Author POLICE AGAINST THE MOVEMENT (2025) on civil rights activists vs. state violence, surveillance | Historian @ubaltmain | Bylines @thenation @jacobin @slate
Baltimore, Maryland
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Wrote a preview of my book.
60 years ago today, the March on Washington captured America's attention--including the attention of police spies from NYC, Chicago, Birmingham + Philly.
Histories of the March should mention this surveillance.
slate.com/news-and-politics/…
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Wow, so Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was one of the bullies trying to stop his Black classmates from desegregating Central High in Little Rock in 1957. washingtonpost.com/sports/in…
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President George Bush wanted to show America what crack cocaine looked like at his first Oval Office address on Sept 5, 1989. He wanted to show you could even buy crack in front of the White House. That’s how bad the crisis had gotten. That’s how Bush announced his War on Drugs.
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An extended family member of mine passed away recently and his obituary asked people to dedicate themselves to "rescuing our democracy from fascism."
The New York Times refused to print the phrase "from fascism."
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This is a major part of Bush’s legacy. It’s what his War on Drugs did to just one person. But it shows the human costs of that war in miniature detail. A high schooler was lured to the WH to sell crack and spent 7+ years in prison, so that the President could make a point on TV.
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Correction: this was at North Little Rock High School, a few miles from Central High, in the same month as the Little Rock Nine entered school.
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I’m *not at all* surprised that a white person would do what Jones did, but it is surprising that it took this long for Jones to be identified in that photo. I don’t think it’s been made public before. Could be wrong.
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Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky at a press conference for the Committee to Defend the Panthers, October 20, 1970
ALT Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky at a press conference for the Committee to Defend the Panthers, October 20, 1970
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The tiny town of Hamlet, North Carolina took some giant steps to put up this new mural of John Coltrane, born there in 1926.
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Many applauded Bush’s story of the arrest, but Kevin Zeese, a defense atty specializing in drug cases, didn't. "It's disgusting...The situation is not bad enough that they have to create a false situation? It's the government creating a hoax so they can rev up the war effort."
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Apparently Jones admitted he was there in a 2010 oral history and described himself as “mischievous” and “scared to death” that day?! But not clear how widely the photo has circulated before today.
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60 years ago today, eighteen Freedom Riders left for New Orleans from Washington, D.C. to desegregate the South's Jim Crow interstate buses.
Here are some of those who were arrested.
Hank Thomas, Washington, D.C., 19
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“Where the fuck is the White House” Jackson asked in a secretly recorded call with an undercover DEA agent.
That’s how segregated DC was.
The Agent had to explain the location to Jackson, who eventually replied, “Oh, you mean where Reagan lives."
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But there wasn’t much crack sold near the White House. As a U.S. Park Police official explained, "We don't consider that a problem area…There's too much activity going on there for drug dealers."
Easy solution: invite someone to sell crack outside the White House!
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Bush never commuted his sentence.
According to one historian, Jackson served almost 8 years for the sale in four different prisons until being released on August 5, 1998.
pointsadhsblog.wordpress.com…
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The Ithaca Journal, by contrast, was willing to print the highly controversial phrase "from fascism." legacy.com/obituaries/theith…
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Without getting too deep into the details, Bush’s central point was this: “we need more jails, more prisons, more courts and more prosecutors.”
drugpolicy.org/news/2014/09/…
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The DEA caught wind of Bush’s plan and they set about arranging a deal for Lafayette Square across from the White House. DEA agents planned to lure someone there to sell them a small amount of crack. Later a WH official claimed no one requested the DEA make the purchase.
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11 years and 4 jobs after defending my dissertation, I learned today I’ve earned tenure.
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Sporkin: "He used you, in the sense of making a big drug speech," said Sporkin, former CIA general counsel appointed to court by President Reagan in 1986. "But he's a decent man, a man of great compassion. Maybe he can find a way to reduce at least some of that sentence."
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At sentencing, “U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin told Jackson, who had no prior criminal record, that he regretted having to impose the sentence of 10 years without parole. At the same time, Sporkin urged Jackson, 19, to ask Bush for a commutation.” (Washington Post, 10/01/90)
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Jackson + Bush lived in the same city, but they lived worlds apart. DC was deeply segregated, two-thirds Black, but a city where most whites cloistered in the NW corner.
The halls of power in the fed govt were shut off to most Black DC residents, too.
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The DEA’s first choice ended up not showing up, so agents went to work on a second choice. That was Keith Jackson, an African American resident of Anacostia and 19 year old high school senior who agents had been in contact with for months.
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Sporkin apparently thought 10 years was too harsh, but regretted, "I've got to follow the law."" Congress had recently passed a new mandatory minimum law as part of the Anti-Drug Abuse of 1988. (WP, 10/01/90)
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Nick was a respected philosopher at Cornell for almost 50 years, and someone who protested against both Iraq wars as well as Cornell's holdings in apartheid-era South Africa.
