#louisiana economic

[tanadrin]

Saw someone claim in a comments section that something like 25% of Louisiana’s GDP comes from prison labor. Which would be insane if it was true. They must be running the most technologically advanced prisons in the country. They’re using prison labor to build microchips or some shit while everybody else is still using it to make license plates.

[teachanarchy]

What Happens When the Land Runs Out? Earth's Extremes: Full Episode

[reasoningdaily]

The Brutal Economics of Who Bought Slaves

[subsidystadium]

Negotiations continue to happen in secret across the country, all without the public seeing or hearing about it

This is not going to shock anyone. Sports owners hate when their plans are released and looked at intensively by anyone. Have you ever tried to read one of them? Try taking a look at the “Potomac Yard Economic and Fiscal Impact Study” from the failed Capitals/Wizards to Alexandria, Virginia proposal. The agreements are nearly impossible to read and understand unless you read these types of…

[grunge-mermaid]

why am I, at five o’clock am in the morning, being kept awake by the memory of when I TA’d a Canadian Economic History course and spent way too much time having to write “that’s Dutch Elm Disease not Dutch Disease” on the take-home exams

[blueiight]

ldpdl, ethnicity, and the false monolith of blackness

there's this false tendency to think amc louis being made black is pandering, or a means of removing louis from his oh-so-detailed /sarcasm/ background in the books. i also find that people tend to not even understand what show louis's ethnic background is, despite rolin jones the showrunner and even the fictional louis both coalescing around this multigenerational explanation of the gens de couleur in new orleans, and how jim crow disempowered them.

I came around to his ethnicity a sort of interesting way which is through Lestat. [ … ] I was like lets give him a legitimate a third attempt at figuring how to be with somebody for the rest of his life and how to not repeat your mistakes. [ … ] I started from there so it had to be someone with some money cause he had to be with his own folks and I thought he wanted someone who could fight back and who could be a challenge and would force him to restrain himself. And nobody at AMC was interested in 7 seasons of the regretful plantation owner, so we made Louis come from a lineage that did have a plantation and did own slaves.

rolin jones in the s1 post-finale episode of the podcast names how he came to this understanding of louis's character. lestat, after failing to make a bride of his mother, and a concubine of nicki, was seeking for someone of a similar background, or the most approximate equivalent. he would not have been interested in louis if louis was an anglophone baptist black man descended from upper-south arrivals into new orleans, nor would he have been interested in louis if louis was a poor black creole honestly s1 does not give a good reading of claudia's ethnic bg in new orleans, but since she cannot understand french, we can presume shes either a poor creole removed from her cultural background with her vampiric adoption narrative in mind, or was also of an anglophone baptist black background like claudia was. louis coming from this fallen sort of gentry, the free gens de couleur, similar to that of the tvl lestat who came from this barren aristocracy dating back to the crusades, was key to lestat's long-term goals with louis.

Capital accrued from plantations of sugar and the blood of men who looked like my great grandfather but did not have his standing. But then decades of Jim Crow and the electrified light of a new century had vanquished any idea of a free man of color. - AMC IWTV 1x01

louis was of the first generations of the gens de couleur to be born, raised into, and face the institutional and personal ramifications of being viewed as black in america. this fuels much of the character's rage as he moves through storyville, trying to continue the similar modality of exploitation to the contrary of pretty baby with brooke shields, majority of the brothel circuit was statistically black girls + women being sexually pawned off to white men but ultimately failing to do so bc of the anglophone white american class that now rules over him. [tom anderson, alderman fenwick, finn o’shea starting out as louis’s subordinate then ending w/ him entering whiteness by having a sporting house throwing torches at louis’s brothel in s1e3]

By 1850, the free population of color, beset by the hostility of white supremacy, was economically diminished and residentially segregated. The Americanization of Louisiana, and in particular New Orleans, was completed before the state became the sixth to secede from the Union in 1861 in the struggle over the perpetuation of slavery. [link] The Democratic redeemers who came to power in 1877 lost no time in redefining the Negro's "place" in Louisiana life. They immediately restored the color line in the New Orleans public schools and offered silent support to de facto segregation practices in places of public accommodation. With the assistance of two landmark decisions by the United States Supreme Court, the redeemers soon dismantled the egalitarian legal apparatus put together piece by piece under the Radicals. Finally in 1890 they began to write their "final solution" into Louisiana law with a series of "separate but equal" statutes. Soon New Orleans Negroes were again segregated in virtually every public pursuit. [link]

[mariacallous]

Some prominent conservative lawmakers and commentators are advocating for ending no-fault divorce, laws that exist in all 50 US states and allow a person to end a marriage without having to prove a spouse did something wrong, like commit adultery or domestic violence.

The socially conservative, and often religious, rightwing opponents of such divorce laws are arguing that the practice deprives people – mostly men – of due process and hurt families, and by extension, society. Republican lawmakers in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas have discussed eliminating or increasing restrictions on no-fault marriage laws.

Defenders of the laws, which states started passing a half-century ago, see legislation and arguments to repeal them as the latest effort to restrict women’s rights – following the overturning of Roe v Wade and passage of abortion bans around the country – and say that without such protections, the country would return to an earlier era when women were often trapped in abusive marriages.

“No-fault divorce is critical to the ability, particularly the ability of women, to be able to exercise autonomy in their own relationships, in their own lives,” said Denise Lieberman, an adjunct professor at the Washington University School of Law in St Louis, who has a specialty in policies concerning gender, sexuality and sexual violence.

Before 1969, when then California Republican governor Ronald Reagan, who had been divorced, approved the country’s first no-fault divorce law, women, who are more likely to experience violence from an intimate partner, were often forced to stay in marriages. If they could not prove that their husband had been abusive or persuade him to grant a divorce, they would not be able to take any assets from the marriage or remarry, according to a study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

States around America gradually followed suit and passed similar laws allowing unilateral divorce until 2010, when New York became the last state to approve the practice.

Between 1976 and 1985, states that passed the laws saw their domestic violence rates against men and women fall by about 30%; the number of women murdered by an intimate partner declined by 10%; and female suicide rates declined by 8 to 16%.

Without such laws, “it’s hard to prove anything in court relating to a family because you don’t have any witnesses”, said Kimberly Wehle, professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. “It’s very difficult to get evidence to show abuse of children. How do you do it? Do you put your kids on the stand?”

Conservative commentators such as Matt Walsh, Steven Crowder and lawmakers such as the Republican senator JD Vance of Ohio have argued that the laws are unfair to men and hurt society because they lead to more divorces.

The divorce rate in the United States increased significantly from 1960, when it was 9.2 per 1,000 married women, to 22.6 in 1980. But by 2022, the rate had fallen to 14.5.

On the increase in divorces, Vance said in 2021: “One of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace” is the idea that “these marriages were fundamentally, you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy, and so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that’s going to make people happier in the long term”.

Beverly Willett, a writer and attorney, argues that unilateral no-fault divorce is also unconstitutional because it violates a person’s 14th amendment right to due process.

