damaged Goods (p. 216)
• Criminal Justice Reform (p. 238)
• Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education Decision (p. 223)
• Mass Movement (p. 223)
• Emancipation Proclamation (p. 223)
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream Speech (p. 236)
• Colorblind Advocacy (pp. 224-227)
• Affirmative Action (pp. 232-233)
• “Trickle Down Theory” (p. 236)
Statements for Deeper Reflection
True or False
1. Statistics on arrests of Black men mirror actual crime rates.
2. Mass incarcerations of people of color can be solved solely
through creating and changing laws.
3. The existence of lower crime rates and higher rates of
incarceration is evidence that the criminal justice system is
working.
4. Major mobilizations of citizens could change drug laws and
policies without mentioning the word race.
5. African Americans should work towards achieving a
colorblind society.
6. The color of police chiefs across the country has changed
the relationship of police officers to communities of people
of color.
7. Two results of affirmative action programs are a racial
caste system and mass incarceration.
8. Colorblind strategies can end a racial caste system.
Short Answer
Please explain your answers with examples from personal
experience and examples from the text.
1. Are African Americans better off than in 1968 when Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated? Why or Why not?
2. What are some of the reasons that parents of incarcerated
youth were angry about the outcome of the trial of the
“Jena Six”?
3. What criminal justice reforms have civil rights attorneys
and activists focused on in recent years?
4. What are some of the reasons civil rights activists and
attorneys have hesitated to challenge the War on Drugs?
5. What are some strategies that could result in overturning
the current form of the racial caste system?
6. Michelle Alexander mentions that civil rights attorneys
have become like the “Washington Insiders” of whom they
were once suspicious. How did this happen?
7. Was the Civil Rights Movement a legal crusade, or a moral
crusade? Or both? Why are these important questions?
8. What are some reasons current statistics on the quality of
life of African Americans may not reflect reality?
9. What are some reasons the market for prisons has
expanded though crime rates have lowered?
10. What do the Emancipation Proclamation, the Brown vs. the
Topeka Board of Education Decision and Dr. Martin Luther
King’s dream speech have in common?
11. Is there a relationship between reform work and
movement building? If so, what is it?
12. What is the difference between colorblindness and racial
indifference?
13. What is the difference between a civil rights and a human
rights approach to the racial caste system?
39
Connecting to African American History and Culture “...can we hear ourselves in the solution to this
T F T T if we do not assume total responsibility for the destiny of our
children
Out of its historical legacy, the Black church in the U.S. has
who can we expect to do so
championed the prophetic tradition in its unyielding call for
endangered, no
racial and social justice for the people. True justice speaks to the
crisis, yes
equitable distribution of all that is good throughout the nation
Victims, no
and for all peoples. Such justice cannot be measured by a few
Active agents yes…
who get to the top of an unjust system. So, the Black Church
We must name ourselves
and its leaders must look inward and answer in whose interest
with precise righteousness
do and will they serve? With the election of an African American
and ornery love
president, the Black church is at a new crossroad.
blending justice and truth
Michelle Alexander argues that The New Jim Crow is the relentless faith and moral sass
“Unfinished Business” of the ongoing quest for justice by to shape and name and create
people of African ancestry or people of color in the U.S. How do an identity
these quotations by others support her claim? that is forged on the hope found in those who are
Still here…regardless
“…and so we still live with the sentiments of slavery, with the
Won’t you join me?”
vestiges of slavery, so in a sense we can say that abolishing the (Dr. Emilie M. Townes)25
prison system today is about completing the work that was not
done in the aftermath of the emancipation of slaves.”
(Angela Davis)23 Connecting to the Faith
Biblical Reference: I Kings 18:20-40
“The two million Americans in prison represent the most urgent “So Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at
challenge to democratic values since the civil rights era. If we Mount Carmel. Elijah then came near to all the people, and said,
fail to respond, our country will become a police state in which “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the
the way of life of all citizens is eroded. If we act thoughtfully, Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The people
however, the United States can not only be saved but also did not answer him a word.” (I Kings 18: 20, 21)
improved, just as the civil rights movement ultimately benefited The Biblical reference points to the account in I Kings where the
everybody, not just minorities.” (Paul Butler)24 prophet Elijah sets a kind of contest between Yahweh (God)
and Baal. The contest is set up so that wavering onlookers, all
Israelites, had to decide on which god to follow. Baal was not
a foreign god to them. In fact, Baal was very familiar. Baal was
the fertility-god in whom they trusted as wanderers in Canaan