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On August 31, DEA Special Agent Sam Gaye was approached by his boss and asked if he could make a crack purchase across from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
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Keith Jackson was charged and then tried two times his senior year, once in December 1989 and again in January 1990, both times ending in hung juries.
Prosecutors tried him a third time and finally got a conviction in September 1990.
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On September 5, President Bush held up the bag of crack on national TV. "This is crack cocaine...seized a few days ago in a park across the street from the White House . . . . It could easily have been heroin or PCP."
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DEA agents worried Jackson would see the address and hear Bush discussing the Lafayette Square purchase and flee. But they were happy to learn that Jackson “had absolutely no idea what went on” with the national address, and they easily arrested him after the speech.
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DEA agents had decided not to immediately arrest Jackson. Not sure why, but it seems that they thought the story of a White House drug bust would make the news and undercut the drama of the President’s address.
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Agents lured Jackson to Lafayette Square where they made the small purchase from him, but didn’t arrest him, on September 1.
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For more details, see washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/lo…
washingtonpost.com/archive/l…
nytimes.com/1989/09/23/us/wh…
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$117,000 combined bail for 7 people on trespass and "terrorism" charges in #AtlantaForest?!?
This is straight out of the playbook that police and prosecutors used against the civil rights movement in the '60s. 11alive.com/article/news/loc…
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Checked out the “Baltimore Block,” an exact replica of Baltimore row houses in the middle of Atlanta, built by Baltimore native Jacob Rosenthal in 1885
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Also, a clarification: despite 2 hung juries on the WH sale, prosecutors finally got convictions on 2 unrelated pre-September 1989 charges. Only after Bush's address+the first mistrial did the feds feel it necessary to charge him on prior acts. Seems they wanted to prove a point.
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In the spirit of Nick's wishes, feel free to donate here if you'd like to help formerly incarcerated people in Florida pay off fees so that they can vote.
Want to donate to my GoFundMe so that people who've completed felony sentences in Florida can vote?
All funds go to the FRRC's Fines and Fees Campaign! gofundme.com/f/help-formerly…
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And if you're interested, check out my book, which explores head shops and drug paraphernalia as a forgotten early front in the War on Drugs. Use CUP30 for a 30% off discount code. cup.columbia.edu/book/from-h…
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Baltimore, go see the 1st ever exhibit on the Black Panthers in Baltimore by the talented students and faculty from JHU + Morgan this weekend at the Peale Museum before it closes on Sunday!
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Sad to hear that Baltimore Black Panther Eddie Conway has passed. He fought hard for justice—before, during and after the state of Maryland held him in prison for 43 years, until a court ruled in 2014 his jury had gotten improper instructions.
Condolences to his loved ones.
ALT Eddie Conway
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Forty years ago today on November 3, 1979, five anti-racist members of the Communist Workers' Party were murdered by Klan members in Greensboro, North Carolina: César Cauce, Jim Waller, Sandy Smith, Mike Nathan, and Bill Sampson.
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@gdmusgrove reminded me how Bush responded to skeptical reporters: ''Has somebody got some advocates here for this drug guy?...I cannot feel sorry for him." (NYT, 09.23.89) Check out @chrismyersasch + Derek's excellent history of race in DC, Chocolate City uncpress.org/book/9781469635…
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50+ years ago Paul Coates was the Baltimore captain of the Black Panthers and the FBI was monitoring him constantly. Today his Black Classic Press is republishing the out-of-print COINTELPRO Papers.
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Thomas, Lewis, and Farmer were part of the original 18 Freedom Riders, which also included James Peck, Ed Blankenheim, Walter Bergman, Benjamin Elton Cox, Charles Person, Frances Bergman, Genevieve Hughes and Jimmy McDonald, and others
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RIP to Ernie Lazar, the original FOIA assassin, whose obsession with the John Birch Society and the far right led him to dig and dig and dig into the FBI's records. I'm thankful to have benefitted from his research advice on a few occasions.
washingtonpost.com/obituarie…
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Several men currently incarcerated in Florida have created this very impressive public history project on the history of enslaved people on a plantation just 30 miles from their prison. processhistory.org/pete-anto…
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Going to do a thread on the Black-owned bookstores for #independentbookstoreday.
The history of Black bookstores are closely connected to radical politics. Abolitionist David Ruggles was the first African American to start a bookstore, in lower Manhattan in the early 1830s. 1/
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Bayard Rustin was born today in 1912.
In 1942 he helped establish the pacifist civil rights group the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Two years later he was sentenced to federal prison for refusing to serve in the U.S. military.