The defendant “has absolutely no recourse to say, ‘Wait a minute. I don’t want to be divorced, and I don’t think that there are grounds for divorce. I would like to be heard. I would like to call witnesses,’” said Willett, who experienced a divorce she didn’t want because she thought her marriage could be saved. “I believed in my vows” and “didn’t want to give up”.

But Willett’s argument relies on the idea that “women are either property or that somehow men’s liberty is restrained by not allowing them to stay in a marriage with someone who does not want to be married”, said Wehle, who also wrote about it in the Atlantic. “I disagree with the idea that women are somehow property interests of their husbands. That is an arcane relic of law that has no place in modern society.”

Willett responded to Wehle’s critique by writing that “nobody has suggested a return to antiquated laws of the 18th and 19th century. Considerable reform that protects women and ensures their equality in family court has been enacted since then.”

On the argument that no-fault divorce reduces domestic violence, Willett points to data that most domestic violence occurs between unmarried couples and says regardless, with “any contract, any lawsuit, you still have to follow the constitution”.

But without such laws, victims of domestic violence would then have to navigate a court system that can be time-consuming, “very adversarial and very costly” because the plaintiff often must then pay for child care and transportation, said Marium Durrani, vice-president of policy for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

“Any sort of additional barrier that we add to the ease of legal proceeding is, frankly, a nightmare and an enormous burden for survivors,” said Durrani. “I’m not trying to be an alarmist, but it can increase death [if] a survivor of domestic violence has to prove that they are being abused in a divorce proceeding.”

Still, Lieberman does not think Republicans will succeed in their efforts to make it more difficult for people to get divorced.

“I do believe that that train has left the station. I mean, we have had no-fault divorce now for 50 years,” Lieberman said. But “I didn’t think the supreme court would overturn Roe v Wade, which we had for 50 years, so I suppose we will see.”

[fatehbaz]

In 1833, Parliament finally abolished slavery in the British Caribbean, and the taxpayer payout of £20 million in “compensation” [paid by the government to slave owners] built the material, geophysical (railways, mines, factories), and imperial infrastructures of Britain [...]. Slavery and industrialization were tied by the various afterlives of slavery in the form of indentured and carceral labor that continued to enrich new emergent industrial powers [...]. Enslaved “free” African Americans predominately mined coal in the corporate use of black power or the new “industrial slavery,” [...]. The labor of the coffee - the carceral penance of the rock pile, “breaking rocks out here and keeping on the chain gang” (Nina Simone, Work Song, 1966), laying iron on the railroads - is the carceral future mobilized at plantation’s end (or the “nonevent” of emancipation). [...] [T]he racial circumscription of slavery predates and prepares the material ground for Europe and the Americas in terms of both nation and empire building - and continues to sustain it.

Text by: Kathryn Yusoff. "White Utopia/Black Inferno: Life on a Geologic Spike". e-flux Journal Issue #97. February 2019.

---

When the Haitian Revolution erupted [...], slaveholding regimes around the world grew alarmed. In response to a series of slave rebellions in its own sugar colonies, especially in Jamaica, the British Empire formally abolished slavery in the 1830s. [...] Importing indentured labor from Asia emerged as a potential way to maintain the British Empire’s sugar plantation system. In 1838 John Gladstone, father of future prime minister William E. Gladstone, arranged for the shipment of 396 South Asian workers, bound to five years of indentured labor, to his sugar estates in British Guiana. The experiment [...] inaugurated [...] "a new system of [...] [indentured servitude]," which would endure for nearly a century. [...] Desperate to regain power and authority after the war [and abolition of chattel slavery in the US], Louisiana’s wealthiest planters studied and learned from their Caribbean counterparts. [...] Thousands of Chinese workers landed in Louisiana between 1866 and 1870, recruited from the Caribbean, China and California. [...] When Congress debated excluding the Chinese from the United States in 1882, Rep. Horace F. Page of California argued that the United States could not allow the entry of “millions of cooly slaves and serfs.”

Text by: Moon-Ho Jung. "Making sugar, making 'coolies': Chinese laborers toiled alongside Black workers on 19th-century Louisiana plantations". The Conversation. 13 January 2022.

---

The durability and extensibility of plantations [...] have been tracked most especially in the contemporary United States’ prison archipelago and segregated urban areas [...], [including] “skewed life chances, limited access to health [...], premature death, incarceration [...]”. [...] [In labor arrangements there exists] a moral tie that indefinitely indebts the laborers to their master, [...] the main mechanisms reproducing the plantation system long after the abolition of slavery [...]. [G]enealogies of labor management […] have been traced […] linking different features of plantations to later economic enterprises, such as factories […] or diamond mines […] [,] chartered companies, free ports, dependencies, trusteeships [...].

Text by: Irene Peano, Marta Macedo, and Colette Le Petitcorps. "Introduction: Viewing Plantations at the Intersection of Political Ecologies and Multiple Space-Times". Global Plantations in the Modern World: Sovereignties, Ecologies, Afterlives (edited by Petitcrops, Macedo, and Peano). Published 2023.

---

Louis-Napoleon, still serving in the capacity of president of the [French] republic, threw his weight behind […] the exile of criminals as well as political dissidents. “It seems possible to me,” he declared near the end of 1850, “to render the punishment of hard labor more efficient, more moralizing, less expensive […], by using it to advance French colonization.” [...] Slavery had just been abolished in the French Empire [...]. If slavery were at an end, then the crucial question facing the colony was that of finding an alternative source of labor. During the period of the early penal colony we see this search for new slaves, not only in French Guiana, but also throughout [other European] colonies built on the plantation model.

Text by: Peter Redfield. Space in the Tropics: From Convicts to Rockets in French Guiana. 2000.

---

To control the desperate and the jobless, the authorities passed harsh new laws, a legislative program designed to quell disorder and ensure a pliant workforce for the factories. The Riot Act banned public disorder; the Combination Act made trade unions illegal; the Workhouse Act forced the poor to work; the Vagrancy Act turned joblessness into a crime. Eventually, over 220 offences could attract capital punishment - or, indeed, transportation. […] [C]onvict transportation - a system in which prisoners toiled without pay under military discipline - replicated many of the worst cruelties of slavery. […] Middle-class anti-slavery activists expressed little sympathy for Britain’s ragged and desperate, holding […] [them] responsible for their own misery. The men and women of London’s slums weren’t slaves. They were free individuals - and if they chose criminality, […] they brought their punishment on themselves. That was how Phillip [commander of the British First Fleet settlement in Australia] could decry chattel slavery while simultaneously relying on unfree labour from convicts. The experience of John Moseley, one of the eleven people of colour on the First Fleet, illustrates how, in the Australian settlement, a rhetoric of liberty accompanied a new kind of bondage. [Moseley was Black and had been a slave at a plantation in America before escaping to Britain, where he was charged with a crime and shipped to do convict labor in Australia.] […] The eventual commutation of a capital sentence to transportation meant that armed guards marched a black ex-slave, chained once more by the neck and ankles, to the Scarborough, on which he sailed to New South Wales. […] For John Moseley, the “free land” of New South Wales brought only a replication of that captivity he’d endured in Virginia. His experience was not unique. […] [T]hroughout the settlement, the old strode in, disguised as the new. [...] In the context of that widespread enthusiasm [in Australia] for the [American] South (the welcome extended to the Confederate ship Shenandoah in Melbourne in 1865 led one of its officers to conclude “the heart of colonial Britain was in our cause”), Queenslanders dreamed of building a “second Louisiana”. [...] The men did not merely adopt a lifestyle associated with New World slavery. They also relied on its techniques and its personnel. [...] Hope, for instance, acquired his sugar plants from the old slaver Thomas Scott. He hired supervisors from Jamaica and Barbados, looking for those with experience driving plantation slaves. [...] The Royal Navy’s Commander George Palmer described Lewin’s vessels as “fitted up precisely like an African slaver [...]".

