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“The prison industrial complex has two roles, profit and social control,” says Benjamin Woods, Howard University P.H.D student and co-founder of Students Against Mass Incarceration.

Founded in February of 2011 at Howard University, S.A.M.I is a social awareness and community activist group whose mission is to “raise awareness about the prison industrial complex, political prisoners, and recidivism.”

“This issue is affecting our people on a mass level so we want to spread locally and connect with all the HBCU’s,” said Woods. Answering the call of action to extend the efforts of S.A.M.I., Leamon Harris, a student at Morgan State University, joined the organization and recently hosted an interest meeting at MSU’s campus to educate students.

“The 13^th amendment supposedly abolished slavery, but we fail to realize that if you commit a crime then it doesn’t apply to you. You are then subject to the system,” said Harris, as he spoke to a room of students and community organizers last week.

Over the last year, S.A.M.I has organized various events to help bring awareness to the disproportionate number of blacks in prison, including hosting open mics, rallies, and community discussions.

Calling himself a “prison abolitionist,” Woods and others were inspired and mentored by Michelle Alexander, author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness.”

In a recent talk given by Alexander at Morgan State, she mentioned that “more African-American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began.”

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that as of 2008, over 840,000 black males are in prison, making up over forty percent of the country’s total prison population.

Beyond just occupying cell walls, a new study by M. Marit Rehavi of the University of British Columbia and Sonja B. Starr, who teaches criminal law at the University of Michigan Law School also suggests that blacks are given sixty percent longer sentences than whites.

Even in the midst of all the negative statistics aimed at blacks in America and their high rate of imprisonment, Woods remains optimistic about the future.

“Last year, we saw the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement, and other movements going on across the world. We are seeing the beginning of something big if we take advantage of the opportunity.”

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Last year, three girls from Baltimore managed to break the mold.

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The three sisters who comprise Watoto From The Nile — 11-year-old Nia, 10-year-old Nya, and 6-year-old Kamaria Natur  — captured the hearts and minds of millions of people nationwide. In March 2011, they released “Letter to Lil Wayne,” a song that serves as a plea for “Mr. Wayne” — as the girls respectfully call him — to end the gratuitous misogyny and blatant disrespect for Black women in his lyrics.  The young “watoto” (Swahili for “children”) have been writing, recording, and performing music for over two years now with the help of their “baba” (Yoruba name for “father”) and manager Jabari Natur; and Watoto From The Nile plan to continue shaking up the world with new material aimed at “breathing life back into the Black community,” according to Natur.

“When we released ‘Letter to Lil Wayne’ most people loved it.,” Natur said. “We gained millions of fans from all over the world. It was a beautiful thing.”

In a little over three weeks after its release, the “Letter to Lil Wayne” video had been viewed over one million times throughout the Internet, with over 850,000 views coming from You Tube alone. The controversial music video was also featured on Yahoo’s online music blog, NewsOne, AOL’s Black Voices web­site, CNN, the Tom Joyner Morning Show, the Detroit Native Sun, Worldstarhiphop.com and a host of other online forums, magazines, and blogs.

Even after the monumental success of their first big hit, Watoto From The Nile and their father are still not satisfied. “Our song [‘Letter to Lil Wayne’] got a lot of views but we hope our new song does even better,” said oldest member of the trio, Nia.

To keep their movement going, they have released a new Kwanzaa song and music video featuring Ayanna Gregory, daughter of activist and icon Dick Gregory, in late December and continuing into the New Year with a tribute to Stevie Wonder song.

Jabari Natur is in many ways the antithesis of showbiz dads like Joe Jackson — driving his daughters to success through cultivating their moral and ethical senses.

“It’s not easy or cheap organizing my daughters, scheduling dance lessons, paying for studio recording sessions, and being a father at the same time,” said Natur. “But it surely is well worth it. As long as they stay focused, they can achieve anything they want in life.”

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At this year’s convocation and other campus events, MSU honored the legacy of hundreds of former Morgan State students who played a pivotal role in the sit-in movement seven years before the widespread launch of the tactic.

Back in 1953, Morgan State students were lining up daily at a lunch counter in Read’s Drugstore in Baltimore, demanding desegregation. A manager or waitress would try to lure the daily protesting bunch from their seats by reading Maryland’s trespassing statute. The students didn’t budge.

Picketing, sit-ins, and hundreds of arrests eventually led to some changes in segregated Baltimore. As a result of Morgan State’s relentless student activism, in 1955 owners of Read’s Drugstore opened their lunch counter to Blacks; in 1959 Arundel Ice Cream also began to change their practices.

This year’s festivities, surrounding the commemoration of the brave MSU alumni, were accompanied by a range of students, faculty, visitors, and influential Black leaders from around the country. A list of attendees included John Lewis, the Freedom Rider-turned-congressman; Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings; Lt. Governor Anthony Brown; and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

“It is important that our students know the legacy of their school and whose footsteps they are walking today,” said MSU President David Wilson as he stood at the unveiling ceremony of the recreated lunch counter at Read’s Drugstore. Along the walls near the lunch counter exhibit is a stunning pictorial display that takes viewers on a tour of Civil Rights activism in Baltimore from 1947-1963.

University of Maryland law professor Larry S. Gibson, the person responsible for the timeless exhibit, donated his collection to MSU and it will remain in the main hall of the University Student Center.

While speaking to a crowd at Morgan’s campus Gibson said, “Finally we’re going to get some history straight.”