Monthly Archives: October 2011
The growing campaign to end the New Jim Crow
Alan Bean and Melanie Wilmoth Just a few nights ago, activists, former prisoners, and concerned citizens gathered at Riverside Church in New York to discuss mass incarceration and the criminal justice system. These individuals are launching a campaign built around the … Continue reading
Filed under Criminal justice reform, mass incarceration, New Jim Crow, prison reform, Race
For God’s sake, test the DNA!
By Alan Bean Before the State of Georgia killed Troy Davis, I would have bet good money that Texas wouldn’t execute Hank Skinner without bothering to test the DNA evidence. But now all bets are off. Common sense suggests that a simple DNA test should … Continue reading
Filed under death penalty, DNA testing, Texas, Uncategorized
Bigger than the Beatles?
By Alan Bean In March of 1966, John Lennon made an offhand comment to a reporter with the London Evening Standard: “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Pat Buchanan appears on white supremacist radio show
MSNBC commentator, Pat Buchanan, recently appeared on a white supremacist radio show to promote his new book, “Suicide of a Superpower.” In protest, the advocacy group ColorOfChange.org organized a petition, calling on MSNBC to fire Mr. Buchanan for his “long … Continue reading
Filed under Race, racial politics, Southern history, the politics of race
The day Elizabeth and Hazel were dissed by Oprah
By Alan Bean I have been inspired by the story about how Elizabeth Eckford (the black woman walking stoically into Little Rock’s Central High School in 1959) and Hazel Bryan (the white woman in the rear screaming, ”Go home to Africa, nigger!”) had bridged the … Continue reading
“People wasn’t made to burn”: Joe Allen resurrects a lost story
By Alan Bean In a three-month period shortly after World War II, 751 home fires killed fo urteen people in the city of Chicago. The deadliest of these fires broke out in filthy, overcrowded tenement buildings in the city’s black … Continue reading
Behind bars without proof of guilt: The case of Everton Wagstaffe
by Melanie Wilmoth Everton Wagstaffe has been in prison for over 18 years. Since his arrest, Wagstaffe has unyieldingly claimed his innocence and fought for his release, yet he remains behind bars serving out a 25-year sentence for second degree … Continue reading
Filed under DNA testing, eye witness identification, innocence, wrongful conviction
Are we the 99%?
By Alan Bean Bloggers quickly learn that most readers snap up posts on the hot stories of the day, so by now I should have written something on the Occupy Wall Street movement. Thus far, the OWS people haven’t addressed the issue … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Scot McKnight gets the kingdom all wrong
By Alan Bean “Social justice outside the church is not biblical justice or kingdom work. It is social work. Fine, that’s a good thing. But let’s not call this kingdom work.” So says Scot McKnight, author of “The Jesus Creed: … Continue reading
Filed under Jena, Kingdom of God, mass incarceration, punitive consensus
As one having authority
By Alan Bean This week the Mustard Seed Conspiracy study is examining Jesus’ brief ministry in Capernaum as described in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. In Luke, this material follows immediately on the heels of Jesus’ rejection in his hometown … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
