Derecka Purnell presents Becoming Abolitionists

Magers & Quinn Booksellers

Derecka Purnell presents Becoming Abolitionists, in conversation with Jelani Cobb

There is a long-overdue national reckoning in the US with the problem of police violence. From community policing initiatives to increasing calls to defund the police, more and more people are grappling with what alternatives to policing might look like. In BECOMING ABOLITIONISTS, Derecka Purnell confronts the history of police as a means to capture runaway slaves and uphold white supremacy, to the over-policing and murder of Black people. Purnell argues that the police are doing exactly what they were created to do and invites readers to imagine new systems that work to address the root causes of violence instead.In making her case, Purnell draws from her own personal journey, as a young woman determined to seek justice from the law, and later as a leading advocate for abolition. A revolutionary book about the hope for freedom, BECOMING ABOLITIONISTS will inspire readers to imagine and create new communities that can guarantee safety, equality, and real justice for all. Derecka Purnell is a human rights lawyer, writer, and organizer. She is also a rising voice in 2020’s historical moment of protest for racial justice, as evidenced in part by the widespread impact and attention to her July 2020 viral article in The Atlantic, in which she chronicled her personal journey towards embracing the politics of police abolition. She received her JD from Harvard Law School, and works to end police and prison violence by providing legal assistance, research, and training to community-based organizations through an abolitionist framework. She has been featured on NPR and published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, Teen Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, and more. Derecka is currently a columnist at The Guardian and cofounder of the National Museum of Social Justice and Contemporary Activism.Jelani Cobb has been contributing to The New Yorker since 2012, and became a staff writer in 2015. He writes frequently about race, politics, history, and culture. His most recent book is “The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress.” He won the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism, for his columns on race, the police, and injustice. He teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

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Derecka Purnell presents Becoming Abolitionists

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Derecka Purnell presents Becoming Abolitionists

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