1971: The Attica Prison Revolt

1971: The Attica Prison Revolt

The Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960’s and 70’s generated a revolutionary spirit of revolt reaching all segments of society, including the prison population. In September, 1971, prisoners in Attica Correctional Facility in New York organized a revolt that lasted for five days.

Conditions in Attica were horrendous. The facility was built to contain 1,200 inmates but was crammed with 2,225. Prisoners were denied basic sanitation, had only one shower per week and one roll of toilet paper per month. About 54 percent of the inmates were black but all of the prison guards were white, fostering racist violence and tensions.

The uprising in Attica was sparked by the murder of George Jackson by prison guards. Jackson was an influential black revolutionary prisoner who had become politicized and joined the Black Panthers while serving a sentence of 23 years to life for a crime he committed at 18. His death sent shock waves throughout the country, setting off revolts in many prisons, but the most powerful was in Attica.

On September 9th, prisoners freed an inmate who was to be detained in his cell, then broke down the gates to take over the courtyard. More than 1,000 prisoners were able to take control of the yard and the prison, taking 40 guards hostage. They demanded access to literature, better food and conditions, and to be treated as human beings. As the prisoners put it in their statement to the outside world: “We are firm in our resolve and we demand, as human beings, the dignity and justice that is due to us by right of our birth.”

Everyone had a role and something to contribute during the strike. The strikers organized themselves into committees such as security, food distribution, waste disposal and protection of the hostages. Despite all of the past racial tensions, there was an incredible sense of unity among the prisoners like never before. One black striker described, “I never thought whites could really get it on…I actually cried it was so close, everyone so together.”

Negotiations were held in an open and democratic manner among the prisoners in which the representatives relayed information to the strikers in the yard. Despite widespread international attention and support, the prison officials were able to stall and refused to budge on the question of amnesty. After four days of negotiations between inmate representatives and prison officials, Nelson Rockefeller, then Governor of New York, made the call to retake the prison.

The police were mobilized with incredible brutality. With machine guns and tear gas, they took the prison, killing indiscriminately, resulting in the death of ten of the guards and prison employees as well as 33 prisoners. Prisoners were shot while surrendering, some of them lying on the ground. Survivors were beaten with nightsticks and forced to crawl naked through broken glass. The press was banned from the area and only learned of the brutality through leaked reports by police and survivors.

For the U.S. ruling class, Attica had to be crushed because it represented the revolt of prisoners against a fundamentally unjust system. The prisoners’ capacity for organizing collectively across racial lines provided an example which could link with the broader social movements sweeping the rest of society. For this reason Governor Rockefeller was willing to use incredible brutality to crush the strike.

Despite the massive violent repression, the Attica prison uprising shows us the potential of the most marginalized people to come together and fight for justice and basic human dignity, even in the worst conditions. For this reason Attica became a symbol of prisoners’ resistance whose name is remembered to this day.