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Scott Sisters Released From
Prison
Jan 08, 2011 Gladys and Jamie Scott were released
from prison Friday morning after serving 16 years behind bars. They have
maintained their innocence but it was a grassroots movement that helped them
gain their freedom.
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They have waited for 16 years to be
able to utter these words. "We're free, we're free," Jamie and Gladys
Scott said.
As they left the Central Mississippi
Correctional Facility in Rankin County Jamie and Gladys Scott prepared for
their first day of freedom since they were 21 and 19 years old. They talked
with national and local media and thanked supporters from around the
country, including their mother who lives in Pensacola, Florida.
"No I never gave up, I got real tired,
but I never gave up." At Gloria's Kitchen they were welcomed like
celebrities. Many of the rallies and plans to fight for the Scotts' freedom
were organized here. "Thank you God. I'm feeling good. I thank all y'all,"
said Jamie Scott. "How y'all doing. Blessed, blessed," Gladys Scott said.—WLBT
Jamie & Gladys Scott with Chokwe
Lumumba, attorney for the Scott
Sisters |
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Jailed sisters say they're not
bitter
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Mother of Scott
Sisters Discusses Their Release
Wednesday December 29, 2010,
Mississippi Gov. Haley
Barbour announced that he is suspending indefinitely the sentences of
Jamie and Gladys Scott, African-American sisters who have been in a
Mississippi Prison since 1994 on armed robbery charges. Despite neither
sister having a criminal record, the two were convicted on the words of
three teenage boys who confessed to the crime and received reduced sentences
in exchange for testifying against the sisters.
Jamie and Gladys were ages 22 and 20 respectively at the time of conviction
and each was sentenced to double life with no chance of parole for 20 years.
No one was physically injured during the crime, and the boys who handled the
gun and walked off with the $11 stolen, were released years ago. The sisters
have maintained their innocence, but whether you believe they are guilty or
not, most people concede, after hearing of their sentences, that Mississippi
treated the Scott Sisters unjustly. And while supporters are overjoyed at
Gov. Barbour
decision to free the sisters, the victory for many seems bittersweet. Jamie
has been on dialysis for the last year and one condition of her sister
Gladys's release, said Gov. Barbour, is that she donate a kidney to Jamie as
soon as possible.
Nordette Adams talks to their mother, Evelyn Rasco, who now lives in
Pensacola Florida about their impending release. Mrs. Rasco, with the help
of advocate Nancy Lockhart, has worked tirelessly for her daughters' freedom
since their conviction. As would be expected, she, too, is overjoyed that
after 16 years, her daughters will come home. In addition, the interviewer
discusses with Mrs. Rasco the poor quality of treatment Jamie received while
in prison, including sometimes not being given her blood pressure medication
as part of her punishment. Both diabetes and high blood pressure can damage
kidneys.—Bigsole
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Governor Suspends
Scott Sisters' Sentences
Gladys Scott To Donate Kidney To Jamie Scott
JACKSON, Miss.—Gov.
Haley Barbourr on Wednesday suspended the double life sentences of
sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott, who were convicted in 1994 in connection
with a robbery.
“To date, the sisters have served 16
years of their sentences and are eligible for parole in 2014. Jamie Scott
requires regular dialysis, and her sister has offered to donate one of her
kidneys to her," Barbour said in a statement. "The Mississippi Department of
Corrections believes the sisters no longer pose a threat to society. Their
incarceration is no longer necessary for public safety or rehabilitation,
and Jamie Scott’s medical condition creates a substantial cost to the State
of Mississippi."
Barbour said the Mississippi Parole
Board reviewed the sisters' case and recommended that he neither pardon them
nor commute their sentences.
“At my request, the Parole Board
subsequently reviewed whether the sisters should be granted an indefinite
suspension of sentence, which is tantamount to parole, and have concurred
with my decision to suspend their sentences indefinitely," Barbour said.
“Gladys Scott’s release is conditioned on her donating one of her kidney to
her sister, a procedure which should be scheduled with urgency."
Barbour said the release date for Jamie
and Gladys Scott is a matter for the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
In September, nearly 200 people rallied at the state Capitol asking Barbour
to release the sisters.
