Kirsten West Savali
The Root
Natchez, MS, United States
Contact Kirsten
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Kirsten:
Officer Blane Salamoni, Alton Sterling’s Killer, Has Been Fired
Blane Salamoni—the Baton Rouge, La., police officer who killed 37-year-old Alton Sterling on July 5, 2016—has been fired, Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul announced Friday. → Read More
Placing a Price Tag on Freedom: The Evils of the Money-Bail System
The U.S. injustice system is not broken. It is working exactly as it was intended to work, which is primarily in the service and protection of privileged white people who have enough money to escape the legal consequences of their actions. → Read More
The Shame Is Not Ours: Black America, Poverty and the War on Drugs
The so-called war on drugs was created to target black, brown, poor and working-class communities, those communities that have borne the brunt of institutionalized, systemic, white supremacist violence. → Read More
Texas Man Fined Less Than $600 for Assaulting 8-Year-Old Black Child
A Fort Worth, Texas, man has been found guilty of misdemeanor assault by contact for attacking his neighbor’s 8-year-old son in 2016, whom he had accused of littering in his yard. → Read More
Watch: Our Video Series Shares Never-Been-Told Stories of the Memphis Sanitation Workers
In Memphis, Tenn., 1968, 1,300 sanitation workers braved the bitter cold to engage in a revolutionary 65-day action to defend their right to personhood. These men struggled against the noose of white supremacy to proclaim their dignity. They stood, shoulder to shoulder, armed with picket signs and perseverance, determined to declare to the world, “I am a man.” → Read More
Rosa Parks, Recy Taylor and Gertrude Perkins Are Mothers of the #MeToo Movement
In 2016, former Oklahoma City police officer and rapist Daniel Holtzclaw was sentenced to 263 years in prison for the rapes and sexual assaults of seven black women and one underage black girl, ranging in age from 17-58. → Read More
Erica Garner, Daughter of Eric Garner, In Critical Condition After Suffering Heart Attack
Erica Garner, 27, daughter of Eric Garner—the 43-year-old Staten Island N.Y. man who was killed in 2014 when NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo restrained him with an illegal chokehold—is in a coma after suffering a heart attack on Christmas Eve. → Read More
‘Moral Revival of America’: Modern-Day Poor People’s Campaign Launched
When tens of thousands of people converge on statehouses across the nation and the U.S. Capitol in May 2018, it will be to further the work of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Poor People’s Campaign that Marian Wright Edelman, Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King Jr. and so many other freedom fighters organized 50 years ago. → Read More
Long Live the Chairman: On This Day in 1969, the FBI and Chicago Police Assassinated Black Panther Fred Hampton
Dec, 4, 1969, 48 years ago today, police officers from the Cook County State Attorney’s Office, in collusion with the FBI, assassinated Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and Black Panther Party leader Mark Clark. → Read More
Byron McBride Indicted on Capital Murder Charges in Slaying of 6-Year-Old Kingston Frazier
A Mississippi grand jury on Wednesday indicted Byron McBride, 19, on charges of capital murder and possession of a stolen car in the May 18 slaying of 6-year-old Kingston Frazier, WJTV reports. → Read More
Michelle Alexander on the War on Drugs: The Color of Drug Users Got Whiter, the Nation Got Nicer
The Drug Policy Alliance opened its 2017 International Drug Policy Reform Conference on Thursday with acclaimed scholar Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, making it clear that whiteness is at the root of the war on drugs, and anti-blackness ensures that black and brown people in the United States continue to be criminalized in… → Read More
Janaya Khan, Black Lives Matter Leader, Dismantles FBI’s Fraudulent ‘Black Identity Extremist’ Report
From the days of COINTELPRO—the targeting of black human rights leaders and sowing dissent within the ranks of black organizations committed to freedom and liberation for black people—to its unofficial subsidiaries like the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, whose sole purpose was to violently oppress black communities, the FBI has often operated as a terrorist group out to destroy black… → Read More
JusticeLA Coalition: Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Black Lives Matter Co-Founder, Partners With Organizations to Halt Los Angeles Jail Expansion
Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Black Lives Matter co-founder, veteran organizer, artist and freedom fighter, has partnered with more than 30 organizations to launch JusticeLA, a human rights and abolitionist coalition organized around the collective goal of halting a proposed $2 billion jail-expansion plan in Los Angeles County. → Read More
Drug Policy Alliance Calls Out NYC Mayor de Blasio for Attempting to Spin Marijuana-Arrests Record
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio came under fire last month in a revealing report commissioned and released by the Drug Policy Alliance that shredded the mayor’s claims of addressing racial discrimination in marijuana arrests and convictions. → Read More
#SafetyIs: Night Out for Safety and Liberation Happening Tonight
For working-class and poor black and brown communities in the United States of America, the concept of safety—particularly when it is dependent on hyper-militarized police forces—is a flimsy, dangerous illusion. → Read More
Philando Castile, the War on Drugs and the Lynching of Black Humanity
Before Malcolm Shabazz, 28, the grandson of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) was assassinated in 2013 in Mexico City, he, like his entire family—and like too many black people in the United States of America—had been hunted and harassed by law enforcement officials. → Read More
Detroit Father Cleared After Being Arrested in Murder, Rape of Infant Daughter; Prosecutors Admit All Charges Were 'Erroneous'
James Lee Saltmarshall, 22, the Detroit father accused in April of murdering and raping his 8-month-old daughter Janiyah Saltmarshall and held on $2 million dollar bond, has been cleared on all charges after the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office determined that the charges were “erroneous,” MLive.com reports. → Read More
Commerce, Texas, Police Chief Kerry Crews Resigns Amid Backlash Over Racist Road Rage Incident
Updated Monday, June 26, 2017, 11:30 p.m. EDT: Commerce, Texas, Police Chief Kerry Crews has resigned and will be stepping into a new position as assistant to the city manager, a position he created with City Manager Darrek Ferrell, Dallas News reports. → Read More
At Least 21 People Killed in Boko Haram Terrorist Attacks, Villages Completely Destroyed: Report
Terrorist group Boko Haram attacked villages near Chibok, leaving at least 21 people dead. → Read More
Folsom Prison Hunger Strike Continues, Rally This Weekend In Support
The hunger strike at Folsom State Prison continues to go strong, with supporters planning a rally to take place this Sunday, June 4, in front of the notorious prison located 20 miles outside of Sacramento. → Read More