Ebony Slaughter-Johnson graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a certificate in African American Studies in 2015. At Princeton, she led freshman orientation service trips, directed a curriculum-based tutoring program in Trenton, New Jersey, and advised education volunteer organizations as a member of the Student Volunteers Council Executive Board. Ebony expanded upon her enthusiasm for social activism with internships with Environment America, the House of Representatives, and the Washington, District of Columbia chapter of the NAACP.

As a former research assistant to the Criminalization of Race and Poverty project, she co-authored Mothers at the Gate: How a Powerful Family Movement is Transforming the Juvenile Justice System and The Souls of Poor Folk: Auditing America 50 Years after the Poor People’s Campaign Challenged Racism, Poverty, The War Economy/Militarism, and Our National Morality.

Ebony is currently a freelance writer whose work centers on the intersection of poverty and race. Her writing has appeared in AlterNet, U.S. News and World Report, Equal Voice News, and InsideSources.

Latest

‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws Encourage Dangerous Vigilantism

Some Americans call the cops on black people for frivolous reasons. Others appoint themselves judge, jury, and — sometimes — executioner.

Report: Students Under Siege

How the school-to-prison pipeline, poverty, and racism endanger our school children

Poverty Won’t ‘Make America Great’

A recent UN report on international poverty highlighted an unexpected crisis area: the United States.

Pardons Aren’t Policy

The president’s offer to pardon people unjustly behind bars is a welcome one. But he could do so, so much more.

This is the Wrong Time to Cut Back on Public Housing

More than half a million Americans are homeless — the size of a large city.

Police Killed More People Last Year Than Mass Shooters

The fight to curb gun violence must address the violence inflicted by law enforcement.

Is It Really Fair to Call It Our ‘Justice System’?

The deaths of Alton Sterling and others show that black Americans rarely get justice.

Trump’s Pardon of Joe Arpaio Is Deeply Disturbing

The president called a man who freely violated people’s constitutional rights a “patriot.” What does that make his victims?

Calling Working People of All Colors

The economic concerns of the white working class and people of color are more alike than different.

Another Black Man Left to Die in the Streets

Shooting after shooting, police deny black lives even the most basic human concern that could’ve saved them.

Students, Not Criminals

Punitive school policies are funneling children – especially African-Americans – out of the classroom and into jail cells.

African Americans Are Still Treated as Second-Class Citizens By the Law

The infamous Dred Scott Supreme Court ruling once denied African Americans any and all rights as human beings. Has anything changed?

From Mamie Till to Tarsha Jackson, Mothers Continue the Fight for Juvenile Justice

Emmett Till’s mother brought awareness to America’s failed, racist justice system over 60 years ago. Today, mothers are still at the forefront of the fight for justice for their children and all children.

Mother’s Day is Another Day to Struggle for Justice When Your Child is Behind Bars

An emerging grassroots, family-based movement, sustained by the love of mothers across the nation, reminds us that mothers are leaders as well as nurturers, teachers as well as advocates.

Report: Mothers at the Gate

A movement of family members is developing around the country that aims to challenge both the conditions in which their loved ones are held and the fact of mass incarceration itself.

How the U.S. criminal justice system operates as a debt-based system of racial control

State-sanctioned racial oppression is achieved through a new kind of slavery.