40
before they migrated to Egypt during the famine. Baal was
the god whom they sought to give reverence after they were
delivered from the Egyptian caste system into the wilderness,
while Moses went up to the mountain to talk with Yahweh.
The Hebrews continued to flirt with devotion between Baal and
Yahweh. Why? Baal was able in their tradition to increase their
numbers assisting in fulfilling the promise of being fruitful and
multiplying physiologically.
Baal was not only the god of fertility, but was also a deity known
for defeating “forces of chaos.” In other words, when the
Israelites were invited to exist without the constraints of an
oppressive social order, they interpreted it as chaos and sought
the comfort of Baal who would provide a new caste system for
the sake of order.
Yahweh on the other, offered order but not one based on
hierarchy or power based on numbers. Yahweh offered an
order based on relationship not superficially defined roles.
Yahweh offered morning-by-morning manna that required trust.
Baal offered fulfillment based on obedience; Yahweh offered
blessings based on intimacy.
For a people who were wounded by slavery, they had become
accustomed to order and to caste. Because they had never
learned to trust, they feared the fluidity of authentic relationship
and continually exchanged it for order.
So, in the text, Elijah gathers all of the nations of the faith
community and instigates a moment where they are invited to
contrast the power of Yahweh with the smoke and mirrors of
order offered by Baal.
In essence, they are asked to choose between serving order or
being in relationship with the God of love and mercy. It is the
same question asked of faith communities both Black and White,
during times of crises; whether it was during enslavement, or
pre-civil rights era, freedom movements or The New Jim Crow
“who are you going to serve?”
Order is manifested in many ways and it may be based on
race, sex, class, etc. How has your faith tradition become
incarcerated by relying on order? Who is valued in your
congregation? What group is either made to be invisible or
punished based on race, sex, class, sexual orientation or age?
How do these investments in hierarchies disempower your
congregation? How would your faith community’s ability to
destroy racial caste be impacted if your ministry held to the
possibilities of love rather than order?
What Biblical principles and sacred texts support investments in
equity?
Faithful Action
Umoja (Unity) - To strive for unity in the family, community,
nation, and race.
Nia (Purpose) - To make our collective vocation the building and
developing of our community in order to restore our people to
their traditional greatness.
Sankofa Statement: Nia and Umoja continue to play key roles
in the liberation of Africans living in the Diaspora. Historically,
an essential purpose of the African American church has been
to stretch beyond its walls to touch the deepest wounds of the
most vulnerable in society. Multigenerational and ecumenical
movements were organized during the Civil Rights Movement
out of concern for justice in the lives of the least of these.
As we move forward to disarm the War on Drugs and dismantle
the system of mass incarceration, Umoja and Nia remind us that
we are working together (building bridges across gender, age,
41
race, class, and denominational rifts), with a common purpose: ______________________________________________________
to seek justice on behalf of the oppressed. Let us be available to
work together, to collaborate together, and to execute together ______________________________________________________
for our shared purpose as we pursue the unfinished business of
______________________________________________________
the Civil Rights Movement – with vision, by faith, through action.
______________________________________________________
Review some of the data in the Charts and Tables section,
and collect other facts about your community and the issues ______________________________________________________
surrounding The New Jim Crow.
______________________________________________________
Please note and discuss any specific ideas you and/or your faith
community might pursue to make a difference in our collective ______________________________________________________
efforts to dismantle The New Jim Crow.
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________
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42
C, T  
 F  

Who’s Behind Bars.............................................................................................................................................................. 44

