INDEX

Abbott, Greg, 51

abolition: Civil War era, 8–10; as a creative process, 12, 136; eradication/removal components, 11–12; impacts, 126; raising abolitionist children, 119–23; reading list, 93; self-liberation, 9; world-building goal, 12. See also Black Freedom Movement; freedom; police abolition; prison abolition

“Abolition” (Asili), 6

Adorno, Theodor, 33

advertising industry, 75–76, 121, 126

agency/empowerment: education and, x–xi, 91, 99, 116; moral courage, self-respect, 8, 15–18, 50–51, 83, 88, 111; as necessary for freedom, 83; self-respect, 88; truth-telling, 56, 91; working for change, 4, 7, 15–18, 95–96. See also collective power; education

Albright, Madeleine, 73

Alexander, Michelle, 134

Alim, Malik, ix–x

Allen, James, 90

America: American dream myth, 126–27; exceptionalism myth, 73, 127; excuses for use of force, 73; foundational enslavement and genocide, 70, 72–73; foundational lawlessness, 68; honest origin story for, 68–70. See also capitalism; US government; violence; white supremacy

anarchism, collectivist/socialist, 51–52, 123. See also participatory democracy

Anderson, Jourdan, 80–81

Anderson, Marian, 4

the Anthropocene, 59–60, 83

Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (Walker), 89

Arendt, Hannah, 59

art/creativity: and courage, 91, 161; and imagining freedom, 3–5, 91–92; pain from, 92; role in expanding the imagination, 25–26. See also freedom dreams; imagination; poetry

Asili, Taína, 6, 12

authoritarianism, 2, 44–45, 71

Bakunin, Mikhail, 51

Baldwin, James: on America’s history, 121; “A Talk to Teachers,” 90; on truth-telling, 69; on white supremacy, 73

Barracoon (Hurston), 80

Beckett, Samuel, 55

Benito Cereno (Melville), 33–35

Bittman, Mark, 40

BJ’s Kids, 125–26

Black Codes, 129

Black Freedom Movement, x, 2, 3–5, 94, 122, 129

Blackmun, Harry, 128–29

The Black Panther Party: Vanguard of the Revolution (film, Nelson), 16–17

Black Panthers, 16–17, 19, 124

Black Reconstruction in America (Du Bois), 68–69

book banning, 88–89, 94–95

Boudin, Chesa Jackson Golbert, 124

Boudin, Kathy, 124–25

“Boy Breaking Glass” (Brooks), 86

Bradbury, Ray, 51

“Bread and Roses” (Oppenheim), 47

Brecht, Bertolt, 64

Brooks, Gwendolyn, 74, 86, 92

The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky), 65–66, 107

Bundy, Cliven, 31

capitalism, racial: abolishing, 25–26; and climate collapse, 21; colonial exploitation, 54–55, 102; dependence on land theft and the slave trade, 68; myths about, 58–59, 127; as predatory, 23, 55

Carawan, Guy, 3

Carmichael, Stokely, 97

Chaney, James, 37, 94

change-making: as basis for freedom, 7; building from the bottom, 10–11; clarifying values, 110; failing better, 55, 122–24; and moving from “me” to “we,” 109–11; radical, processes involved in, 56–57. See also collective power

Char, Rene, 17–18, 21, 24

chattel slavery: as basis for abolition, 9–12; grappling with, 67–68; inherent violence, 18; legacy of, 73; literacy and, 89; and the prison-industrial complex, 135; repair and reparations for, 80–81; willful blindness about, 40, 69–70. See also abolition; reparations

Chicago: activism in, 112, 121; complexity of, 44–45, 87; Democratic Party Convention, 1968, 15, 112; Indigenous communities of, xiii; inequities in, 87, 95

children. See education; the family “citizenship curriculum,” 98–99

climate collapse, 21, 39, 70

Cobb, Charlie, 20, 93–94

collective power, x–xi, 8, 29–31, 33, 46, 49, 52, 56–57, 60–61, 92, 103, 116, 122, 128, 130, 134. See also freedom struggles; society (collective social order)

