On Monday evening, I got a call from my friend Jesse who had been down at Occupy Boston earlier in the day. Mayor Menino and Boston Police were telling the protestors that they could not stay at the second camp they’d started a block away from the original Dewy Square site, on the Rose Kennedy [...]
Earlier This Week at Occupy Boston
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 14. Oct, 2011 in boston, civil liberties, class and poverty, friends, local politics, massachusetts, photo, photography, slideshow, video
47th Annual Mississippi Civil Rights Martyrs Memorial Service, Conference and Caravan
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 18. Jun, 2011 in civil rights movement, friends, mississippi, neshoba murders, photo, race and racism
Today and tomorrow in Neshoba County, MS is the annual memorial for James Chaney, Michael Schewerner, Andrew Goodman, and all civil rights era racial murder victims. I first attended in 2005. It is an important, meaningful event that is also an opportunity to meet and listen to famous Civil Rights Movement veterans and many unsung heroes [...]
Breaking: Grand Jury Begins Hearing Testimony in Frank Morris Murder Case
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 09. Feb, 2011 in breaking news, civil rights cold case project, frank morris case, friends, louisiana, race and racism
Today Stanley Nelson reports: The Concordia Parish Grand Jury began hearing testimony Tuesday concerning the 1964 murder of Ferriday shoe shop owner Frank Morris. Witnesses were seen entering the courthouse to appear before the panel which is looking into the 46-year-old murder. Neither federal nor local authorities would comment on the Grand Jury. The U.S. [...]
Lolita’s Family Photos
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 05. Feb, 2011 in boston, friends, katrina, louisiana, massachusetts, MS Gulf Coast, nola, photo, photography, race and racism, video
Check out this video about my friend Lolita’s quest for her family photographs. (DDFRtv visits Lolita Parker Jr @ Boston from Digital Diaspora Family Reunion on Vimeo.) What the video does not fully explain is that Lolita is herself a professional photographer. Though we’re both from Boston, I met Lolita in Turkey Creek, MS at Derrick [...]
Watch Night Services (from the Archives)
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 31. Dec, 2010 in civil rights movement, friends, marsha joyner, race and racism
Back in the relatively early days of this blog, my friend Marsha Joyner guest posted a wonderful reflection on Watch Night Services in African-American culture. I still get a lot of search engine traffic to it every year around this time. If you haven’t read it before, I invite you to read the whole thing. [...]
Why DDoS Attacks for Wikileaks Are Not Civil Disobedience
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 17. Dec, 2010 in civil liberties, civil rights, civil rights movement, friends, photo, race and racism, Weblogs, women and feminism
In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust. [...]
Photos and Video from Honk! 2010
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 14. Oct, 2010 in friends, massachusetts, Music, new york, photography, video, video blogging
10/17 UPDATE: I’ve started scanning my film from Honk. I’ll be adding all the film photos to this Flickr set over the next few weeks. 10/16 UPDATE: My third batch of Honk! 2010 photos is online. 10/15 UPDATE #2: There’s a nice article by Danielle Dreilinger in today’s Boston Globe, “A look back at Honk! [...]
Arizona Police Officer Says SB 1070 Violates the Constitution
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 24. Jul, 2010 in arizona, breaking news, civil rights, friends, health, human rights, immigrants, video, women and feminism
Over at Cure This my Twitter friend los anjalis blogged this video of Phoenix, Arizona police officer Paul Dobson talking about his opposition to SB 1070. “This law is – pure and simple – a racist law,” Dobson says. Thanks to los anjalis for also transcribing important portions of Officer Dobson’s statement: So under SB1070 [...]
Prison-Based Gerrymandering Ends in Delaware
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 07. Jul, 2010 in civil rights, film, friends, new york, prisons, video, voting rights
Got this happy news in my inbox today, from the Prison Policy Initiative, about an important victory in the movement to end prison-based gerry mandering: On June 30, the Delaware Senate passed a bill ensuring that incarcerated persons will be counted as residents of their home addresses when new state and local legislative districts are [...]
