For the third year in a row, “Black Mama’s Bail Out Day” is raising money to bail out as many black women from jail as possible. The effort is taking place in dozens of cities to call attention to the injustice of cash bail. Racial justice groups around the country are bailing black women out of jail so they can spend Mother’s Day with their families.
The Free Black Mamas movement has spread to more than 30 cities, with people donating money to bail out hundreds of Black mothers for Mother’s Day. Thousands of Black mothers arrested for non-violent offences sit in jail simply because they can not afford bail. But Williams is among the hundreds of mothers bailed out in time for Mother’s Day through the National Bail Out Collective‘s annual Free Black Mamas movement. Since its start in 2017, the Free Black Mamas movement has raised nearly $1 million to bail out more than 300 people from jails across the country. More than 30 cities participate in the annual movement from New York to California. This year, the effort has raised more than $350,000 and will make bail payments for more than 100 Black mothers on and around Mother’s Day, organizers say.
National Bail Out is a Black-led and Black-centered collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers and activists building a community-based movement to support our folks and end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration. These are people who have been impacted by cages either by being in them ourselves or witnessing our families and loved ones be encaged.
>Alma Siddiqua
