And activists around the country have begun bailing black women out of jail as part of the second annual “Black Mama’s Bail Out,” a nationwide effort to free black mothers and reunite them with their loved ones ahead of Mother’s Day, on Sunday. This is Southerners on New Ground’s executive director Mary Hooks, speaking on Democracy Now! last year, during the first Black Mama’s Bail Out.

Mary Hooks: “We know that about 80 percent of black women that are sitting in cages right now are single parents and caretakers. We know that one out of three black trans women who have spent time in the cage have experienced sexual violence in the cage. One out of nine black children have parents who are incarcerated. And so, our goal is to be able to free our people from these cages, using the traditions from our ancestors that bought each other’s collective freedom, to get our folks back home and to highlight the crisis around the cash bail system, put pressure on all of these institutions who are making money off of our people’s suffering, but, most importantly, restore the life that this cash bail system have taken from our people.”