Jermaine Thibodeaux
@drconvictsandcane.bsky.social
Historian of convict labor/prisons, Black Texas, U.S. History! Assistant professor in a red state. 🥴 Writing a book that explores the significance of sugar and Black convict labor and the shaping of the Texas prison farm model. The House that Cane Built!!
Sadly, no surprises here. 🤦🏾♂️
The Trump administration rejected recommendations from an advisory committee to honor Frederick Douglass and the woman suffrage and Civil Rights movements, replacing them with coins that feature pilgrims, the Revolutionary War and the Gettysburg Address.
New redesigned coins marking nation's 250th birthday begin circulating today
New coins marking the United States' 250th anniversary begin circulating this week. The Trump administration tweaked the design of some coins and is considering a dollar coin featuring the president.
www.npr.org
January 5, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Sadly, no surprises here. 🤦🏾♂️
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
January 3, 2026 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
A lot of people forget how in 2004 the Bush regime kidnapped the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and dumped him in Africa.
Is there any modern precedent for abducting a head of state?
Plenty of examples of coups, assassinations and domestic trials, including show trials, but this is like a Crusader Kings plot.
Plenty of examples of coups, assassinations and domestic trials, including show trials, but this is like a Crusader Kings plot.
January 3, 2026 at 2:36 PM
A lot of people forget how in 2004 the Bush regime kidnapped the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and dumped him in Africa.
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
Tonight, the President of the United States has launched an unconstitutional war of aggression, dooming another generation to spill their blood for oil, and lay waste to a sovereign nation.
I demand that Congress exercise its power, halt this conflict, and impeach this war criminal president.
I demand that Congress exercise its power, halt this conflict, and impeach this war criminal president.
January 3, 2026 at 7:41 AM
Tonight, the President of the United States has launched an unconstitutional war of aggression, dooming another generation to spill their blood for oil, and lay waste to a sovereign nation.
I demand that Congress exercise its power, halt this conflict, and impeach this war criminal president.
I demand that Congress exercise its power, halt this conflict, and impeach this war criminal president.
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
Kamar Samuels to be superintendent of New York City public schools is outstanding news for those who still care about school integration and equality. In the face of the national attacks on civil rights and dismantling of enforcement at the U.S. DOE this pick by Mamdani sends a powerful message.
Mamdani to name Kamar Samuels as schools chancellor
The Manhattan superintendent will lead the nation’s largest public school system.
www.cityandstateny.com
December 31, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Kamar Samuels to be superintendent of New York City public schools is outstanding news for those who still care about school integration and equality. In the face of the national attacks on civil rights and dismantling of enforcement at the U.S. DOE this pick by Mamdani sends a powerful message.
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
For Black families, New Year's foods and traditions speak to shared culture, resilience, and hope. https://capitalbnews.org/black-eyed-peas-collard-greens-black-new-years/
New Year’s Traditions in Black Homes Are a Celebration of Survival
From prayers to pot-clanging, these practices honor freedom, family, and the future.
capitalbnews.org
December 30, 2025 at 3:14 PM
For Black families, New Year's foods and traditions speak to shared culture, resilience, and hope. https://capitalbnews.org/black-eyed-peas-collard-greens-black-new-years/
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
Richard Smallwood has passed. They will call him a gospel music artist. He was that.
But Smallwood was also one of the greatest composers - period of any modern music form.
My heart is heavy. A great musical legend has left us.
www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...
But Smallwood was also one of the greatest composers - period of any modern music form.
My heart is heavy. A great musical legend has left us.
www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...
Richard Smallwood, a soaring voice in gospel music, dies at 77
He became one of the country’s biggest names in gospel, with songs that were covered by Destiny’s Child, Whitney Houston and Stevie Wonder.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 30, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Richard Smallwood has passed. They will call him a gospel music artist. He was that.
But Smallwood was also one of the greatest composers - period of any modern music form.
My heart is heavy. A great musical legend has left us.
www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...
But Smallwood was also one of the greatest composers - period of any modern music form.
My heart is heavy. A great musical legend has left us.
www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...
Wow! 🤦🏾♂️
Reminder that years ago it was found out that the FBI straight up made up a whole bunch of fake forensic sciences, plural. People have gone to jail and been executed due to literally pseudoscience.
Hair forensics, for instance, is totally nonsense.