ALT Intake mugshot of Bayard Rustin at the Lewisburg Penitentiary, August 3, 1945 Record located in the National Archives' RG 129 Notorious Offenders Files NAID 580698 https://rediscovering-black-history.blogs.archives.gov/2016/08/16/bayard-rustin-the-inmate-that-the-prison-could-not-handle/
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Rest in peace to Charles Sherrod, who arrived in Southwest Georgia to fight white supremacy with SNCC in 1961 and never left. snccdigital.org/people/charl…
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Important to remember what a *huge* deal Michael K. Williams’ depiction of Omar was back in 2002, while most politicians were making huge gains unapologetically attacking gay marriage and LGBTQ equality.
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One of my favorite students is 71. This week she asked if she could introduce me to her husband over Zoom after class. The three of us had a great conversation. My student said she’d remember me and my classes even if she got Alzheimer’s.
I feel lucky to be teaching here.
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As Republicans celebrate MLK today, let’s review the many reasons GOP members once gave for opposing the King holiday.
Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) claimed King promoted “division, not love” and represented a "radical political minority that had little to do with racial minorities.”
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Happy birthday to Claudette Colvin, born today in 1939. She was arrested at 15 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person in Montgomery nine months before Rosa Parks was arrested.
You can see how small her fingerprints were compared to Parks. She was just a child.
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We need more restaurants + bars in Baltimore to require vaccination for entry.
How many of you would support places that did?
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Maryland law bans 15,000 higher ed workers from collective bargaining.
This Thursday, grad students, adjuncts, full-time faculty and community members from across the state are meeting at Red Emma's to discuss how to change this.
Will you join us?
redemmas.org/events/collecti…
ALT Collective Bargaining Rights Now! event image that's posted along with an event description at https://redemmas.org/events/collective-bargaining-rights-now/
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Did you know Maryland law prohibits faculty at state universities from unionizing?
***If you support the right of workers to unionize, please sign and share this petition in favor of a bill now under consideration that would change that!!!
actionnetwork.org/petitions/…
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Happy to share that I've signed a trade contract for my next book, Police Against the Movement, with Princeton University Press! Been working on this for several years and glad to see it a bit closer to publication.
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Never forget when the president forced the queen to watch the Orioles for two innings at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore and protesters greeted her with signs readings "Irish Blood on British Hands."
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Gordon Carey has passed away.
He was a pacifist sent to prison for objecting to fighting in the Korean War. With Tom Gaither, he co-organized CORE's Freedom Rides in 1961, and he later served as as Floyd McKissick's top aide at Soul City. nytimes.com/2021/12/24/us/go…
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The #wholefoodsstrike is a big deal. Will be 1st national strike in WF history. Even before Amazon bought it, the company was virulently anti-union.
In researching for my book, I found a copy of WF founder John Mackey's 19-page anti-labor rant, Beyond Unions. #WholeFoodsSickOut
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Mandating the vaccine for police might be the quickest defund strategy we have
A police union official tells me some police officers have threatened to quit if terms of the vaccine mandate are *get vaccinated or be fired.* @8NEWS
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Just took Amtrak from Baltimore to DC and it was 34 minutes door-to-door.
Maybe, instead of building a Maglev line w/ ridiculously expensive tickets, we just need our state officials to fund a few daily DC-Baltimore express routes?
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Hogan: we need to refund the police
Baltimore's spending on police in the last decade:
Md Gov. Larry Hogan proposes $220 million to raise salaries for police statewide, in what he called an "expansion of our re-fund our police initiatives." It's part of a $500 million, 3-year plan that includes $137M in aid to local jurisdictions and $50M for state police bldgs.
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Whatever's on the video law enforcement's withholding, rest assured if there was even the slightest evidence that these 7 shot at officers, they'd be charged with attempted murder and/or obstruction of a LEO.
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Piece I wrote on how Frederick Douglass built rental houses in Baltimore that are still inhabited today. @aaihs aaihs.org/frederick-douglass…
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BPP in Winston-Salem, NC amazing. Ran an ambulance service, 2 members later joined city council. #BlackPanthersPBS
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Happy 100th birthday to Howard Zinn, who took young civil rights organizers at their word before almost anyone else and wrote a book about them in 1964.
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"As a follower of Christ, how can I not stand with the poor?"
@RevDrBarber of @ncnaacp stands up for what's right yet again! #Fightfor15
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(Preview of the book I’m writing)
60 years ago this May, Birmingham police assaulted Black protesters with dogs.
I wrote this story to learn how Bham created a canine team. It was Baltimore police—the pioneer of the modern dog unit—who taught them how. slate.com/news-and-politics/…
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I'm no lawyer, but I'd be willing to bet that they won't be able to convict 7 people of this definition of "domestic terrorism."
It's the age-old strategy of overcharging to end a protest.
ALT Georgia's legal definition of "domestic terrorism," from https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/legislation/document/20172018/167322
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Nearly 1 out of every 3 days Trump's been president, he's visited a Trump property using taxpayer funds. wapo.st/2okosww?tid=ss_tw
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