Black Liberation
-
Ohio Street Trial
28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series The inquest into the ten deaths on Ohio Street would involve five public hearings, only two of which would take place before the murder trial of James Hickman, but the horrendous conditions, neglect by public authorities, and personal stories of tragic loss would…
-
Courts are not Instruments of Justice
28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series Banks and real estate & insurance companies had so influenced the political power in the city of Chicago (as elsewhere) that David Coleman, despite merely being a small landlord with no connections to the big bourgeoise, benefited from the system set up to…
-
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 that Coleman had threatened to burn the residents out of the building.…
-
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 Hickman’s four children. The eight-person Hickman family lived in an overcrowded one-room…
-
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 Side. The attic was divided into three separate rooms with a long…
-
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 of inspiration especially for Black liberation in the United States. During this…
-
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. When the U.S. and Haitian ruling class tried to reestablish a neo-Duvalierist…
-
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 in the form of the billions of dollars extracted from Haiti to…
-
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 that “fighting for the other was fighting for oneself” (Sophie Mariñez) was…
-
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, we will dedicate an entire week to Haiti, exploring its legacy of…