Text by: Jeff Sparrow. “Friday essay: a slave state - how blackbirding in colonial Australia created a legacy of racism.” The Conversation. 4 August 2022.

[jessilynallendilla]

Charlastor/Radiobelle AlastorXCharlie

Home Post

The Taxidermist  (EX) 

It's strange how things happen sometimes. Only three words are needed to ensure that a curious person does exactly what you expect them to. These three simple words will never fail you: Don't do it. It happened. She did it. And she was too late. 

Smiling Man  (EX 387,376) 

Moving to New Orleans to start up her rehabilitation hotel for criminals hasn't been all berries for Charlie, especially if everybody thinks you're some Dumb Dora with a complete horseshit plan. And it's another jam that she's starting to get stuck on Alastor, the charming yet eccentric radio host next door who's never fully dressed without a smile. But she's all smiles too, and that's made her out to be quite the dish to Alastor - in all senses of the word - and boy, was he ready to be entertained. 

Heaven Hell and Earth (T) 

A girl born of Heaven and Earth, a boy born of Hell and Earth, two hybrids raised in a secret organization that defends mankind from paranormal dangers. Both unaware that they were prophesied to bring about the world's end even though they have spent years protecting it. Which raises the question: Who decides their fate? And will the loving bond they share with each other and those around them be able to overcome the terrible hardships they must face? 

Nightshade Manor  (M) 

Charlie Morningstar only wrote to novelist Rosie Parish, to ask for advice on writing her own book. But instead she was invited to spend a few days at the historic Nightshade Manor. An elegant but mysterious estate located in an equally mysterious town. When she arrives it isn't long before she suspects that the town hides a very big secret. That the manor is occupied by something unspeakably evil. And that the master of the household, Alastor Nightshade has certain plans for her. If she hopes to get herself and her friends out of this situation alive then she must use clues from the past and messages from the dead to break a devil's curse. But the irresistible pull of forbidden love may or may not seal her to a doomed fate. 

A Horrific Fantasy   (T) 

Once upon a time there was a lonely girl who much preferred to live in a fantasy than in reality. One day she was drawn into a world of extraordinary imagination, where anything is possible and things are not always what they seem. At first she thinks it's a dream come true but she eventually learns that a fantasy is not always sunshine and rainbows. That there is a dark, more horrific side to it that threatens her and her loved ones. Now she must use faith and her own creativity to outsmart the evil that rules this world and rely on the aid of a strange boy who only wants to give her his heart. 

The Devil Take The Hindmost   (EX) 

Alastor Doucet’s ambition drives him to summon an infernal fiend, ready to enter a binding pact in exchange for arcane powers. But the Devil he summons isn’t very interested in his soul. She is determined to find an alternative to the brutal mass extermination of her people. In a desperate bid to prove that redemption is both possible and worthwhile, she journeys to the mortal realm to redeem sinners straight from the source. This tale features dark magic, jazz, the economic crash of 1929, Louisiana, a serial-killing radio host, and the blossoming trust between two very unlikely allies during desperate times. 

Beneath The Mask (EX) SERIES 

For every trial, for every task, there is a corresponding mask. A frown, a smirk, a pout, a grin, They shield the soul contained therein. But masks and faces, and manners too, disguise the single face that’s true. The face that’s under the facade, the one the foolish, charmed and awed, profess to see, to claim to know, although they’ve never seen it show. And so they pry through charm and guile, in hopes to see what’s ‘neath that smile. However, they are unaware, that mask and face are not a pair. For those that pry soon come to find they don’t like what’s hiding behind, because the face once locked within, might not be that charming grin. And thus the wise are dread to ask to see what’s there beneath the mask. 

You’ll Never Find Me  (M) 

New Orleans - early 1920's - Right after the sunset and the moonlight shines above the city, a radio host crosses paths with a young woman who has just arrived. She seems lost and has no place to stay. The man kindly offers his help. They thought they would never see each other again, but their paths keep crossing each other's. Time makes them connect to each other, but little do they know they are more alike than they believe: Both of them have their own dark secrets, but it gets harder to hide as they keep getting closer. Maybe it's destiny, maybe it's meant to be, either way, the cards have been played and now they have to fight against the rules of both of their worlds. 

Penance  (EX) 

“I’m interviewing you to see if you’d be a potential candidate for my rehabilitation idea. If you don’t live under a rock, you’d know that Hell is overpopulated—specifically the Pride Ring with Sinner demons. And the exterminations are… brutal,” she bit out, “senseless murder… these are my people. Some of them find a new life down here, some of them start families and make friends. I want to give them the opportunity to better themselves, and find a way out of this ring. It’s not fair.” 

“Fair?” A harsh scoff from the one before her, “Darling, we’re not here to be fair.” 

Charlie is given a rather impossible task by her father in order to contact Heaven for her project—she has to redeem one of Hell's most unforgivable sinners. 

Requiem For A Mourningstar (EX) 

Paranormal Investigator Charlotte Morningstar is headed to her ancestral home to finally uncover the dark secrets her family has been hiding for generations. But past sins are not the only evils lurking on Pentagram Rock. And Charlie soon finds out there's far more hidden in the dark than she bargained for. 

Oh Deer!  (EX 23,040) SERIES 

When rutting season brings Alastor to his breaking point, he tries to hold off on his very undignified desires. As time progresses he contains himself until Charlie’s own heat cycle is thrown off by life stress. When their seasons line up, nothing good can come of it. 

The Mark Of Judgement  (M) 

In the aftermath of his battle with Adam, Alastor sustained a wound that refused to heal. With each passing day, the wound grows. With each wretched act, the mark upon his chest makes itself known. Alastor was being judged, not by Heaven or Hell, but something else. Something without a name. And so Charlie, in her infinite goodness and need to help, has put it upon herself to try and save Alastor’s soul while simultaneously running her hotel. But the mystery only deepens the further the duo dives. Questions of fate, uncertain feelings, and connections that neither expected, come to light as they grapple with ‘The Mark of Judgment.’ 

