African Americans have traveled a long, turbulent path in this county. Almost 11 million of our ancestors were kidnapped and enslaved in the Americas, and that shameful institution set the stage for centuries of racialized discrimination and inequality that we have yet to dismantle.
Accordingly, a word—a call, really—that has resounded throughout our history is that of “freedom.” It was what we sought during our enslavement. It was what we fought for in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. It is why we organized, marched, sat down and stood up for our civil rights more than 50 years ago. And it is what we continue to fight for in this era of mass incarceration that has disproportionately imprisoned Black Americans, ushering in what Michelle Alexander calls “The New Jim Crow.”
As someone who spent decades behind bars, freedom is a particularly poignant concept. At one time it felt like an unattainable dream—at the age of 17, I was sentenced to mandatory life without the possibility of parole and thought I would never know freedom again. Thankfully, I was resentenced and released in 2017 because of a United States Supreme Court ruling in Montgomery v. Louisiana that invalidated my sentence. But while I feel fortunate to be free, freedom is not without its challenges.
[For more on this story by Kenrya Rankin, go to https://www.colorlines.com/art...ressure-valve-op-ed?]
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