Introduction 

Chapters 

1. The (Un)Fair Fight for a Just Democracy 

2. Black Revolutionary Love Reimagines Democracy 

3. Abolitionist and Ancestor: The Legacy of Erica Garner 

4. The Captive Maternal and Abolitionism 

5. Police Ethics through Presidential Politics and Abolitionist Struggle: Angela Y. Davis and Erica Garner 

6. New Bones Abolitionism, Communism, and Captive Maternals 

7. Amnesty for All 

8. Attachment # 1 National Council of Black Lawyers (NCBL) January 2021 Eric Garner Hearing 

9. Attachment #2 NYS Eric Garner Act (February 2019) 

10. Attachment #3 Fact Sheet in Richmond County (Staten Island) Grand Jury in Eric Garner Homicide 

11. Attachment #4 Student 2021 Reflection Papers on Erica Garner 

Resources 

Bibliography 

New Bones Abolition addresses âEURœthose of us broken enough to grow new bonesâEUR? in order to stabilize our political traditions that renew freedom struggles. Reflecting on police violence, political movements, Black feminism, Erica Garner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, caretakers and compradors, Joy James analyzes the âEURœCaptive Maternal,âEUR? which emerges from legacies of colonialism, chattel slavery and predatory policing, to explore the stages of resistance and communal rebellion that manifest through war resistance. She recognizes a long line of gendered and ungendered freedom fighters, who, within a racialized and economically-stratified democracy, transform from coerced or conflicted caretakers into builders of movements, who realize the necessity of maroon spaces, and ultimately the inevitability of becoming war resisters that mobilize against genocide and state violence. New Bones Abolition weaves a narrative of a historically complex and engaged people seeking to quell state violence. James discusses the contributions of the mother Mamie Till-Mobley who held a 1955 open-casket funeral for her fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, murdered by white nationalists; the 1971 rebels at Attica prison; the resilience of political prisoners despite the surplus torture they endured; the emergence of Black feminists as political theorists; human rights advocates seeking abolition; and the radical intellectualism of Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner slain in 2014 by the NYPD. James positions the Captive Maternal within the evolution of contemporary abolition. Her meditation on, and theorizing of, Black radicals and revolutionaries works to honor Agape-driven communities and organizers that deter state/police predatory violence through love, caretaking, protest, movements, marronage, and war resistance.

Joy James, Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities at Williams College, is the author of Resisting State Violence; Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics; Transcending the Talented Tenth; Seeking the Beloved Community; and most recently In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love and New Bones Abolition. James’s numerous political theory articles on policing, prisons, abolitions, feminisms; and anti-Black racism include “The Womb of Western Theory,” an exploration of the Captive Maternal. James is editor of The New Abolitionists; Imprisoned Intellectuals; Warfare in the American Homeland; The Angela Y. Davis Reader; and coeditor of The Black Feminist Reader.