Human Hotel Field Trip   (EX  26,357) 

A slowish-burn of Charlie and Alastor taking a field trip topside for the "business experience." And end up experiencing a seismic shift in their relationship. Oh, and there's a 1920s bash at the hotel. Just to piss Alastor off. 

Sinner And Salvation  (T 83921)  

In 1930's New Orleans, Alastor Bordeaux - famous radio host and undiscovered serial killer - stumbles upon a mysterious young woman deep in the Bayou. Not a charitable man by any means, but there's more to this girl than meets the eye - a power he can use for a little problem of his own... Unfortunately for him, Charlie has absolutely no memory of who or what she is! Left to pick up the pieces of a life she doesn't remember as she recovers under the kindness of a stranger, when the past comes calling will they be able to handle it or will dark secrets doom them both? 

Under My Skin  (EX) 

The new and improved Hazbin Hotel is open for business, and with a steady flow of guests seeking redemption, Charlie couldn't be happier. But when Alastor continues to shirk his duties as the hotel's host, she has no choice but to confront him. She's shocked to find him shut away in his radio tower, slowly succumbing to his deadly angelic wound. Much to the radio demon's chagrin, she dedicates herself to his recovery. Maybe his brush with death made him sentimental. Or maybe the infection from his wound messed with his brain. Whatever the reason, Alastor finds himself not only enjoying the princess's company but yearning for it long after he's recovered. More than just her positive energy begins to creep under his skin, and as he starts to see her in a new light, he begins to question things about himself and his reasons for being at the hotel. 

I Do Ms. Malveaux  (EX) 

Caught with a corpse between his legs, infamous serial killer Alastor Malveaux agrees to marry Charlie, the canary down at Rosie's Emporium and Speakeasy. While inconvenient, it wasn't a bad idea to get hitched to the doll, especially with her dire circumstances that pushed her to marry a murderer in the first place. Yep, Alastor could have his cake and eat it too. There were absolutely no setbacks to this plan and he could live as he wanted, unattached to his pretty little wife. His wife...Ha ha! 

Your Love Is My Torment  (EX) 

Nothing was out of the ordinary on that Morning in January for the Radio Host , But after he fires his rifle at a unusual looking doe in woods , He discovers that there are things in this world that cannot be explained and now he and her are thrown together in an ever changing , twisting love story that eventually becomes their torment and the beginning of a bloody history between them both, that will follow them to hell and back again . 

If You Like Pina Coladas!  (EX) 

As a rule Alastor could not be convinced to do anything that did not benefit him. Therefore the man was struggling to understand why he had agreed to this farce. Yet here he was, on Vacation in the human world with Charlie. He wondered how he had allowed himself to be talked into this.

The Riddle Of Magic   (M) SERIES 

Alastor and Charlie have struck a deal: He’s agreed to teach her magic; but what does he get in return? Seven spells, to understand magic’s most fundamental law. If the teacher asks, the student must answer: What is the Riddle of Magic? 

Just Roll With It   (M) 

To get Adam to agree to another year before another extermination, Alastor and Charlie say they are getting married. To each other. It’s a problem, and they need to fix it…or Just Roll With It 

A Tail Of Beignets (EX) SERIES 

After finding out the extermination would be 6 months early Charlie felt she deserved an evening for feeling sorry for herself and a few bottles of wine. She told herself it was a form of self care. A mini holiday. But she didnt expect to meet Alastor making beignets in the kitchen. She also didn't realise he had a fluffy tail. 

Bernadette   (M) SERIES 

Charlie has enough of everything going bad in her life, her parents returning after yet another failure was the last straw, so she join forces with Alastor and took over, as they literally brought heaven to hell. Vaggie, alongside unlikely allies, needs to stop the tyranny they presented while surviving on the mess they created. Will she succeed? 

Bride Of The Radio Demon  (M 50,501) SERIES 

A long time ago, an Overlord by the name Alastor plunged Hell into fear because of his power. The Seven Deadly Sins were able to weaken him and made him disappear to never be seen again. Seven years later, Alastor returned more powerful than ever. The only thing that would get him to stop terrorizing Hell is a few things in return. ... Including a willing bride to marry, who just so happens to be the Princess of Hell herself, Charlie Morningstar. Can she tame and melt the heart of the Radio Demon? 

A Different Kind Of Hell  (M) 

Heaven and Hell were often cut off from one another. Word got around but otherwise there was radio silence. Until Charlie and Alastor stormed Heaven’s gates. 

The Radio Songbird  (T) 

After not surviving a car crash, Charlie Magne finds herself in Hell. Unsure what she could have done to end up there she tries to make the most of her new situation. Making a minor agreement with the menacing but friendly radio demon. Alastor finds this new sinner quite charming, and her voice even more so. He offers her a place to live in exchange for singing on his radio show. Eventually hoping to lure the young woman into a more permanent deal, wanting to keep the little songbird under his thumb. Meanwhile Lucifer finds out someone has misplaced the Princess of Hell. 

Your Sweet Radio Demon   (M) 

Unaware of his true intentions, Charlie begins to develop feelings for Alastor. This doesn’t go unnoticed by the faux affable demon, who intends to take full advantage of the situation for his nefarious purposes. Vaggie, the only one aware of his true intentions, bows to do whatever it takes to protect her. Unfortunately for Alastor, those aren’t the only players of his little game. Two people from his past have set their sights on him and intend to expose him for who he really is. Charlie might have to question if she can set aside her ideals for him and Alastor will be obligated to question whether he's willing to compromise for someone else 

Soul Bound   (M) 

Charlie Morningstar has always been a curious girl with an active imagination unlike any other kid. Unfortunately, a creative mind such as hers comes with its downsides, such as lack of common sense and naivety that would often get her into strange predicaments. Luckily she has her guardian, Alastor, who has sworn to always protect her from harm for as long as she lives, but in exchange she must give her soul to him on the dawn of her 18th birthday to ensure they will be tied together for eternity. As she grows up, she begins to feel stronger feelings towards her protector. But the mysterious "friend" of hers raises concerns for her parents, who start to wonder if this imaginary friend she's made up is more than what she says... 

Fantasies Unwind (T) 

A collection of Charlastor works that explore other universes and fairy tales 

All It Takes  (M) 

Sometimes, all it takes is a moment, a single reckless choice... When Charlie, with the help of her friends, decides to throw a party to support her struggling hotel, little does she know that nothing will ever be the same. A few weeks later, her life takes a dramatic turn as she finds herself pregnant. The problem? No one remembers what happened that fateful night.Caught in the tangled web of her own choices, Charlie must confront her parents, her girlfriend Vaggie, and the judgmental eyes of everyone in Hell. How will she handle taking care of the Hazbin Hotel and a child? And who is this mysterious man claiming to be the father? Amidst the chaos and tangled relationships, Charlie learns that sometimes, to find happiness, one need not chase the rainbows but simply open their eyes to the world around them. 

A Lamb Astray  (NR) 

With his daughter on the lamb Lucifer couldn't exactly send the best Angels he had. Instead he's got some of the worst Sinners out trying to shepherd her home. Of course, what is simple in theory is seldom the same in practice especially when one shepherd is more a wolf in masquerade than anything else. 

