Though it happened 30 years ago, Attica crystallizes many issues concerning criminal justice, race, and governmental accountability that are still troubling our society today. It goes down in history as the bloodiest uprising in an American penal institution. The four-day takeover began on September 9, 1971, at the Attica Correctional Facility, located in Attica, a town in Upstate New York.

1,281 inmates, mostly black, gained control of the prison, took 39 hostages, and issued 31 demands, primarily concerning improvements in inhumane prison conditions. Negotiations with State Corrections Commissioner Russell Oswald lasted four days, and involved 33 observers with New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller tracking the stand-off from afar.

After negotiations stalled, 500 armed troopers stormed the prison. In the end, 29 hostages and 10 guards were killed, all by police fire. Brutal retaliations and a cover-up followed. Inmates who suffered physical torture and reprisals filed a class action suit against the state. After 26 years, the case was settled with a $12 million award to inmates and their attorneys. Now the hostages are asking New York State for equal recognition.
1) Race and class were commonly acknowledged as being at the heart of tensions within Attica in 1971, but the huge disparity between African American and white felons continues today, raising questions about the color-blindness of the judicial system

2) Attica became the well-spring for the prisoners’ rights movement and the catalyst for reform in such areas as religious freedom, censorship of letters and reading materials, medical care and diet, visiting rights, educational programs, and legal services.
3) Many of these reforms have eroded in the past decade as a “lock ’em mentality” came back into favor. Numerous educational and training programs have ceased, and in 1998, Gov. Pataki vetoed funding for Prisoners’ Legal Services. Attica changed the way hostage negotiations are conducted. In training films, it serves as a textbook example of excessive and unnecessary government force. Today a “wait ’em out” strategy prevails. As a result, no one has been killed in any prison rebellion since Attica.

4) Governmental accountability for wrongdoing is still a live issue with Attica. As guard Mike Smith states in the film, “I don’t know any other employer who could murder their employees and get away with it, except the government.” The State of New York has never offered help, compensation, or an apology to the hostages or their widows. Only last year was the civil action suit settled with the inmates, who were subjected to torture and brutal retaliations after the state regained control of the prison.

The saga continues even now. As a resulting of lobbying by the Forgotten Victims of Attica, Governor Pataki formed a commission this spring to look into their request for an apology, counseling, compensation, the release of sealed records, and the right to an annual memorial service in front of the prison.

Black August originated in the California penal system in the 1970s. Many significant events in the New African Nation’s struggle for justice and liberation have occurred in August. The commemoration of Black August particularly hails the advances and sacrifices of Black Freedom Fighters.

Further Research and Study:
http://www.talkinghistory.org/attica/

Learn more in RBG Communiversity eLibrary: We Remember Attica_Attica Is All of Us Folder

NEW AFRIKAN LIBERATION FRONT IS LAUNCHED/
NALF Black Nationalist Organizations Unite at Historic Atlanta Summit

The New Afrikan Liberation Front is optimistic about the outcome of its ongoing activities. Explained Ferguson, “Many people believed that Eastern Europe would remain under Soviet domination forever. But in the space of only a few years, nobody even thinks about the Soviet Union anymore. It’s gone. That tells us something. For just as the U.S. had dominated New Afrikans, Indians, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Hawaiians, and others for centuries, it doesn’t have to be that way forever.” Ferguson added that “If we work hard and take care of the day-to-day needs of New Afrikans, while fighting for a revolutionary nationalist political agenda, then we can win. There will be freedom for the New Afrikan nation.”

Principles of Unity of the NALF

1. Land.The primary objective of the NALF is self-determination through a national liberation struggle for land (territory within the historic southeastern Black Belt), independence and reparations.

2. Who is the enemy?For over 400 years, our nation has been enslaved, first by the European settlers in North America, and currently we are colonized by the political descendants of those settlers, represented by the government of the United States of America. We are united in fighting for the destruction of imperialism and white supremacy, the twin evils of our national oppression which is forced on our Nation by the U.S. imperialist State.

3. Self-defense/Armed Struggle. We recognize the right to self-defense as well as the right to armed struggle for self-determination.

4. Political Prisoners/POWs/Exiles. We seek amnesty for prisoners of war, political prisoners, and exiles as a non-negotiable self-determination demand.

5. Social liberation. The fight against racial, sexist, class, and all forms of social oppression is fundamental to New Afrikan/Black self-determination.

6. Unity and autonomy of organizations-methods of resolving contradictions. We accept the leadership and discipline of the NALF as determined by a consensus of its membership organizations. The ideological integrity and autonomy of each organization within the NALF is mutually respected. We will practice constructive criticism and self-criticism for the purpose of resolving contradictions and internal differences.

7. A New Afrikan Consciousness Movement. We recognize that culture is a weapon of resistance. In that light we are committed to building a movement to develop the national consciousness and culture of the New Afrikan people.

8. Our cultural symbols. We recognize the Red, Black and Green flag, the new Afrikan creed, the New Afrikan Declaration of Independence and the Code of Umoja as the unifying historical and cultural symbols of our New Afrikan Liberation Front and our independence movement.

For information: Herman Ferguson, P.O. Box 340084, Jamaica, NY 11434, (719) 949-515

AFRIKAN (KEMETIC) PHILOSOPHY THE HUMAN BEING AND HUMAN REALITY WERE GOVERNED BYTHE BASIC DIVINE LAW OF “TO BE A SPIRIT”. THE MORAL MANDATE OF AFRIKAN HUMANITY WAS “TO BECOME AND IN BECOMING”—THE PURSUIT OF SUCH DIVINE LAW AND MORAL MANDATE WAS REFLECTIVE OF ONES PURSUIT OF GODLINESS. EDUCATION WAS KEY TO THIS PROCESS-TO BECOME AND IN BECOMING A MORE PERFECT BEING. FOR OUR AFRIKAN ANCESTORS EDUCATION AND SCHOOLING WAS ULTIMATELY ABOUT A PERSON BEING TRANSFORMED FROM A LESSER MATERIAL BEING TO A GREATER SPIRITUAL BEING. DR. E. CURTIS ALEXANDER DEFINES AFRICAN CENTERED EDUCATION AS SYSTEM OF SEQUENTIALLY PLANNED EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES PROVIDED FOR AFRICAN HERITAGE CHILDREN, YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTS TO DEVELOP THE NECESSARY AND REQUIRED SKILLS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE WITH SPECIFIC INTEREST ON THE UPLIFTMENT AND EMPOWERMENT OF THEIR AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITIES AND THE TOTAL DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH OF THE AFRICAN CONTINENT.