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki (Murakami), 57–58

“Como Tú” (“Like You,” Dalton), 63–64

community-building. See collective power

Cooper, Amy, 31

copaganda, CopagandaWatch, 132–34

courage: authentic, examples, 110–13; and creativity, 91, 161; as a moral value, 111–12; nurturing/applauding, 87, 120; and the power of action, 113; risk-taking, 15–16, 90–91, 96, 110; and wide-scale change, 110; and the will to act, 41

The Courage to Be Free (DeSantis), 88

“crawl spaces” (Gillen), 7

creativity. See art/creativity; imagination

Dalton, Roque, 63–64

Davis Angela, 128, 134

Debs, Eugene V., 83

Democratic Party Convention, 1968, 15

DeSantis, Ron, 2, 51, 88

dialogic truth, 77

Dickens, Charles, 24

Dickinson, Emily, 26, 91–92

Diop, David, 90

Dohrn, Bernardine, 125, 134, 135

Dohrn, Malik Cochise, 124–25

Dohrn, Zayd Osceola, 124–25

Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 65–66

Douglass, Frederick: ability to adapt, 11–12; literacy, 89; moral compass, 9–10; resistance by, personal impacts, 15–17; on slavery, 21; vision, 24

Dove, Rita, 26–29, 33

Du Bois, W. E. B., 68–69

Du Sable, Jean Baptiste Point, xiv

education: academic freedom, 95–96; addressing needs of the marginalized, 95; authentic, characteristics, 99–104; “citizenship curriculum,” 98–99; diverse approaches to, 92–93; and effective organizing, 6–7, 115–17; as a human right, 88–91, 93; interpreting the world, 110; popular, importance to freedom movements, 6–7; raising children to be abolitionists, 119–23; self-education, 91; and studying/teaching freedom, 91–97; teachers’ roles, 86; teaching in prison, 104–7

Einstein, Albert, 25

Espada, Martín, 13–14

Evans, Danielle, 122

Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury), 51

fairness, importance, 52, 122–23, 125–26

the family, 126–27

fascism, 17, 23, 44, 75

food security, assuring, 36, 38–40, 60, 122, 130

forensic truth, 77

freedom: as a concept, ix, 3, 5, 7; false, extreme individualism, 36–41; fear of, 50–51; freedom from vs. freedom with, 36–37; as a gift/responsibility, 8, 66–67; personal, paradoxical nature of, 57; recognizing interconnections, 46, 99; social institutions that foster, 87–88; systemic injustice, 58–59; as a term, 1. See also freedom struggles

freedom dreams, x, 3–5, 15, 24–25, 46, 50, 55, 84

Freedom Dreams (Kelley), 80–81

Freedom Libraries, 94

“Freedom Now!” 3

Freedom Schools, x, 93–97, 129 Mississippi Freedom Schools, 93–97. See also

Freedom Singers, 3–4

freedom struggles: community/ collective actions, 8, 29–30, 33, 110–11; effective organizing, 115–17; as a long-term journey, 11–12, 54–55, 97, 106–7; and moral courage, 110–13; soundtracks associated with, 3–6; strategy, 113–14; tactics, 114–15. See also education; police abolition; prison abolition

Freeman, Roland, 16

Freire, Paulo, 6–7, 97–98

Galeano, Eduardo, 25

Galileo, 65

Galileo (Brecht), 64

Geras, Norman, 38

Gilbert, David, 124

Gillen, Jay, 7

Gilmore, Ruth Wilson, 128, 134, 136

Giuliani, Rudy, 72

Glezos, Manolis, 48–51, 57

Golding, William, 52–53

Gonzalez, Juan, 91

Goodman, Andrew, 37, 94

“The Grand Inquisitor” (Dostoevsky), 65–66

Greene, Maxine, 17, 25, 92

Haitian Revolution, 9–10

Hall, Tracie D., 94–95

Hampton, Fred, 19

Harney, Stefano, 12

Hayes, Kelly, 7

Hirshfield, June, x

history: historical truth, xiv, 10, 78–79; making, 11–12; recognizing, acknowledging, 1–2, 8–9; vastness and diversity of, 120. See also education; freedom struggles