Kiss Me Through The Radio  (NR) 

A Series of Charlastor stories that I couldn't turn into full length fics. Enjoy the musings of my mind and prompts from my friends! 

The Vacation From Hell   (T) 

The plan was simple: indulge the Princess of Hell in a little trip to a ‘human hotel,’ then sit back and enjoy her suffering once she realized what a farce hers truly was. That was how it was supposed to go anyway. Unfortunately for Alastor, Fate had other plans. 

I’ve Got No Strings On Me   (T 1,244) 

Charlie quietly unstitches Alastor's smile after freeing him from his deal 

Darling  (EX) 

When Alastor made a deal with Charlie Morningstar, he knew it was a chance for him to ascend the ranks. Now that it's been weeks since the events of the extermination battle, Alastor decides it's time to collect...what he didn't expect was to slowly fall for the Princess of Hell. But hey, a deal's, a deal. 

Appetites  (EX) 

Charlie and Alastor have just recently established a relationship that is now more than just business partners. Now that their relationship is out in the open, the two of them begin to have several intimate and sexual in counters in various places of the Hotel... when they should be working. 

A Wolf Wears Red  (EX) 

We all know the story of Little Red Riding Hood. But what if the wolf was the one wearing red? In that case who would be the wolf, and who is their prey? 

A Distant Memory  (EX  4,049) 

Alastor remembers the one and only being he had ever connected with but he had forgotten her and when he remembered.... It was too late 

Blood Sweat And Tears (English Version)  (EX) 

Alesteir Doucet, or as he likes to introduce himself: Alastor, is a criminal on the verge of execution. On the other hand, in Nazi Germany, a blonde young girl has been summoned from a portal of an occult research squad. The stories of Charlotte, the princess of hell, summoned by the Nazis, and Alastor will mixed in the years leading up to WWII. 

Firsts  (G 6,911) 

Charlie is planning Dawn's first birthday. Alastor thinks it's silly, she's only one! 

In Another Life  (T 20,044) 

It's 1932, Alastor Barrios is a radio host, known as "The Radio Demon" in New Orleans. He leads a pretty normal life, aside from the killing, cannibalism and hunting. He develops a routine: wake up, hunt, eat, go to work, go to the speakeasy for a drink, go home, repeat and he's sick of it. That all changes, however, when he goes to the speakeasy and hears Mimzy's newest singer. Everyone in Hell wonders how Charlotte Magne is so...cheery. She doesn't act like the rest of them. For her, that means she barely has any friends and the ones she does she never sees. Earth is her only chance of escape, and if she has to be up there, she's going to perform and she's going to have a great time doing it as the Devil From Heaven. 

The Golden Haired Demoness  (NR 1,525) 

And Alastor couldn’t help but find her absolutely breathtaking when she was covered in blood. A deep hunger in him awoke at the sight of her porcelain skin being smeared with the red thick liquid. It didn’t help that she loved to sing occasionally when they were out hunting as well. Her beautiful voice filling his ears and heart as he’d stop and stare at the tall demoness twirl around in the dead of night, without a care in the world. Or Alastor tries to summon a demon and is surprise to see that he had summoned the princess of hell herself. 

Something Unspoken  (M 4,075) 

Alastor and Charlie have to make major adjustments to their lives after a spell gone wrong. Perhaps it's not all bad as somethings come to light... 

A Small Interruption   (G 571) SERIES 

St. Peter just ruined a moment between the young seraphim and her secret lover 

Obsess With Her Soul  (M) 

Her soul is like a human's: soft, caring, extremely gentle and sweet. Alastor could have been wandering around all his eternity in Hell, but he'd be damned if he wouldn't try to get her for his own personal purposes, which later would no longer make any sense. 

All Of Creation   (T 727) 

He didn’t ask, all those months ago. Charlie just leaned on him, slowly approaching to give him the choice. She kissed him. And he let her. 

Final Farewell   (G 7,367) 

As Alastor gets redeemed it is time to say goodbye to Charlie. What is she supposed to do when everyone she held dear is gone? 

Like A Lamb To Slaughter   (EX) 

In seeking to deny a prophecy already written, four kings of creation inadvertently create their very demise. Now a vessel for an imprisoned god Charlie must foster a flock and guide them. But will it be in the ways of the one she serves or will she take a different path? 

Eden (M 3,119)

Charlie has no memory of her past life. Alastor, on the other hand, does.

Unexpected Happenings (M)

Alastor Nightengale, the famous Radio Host is hardly the charming man everyone believes him to be. Talking up a storm into his mic during the day and hacking innocent individuals to bits in the night.... Content with how entertaining things are he couldn't even fathom the possibility of a pawn coming so easily into his hands but this, Charlie fellow is unlike anyone he's ever known...what makes her so special? She could be used but something didn't feel quite right. When they meet again in hell, that something deepens.

Dearest Little Pet (EX)

‘Interesting...’ he mused, ‘A flicker. How long can I play with her before she cracks? It’s been a while since I had a pet to play with.’ Alastor and Charlie begin their work together and the Radio Demon has found a new toy to play with while the hopeful sinners they treat bumble around. Little does he know, he may be falling into his own emotional trap as well. Denial can be a terrible thing.

The Last Petal (M)

It was the chipper year of 1933. Alastor was in his mid 20's, being a typical radio host by day..but by night he was up to no good. Due to his newfound passion for the kill, Charlie whom was in hell wanted to intervene, sure she didn't have to but she had nothing better to do due to her old project failing on her. With her own power (and her father allowing her); she Left hell and went to earth..to possibly stop Alastor and help him to ensure his redemption and ticket into heaven. She was no angel, but being the daughter of a fallen one is all it took.

To Love And To Let Go (G 1,964)

Alistair, a radio host from New Orleans with a dark past must accept the sad hand dealt to him; and find a way to keep the one he loves safe.

Push And Pull (T)

It was just business. Or at least, that's what this arrangement was supposed to be.

Radio Demon May Cry (M)

After suffering a shameful defeat at the hands of Adam. Alastor was forced to flee and recover his strength. In his pain and isolation he contemplated about a few things that has happened in his afterlife, and realized two absolute truths: that he needed more power and that Charlie is very important to him. So the question now is, how can The Radio Demon hope to protect the one he cherishes the most if he can’t even protect himself?

[whencyclopedia]

This map illustrates the geo-political situation in North America after The Louisiana Purchase - the 1803 acquisition by the United States of 828,000 square miles (2,144,000 square km) of French territory west of the Mississippi River. By doubling the size of the United States, The Louisiana Purchase set the stage for aggressive westward expansion and transformed the nation’s economic and political...

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

On a clear, hot summer afternoon along the Bogue Chitto creek at Walker’s Bridge Water Park in southern Mississippi, Noah Devros dives into the murky water with a flashlight and cheap plastic dive mask. He emerges holding a small turtle.

