|
Two decades ago, when Randall Robinson wrote The Debt, his saying about the legacy of slavery seemed also to apply to the rebellion at Attica Prison thirty years earlier: it was distorted in the telling, and buried in the untelling.
Now, as we mark the 50th anniversary of the Attica Uprising, the story is being told and retold, and not only by the historians who have unearthed proof of what we saw and knew. The Attica Brothers, lawyers, and observers who are still alive are speaking out, and the Attica Brothers who have transitioned are speaking through their writings and their families and children. There are several events to mark the anniversary, and we have listed a few of them below.
Last night I had the privilege of seeing the first viewing of Attica, a new film by Stanley Nelson and Traci Curry that will debut tomorrow at the Toronto Film Festival before it goes on Showtime. It was not easy to watch, even though, as one of the Attica lawyers, I have seen and read nearly every newspaper article, video, and photo taken since September 9, 1971. I think somewhere in my attic are the “mug shots” of every man incarcerated at Attica on that day, along with transcripts of the pretrial hearings held for the five indictments of one of them, Eric “Jomo” Thompson, the Black Panther leader transferred from Auburn, along with leaders of the Young Lords, Nation of Islam, and Five Percenters, as punishment for their roles in the November 1970 strike in commemoration of Black Solidarity Day.
Jomo was represented by the brilliant Buffalo lawyer and later Justice of the Supreme Court Vincent E. Doyle, Jr., whom I assisted as a newly minted law school graduate. He had been shot seven times during the retaking on September 13 – first by sharpshooters on the roof firing dum dum bullets from .270 rifles, and later at close range by correction officers who recognized him and shot him five more times in the neck and back. Jomo was saved by the Brothers who moved him out of the line of fire, and the next day by National Guard members who took him to a Buffalo hospital to begin months of recovery, including skin grafts to repair the holes in his body.
It wasn’t until three years later that Jomo’s trial was set to begin, and we brought a motion alleging “selective prosecution” because no charges were brought against the troopers and correction officers who forcefully and gleefully shot into a yard of unarmed people followed by days of torture. It was the first time that testimony about the retaking of the prison was heard publicly, because Jomo had offered to testify before the grand jury about the men who shot him, giving him legal standing for such a hearing. When Jomo was on the witness stand (after testimony from a medic, a National Guard member, and several formerly incarcerated men), he removed his shirt to show the bullet holes in the back of his neck, down his back, and his left side and left arm. The prosecutor objected to calling them bullet wounds, wanting the marks to be referred to as “scar tissue” because “we don’t know what it is.” Attorney Doyle shot back, “Well, if you had investigated it, you would know!”
It was not long after that the prosecution of the Attica Brothers ended, all outstanding indictments dropped, and all convictions erased. But it was only through the class action lawsuit on behalf of the 1,281 men in D-yard fifty years ago, finally settled 20 years ago, that the full truth of the massacre that ended the uprising began to emerge. Tapes of then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Richard Nixon leave no doubt about the racism behind the decision to end the uprising in an orgy of violence.
For many of my generation, Attica was a moment of reckoning about our country. Closely following protests against the war in Vietnam, the assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, state killing of demonstrators at Kent State and Jackson State, the launch of the “war on drugs” – the massacre at Attica was shocking but not surprising, much like the murder of George Floyd decades later, shocking but not surprising for new generations.
There is, of course, much debate about the impact of the Attica Uprising. It was followed by both the golden years of prison litigation (including the establishment of Prisoners Legal Services of NY, where I served as a staff attorney for much of the 1970s) and increased programs, including college and greatly expanded visiting. At the same time, it was followed by a brutal drug war and mass incarceration, with a prison population that exploded from under 300,000 to more than 2 million men and women.
When the men in the yard said, “we are men, we are not beasts, and we will not be beaten and driven as such,” they were speaking for then and for now, to remind us that there is a limit to the amount of degradation that people will stand for, and that treating people with dignity and respect is not only part of Osborne’s mission and values, but is the bare minimum we ought to expect from our leaders, our systems, our captors, and our neighbors.
In the end, as long as our country believes that putting human beings in cages is a rational response to behavior we don’t like or won’t tolerate, it’s possible to say that nothing has changed. But until 1971, very few Americans gave any thought to prisons or the people living within them. Osborne’s founder, who served as warden of Sing Sing over a hundred years ago, claimed that the walls were there as much to keep the public outside as to keep the incarcerated people inside. The Attica uprising revealed the humanity of those held captive, and that gate can never be closed.
|
|
Join us on September 9th and 13th for the 50th Commemoration of the Attica uprising and massacre two-part remote event. The first virtual event will focus on the history and aftermath of the Attica uprising, and will include two moderated roundtable discussions with Attica Brothers, observers and legal workers. The second event will focus on what Attica means today and the ongoing fight for justice with formerly/currently incarcerated activists, changemakers, and directly impacted people.
Register for both events at: atticaisallofus.org/register. #AtticaIsAllOfUs
|
|
|
More Attica Anniversary Events
|
|
|
President & CEO Elizabeth Gaynes will be part of a panel on Sunday evening from Central Synagogue, part of a national campaign of the Multifaith Initiative to End Mass Incarceration and Emani Davis (Elizabeth’s daughter with Jomo, pictured above) will participate in the “Attica is All of Us” panel at 6pm on September 13.
|
|
|
The Correctional Association of New York has partnered with the New York State Museum to present its exhibition, “Open Wounds,” virtually. Follow CANY’s social media to take experience the work throughout Thursday, September 9 and Friday, September 10. |
|
|
|
The Fortune Society’s Policy Center Collective will host “Attica is All of Us” on September 9 at 1pm. Join via Zoom as staff and participants discuss the importance of the Attica uprising, including a live reenactment and interviews by Founder David Rothenberg.
|
|
|
Elizabeth Gaynes,
President & CEO
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
