This month marks the forty-year anniversary since revolutionary journalist and political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal was sentenced to life in prison, sparking the Free Mumia movement and continued calls to repair America’s broken justice system.

Now the Philadelphia community is mourning the death of political activist and former political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz, who passed away last week at age 78 after a brief battle with cancer.

How have figures like Mumia and Shoatz continued to be important for Black liberation and prison abolition movements? Today, Karma Chávez guest hosts a wide-ranging conversation with historian Heather Ann Thompson about policing, mass incarceration, and why overhauling the criminal justice system is the civil rights issue of our time.

Cover photo: Alcatraz, San Francisco by Emiliano Bar on Unsplash

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