According to court records, the Scott
sisters were found guilty of luring two men down a road near Forest, where
three young assailants used a shotgun to rob the men. The Scott sisters had
exhausted all of their appeals.—WAPT
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Free the Scott Sisters!!!
Author of The New
Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
Applauds the Work of
Gray-Haired Witnesses
WASHINGTON, June 9—Gray-Haired
Witnesses for Justice
News—Author and legal scholar,
Michelle Alexander, has taken
time from her current national
book tour to strongly endorse
the June 21, 2010
Gray-Haired Witnesses for
Justice in DC and
their mission in a statement to
their web editor and founding
member,
Marpessa Kupendua. In her
new book this brave and
insightful legal scholar and
civil rights advocate argues
that although Jim Crow laws have
been eliminated, the racial
caste system it set up was not
eradicated. It’s simply been
redesigned, and now racial
control functions through the
criminal justice system. In her
support of the Gray-haired
Witnesses for Justice movement,
Ms. Alexander wrote:
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With extraordinary
vision and courage,
and in the tradition
of Ida B. Wells and
countless other
women who have stood
for justice in the
face of severe
racial oppression,
the
Gray-Haired
Witnesses for
Justice are
calling attention to
the harm caused by
America's latest
caste system: mass
incarceration. Women
of color are the
fastest growing
group of the prison
population today and
the Gray Haired
Witnesses for
Justice are shining
a bright light on
the racial bias and
cruelty of our
criminal justice
system. All
Americans who care
about justice should
join them in their
campaign to free the
Scott sisters, who
have been sentenced
to die in prison for
an extremely minor,
non-violent offense.
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In a February, 2010 article
which appeared in the
HuffingtonPost, she wrote,
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The clock has been
turned back on
racial progress in
America, though
scarcely anyone
seems to notice. All
eyes are fixed on
people like Barack
Obama and Oprah
Winfrey who have
defied the odds and
achieved great
power, wealth and
fame. |
In referencing the focus of the
Gray-Haired Witnesses on the
case of the Scott Sisters, she
had this to say,
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The double life
sentences imposed on
the Scott sisters
for an alleged
robbery in
Mississippi netting
little more than $11
is a glaring example
of a criminal
justice system that
is no longer much
concerned with
justice. No one was
hurt or injured, and
these women have no
prior offenses. No
other Western
democracy subjects
its own people to
such draconian
punishment for minor
crimes. And no other
country in the world
incarcerates such a
large percentage of
its racial and
ethnic minorities.
This is Jim Crow
justice, alive and
well today. I urge
all those of
conscience to
support the Scott
sisters and the
thousands of other
prisoners who find
themselves in
similar shoes.
Sadly, the Scott
sisters are not
alone. The Gray
Haired Witnesses for
Justice are standing
up for all those
suffering needlessly
behind bars and we
must join them. If
we fail to act,
history will judge
us harshly. |
Michelle Alexander is the author
of
The New Jim Crow:
Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
Her book is taking the nation by
storm, especially by major news
analysts and commentators in
examining issues of race bearing
upon the era of the Obama
administration. Ms. Alexander is
a rising legal star who presents
a bold and innovative argument
that mass incarceration amounts
to a devastating system of
racial control.
On June 21, 2010, the
Gray-Haired Witnesses will
commence a Fast at the
Department of Justice in a 10:00
a.m. formal appeal to Eric
Holder, rejoin at the White
House at Noon with a press
conference and formal appeal to
President Obama, and then
continue at Lafayette Square
Park from 1PM until 9PM for the
duration of the fast with
speakers, live performances and
artists. They are calling on all
people of good will to join them
on that day and demand justice
for the Scott Sisters and an end
to the oversentencing,
degradation and dehumanization
of Black women in this system
and nation as a whole.
Contacts: B.J. Janice
Peak-Graham / Marpessa Kupendua
1- 866-968-1188, Ext. 2
ghwitnesses@gmail.com / http://www.grayhairedwitnesses.blogspot.com/
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Scott
Sisters Rally Highlights
Rally in
Mississippi on behalf of the
Scott Sisters, Jamie and Gladys
Scott falsely imprisoned for
double life sentences each for
the alleged theft of $11.