Devros is a graduate student and researcher from the University of Southern Mississippi, and he’s working to tag and inventory the Pearl River map turtle, which in July was listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. The rule effectively makes it illegal to harm the animals in any way.

Armed with these new protections, this turtle could be the catalyst for halting a huge and controversial engineering project upriver in Jackson, Mississippi, known locally as “One Lake.”

Devros weighs and tags the map turtle before placing her back into the sand.  

“They’re really charismatic,” said Devros, adding that the species is important to the local ecology; they eat invasive clams and clean the water by consuming algae. 

The Pearl River map turtle, named after the one place it calls home and the maplike details on its back, relies on the running waters of the Pearl River basin in Mississippi and Louisiana to eat, nest and live. 

But upstream, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has put forward a plan to reduce flooding from the Pearl River in Jackson. The plan—one of four flood-control proposals being considered by the agency—would dredge and widen a section of the Pearl and build a new dam across the river, creating an artificial lake spanning roughly 1,700 acres.

Scientists and environmental groups warn that One Lake would be devastating for the map turtle, flooding beaches the species depends on for nest-building and wiping out food sources along the Pearl’s riverbed. Critics also say the project could have far-reaching economic impacts beyond Jackson, threatening tourism and other industries downstream.

[tomorrowusa]

The Republican war against women continues.

In addition to reproductive freedom, MAGA Republicans are now seeking to get rid of no-fault divorce.

Conservative US lawmakers are pushing for an end to no-fault divorce

Some prominent conservative lawmakers and commentators are advocating for ending no-fault divorce, laws that exist in all 50 US states and allow a person to end a marriage without having to prove a spouse did something wrong, like commit adultery or domestic violence. The socially conservative, and often religious, rightwing opponents of such divorce laws are arguing that the practice deprives people – mostly men – of due process and hurt families, and by extension, society. Republican lawmakers in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas have discussed eliminating or increasing restrictions on no-fault marriage laws.

Religious fundamentalist MAGA males want to be able to point the finger of blame at women in divorce cases. And by packing the courts with misogynist judges along the lines of Alito and Thomas, it will be women who will usually end up on the losing side.

Today's GOP superficially professes loyalty to the memory of Ronald Reagan. But in addition to their idolization of the Evil Empire, this is another way they are trying to nullify his legacy.

Before 1969, when the then California Republican governor, Ronald Reagan, who had been divorced, approved the country’s first no-fault divorce law, women, who are more likely to experience violence from an intimate partner, were often forced to stay in marriages. If they could not prove that their husband had been abusive or persuade him to grant a divorce, they would not be able to take any assets from the marriage or remarry, according to a study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. States around America gradually followed suit and passed similar laws allowing unilateral divorce until 2010, when New York became the last state to approve the practice.

Getting rid of domestic violence laws could be next on the Republican fundamentalist agenda. Putin did this in Russia – another reason why the MAGA crowd loves Putin.

Between 1976 and 1985, states that passed the laws saw their domestic violence rates against men and women fall by about 30%; the number of women murdered by an intimate partner declined by 10%; and female suicide rates declined by 8 to 16%. Without such laws, “it’s hard to prove anything in court relating to a family because you don’t have any witnesses”, said Kimberly Wehle, professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. “It’s very difficult to get evidence to show abuse of children. How do you do it? Do you put your kids on the stand?”

Republicans want to socially return the country to the 1950s when women were in the kitchen, gays were in the closet, and blacks were out of sight. They would ultimately want to turn the clock back to the 1650s when women were little better than chattel slaves.

[familyabolisher]

hello ave ! i was wondering if you’ve watched the 2022 interview with the vampire series and if so what you thought of it

i really enjoyed iwtv! i haven’t read rice’s novel but as far as i understand it, the show was a pretty significant departure from the original text, at least where rice’s engagement with race is concerned—i think the show seems pretty determined to strike out on its own, and thus far seems to be doing a pretty good job of that. i think what i found most interesting was the show’s honing in on a relationship between the coercive enforcement of normative kinship structures and the social abjection of the slave relative to the white master (i’ve been reading vincent woodard’s the delectable negro which expounds on this idea of like, rape + abuse + consumption extant within models of kinship relations, ‘the ideological infrastructure of childhood in slavery’ as he puts it, which i think has a lot of explanatory power around lestat/louis/claudia…); there’s lestat’s ‘teaching’ vampirism to louis which of course then morphs into physical abuse & that the text makes clear can be read parallel to a relationship between a slavemaster and a slave, and there’s the way lestat functions as a patriarch relative to whom we can read louis as the ‘wife’ and claudia as the ‘child,’ and the networks of [physical, economic, emotional] dependency, violence holding them all together.

i’m also quite interested in this idea of a ‘disciplined’ vampirism, or indeed vampirism as ‘disciplining’ (which is of course to say class-enforcing), because of course the dominant cultural narrative of the vampire (& the one with which i have the most familiarity) is that of a kind of nondifferentiated alterity which can be moulded into any number of metaphors. lestat to louis, of course, but also eg. lestat killing the opera singer who performed badly, the opulence of the mardi gras ball at the end (and something about consumption as disciplining—again tapping the vincent woodard sign but the mardi gras attendees coveting a kind of consumption of louis as a Black man only to then themselves be consumed), louis in 2021 comparing vampires who eat humans rather than animals to slaves (‘slaves to their appetites’ or similar, i forget the exact wording used, but it’s the language of body fascism plus the obvious pertinence with which slavery in the show as a whole is imbued—which ofc then invokes ideas around [un]disciplined bodies and racialisation) … it’s interesting how the show kind of plays both positions at once. the alterity metaphor is there, but so is the hegemony of sorts—vampirism disrupts louis’ position within a traditional family structure where vampirism stands for queerness, obviously, but also the intrusion of lestat (which is to say both queerness and slavery!) as a force that destabilises a Black family. it’s an interesting little balancing act and i’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.

anyway i also just think it’s a well-written show lol! visually gorgeous, erotic, indulgent, well-paced. i had a good time. no idea what happens next (again, haven’t read the book) but my ears pricked up at the idea of travelling from louisiana to europe … a transatlantic crossing, a reverse colonisation of sorts … there’s a lot you can do with that!

[alice-after-dark]

Rosie Bennett's Finishing School for Young Ladies - Why, When We Do Our Darkest Deeds, Do We Tell?

Inspired by @hiemaldesirae's fem!RadioStatic content and his Hazbin Institution for Homicide Practitioners AU (at least the idea of these two in a school setting).

This is the inspiration for the school uniform.

Takes place during the late 1920s.

Soon enough exams are over and the much anticipated winter break has begun. Alison gazes out the window of the library, enjoying the fresh snowfall and the quiet. Most students wouldn't fathom staying at the school over break, but Alison loves it. Plenty of solitude and quality time with Rosie.

It is late afternoon. She should start heading towards the dining hall, she decides.

The snow crunches under her boots as she crosses the campus. Snow blows about her. There is a storm coming. She can empathize. The storm inside her is getting stronger by the day, the itch under her skin is almost unbearable. She has to do something about it soon or she fears she will lose her mind and do something reckless and stupid.