Drug Arrests as Proportion of All Arrests 1980 and 2003 ................................................................................................. 45
Changes in Drug Arrest Rate per 100,000 by Race, 1980-2003 ........................................................................................ 46
Total Female Prisoners by State, 2004 and 1977 ............................................................................................................... 47
Female Imprisonment Rates By State, 2004 and 1977...................................................................................................... 50
Of Books and Bars .............................................................................................................................................................. 53
Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement Databook- Race/Ethnicity by State, 2006 ............................................... 54
State Spending on Corrections and Higher Education, FY 1987-2007.............................................................................. 56
Cost Per Prisoner and Cost Per Pupil ..................................................................................................................................57
State Felon Voting Laws..................................................................................................................................................... 58
Facts about the Death Penalty............................................................................................................................................61
State Employee in Corrections Workforce, 2006.............................................................................................................. 65
Corporations that Use Prison Labor to Make Products and Provide Services ................................................................ 66

43
44
Source: Ryan S. King, Disparity by Geography: The
War on Drugs in America’s Cities, 2008

45
Source: Ryan S. King, Disparity by Geography: The
War on Drugs in America’s Cities, 2008

46
Source: Women Prison Association (www.wpaonline.org)

47
Source: Women Prison Association (www.wpaonline.org)

48
Source: Women Prison Association (www.wpaonline.org)

49
Source: Women Prison Association (www.wpaonline.org)

50
Source: Women Prison Association (www.wpaonline.org)

51
Source: Women Prison Association (www.wpaonline.org)

52
53
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, www.ojjdp.gov

54
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, www.ojjdp.gov

55
Source: Jennifer Warren, PEW: Public Safety Project, One in
100: Behind Bars in America, 2008

56
Source: Jennifer Warren, PEW: Public Safety Project, One in
100: Behind Bars in America, 2008

57
Source: ProCon.org (2010) State Felon Voting Laws

58
Source: ProCon.org (2010) State Felon Voting Laws

59
Source: ProCon.org (2010) State Felon Voting Laws

60
61
62
63
64
Source: Jennifer Warren, PEW: Public Safety Project, One in
100: Behind Bars in America, 2008

