News flash: Slavery didn’t end after the Civil War. Thanks to the massive loophole of the 13th Amendment, it’s still going strong - in the form of forced prison labor all across America. We take you to Louisiana, the world’s incarceration leader. Local historian Eric Seiferth tells about Louisiana’s barbaric prison labor system, where inmates are forced to toil in the same fields worked by enslaved people over 150 years ago. We’re talking reparations? Let’s start by actually ending slavery in America!

SHOW NOTES

Guest: Eric Seiferth

Eric Seiferth is a curator and historian with the Historic New Orleans Collection. His extensive research was instrumental in creating Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration, an exhibit examining the roots of Louisiana’s dubious distinction as the incarceration capital of the world.

More on Louisiana's slave labor system:

• Promise of Justice Initiative – New Orleans-based group fighting to stop enslaved labor and other atrocities of the Prison Industrial Complex.
  
  
• Derrick Fruga's Return Home - Short film about formerly incarcerated man whose nearly two decades of forced labor earned him just enough money to buy his mother a bouquet of flowers.
  
  
• Visiting Room Project – Website lets you sit face-to-face with people serving life without parole at Angola Prison, telling their stories in their own words. The only collection of its kind with over 100 interviews.
  
  
• Angola Prisoners Lawsuit

More on mass incarceration and forced prison labor:

• “13th” – Oscar-nominated documentary on our history of forced prison labor and the 13th Amendment loophole.
  
  
• Equal Justice Initiative – One of America’s leading advocacy groups fighting for justice in the penal system.
  
  
• California Voters Reject Anti-Slavery Proposition
  
  
• ACLU graphic of America’s coast-to-coast slave wages for prison labor

More on “Captive State” and HNOC:

• Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration - exhibit website
  
  
• Historic New Orleans Collection website

HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE

[5:45] Forced labor in the Louisiana prison system

[9:01] Through-line from slavery at Angola plantation to slave labor at Angola Prison today

[19:28] Louisiana eliminates parole for life sentences and adds life-term offenses

[23:19] Louisiana’s impact on brutal practices across U.S. prisons

[28:40] Tension in New Orleans between horrific oppression and creative resistance

[33:48] Importance of shining a light on our true history and organizing for reparations

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Money isn’t the only part of reparations - but it sure is a big one! We sit down with William Darity and Kirsten Mullen, the nation's leading reparations experts. They answer key questions: How big is the tab? Who gets paid? What good is money unless we first change our racist society? They also break down why they're hopeful that reparations will happen in America - and tell us about the transforming power of cold hard cash.

SHOW NOTES

Guests: William Darity and Kirsten Mullen

William A. Darity Jr. is Professor of Public Policy, African American Studies, Economics, and Business at Duke University. He’s the founding director of the Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke.

A. Kirsten Mullen is a writer, folklorist and lecturer whose work focuses on race, art, history and politics. She’s the founder of Artefactual, and was part of the team that designed the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Darity and Mullen co-wrote the award-winning book From Here To Equality: Reparations For Black Americans in the 21st Century.

William Darity's home page

Kisten Mullen's bio


Selected works by Darity and Mullen:

• From Here To Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century (2020)
• The Black Reparations Project : A Handbook For Racial Justice (2023)
• Black Reparations in the United States: An Introduction (2024)

Related articles:

• “Stolen Lives” - Elizabeth Wrigley-Field’s piece on stolen Black time and the “longevity gap” (2024)
• "What Is Owed" - article in the Nation on Darity and Mullen’s case for reparations (2021)
• "The New Reparations Math” - on Thomas Craemer's revolutionary approach to calculating the tab (2020)

HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE:

[14:57] The racial wealth gap and their plan for money reparations

[24:42] The longevity gap and reparations

[32:54] Eligibility issues for Black American reparations

[42:36] Encouraging news on growing public support for money reparations

[49:25] Problems with local and state initiatives

[58:34] Mullen on the importance of collective will and calls to action

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Some of the greatest players ever were kept out of Major League Baseball for nearly 70 years - due to the collusion of the racist team owners. We visit with Bill Greason, 100, the oldest surviving Negro Leagues player, and baseball historian Larry Lester, to make the case for long-overdue reparations by MLB. We crunch some numbers and calculate the tab to right this historic wrong. It's time to play ball!

SHOW NOTES

Guests: Bill Greason and Larry Lester

Bill Greason, 100, is one of two surviving players from the Negro Leagues. He was a star pitcher for the Birmingham Black Barons and mentor to the great Willie Mays, before becoming the first Black pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1954. He was also one of the first Black U.S. Marines. Rev. Greason has served as a pastor at a Birmingham, AL church for over 50 years.

Larry Lester is the leading Negro Leagues historian. His epic research spanned over 40 years and filled 25 file cabinets in his home. Lester played a pivotal role in the integration of Negro Leagues statistics into the Major League Baseball records in 2024. He also co-founded the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, MO.

More on Bill Greason:

• Bill Greason’s biography
• Bill Greason Takes Another Trip Around the Bases at 100 by Joseph King

More on Larry Lester:

• Larry’s website
• Larry’s all-time greatest baseball player: "Bullet" Joe Rogan
• With Deliberate Speed by Larry Lester (article about 1950s baseball integration)

More on baseball integration and reparations:

• Wendell Smith's Vision Helped Clear Jackie Robinson's Path to Majors by Isabelle Minasian
• The Rippling Manifesto by Ernest DiStefano
• View From Third Base (Willie Mays 1960 All-Star Game) by Gary Rhoades

Visit: Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (Kansas City, MO)

HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE:

[13:45] Bill Greason describes his navigating the Ku Klux Klan in Birmingham

[17:02] Greason compares the quality of play in Black and white baseball

[18:21] Greason on his mentoring the great Willie Mays

[19:57] Greason speaks on the prospect of reparations to Negro Leagues players

[24:22] Larry Lester on the role of the Black press in integrating baseball

[25:38] Lester on his role in helping to integrate the baseball record books

[30:34] Lester compares the quality of play in Black and white baseball

[35:10] Lester on Negro Leagues innovations

[43:38] Adam calculates the $800 million owed by MLB to Negro Leaguers

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