Once at the dining hall, she wastes no time in grabbing an apron and setting to work. Contrary to popular belief, Alison excels in most of her classes, home economics especially. She prides herself on her cooking, passed down to her by her mother. Of course, her Creole dishes are often looked down on as improper and low class, but she doesn't care. It isn't her fault if most of these students (and even the teachers) have never had anything with actual flavor in their entire lives. She pities them really.

It's about an hour later that the doors open and Vivian sweeps into the dining hall in all her magnificent glory. Alison admits she is fascinated by the woman. For all her excellent acting skills, Alison knows danger when she sees it, has learned to sense it from her years running about the Louisiana bayou. Vivian is a true wolf hiding in the delicate skin of a doe, beautiful and dangerous like a poisonous flower. The woman knows the power she holds and wields it with practiced expertise. She may play the sweet and charming school darling to the masses of the student body, but Alison knows there is something darker there. She recalls the young woman on that night, covered in blood with hardly suppressed rage lurking in her eyes.

Alison wants to devour her whole.

"You're cooking?" Vivian questions as she lays her coat and scarf over one of the chairs. There are snowflakes melting in her hair, making her sparkle in the lamp light. Her cheeks are flushed from the cold. Alison focuses on the task at hand.

"Rosie allowed it. I thought it was hardly fair for Mrs. Abernathy to be stuck here all break too so I offered to cook dinners so she can leave early. She'll still be here for breakfast and lunch."

"You seem very close with Mrs. Bennett."

"I like to think so. She is a very dear friend."

Rosie is in fact the reason she is here right now and not stuck in some other stuffy school. Rosie is the reason for many things. Alison recalls those hot months spent in the upper class woman's summer home, her subtle instruction on how to be a proper lady, how to charm those around you, how to avoid suspicion. She taught Alison how to hide in plain sight, how to observe those around her, and what signs to look for. Rosie is the reason she hasn't gone mad...or been caught.

"What are you making?" Vivian interrupts her thoughts.

"Jambalaya," she answers. "My mother's recipe. It's almost finished if you want to sit. I'll be out in just a minute."

Vivian nods and soon Alison joins her at the table, placing a bowl in front of her before starting in on her own meal. Mrs. Abernathy's cooking is certainly good, but it's nothing like the taste of home.

Vivian takes a bite and puts a hand to her mouth, blushing prettily. "This is so good!"

Alison's smile reaches her eyes. "Thank you. My mother was a very good cook." She watches Vivian press another bite of meat past her painted lips and Alison swallows in time with her. Watching her like this, she could almost believe Vivian is as innocent as she appears.

The talk is light as they eat. Vivian helps with the dishes and they walk back to their dorm together. The itch is still present, but it has been sated for now and Alison's mind is currently distracted by the pretty thing beside her.

That was yet another thing Rosie had helped her with. When all the other girls were fussing over boys, Alison just...hadn't seen the appeal. She'd questioned Rosie about it and the woman had listen to her with grace and understanding and Alison had come away with the knowledge that, not only did she in fact prefer women to men, but she also experienced desire differently than most. She didn't completely lack desire, it was just more complicated for her.

And apparently her complicated nature had decided that Vivian, the stunningly beautiful and popular school darling, heiress to the Haynes' fortune, and regal bitch with the skill and talent to back it up, was exactly what she wanted.

Lovely.

[killed-by-choice]

FACT: Banning abortion dramatically reduces the rate of abortion— and the number of women dying from abortion

Restrictive state-level abortion policies are associated with not having an abortion at all. Calculated to account for the rate of criminal/illegal abortions.

“Women who lived in a state where abortion access was low were more likely than women living in a state with greater access to use highly effective contraceptives rather than no method” Not only are abortion rates lower where abortions are illegal, but unwanted pregnancy rates too. People are more careful. (From the Guttmacher Institute, former statistics arm of Planned Parenthood.) https://www.guttmacher.org/journals/psrh/2015/05/state-abortion-context-and-us-womens-contraceptive-choices-1995-2010

29% of Medicaid eligible pregnant women who would have an abortion with Medicaid coverage, instead give birth. Calculated to account for the rate of criminal/illegal abortions. https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-019-0775-5

Analysis of statewide data from the three States indicated that following restrictions on State funding of abortions, the proportion of reported pregnancies resulting in births, rather than in abortions, increased in all three States. Calculated to account for the rate of criminal/illegal abortions. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1580169/pdf/pubhealthrep00193-0013.pdf

Approximately one-fourth of women who would have Medicaid-funded abortions instead give birth when this funding is unavailable … Studies have found little evidence that lack of Medicaid funding has resulted in illegal abortions. Calculated to account for the rate of criminal/illegal abortions.

We find that a 100-mile increase in distance to the nearest clinic is associated with 30.7 percent fewer abortions and 3.2 percent more births. Calculated to account for the rate of criminal/illegal abortions.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pam.22263

rate of abortion is found to be lower in states where access to providers is reduced and state policies are restrictive. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9099567/

A wait time as short as 72 hours is enough to start decreasing abortion rates. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1049386716300603

Abortion decreased after being restricted: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4050978/

Michigan banned Medicaid from paying for abortion. Abortion rates dropped. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8135922/

The farther away a woman is from an abortion facility, the less likely she is to get one: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2134397?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Some restrictions were enacted in Eastern Europe in the 80s and 90s. The rates of abortion AND pregnancy rates both decreased.

Fetal development information and required waiting periods lead to less abortion:

A study in Louisiana and Maryland found that laws against abortion were effective at stopping abortions

Countries with abortion bans also have dramatically lower maternal mortality compared to other countries in the region with dangerously permissive abortion laws.

“Contrary to the notion proposing a negative impact of restrictive abortion laws on maternal health, the abortion mortality ratio did not increase after the abortion ban in Chile. Rather, it decreased over 96 percent.”

Mexican states that ban and restrict abortion have better MMR than permissive states: “Over the 10-year period, states with less permissive abortion legislation exhibited lower Maternal Mortality Rates than more permissive states.”

Poland bans all abortion except LotM and has the world’s lowest MMR (2/100000). Malta bans almost all abortions and has MMR of 6/100000

It also works in reverse. Multiple countries have seen an increase in MMR after legalizing abortion.

Guyana legalized abortion and achieved the worst MMR on the continent. (Compare that to Chile, which has constitutional protections for the unborn and an MMR that dropped by over 96% AFTER abortion was banned.)

Ethiopia legalized abortion and it made MMR worse: “Although abortion was not legalised on demand, it was legalised on broad socio-economic grounds: the Center for Reproductive Rights place it in the same category as the UK and Finland which, while not strictly allowing abortion on demand, do allow something close to that in practice.” … “Over the period of legalisation, the proportion of women with septic shock more than doubled, with the same result for organ failure. The proportion admitted to intensive care nearly tripled. Between 2008 and 2014, the percentage of women receiving post-abortion care who have severe complications increased by over 50%, from 7% to 11%. During this time, the proportion of women presenting with organ failure quadrupled, the proportion with peritonitis quintupled, and the proportion with shock nearly doubled.”