65
Source: Letha See and Nancy Khashan, Violence as Seen
Through a Prism of Color, 2001

66
Source: Letha See and Nancy Khashan, Violence as Seen
Through a Prism of Color, 2001

67
Source: Letha See and Nancy Khashan, Violence as Seen
Through a Prism of Color, 2001

68

A
• Endnotes
• Additional References
• Resources and Websites
Endnotes
1 15
Alexander, Michelle. (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in
the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.
2
Alexander, Michelle. (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in
the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.
3
Alexander, Michelle. (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in
the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.
4
Bennet, Lerone Jr. (1966). Before the Mayflower: A History of the
Negro in America 1619-1964 (Rev Ed).Baltimore, MD:
Penguin Books.
5
Clarke, Henrik, John. Retrieved May 15, 2011,
from www.brainyquote.com
6
Western, Bruce. (2006). Punishment and Inequality in America.
New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
7
Wright Jr., Jeremiah, A. (1993). What Makes You So Strong?
Judges 16:4-31. In What Makes You So Strong? Sermons of Joy
and Strength (p.151). Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press.
8
Lindsey, Johnnie. (2010). In Budd, Peyton., & Budd, Dorothy.
Tested: How Twelve Wrongly Imprisoned Men Held
Onto Hope (pp5, 7-8). Dallas, TX: Brown Books.
9
Angelou, Maya. (1978). And Still I Rise. New York, NY: Random House.
10
Higginbotham, Jr., Leon, A. (1978). In the Matter of Color: Race and
the American Legal Process (p. 391). New York: Oxford
University Press.
11
Guinier, Lani., & Torres, Gerald. (2002). The Miner’s Canary: Enlisting
Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Justice (p. 11).
Harvard, MA: Harvard Press.
12
Wise, Tim. (2010). Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the
Retreat from Racial Equity (pp. 18-19). San Francisco, CA: City
Light Books.
13
Alexander, Michelle. (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in
the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.
14
Alexander, Michelle. (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in
the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.
Pfleger, Michael L. (2010) In McClory, Robert, Radical Disciple:
Father Pfleger, St. Sabina Church, and the Fight for Social
Justice (p. 84).Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill Books.
16
Shakur, Tupac. (1995). The Lost Prison Tapes: Interview while
incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility. Retrieved May 15,
2011 from: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=tK46l7AamoA
17
Strickland, Joy. (2010). Mother’s Against Teen Violence, Retrieved
May 15, 2011, from http://mothersagainstteenviolence.
wordpress.com/2008/04/22/re-thinking-our-drug-laws/
18
Proctor, Samuel DeWitt. (1999). The Substance of Things Hoped for:
A Memoir of African American Faith. Valley Forge, PA:
Judson Press.
19
King Jr., M.L. “A Radical Revolution of Values.” Riverside Church.
New York City, NY. 4 April, 1964.
20
King Jr., M.L. (1967). In Hoskins, Lotte (Ed.), I Have a Dream: The
Quotations of Martin Luther King Jr. (p. 5). New York: Grosset
& Dunlap.
21
Edelman, Marian, W. (2007). In Aden-Wansbury, Casey.,
Chinyavong, Anourack., & Alesbury, Elizabeth, America’s
Cradle to Prison Pipeline: A Children Defense Fund Report.
Washington, D.C: Children’s Defense Fund.
22
Loury, Glenn, C. (2008). Race Incarceration and American Values
(p. 37). Cambridge: MIT Press.
23
Shigematsu, Setsu (Producer). Granado, Cameo (Diector). (2011).
Visions of Abolition: from Critical Resistance to A New Way
of Life [Documentary]. United States.
69
24
Butler, Paul. (2009). Let’s Get Free: A Hip Hop Theory of Justice
(p. 26). New York and London: The New Press.
25
Townes, Emilie, M. (2010). Vanishing into Limbo. Part II: Black
Men as Endangered Species. In Hopkins, Dwight, E., &
Thomas, Linda, E. (Eds.), Walk Together Children. In Black and
Womanist Theologies, Church and Theological Education
(pp.102-103 ). Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
Additional References
Aden-Wansbury, Casey., Chinyavong, Anourack., & Alesbury,
Elizabeth. (2007). States spend on average almost 3 times as much
per prisoner as per public school pupil [Table]. In America’s Cradle
to Prison Pipeline: A Children Defense Fund Report. Washington, D.C:
Children’s Defense Fund.
Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2010). Healing Communities: A
Framework for Congregations in their Ministry to Families Affected by
Incarceration. Baltimore, MD: Boddie, Stephanie., Robert Franklin.,
& Trulear, Harold Dean
Black Christian News Network. (2011). WATCH: Why Are More Black
Men in Prison Today than Were Enslaved in 1850 [Image]. Retrieved
April 1st 2011, from: http://blackchristiannews.com/ news/images/
black-men-jail.jpg.
Death Penalty Information Center . (2011). Facts about the Death
Penalty. Retrieved May 20, 2011, http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
documents/FactSheet.pdf
Frost, Natasha., & Phillips, Nickie, D.(2006). Total Female Prisoners
By State, 2004 and 1977 [Table]. In HARD HIT: The Growth of the
Imprisionment of Women, 1977-2004
Northeastern University: Institute on Women & Criminal Justice.
Frost, Natasha., & Phillips, Nickie, D.(2006). Female Imprisonment
Rates By State, 2004 and 1977 [Table]. In HARD HIT: The Growth of
the Imprisionment of Women, 1977-2004
Northeastern University: Institute on Women & Criminal Justice.
70
Karenga, Maulana. (2008). Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family,
Community and Culture. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press.
King, Ryan S. (2008). Changes in Drug Arrest Rate per 100,000 by
Race, 1980-2003. [Table]. In Disparity by Geography: The War on
Drugs in America’s Cities. Washington D.C: The Sentencing Project.
King, Ryan S. (2008). Drug Arrests as Proportion of All Arrests in
1980 and 2003 [Table]. In Disparity By Geography: The War on Drugs
in America’s Cities. Washington D.C: The Sentencing Project.
Leffler, Warren K. (1963). Civil Rights march on Washington D.C.
[Photograph]. Encore Editions : Fine Art Prints & Frames Since 1996.
Retrieved from http://www.encore-editions.com/civil-rights-march-
on-washington-d-c
Muhammad, Charlene. (2008, March 20). America’s New Slavery:
Black Men in Prison [Image]. The Final Call. Retrieved April 5, 2011,
from http://www.finalcall.com/ artman /publish/National_News_2/
America_s_New_Slavery_Black_Men_in_Prison_4475.shtml
Miller-Price, Melvia. True History, Spirituality and Cultural Diversity:
Hate Crimes [Photograph].True History Museum. Retrieved from
http://mypages.netopia.com/museu
ProCon.org (2010). State Felon Voting Laws [Table]. In Felon Voting.
Retrieved May 20, 2011, from http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.
resource.php?resourceID=286
See (Lee), Letha., & Khashan, Nancy. (2001). Corporations that
Use Prison Labor to Make Products and Provide Services [Table].
