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Dear Progressive Reader,

U.S. President Donald Trump was in the Persian Gulf region over the past several days making deals ([link removed]) (as he likes to do) and accepting gifts ([link removed]) (which he likes even better). Meanwhile, back at home, his attempts to deport immigrants ([link removed]) without trial and to eliminate “birthright citizenship ([link removed]) ” seem to be experiencing significant pushback in the courts. But in typical Trump fashion, as he tries to push out one set of immigrants, the Trump Administration chose to welcome ([link removed]) another—white South Africans who claimed persecution from their popularly elected Black majority government. And, at
the same time, in something that almost sounds like a story from the Onion ([link removed]) , the Department of Homeland Security is currently reviewing ([link removed]) a pitch for a “reality TV” program where immigrants would compete for U.S. citizenship. Perhaps something like The Hunger Games ([link removed]) meets The Island ([link removed]) ?

This week on our website, incarcerated writer Rashon Venable pens an op-ed on the lack of due process given to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who remains in a prison in El Salvador in spite of court orders ([link removed]) for the administration to bring him back to the United States. “The denial of due process to asylum seekers and the banishment of American prisoners should concern us all because it won’t stop there,” writes ([link removed]) Venable. “Once the proverbial floodgates are opened, others will be next.” Also, Andrew Holter, whose new book ([link removed]) of the writings of Murray Kempton (a number of Kempton’s writings appeared in The Progressive in the 1950s and early 1960s), relates ([link removed]) how the
journalist responded to Trump in the late 1980s noting, “Kempton recognized that envy and hatred were the two operative elements of Trump’s appeal.” Plus, Mary Jo McConahay covers ([link removed]) the first days of the new Chicago-born Pope; Bill Lueders reviews ([link removed]) the new book by Judy Karofsky about end-of-life care; and Sarah Lindstrom Johnson opines ([link removed]) on the threats to funding that helps keep schools safe. In addition, for our Public Schools Advocate ([link removed]) program, Marium Zahra looks at ([link removed]) the experiences of students of color with police officers in
schools; Sarah Lahm reviews ([link removed]) a new documentary film about community members organizing against book bans; and Carol Burris of the Network for Public Education examines ([link removed]) a pending case in the U.S. Supreme Court about charter schools.

Also, Nyki Duda’s story ([link removed]) about the eightieth anniversary of the end of an anti-fascist war and its lessons for today was featured this week in the monthly newsletter from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA). ALBA is the organization that keeps alive ([link removed]) the memory and lessons of the first U.S. volunteers to fight against fascism in Spain in the 1930s. Earlier this month I was able to attend their annual human rights award ceremony in New York City.

Our Hidden History of the United States ([link removed]) calendar notes that Thursday marked the fifty-fifth anniversary of the tragic killings of demonstrators and others at Jackson State University in Mississippi. Police repression on U.S. campuses had been increasing over the previous decade—moving from the use of campus security, to city police forces, to National Guard troops—from the “free speech ([link removed]) ” fights on the University of California, Berkeley, in the fall of 1964; to the famous demonstration ([link removed]) against Dow Chemical recruiters on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in October 1967; to the tragic murder ([link removed]) s ([link removed]) of four students
by National Guard troops on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio. But the killings at Jackson State, just less than two weeks after Kent, have received much less recognition ([link removed]) . Two students were killed ([link removed]) (one of whom was a high school student) and twelve more wounded. All of the victims were Black. As The New York Times reported ([link removed]) at the time, “Not a window was left unbroken on the narrow end of the building that faces Lynch Street, where an estimated total of forty state highway patrolmen lined up and fired with shot guns from a distance of thirty to fifty feet.” Although a grand jury was convened
([link removed]) to investigate the shootings, no members of law enforcement were ever convicted or punished for the incident.

Today, as campus protests against the ongoing war on Gaza continue to be ([link removed]) cracked down upon ([link removed]) by universities and colleges, and U.S. President Donald Trump issues an Executive Order ([link removed]) to “strengthen and unleash law enforcement,” it is important to remember the history of courageous student protests against unpopular government policies and actions, and to support and protect their Constitutional right ([link removed]) to free speech and peaceful assembly.

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S. - If you are in Madison, Wisconsin, next Thursday, The Progressive, together with Wisconsin Humanities, will be hosting a screening at the Barrymore Theatre ([link removed]) of the new documentary film When Rubber Hit the Road which tells the story ([link removed]) of the Uniroyal tire plant abandoning the community where it had been for seventy-five years. The film tells the story of a Midwestern community responding to industrial decline. It was funded in part by a Wisconsin Humanities grant and the organization’s funding is now under threat ([link removed]) from the Trump Administration. When Rubber Hit the Road will also be ([link removed]) airing
([link removed]) on PBS Wisconsin (whose funding, through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is also under threat from a Trump Executive Order). If you are able to join us ([link removed]) on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m., several speakers—including journalist John Nichols and the filmmakers B.J. Hollars and Steve Dayton—will be on hand to introduce the evening.

P.P.S. – If you like this newsletter, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you know someone who would like to subscribe to this free weekly email, please share this link: [link removed].

P.P.P.S. – The NEW April/May issue ([link removed]) is out! If you don’t already subscribe to The Progressive in print or digital form, please consider doing so today ([link removed]) . Also, if you have a friend or relative who you feel should hear from the many voices for progressive change within our pages, please consider giving a gift subscription ([link removed]) .

P.P.P.P.S. – Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated to support The Progressive! We need you now more than ever. If you have not done so already, please take a moment to support hard-hitting, independent reporting on issues that matter to you. Your donation today will keep us on solid ground and will help us continue to grow in the coming years. You can use the wallet envelope in the current issue of the magazine, or click on the “Donate” button below to join your fellow progressives in sustaining The Progressive as a voice for peace, social justice, and the common good.
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