ALL IMAGES:
Black Mamas Bailout Day Campaign graphics by Lizzie M. Suarez with creative direction by Helen Peña
BLACK MAMAS BAILOUT DAY
ALL IMAGES:
Black Mamas Bailout Day Campaign graphics by Lizzie M. Suarez with creative direction by Helen Peña
Collective action by (F)empower in coalition with the National Bail Out collective and Southerners on New Ground.
On Mother’s Day, May 12, 2019, (F)empower, an artist collective and community raising queer feminist consciousness in South Florida, tore down walls and built love bridges toward liberation. We are working in coalition with nearly two dozen groups across the country, the National Bail Out collective, to bail out Black mamas so they can spend Mother’s Day with their families and to support Black birth mothers, trans mothers, and other women who mother and are entangled in the criminal legal system and sitting in a cell because they are unable to afford bail.
Originally conceived by Mary Hooks, director of Southerners on New Ground, the national bailout day raised awareness of the human and financial costs of money bail and emphasized its impact on Black folks. Black people are more than twice as likely to be arrested and once arrested are twice as likely to be caged before trial. Hundreds of thousands of people, who have not been convicted of any crime, are locked in cages because our country has a system of money bail, in which the constitutional principle of innocent until proven guilty only applies to those with money.
When Black mothers languish in jail, our families and communities suffer. The costs are devastating: to the spirit, to their bodies, to their families, and to the communities they hold. People often face huge collateral consequences such as the loss of jobs, housing, and even children, only to be found innocent. Some women, like Sandra Bland, have lost their lives.
It is time we end the suffering of our sisters. We are taking a stand against a money bail system that tears up families and punishes Black mothers for being poor, by coming together and leveraging our collective power to set our mamas free.
(F)EMPOWER