In Violence as Seen Through a Prism of Color. Hawthorne, N.J:
Hawthorne Press.
Stephens, Torrance. (2010). More Black Men Locked Up Than in
College: 67 Percent of Prison Population Nonwhite [Image]. Rolling
Out. Retrieved from: http://rollingout.com/news-politics/more-black-
men-locked-up-than-in-college-67-percent-of-prison-population-
nonwhite/
Stafford, Roy E. (1904, September 11). Jim Crow Law: Will Be One
of the First in the State of Oklahoma. Daily Oklahoman. Retrieved
February 5, 2011, from http://www.dougloudenback.com/maps/
jimcrowhistory.htm
Supko, Nancy. (2010). Scottsboro Boys Birmingham Jail: Seven Went
to Decatur; Two Were Convicted; Other Trials Were Postponed
[Photograph]. About.Com: Huntsville. Retrieved from: http://
huntsville.about.com/od/daytrip1/ig/Scottsboro-Boys-Museum/
Scottsboro-Boys-In-Jail.htm
U.S Department of Justice- Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention. Census of Juveniles in Residential
Placement Databook: Race/Ethnicity by State, 2006 [Table].
Retrieved May 20, 2011, from : http://www.ojjdp.gov/
Warren, Jennifer. (2008). State Employees in Corrections Workforce,
2006 [Table]. In PEW Public Safety Performance Project: One in 100:
Behind Bars in America 2008. Washington, D.C: Pew Charitable Trust
Warren, Jennifer. (2008). State Spending on Corrections and Higher
Education, FY 1987-2007 [Table]. In PEW Public Safety Performance
Project: One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008. Washington, D.C:
Pew Charitable Trust.
Warren, Jennifer. (2008). Of Books and Bars [Figure]. In PEW Public
Safety Performance Project: One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008.
Washington, D.C: Pew Charitable Trust.
Warren, Jennifer. (2008). Who’s Behind Bars [Figure]. In PEW Public
Safety Performance Project: One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008.
Washington, D.C: Pew Charitable Trust.
Welmer. (2010, February 9). Feminism and the Prison Industrial
Complex [Image]. The Spearhead, Retrieved February 5, 2011, from
http://www.the-spearhead.com/2010/02/09feminism-and-the-prison-
industrial-complex/
Resources and Websites
Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference
http://www.sdpconference.info/
SDPC YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/SDPConference
Michelle Alexander at the 2011 Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference
(Videos 1-6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_Lv4LJ5uDY&feature=related
CSPAN
Michelle Alexander on The New Jim Crow (46 minutes)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/NewJi
The Fourteenth Amendment and Race (1:37)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/The14
Economics and Diversity (1:6)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/EconomicsandD
Slavery by Another Name (1:13)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ByAn
Freedom Riders and the Struggle for Racial Justice (54 minutes)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Riders
Last Rights (55 minutes)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/LastRi
Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ToughT
The Power of Prosecutors (1 hour 59 minutes)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ToughT
Prosecutorial Misconduct (1 hour 32 minutes)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Prosecutor
Crack Cocaine Sentencing
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Prosecutor
Anthony Placido on the Drug Enforcement Administration
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Placi
Release of Federal Crack Offenders (27 minutes)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Cocain
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Crack Cocaine Sentencing Guidelines (27 minutes)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Cocain
PBS
Drug Wars Series
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/
Frontline: Prisons for Profit
http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=3087952&c
p=&sr=1&kw=prisons&origkw=Prisons&parentPage=search&search
Id=3398725
Frontline: The Confessions
http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=10822395&c
p=&sr=1&kw=prisons&origkw=Prisons&parentPage=search&search
Id=3398725
Frontline: The New Assylums
http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=2000133&cp
=&sr=1&kw=prisons&origkw=Prisons&parentPage=search&search
Id=3398725
YouTube
War on Drugs, The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander (58 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgM5NAq6cGI
Michelle Alexander on “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in
the Age of Colorblindness” (11 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX6G0ICwJ1Q
Michelle Alexander, Mass Incarceration and the New Jim Crow (7
minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnqjDVhjM0w
Bill Moyers, Michelle Alexander on The New Jim Crow
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04022010/watch.html
72
*Additional Reports
2025 Black Male and Boys Campaign: Research and Reports about
Justice, Rights, & Responsibilities
http://2025bmb.org/research/
Campaign for Youth Justice- State Trends
www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/CFYJ_State_Trends_
Report.pdf
Census Data: Employment by State and Local Law Enforcement
Agencies by Type of Agency and Employee: 2004. http://www.
census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s0342.pdf
Census Data: Jail Inmates by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 1990 to
2008. www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s0346.pdf
Death Penalty Information Center
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/FactSheet.pdf
Institute on Women & Criminal Justice- Part II State by State
Analysis, www.wpaonline.org/institute/hardhit/part2.htm#n
The Innocence Project: Know the Cases, Understand the Causes, Fix
the System. http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Facts_on_
PostConviction_DNA_Exonerations.php
The Schott Foundation: “Yes We Can: The Schott Foundation State
Report on Black Males & Education” http:/blackboysreport.org
The Sentencing Project: “A 25-Year Quagmire: The War on Drugs and
Its Impact on American Society” http://www.sentencingproject.org/
template/index.cfm
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The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference is an interdenominational forum for leadership development and strategic planning. Founded
in 2003, in honor of its namesake – the legendary Samuel DeWitt Proctor – the mission of SDPC is to nurture, sustain, and mobilize the
African American faith community to address critical needs of human and social justice within local, national, and global communities.
In collaboration with civic, corporate, and philanthropic leaders, SDPC strives to strengthen the individual and collective capacity of
leaders and activists in the church, academy, and community through education, advocacy and activism.