They admitted it.
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Hair forensics, for instance, is totally nonsense.
They admitted it.
slate.com/news-and-pol...
The FBI Faked an Entire Field of Forensic Science
For more stories like this, like Slate on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
slate.com
December 30, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Wow! 🤦🏾♂️
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
This is slavery.
Private prison company GEO Group allegedly made immigration detainees work for no pay. Now it's at the Supreme Court trying to prevent the detainees from suing. bit.ly/4pfafj2
Supreme Court Considers Private Prison Case
A private prison company seeks a ruling that could help all government contractors evade liability.
www.brennancenter.org
December 29, 2025 at 3:33 PM
This is slavery.
Y’all…God knows I should be working on my own book and a few outstanding writing assignments, but THIS book has me in a chokehold! After my Texas prison farms book is complete, I’m definitely returning to slavery studies. I have some thangs to say!! 💪🏾💪🏾 Kudos to you, David McNally!!
December 26, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Y’all…God knows I should be working on my own book and a few outstanding writing assignments, but THIS book has me in a chokehold! After my Texas prison farms book is complete, I’m definitely returning to slavery studies. I have some thangs to say!! 💪🏾💪🏾 Kudos to you, David McNally!!
Merry Christmas, folks! In these wild times, seek peace, joy, and happiness when and wherever you can find it. Here’s to an amazing new year as well! Hopefully…🥴🤣🎄🎄🎄
December 25, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Merry Christmas, folks! In these wild times, seek peace, joy, and happiness when and wherever you can find it. Here’s to an amazing new year as well! Hopefully…🥴🤣🎄🎄🎄
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
It’s wild so many people are willing to go to bat for prisons as a reserve for rural jobs when universities are better in every aspect for such a role.
"Even after accounting for the upfront costs and delayed benefits, enrolling marginal applicants to public universities generates substantial net returns for society, the marginal students themselves, and the government budget."
Public Universities FTW!
Public Universities FTW!
December 24, 2025 at 10:42 PM
It’s wild so many people are willing to go to bat for prisons as a reserve for rural jobs when universities are better in every aspect for such a role.
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
Texas A&M University will not reinstate a lecturer who was fired after a video of her teaching about gender identity in a children’s literature class went viral, despite a faculty appeals panel unanimously concluding that her dismissal was not justified.
Texas A&M won’t reinstate fired lecturer despite findings
A vice chancellor upheld the firing of Melissa McCoul, seen in a viral video being confronted by a student on her gender identity teachings, saying the termination was done with “good cause.”
www.texastribune.org
December 24, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Texas A&M University will not reinstate a lecturer who was fired after a video of her teaching about gender identity in a children’s literature class went viral, despite a faculty appeals panel unanimously concluding that her dismissal was not justified.
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
US jobless rate for Blacks and teens surges in November reut.rs/49gilCM
US jobless rate for Blacks and teens surges in November
The unemployment rate for two U.S. groups that are often the most vulnerable to job loss in a softening economy - Blacks and teenagers - surged to the highest levels in more than four years in November, Labor Department data showed on Tuesday.
reut.rs
December 16, 2025 at 8:00 PM
US jobless rate for Blacks and teens surges in November reut.rs/49gilCM
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
I really enjoyed this book. Congratulations to Justene Hill Edwards. macmillan.yale.edu/stories/yale...
Yale Announces 2025 Frederick Douglass Book Prize Winner
Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition has announced the winner of the twenty-seventh annual Frederick Douglass Book Prize.
macmillan.yale.edu
December 16, 2025 at 8:38 PM
I really enjoyed this book. Congratulations to Justene Hill Edwards. macmillan.yale.edu/stories/yale...
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
YES INDEED
One argument I used to make to my students about why it was important to learn history (and historical thinking) is that someone was always going to be trying to tell you things were natural or had always been this way and that you needed to be able to see that as an exercise of power.
December 14, 2025 at 3:41 PM
YES INDEED
We are indeed living in a hellscape. Hopeless.
December 14, 2025 at 12:10 AM
We are indeed living in a hellscape. Hopeless.
Glad Mamdani stood on business! 🤭🤭
Q: Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist?
MAMDANI: I've spoken about--
TRUMP: That's okay. You can just say yes. I don't mind.
MAMDANI: I've spoken about--
TRUMP: That's okay. You can just say yes. I don't mind.