Edgar Ray Killen Says God Will Get You (If You Helped Put Him Away)
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 01. Mar, 2010 in breaking news, civil rights cold case project, civil rights movement, clip, friends, mississippi, neshoba murders, race and racism
[I'm honored to have collaborated with Jerry Mitchell on this article appearing on page 1 of today's Jackson Clarion-Ledger. —BG] Killen claims God is on his side Lawsuit filed last week alleges civil rights violations Jerry Mitchell and Ben Greenberg The Clarion-Ledger March 1, 2010 Convicted Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen says there wasn’t enough [...]
Only in Hawaii: Tsunami 2010
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 28. Feb, 2010 in breaking news, civil rights movement, friends, guest post, katrina, marsha joyner, social media
By Marsha Joyner Isn’t technology wonderful! You can see our TV 6,000 miles away. And Facebook brings everyone within a keystroke. Just before the late evening news in Hawaii, my husband Kenneth said, “a tremendous 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile.” “That’s awful,” I responded and went to bed thinking no more of it. Until 5:20am my cell phone rang [...]
Let These Voices Be Heard (The Speech)
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 20. Oct, 2009 in class and poverty, economic policy, friends, health, human rights, politics, video
The Speech from Document Films on Vimeo. On the night of Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress – a rarity for any sitting president – we dragged an old tv into the waiting room to show the assembled patients and staff Obama’s speech and get their reactions. Here Robert Taylor and Sheon Slaughter, [...]
Fatherhood (from The Waiting Room)
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 24. Aug, 2009 in economic policy, film, friends, human rights, video
This video is from a film by my friend Pete Nicks, who is the guy with the camera in my banner image, above. The film, The Waiting Room, is a timely documentary about our health care system, as seen at The Alameda County Medical Center in Oakland, CA. THE WAITING ROOM will follow three people [...]
July 4, 1964
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 03. Jul, 2009 in breaking news, civil rights movement, clifton walker case, dee moore case, foipa, friends, neshoba murders, race and racism, southwest ms
July 4, 1964 was the last time Julia Dobbins saw her brother, JoEd Edwards. Eight days later, he went missing. Rumors were that the Klan took away the 21-year-old Black man and murdered him. His mother died in 1990 never having learned what truly happened to her son. July 4, 1964 was the thirteenth day [...]
Edging towards Justice in Concordia Parish, LA
by Benjamin T. Greenberg on 25. Jun, 2009 in breaking news, friends, race and racism
Stanley Nelson of the Concordia Sentinel reports major developments in the investigation of the 1964 murder of a Black man, named Frank Morris in Ferriday, Louisiana. Federal and parish prosecutors are combining forces in the investigation of the 1964 murder of black Ferriday shoe shop owner Frank Morris and the case may go before the [...]
Ben Greenberg's Weblog
Folks I've got them hungry blues
And nothin' in this to lose
People tellin' me to choose
Between dyin' and lyin' and
keep on cryin'
Tired of them hungry blues
Listen ain't you heard the news
There's another thing to choose
A brand new world
clean and fine
Where nobody's hungry
And there's no color line
A thing like that's worth
anybody dyin'
I ain't got a thing to lose
But them doggone hungry blues
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- St. Petersburg Police Bind Hands And Feet Of 5-Year-Old African-American Girl 23. Apr, 2005
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- More On The Prisoners From Orleans Parish Prison 29. Sep, 2005
- Edgar Ray Killen Says God Will Get You (If You Helped Put Him Away) 01. Mar, 2010
- Earlier This Week at Occupy Boston 14. Oct, 2011
- Cold Case Reporting 24. Sep, 2011
- HONK! Photo Exhibit in Davis Square 05. Sep, 2011
- Why Won’t the Justice Department Reopen the Malcolm X Murder Case? 24. Jul, 2011
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- Jack & Jill Politics: At 91, Recy Taylor Still Waits for Justice