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Gray-Haired Witnesses for
Justice
We want to raise the political
consciousness of the nation
while standing as the moral soul
of the nation. We assume this
posture because we are bridgers
and remnants. Many of us lived
through segregation and worked
to dismantle it through various
movements for human dignity,
equal rights and justice. We now
see a coalition of corporate,
cultural and political wars
fully embracing a White
supremacist culture of
domination and terrorism. They
use their power and resources to
lock down-out and up people of
color, especially Black people.
They seek to weaken our defenses
and power to resist by attacking
the strongholds that carried us
through enslavement,
segregation, and Northern
oppression.
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Gray-Haired Witnesses for Justice
/
Modern Day Lynching of the Scott
Sisters of Mississippi /
Free The Scott Sisters
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Dear Friends:
We also have some specific challenges we are asking for
help with, if you are able or can refer us to someone:
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1. We need help with
a sound system on
that day, one that
can accommodate a
small band, with a
generator. We also
need a 1' to 2'
riser, so anyone
that could donate
those items to us
from 12noon until
8:30 pm that day
would be fantastic.
2. The family
members of the MS
Scott Sisters are
struggling mightily
to be there on that
day and are trying
to fundraise for a
bus. If you have
people in that area
who may be
affiliated with a
church or
organization (such
as the RNA) that may
have a vehicle that
can be rented to
them, that would be
fantastic. They want
to bring supporters
from MS with them
and they plan to
leave Sunday, arrive
by Monday morning
(21 June) and then
turn around and go
back home
immediately after
the rally ends at
9pm.
3. We need help with
local press and
getting our flyers
out wherever our
people are at.
PLEASE help us with
this, even if you
post them at places
that have bulletin
boards and maybe a
few at sandwich
shops or anywhere
our people are at.
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Please DO participate and I look forward to hearing from
you just as soon as you are able. Please visit our
website for our complete materials, thank you very, very
much.
Warmly and with gratitude,
Sis. Marpessa -
http://www.grayhairedwitnesses.blogspot.com/
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‘So Utterly Inhumane’—By Bob Herbert—October 12, 2010—You have to
believe that somebody really had it in for the Scott sisters, Jamie and
Gladys. They have always insisted that they had nothing to do with a robbery
that occurred near the small town of Forest, Miss., on Christmas Eve in
1993. It was not the kind of crime to cause a stir. No one was hurt and
perhaps $11 was taken.
Jamie was 21 at the time and Gladys
just 19. But what has happened to them takes your breath away. They were
convicted by a jury and handed the most draconian sentences imaginable—short
of the death penalty. Each was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in
state prison, and they have been imprisoned ever since. Jamie is now 38 and
seriously ill. Both of her kidneys have failed. Gladys is 36.
This is Mississippi we’re talking
about, a place that in many ways has not advanced much beyond the Middle
Ages.— NYTimes
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The Mississippi Pardons—By By Bob Herbert—October 15, 2010—Supporters
of the Scott sisters, including their attorney, Chokwe Lumumba, and Ben
Jealous of the N.A.A.C.P., have asked Governor Barbour to intervene, to use
his executive power to free the women from prison.
A spokeswoman for the governor told me he has referred the matter to the
state’s parole board. Under Mississippi law, the governor does not have to
follow the recommendation of the board. He is free to act on his own. With
Jamie Scott seriously ill (her sister and others have offered to donate a
kidney for a transplant), the governor should move with dispatch.
The women’s mother, Evelyn Rasco, told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson,
Miss.: “I wish they would just hurry up and let them out. I hope that is
where it is leading to. That would be the only justified thing to do.”
An affidavit submitted to the governor on behalf of the Scott sisters says:
“Jamie and Gladys Scott respectfully pray that they each be granted a pardon
or clemency of their sentences on the grounds that their sentences were too
severe and they have been incarcerated for too long. If not released, Jamie
Scott will probably die in prison.”— NYTimes
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Michelle Alexander: US Prisons, The New Jim Crow
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Word, Image, and the New Negro
By
Anne Carroll
The
author's analysis of how the illustrations
amplify and create tension with the writing
and how they empower and sometimes
disempower their subjects is the first
critical work in this important area.