Ireland’s once-stellar MMR also increased after legalizing abortion. (Compare to Poland and Malta with almost total bans and to the UK where abortion is essentially legal in demand up to the second trimester.)

The pattern repeats in Asia. Nepal, where there is no restriction on abortion, has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates. (The lowest in the region is Sri Lanka, with a rate fourteen times lower than Nepal and very good restrictions on abortion.)

In addition, less people are being lured into abortion under the false impression that it’s “safe and legal”. If any of them die of illegal abortion, it’s because they knowingly committed a crime. There will no longer be cases like 17-year-old Roselle Owens, Sarah Dunn, Tonya Reaves and Cree Erwin-Sheppard (to name a few) who were killed by abortion because they were lied to about the risks.

[lotus-flower-writes-history]

The Unofficial Black History Book

Huey P. Newton (1942-1989)

'The Revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.' - Huey Newton

This is his story.

Huey Percy Newton was born on February 17th, 1942, in Monroe, Louisiana. The youngest of seven children to Armelia Johnson and Walter Newton, he was named after former Governor of Louisiana, Huey Long.

His family relocated to Oakland, California, in search of better economic opportunities in 1945. His family struggled financially and frequently relocated, but he never went hungry or homeless.

Growing up in Oakland, Newton recalled his white teachers making him feel ashamed for being African-American, despite never being taught anything useful. In his Autobiography, ‘Revolutionary Suicide’, he wrote – “Was made to feel ashamed of being black. During those long years in Oakland Public Schools, I did not have one teacher who taught me anything relevant to my own life or experience. Not one instructor ever awoke in me a desire to learn more or to question or to explore the worlds of literature, science, and history. All they did was try to rob me of the sense of my own uniqueness and worth, and in the process nearly killed my urge to inquire.” 

He also had a troubled childhood; he was arrested several times as a teenager for gun possession and vandalism.

Huey was illiterate when he graduated from high school, but he taught himself to read and write by studying poetry before enrolling at Merritt College. 

During his time there, he supported himself by breaking into homes in Oakland and Berkeley Hills and committing other minor offenses. He also attended Oakland College and San Francisco Law School, ostensibly to improve his criminal skills.

He joined Pi Beta Sigma Fraternity while still a student at Merritt College and met Bobby Seale, a political activist and engineer. Huey also fought for curriculum diversification, the hiring of more black instructors, and involvement in local political activities in the Bay Area. 

In addition, he was exposed to a rising tide of Black Nationalism and briefly joined the Afro-American Association, where he studied Frantz Fanon, Che Guevara, Mao Zedong, E. Franklin Frazier, James Baldwin, Karl Marx, and Vladimir Lenin.

Huey had adopted a Marxist/Leninist viewpoint in which he saw the black community as an internal colony ruled by outside forces such as white businessmen, City Hall, and the police. In October 1966, he and Bobby Seale founded The Black Panther Party for self-defense, believing that the black working class needed to seize control of the institutions that most affected their community.

It was a coin toss that resulted in Newton becoming defense minister and Seale becoming chairman of the Black Panther Party. Newton’s job as the Minister of Defense and main leader of the Black Panther Party was to write in the Ten-Point Program, the founding document of the Party, and he demanded that blacks need the “Power to determine the destiny of our Black Community”. It would allow blacks to gain “Land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace.”

The Panthers took advantage of a California law allowing people to carry non-concealed weapons and established armed patrols that monitored police activity in the Black Community. 

One of the main points of focus for the Black Panther Party was the right to self-defense. Newton believed and preached that sometimes violence, or even the threat of violence, is required to achieve one's goals. 

Members of the Black Panther Party once stormed the California Legislature while fully armed in order to protest the outcome of a gun bill.

Newton also established the Free Breakfast for Children Program, martial arts training for teenagers, and educational programs for children from low-income families. 

The Black Panthers believed that in the Black struggle for justice, violence or the potential for violence may be necessary.

 The Black Panthers had chapters in several major cities and over 2,000 members. Members became involved in several shoot-outs after being harassed by police.

On October 28, 1967, the Panthers and the police exchanged gunfire in Oakland. Huey was injured in the crossfire, and while recovering in the hospital, he was charged with killing an Oakland police officer, John Frey. 

He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter the following year.

Huey was regarded as a political prisoner, and the Panthers organized a 'Free Huey' campaign led by Panther Party Minister Eldridge Cleaver. And Charles R. Geary, a well-known attorney who was in charge of Newton’s legal defense.

Newton was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter in 1968 and sentenced to 2-15 years in prison. However, the California Appellate Court ordered a new trial in May 1970. The conviction was reversed on appeal, the case was dismissed by the California Supreme Court, and Huey was acquitted.

Huey renounced political violence after being released from prison. Over a six-year period, 24 Black Panther members were killed in gunfights with the police. Another member, George Jackson, was killed in August 1971 while serving time in San Quentin Prison.

The Black Panther Party, under the leadership of Newton, gained international support. This was most evident in 1970 when Newton was invited to visit China. Large crowds greeted him enthusiastically, holding copies of "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung," as well as signs supporting the Panther Party and criticizing US imperialism.

In the early 1970s, Newton's leadership of the Black Panther Party contributed to its demise. He oversaw a number of purges of Party members, the most famous of which was in 1971 when he expelled Eldridge Cleaver in what became known as the Newton-Cleaver split over the party's primary function.

Newton wanted the party to be solely focused on serving African-American communities, whereas Cleaver believed the party should be focused on developing relationships with international revolutionary movements. The schism resulted in violence between the factions and the deaths of several Black Panther members. The Black Guerrilla Family (BGF) was one of several factions that had broken away from the main party.

Then, in 1974, Newton was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old prostitute named Kathleen Smith, who later died, raising the charge to murder. Instead of facing trial, Huey fled to Cuba with his girlfriend at the time, where he remained for three years. The key witness in the trial was Crystal Gray. And three Black Panther members attempted to assassinate her before she gave her testimony.

Huey returned to the States in 1976 to stand trial but denied any involvement. The jury was deadlocked, and Newton was eventually acquitted after two mistrials.

In 1978, he enrolled in the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and earned his Doctorate in 1980.

"War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America," his dissertation, was later turned into a book.

On charges of embezzling Panther Party funds, Huey P. Newton was sentenced to 6 months in prison followed by 18 months on probation in 1982.

On August 22, 1989, Newton was assassinated by a member of the BGF, named Tyrone Robinson.

Huey was 46 years old at the time of his assassination. Robinson was convicted of Huey’s murder in 1991 and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison. 

His wife, Fredricka Newton, carried on his legacy. 'Revolutionary Suicide,' his autobiography, was first published in 1973 and then republished in 1995.

Huey Newton was not perfect, but he did fight to protect the rights of the Black Community. The rights that we're still fighting for today.

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