In this episode, Mj and Rasheem explore the legacy and ongoing relevance of poor Black women’s activism in Baltimore, focusing on housing justice and welfare rights through Rhonda Y. Williams’ seminal article, *“We’re Tired of Being Treated Like Dogs.”* They highlight figures like Margaret McCarty and Rev. Annie Chambers, who transformed personal struggle into collective resistance, and organizations such as U-JOIN and Mother Rescuers from Poverty, which rose from communities like Murphy Homes, O’Donnell Heights, and Gilmore Homes. The hosts trace how tenant strikes, welfare marches, and legislative advocacy confronted federal surveillance, welfare fraud prosecutions, and slumlord neglect, situating these efforts within a Black Radical Tradition that was grassroots-based, anti-capitalist, and unapologetically of the people.

In this episode, S. Rasheem sits down with Lawrence Grandpre on In Search of Black Power to unpack “Race Work” through historical analysis of key figures and debates like integration vs. nationalism and strategic navigation vs. direct confrontation with oppressive systems. Rasheem contrasts the Black community’s holistic approach—linking spiritual, economic, and political self-help as Race Work—with professional social work, which through its pursuit of professionalization and institutionalization in white institutions often risks accommodating anti-Blackness.

“Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle’s Dayvon Love and Lawrence Grandpre look at the theme’s of
nationalism and Zionism in Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Message. Far from Black Nationalism replicating the flaws of Zionism, they look at the theory and practice of Pan-Africanism to reveal its consistent anti-Zionist work, and in addition to stories of Kings and Pharaohs, concerns lessons from ancient African civilizations in maternal and public health can improve conditions for Black people in the here and now. “

Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle’s Dayvon Love and Lawrence Grandpre reflect on Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, arguing that despite the author’s intentions, it has been used to focus reform on non-violent drug offenders at the cost of more substantive criminal justice reform. The failure of the text to use the lessons of political prisons and the Black radical tradition and affirm a bottom up political movement to empower Black controlled solutions to crime has led to largely symbolic reforms, technocratic, non-profit driven reforms and failed to address the fundamental pathologization of Black people as inherently violent that continues to drive policing and prisons.

April 2025 marks 10 years since the #BaltimoreUprising, sparked by Freddie Gray’s death in police custody. Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle’s Lawrence Grandpre and Dayvon Love critique Beyond Black Lives Matter by Cedric Johnson and Invisible Weapons by Marcus Board Jr., arguing both oversimplify Black grassroots efforts and overlook successful community-led activism in Baltimore. By framing working-class responses as misled by neoliberalism or patriarchy, the authors miss the complexity of Black politics and the impact of groups like LBS.

In the final installment of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle’s Post-Election Analysis, we share a panel discussion hosted by Baltimore Racial Justice Action (BRJA), held the week after the election.

Lawrence and Dayvon go beyond the election data and use on the ground experience to bring context to the election results. They expose how the Democratic Party’s failure to deliver concrete solutions to Black folks at the local level led to voter distrust, which led to the collapse in turnout, which cost Kamala the election. They conclude with a call to take seriously calls to look beyond the Democratic Party.