Hudson, Renaldo, 106–7, 128

Hughes, Langston, xi, 3, 7–8

human beings: Anthropocene age, 59–60; capacity for imagination, 24–25, 34; and the dialectic of individual vs. society, 36; embracing humanism, 81–84; importance of relationship to, 71; objectification of, 84; recognizing individual complexity of, 84, 86; recognizing individual value of, 99–100; recognizing uniqueness and commonalities of, 33–36; simultaneous uniqueness and commonality of, 32–36; solidarity among, 74. See also freedom dreams; imagination

humanism, xi, 81–84

Hurston, Zora Neale, 80

imagination: fostering, 102; radical, 11–12, 87; as tool for resisting unfreedom, 24–26, 45–46, 53, 83–84, 111, 128, 134; unleashing, 91–96

imperialism, recognizing as an unfreedom, 21

imprisonment, and raising kids, 125

incarceration. See mass incarceration

Individual Freedom Act (Florida), 88–89

individualism, extreme: manifestations, 37–39; me-ness, narcissism, 40–44; mutual indifference and cruelty, 38; and the “Reagan Revolution,” 37; toxic, 30–32, 46, 52; US as a world-leader in, 128

interrogating the world, 52, 88, 94, 97

Jabbar, Abdul, 104

Jackson, George, 124

January 6 uprising, 74

Jim Crow, 73, 95–96, 128, 134

Jordan, June, 119

justice system, 18–19. See also mass incarceration; police abolition; prison abolition

Kaba, Mariame, 24, 128

Karakatsanis, Alec, 132

Kelley, Robin D. G., 80–81

Kim, Alice, 128

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 4, 8, 19–20, 89, 99–100, 112

Kissinger, Henry, 74

Kitihawa, xiv

Kossola (Cudjo Lewis), 80

“Lady Freedom Among Us” (Dove), 26–29, 33

land theft, xiv, 22–23, 68

language, power of, 3, 25, 72, 82, 97, 126

Lazarus, Emma, 28–29

Lee, Lisa, 33, 77

Lewis, John, 4

Lincoln, Abraham, 8–10, 81

Lord of the Flies (Golding), 52–53

L’Ouverture, Toussaint, 9

Malcolm X, 112, 124

March on Washington, 1963, 4

Marx, Karl, 109; on the sources of capital, 68

mass incarceration: “mitigating circumstances,” 106–7; numbers imprisoned, 134; tactics for ending, 114–15; as an unfreedom, 22, 128; US as a world leader in, 128, 130. See also police abolition; prison abolition

Meiners, Erica, 128, 134

Melville, Herman, 33–35

militarism/military spending, 20, 22, 57, 83, 122, 128, 136

Minter, Judi, 121

Mississippi Freedom School. See Freedom Schools

moral courage. See courage

Morello, Tommy, 12

Moten, Fred, 12, 15

Mubarak, Muhammad, 16

Murakami, Haruki, 57–58

Muse, Daphne, 121

music. See Freedom Singers

Musu Do Aljube, Lisbon, 135–36

naming, honoring through, 124

Nelson, Stanley, 16–17

“The New Colossus” (Lazarus), 28–29

Newsroom (TV show, Sorkin), 127–28

At Night All Blood Is Black (Diop), 90

Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids (Oe), 53

nonviolence, 18–20

Oe, Kenzaburo, 53–54

The Office of Historical Corrections (Evans), 122

Oliver, Mary, 2

Oppenheim, James, 47

organizing, effective, 54, 96–97, 114–17, 120

OxyContin, 18–19

Parker, Gil, 16

Parks, Rosa, 109, 113, 124

participatory democracy: characteristics, 52; choosing the path to freedom, 55–56; Glezos’s examples, 49; “me”/”we” tension, 36, 39, 42–46; the need for truth, repair, and reconciliation, 75; possibilities of, 60–61; role of the teacher, 86; and ruling by consensus, 49; skepticism about, 56

