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Paper was Made to Burn, Coal and Rags, Not People
28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series Property owner Mary Adams and landlord David Coleman avoided court till the last hearing, then tried passing blame on “irrational” tenants. But the surviving Hickmans and several other tenants all testified…
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Under Capitalism, Renting is a Death Sentence
28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series The first three chapters of People Wasn’t Made to Burn set the stage for the housing conditions that were killing tenants in Chicago in 1947 — the conditions that killed James…
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People Wasn’t Made to Burn
28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series “At 11:30 p.m. on January 16, 1947, a fire began in the center room of the attic at 1733 West Washburne Avenue, a turn-of-the-century four story-brick building on Chicago’s Near West…
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Haitian Immigration and Community Defense
28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series Since its revolution and severance from the colonial forces of France, Haiti had been an inspiration for many anti-imperialist movements around the world; serving as both a symbolic and material force…
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Haiti and Popular Resistance
28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series After overthrowing the 30-year Duvalier dictatorship on Feb. 7, 1986, a historic mobilization – the Lavalas movement (meaning “the flood” ) came into power in 1991, headed by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.…
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US and UN Intervention in Haiti
28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series Since ousting their French oppressors and achieving independence in 1804, the Haitian people have remained under constant threat of imperialist intervention from the international bourgeois order. From the initial neocolonial robbery…
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Haiti and the Dominican Republic
28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series Following the victory of the Haitian Revolution, the entire island of Ayiti/Quisqueya was joined by Haitian efforts to stop once and for all European domination over the island, and the understanding…
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Haiti’s History of Resistance
28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series Last year, on the first day of our 28 Days of Black Liberation program, GDC highlighted the Haitian Revolution as a pivotal part of Black revolutionary history in America. This year,…
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1919 to today: How Have the Conditions Changed?
28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series A Black Person is murdered by America every day, whether by racial violence, police violence, the carceral system (including ICE), lack of housing, healthcare system or environmental racism. Everyday a Black…
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If We Must Die & Art as a Political Commitment
28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series If We Must Die was written by Claude McKay in 1919 in response to the mob murders of the Red Summer. He published it in the July 1919 issue of The…