DR. IVA E. CARRUTHERS is the General Secretary of The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference. She is Professor Emeritus at
Northeastern Illinois University and former owner of Nexus Unlimited, a computer consulting firm. She holds a MA and PhD in
sociology from Northwestern University, a MTS. from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary and an honorary doctorate of human
letters from Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary. As scholar activist, her ministry in education and social justice is evident
throughout the African world.

DR. COLLEEN BIRCHETT teaches English at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a MDiv degree from Union
Theological Seminary and a MS in Journalism and PhD in Instructional Design from the University of Michigan. In addition to her
ministry in Christian Education and curriculum design, she is the author of a series of thematic Bible Studies, Family Ties: Restoring
Unity in the African American Family and editor of over ten books.

TIAUNA BOYD is a third year MDiv student at Chicago Theological Seminary and a ministry intern at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor
Conference. She has a background in early childhood education and worked in pre-schools in a variety of settings, including Ghana
and Japan. She has a passion for children and missions and has studied in Israel She is a recipient of a fellowship from the Fund for
Theological Education.

DR. ALISON GISE JOHNSON has served in practical ministry for over 20 years and has many years of experience in project
management. She holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, a MDiv degree from the Samuel Dewitt
Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University (STVU) and a PhD in Religion from Temple University. As scholar activist, she
served as faculty at STVU for eight years and has committed her research and efforts to assisting in developing livable sustainable
communities.

For workshops, lectures or additional information contact:

Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference
4533 S. Lake Park Avenue
Chicago, IL 60653
(773) 548-6675 Office (773) 548-6699
admin@sdpconference.info
 “The mass incarceration of people of color in the U.S. is the most pressing
and least acknowledged racial justice issue of our time. We must birth a
human rights movement that celebrates the dignity and value of all people -
a movement that seeks education, not incarceration; jobs, not jails.”

M A


Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc.

4533 S. Lake Park Avenue • Chicago, IL 60653
(773) 548-6675 (o) (773) 548-6699 (f)
www.sdpconference.info