#ArrestCPS is a campaign of the African National Women’s Organization (ANWO). The goal of our work is to expose the parasitic nature of the foster system and the devastating role it plays in the lives of black families.  We want to see children returned to their homes and resources allocated by the state to go directly to the families, ensuring successful reunification.  Anything less than this is an act of genocide.

Hands off Black Families

Black mothers are being targeted and criminalized, children are traumatized and entire families are torn apart. Ultimately, the community is negatively impacted with no resolution in sight. The mothers who are fighting the state-sponsored kidnapping of their children are isolated,  in part, because our communities don’t understand the magnitude of this wholesale kidnap and there is an assumption that black mothers are unfit, inept, and automatically guilty of anything the oppressive State charges them with. #ArrestCPS is here to tell the real stories of families and fight for the return of all of our children

  • Black children are disproportionately represented in the foster care system in the United States and other imperialist countries.
  • Most children are removed based on cultural biases associated with living at or below the poverty line.
  • Black parents ARE fighting to regain custody, but continue to face barriers from the courts, as their children age out
  • When the state kidnaps black children, the Black family is irreparably damaged
  • Foster care is a business
  • With little to no evidence black parents are criminalized and isolated.
two black women holding the lead banner at the Black Mothers March 2022
Black Mothers March 2022 - Washington, DC
three people holding signs that read #arrestcps outside government building
black man holds sign that reads #arrestcps outside government building
two black women holding a sign that reads #ArrestCPS outside a building

ARRESTCPS IN BALTIMORE

Child Welfare

Our response is a return to a time when the community took care of each other. Through our work with the Uhuru Kijiji Childcare Collective, a collective of parents and supporters who come together to educate and sit with our children, we bring communities together so that we can solve problems, overturn contradictions and limit interaction with the state.

Committees

ANWO, the mothers, and others come together to build local, national, and international action committees, whose job is to organize legal defense, political actions, fundraisers, and promotional materials. All in an effort to amplify state-sponsored kidnapping as an urgent issue.

Legal

More than anything else, parents need proper representation in courts. They need fearless attorneys who know the law and will advocate fiercely for the rights of parent and child. We are interested in lawyers who can volunteer their time to give advice, review court documents, protect against state retaliation, and possibly represent mothers who are actively trying to regain custody of their children.

Community Support

Mothers need to know they are not alone. Oftentimes they are isolated from friends and family and criminalized by the state. Mothers can sometimes be silenced by contradictions in their homes and reluctant to ask for help. They need community support. Volunteer to accompany mothers to court pass out flyers, sit with them on home visits, and generally offer counsel. We cannot allow the state to keep these women away from the community. That way they win.

Printable Resources

11×17 poster (.pdf)

8.5x5.5 brochure image

8.5 x 5.5 booklet (.pdf)