patriotism, 70–74

Pharr, Wayne, 16–17, 21, 24

Pitt, William Rivers, 55–56

“Poem Number Two on Bell’s Theorem, or The New Physicality of Long Distance Love” (Jordan), 119

poetry, power of, x–xi, 63–64, 114. See also art/creativity; imagination

police abolition, 131–34

Pompeo, Mike, 89–90

prison abolition: changes needed for, 56–57; imagining, 135–36; logic of, 128; steps for moving towards, 130–31; working collectively toward, 134. See also mass incarceration

property crimes, 132–33

Purdue Pharma, 18–19

questioning. See interrogating the world

racial capitalism, 23

Reagan, Ronald, 37–38

refugees, 90–91

repair: as an alternative to incarceration, 130, 134; authentic, 30; as a requirement for reconciliation, 79–80; Sherman’s “forty acres and a mule” promise, 82, 126. See also reparations

reparations, 10, 23, 30, 80–81, 102, 112

restorative truth, 78

retribution, revenge, 10, 128

Richards, BJ, 121

Richie, Beth, 128, 134

Riley, Boots, 45

Rukeyser, Muriel, 57

Saramago, Jose, 70

Sartre, Jean-Paul, 66–67

Saunders, George, 44–45

Schenwar, Maya, 120

school shootings, 75

Schwerner, Mickey, 37, 94

settler colonialism, xiii, 22, 68, 75

Sherman, William Tecumseh, 82

Simone, Nina, 8, 110

slavery. See chattel slavery

SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), 3–4, 50, 93–94, 97

society (collective social order): reinforcing the existing order, 86–87; vs. toxic individualism, 37–40; and white supremacy, 31

Sorkin, Aaron, 127–28

Sorry to Bother You (film, Riley), 45

“Starry Messenger” (Galileo), 65

Sterling, Donald, 32

Stewart, Sylvester (Sly and the Family Stone), 35

Stovall, Dave, 115

strategy, 113–14

structural inequities/racism, xi, 16, 19, 30–32, 39, 59, 91, 94, 100

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. See SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)

tactics, 114–15

“A Talk to Teachers” (Baldwin), 90

teaching. See education theocracy, 87

Thindawa, James, 135–36

This Nonviolent Stuff’lll Get You Killed (Cobb), 20

Thoreau, Henry David, 15

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph, 78

Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), South Africa, 80

truth-telling: historical truth, 78; importance of, 68–70, 73, 109; and manipulating truth, 75–76; and reconciliation, 79–80; revolutionary nature of, 64–65; and science, 76–77; types of

truth, 77–78

Tubman, Harriet, 9, 18

Twain, Mark, 41–42

Under the Tree: A Seminar on Freedom (podcast), ix–x

unfreedom: defining freedom using, 3, 89; identifying, 15, 20–22, 30, 91; importance of education for getting to roots of, 91; and misuse of the term “freedom,” 89; resisting, 15–18, 24; structural, implications of, 30. See also education

US government: emphasis on the individual, 30; and the interchangeability of democracy and domination, 74; militarism, 19–20, 22, 75, 83, 128; National Defense Authorization Act (2023), ix

Viet Thanh Nguyen, 3

violence: vs. nonviolence, as a false dichotomy, 18–20; public-health frame for, 131; settler colonialism, xiii, 9, 83; structural racism, 16, 19, 94, 100. See also mass incarceration

wage slavery, 45–46

wage theft, 132–33

Walker, David, 89

Wesby, Robert, 85

white supremacy: and mass incarceration, 128; recognizing as an unfreedom, 21–23; as the theme of Benito Cereno, 33–35; willful blindness about, 31–32, 69–70. See also chattel slavery; structural inequities/racism

Whitman, Walt, x–xi

Without Sanctuary (Allen), 90

woke, as a term, 88

“Woke Up This Morning with My Mind Stayed on Freedom” (Wesby), 85

Woodfox, Albert, 112, 128

Wordsworth, William, 9

Worstward Ho (Beckett), 55

Writing Our Lives class, 104–5

Zhou Enlai, 78