Generously illustrated. Highly recommended.—
Choice
In
tracing the formation of the idea of the New
Negro through the vital interplay of
literature, art, and social criticism,
Word, Image, and the New Negro
makes a superb contribution to scholarship
on the Harlem Renaissance, the history of
African American publishing, and modern
American culture.—Eric
J. Sundquist, author of
To Wake the Nations: Race in the Making of
American Literature |
 |
The first detailed comparative analysis of the mix
of text and illustration in the major African
American magazines and anthologies of the 1910s and
1920s. It is a major advance in our understanding of
what amounted to innovative collage forms
articulated to race and politics. Carefully
theorized and rich with persuasive readings, the
book should appeal not only to literary scholars but
also to anyone interested in modernity and the
little magazine.—Cary
Nelson, author of
Revolutionary Memory
A very welcome contribution to the contemporary
rethinking of the period. By calling our attention
to the images that consistently and significantly
appeared alongside some of the well-remembered texts
of the Harlem Renaissance, Carroll foregrounds the
very modernity that the New Negro Movement sought
self-consciously to embrace.... Carroll's eye for
the particular will have both a helpful and
inspiring effect on readers who want to continue
building on the work she has done here.—Net
Reviews
This book focuses on the collaborative illustrated
volumes published during the Harlem Renaissance, in
which African Americans used written and visual
texts to shape ideas about themselves and to
redefine African American identity. Anne Elizabeth
Carroll argues that these volumes show how
participants in the movement engaged in the
processes of representation and identity formation
in sophisticated and largely successful ways. Though
they have received little scholarly attention, these
volumes constitute an important aspect of the
cultural production of the Harlem Renaissance.
Word, Image, and the New Negro marks the
beginning of a long-overdue recovery of this legacy
and points the way to a greater understanding of the
potential of texts to influence social change.—amazon.com
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Spectres of 1919: Class and Nation in the
Making of the New Negro
By
Barbara Foley
A carefully argued,
nuanced presentation of the genesis of the
Harlem Renaissance. Foley's breadth of
knowledge in American radical history is
impressive.—American
Literature
Foley's book is a lucid
and useful one... A heavyweight
intervention, it prompts significant
rethinking of the ideological and
representational strategies structuring the
era.—Journal
of American Studies
Foley
does a masterful job of analyzing the racial
and political theories of a wide range of
black and white figures, from the radical
Left to the racist Right... Students of
African American political and cultural
history in the early twentieth century
cannot ignore this book. Essential.—Choice
In our
current time of crisis, when ruling classes
busily promote nationalism and racism to
conceal the class nature of their
inter-imperialist rivalries, one can only
hope that readers will not be daunted by
Foley's dedication to analyzing the
ideological milieu of the 1920s that
contributed to the eclipse of New Negro
radicalism by New Negro nationalism.—Science
& Society |
With the New
Negro movement and the Harlem Renaissance, the 1920s
was a landmark decade in African American political
and cultural history, characterized by an upsurge in
racial awareness and artistic creativity. In
Spectres of 1919 Barbara Foley traces the
origins of this revolutionary era to the turbulent
year 1919, identifying the events and trends in
American society that spurred the black community to
action and examining the forms that action took as
it evolved.
Unlike prior
studies of the Harlem Renaissance, which see 1919 as
significant mostly because of the geographic migrations
of blacks to the North, Spectres of 1919 looks at
that year as the political crucible from which the
radicalism of the 1920s emerged. Foley draws from a
wealth of primary sources, taking a bold new approach to
the origins of African American radicalism and adding
nuance and complexity to the understanding of a
fascinating and vibrant era.— amazon.com
 |
Panel on Literary Criticism
26 March 2010
National Black Writers Conference
Patrick Oliver, Kalamu ya Salaam,
Dorothea Smartt, Frank Wilderson discuss
the use of literature to promote
political causes and instigate change
and transformation. The event is at the
Medgar Evers College at the City
University of New York.
C-Span Archives
Panel on Politics and Satire
26 March 2010
National Black Writers Conference
Herb Boyd, Thomas Bradshaw, Charles
Edison and Major Owens discuss how
current events are reflected in the
writings of African Americans. The
event is at the Medgar Evers College at
the City University of New York.
C-Span Archives |
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
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posted 10
June 2010 |