November 21, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Glad Mamdani stood on business! 🤭🤭
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
Pauli Murray.
The great Pauli Murray.
Born 115 years ago today. She wrote the "Bible" of civil rights law. Coined "Jane Crow" before intersectionality existed. Architect of the Brown v Board arguments. Influenced Justice RBG. First Black woman Episcopal priest.
Songs in a Weary Throat
The great Pauli Murray.
Born 115 years ago today. She wrote the "Bible" of civil rights law. Coined "Jane Crow" before intersectionality existed. Architect of the Brown v Board arguments. Influenced Justice RBG. First Black woman Episcopal priest.
Songs in a Weary Throat
November 21, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Pauli Murray.
The great Pauli Murray.
Born 115 years ago today. She wrote the "Bible" of civil rights law. Coined "Jane Crow" before intersectionality existed. Architect of the Brown v Board arguments. Influenced Justice RBG. First Black woman Episcopal priest.
Songs in a Weary Throat
The great Pauli Murray.
Born 115 years ago today. She wrote the "Bible" of civil rights law. Coined "Jane Crow" before intersectionality existed. Architect of the Brown v Board arguments. Influenced Justice RBG. First Black woman Episcopal priest.
Songs in a Weary Throat
The butter pecan muffins from Sam’s have me in a chokehold! For some reason, the Mounjaro allows me to eat too many of them in a day. 🤭🤷🏾♂️
November 20, 2025 at 11:41 PM
The butter pecan muffins from Sam’s have me in a chokehold! For some reason, the Mounjaro allows me to eat too many of them in a day. 🤭🤷🏾♂️
This DOJ is absolutely corrupt! Disbar them all.
NEWS: During a hearing in federal court in VA, prosecutors confirmed that the operative indictment in the case against James Comey was never shown to or voted on by the entire grand jury before it was presented in open court.
Defense counsel argued that’s a complete bar to further prosecution
Defense counsel argued that’s a complete bar to further prosecution
November 19, 2025 at 5:04 PM
This DOJ is absolutely corrupt! Disbar them all.
Thinking of Claudine Gay this morning.
November 19, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Thinking of Claudine Gay this morning.
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
Good morning! Texas is revising its K-12 social studies standards (TEKS) for 5.5 million kids, & the State Board of Education (SBOE) is meeting today to discuss their progress today. I will be live-tweeting (posting?) about anything that concerns social studies. Follow this thread for updates!
November 19, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Good morning! Texas is revising its K-12 social studies standards (TEKS) for 5.5 million kids, & the State Board of Education (SBOE) is meeting today to discuss their progress today. I will be live-tweeting (posting?) about anything that concerns social studies. Follow this thread for updates!
Reposted by Jermaine Thibodeaux
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
![On official UC letterhead:
UNIVERSITY
OF
CALIFORNIA
James B. Milliken President
Office of the President
1111 Franklin Street Oakland, CA 94607
universityofcalifornia.edu
CAMPUSES Berkeley
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
Merced
Riverside San Diego San Francisco
Santa Barbara Santa Cruz
MEDICAL CENTERS
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
San Diego
San Francisco
NATIONAL LABORATORIES Lawrence Berkeley Lawrence Livermore Los Alamos
DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
November 18, 2025
Dear Chancellors:
I'm writing with regard to the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP) and the program's associated faculty hiring incentive.
As you know, for more than 40 years, PPFP has provided postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development, and faculty mentoring to scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service advance the academic and research missions of the University of California.
Since 2003, UC campuses that hire current and former PPFP fellows into ladder-rank positions have been eligible for a hiring incentive funded by the University that provides support for newly hired fellows for five years. Since the creation of the incentive, more than $162 million has been invested by the University to support PPFP faculty hires. This commitment has enabled our campuses to successfully recruit and retain outstanding faculty across a range of disciplines.
Given the myriad challenges currently facing UC - including disruptions to billions of dollars in annual federal support, as well as uncertainty around the state budget- reasonable questions were raised in recent months about whether the University could maintain the commitment to current levels of incentive funding. After considering a recommendation to sunset the incentive program due to these significant fiscal constraints, I consulted with all of you as well as faculty and campus academic administrators and systemwide Academic Senate leadership.
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November 18, 2025 at 10:34 PM
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)