Eddie Ellis had never even seen the person he had supposedly murdered. But COINTELPRO’s mission to wipe out the Black Panther Party landed him behind bars. By 1971, he watched guards massacre his comrades during the Attica Prison Rebellion. But he had much more life to live.
In 1979, Ellis helped lead the Seven Neighborhood Study, finding that 75% of New York State’s incarcerated population came from just seven Black and Latin NYC neighborhoods. It pioneered the idea that crime and poverty were linked – something sociologists didn’t figure out until 20 years later!
After leaving prison in 1994, Ellis earned multiple academic degrees, founded The Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions, and spoke every Saturday afternoon on “The Count,” the city’s only radio show for and by formerly incarcerated people.
And speaking of “formerly incarcerated,” Ellis pioneered that, too!
Ellis spearheaded a campaign in 2002 to stop using dehumanizing language like “inmates,” “animals,” and “felons.”
“They identify us as ‘things’ rather than people,” he wrote.
On July 24, 2014, Ellis passed away. But his decades-long fight is what true Black control of education looks like. And it doesn’t just have to be in classrooms.
It's our responsibility to take the torch and continue to educate each other – and truly uplift and hear the voices this country is determined to silence.