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Brutality had been brewing in Attica Prison for months, until violence boiled to the surface on September 9, 1971 - and the prison became the site of a massive revolt.
Done with abuse and neglect, the incarcerated men began by overpowering guards and locking them up in cells. But it escalated from there.
1,200 men, many of them Black political prisoners, congregated in the yard with hostages to draft their demands. They wanted basic human rights, from minimum wage to medical treatment and rehabilitation.
But former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and the prison commissioner never negotiated their demands in full. Instead, things got bloody.
On September 13, thousands of troops arrived at the scene. Helicopters swarmed, releasing tear gas. They made an example out of hundreds of people by shooting and viciously torturing them in the halls. They killed 29 incarcerated men and nine guards in 15 minutes – then blamed the revolutionaries for the deaths!
After the uprising President Nixon, Rockefeller, and other officials celebrated. “You know what stops [radicals]?” Nixon told his chief of staff. “Kill a few.”
Just like our ancestors revolted against slavery and colonization centuries ago, Attica’s rebels revolted against the prison system - by any means necessary. We too have the power to challenge the systems that oppress us. After all, rebellion is in our blood.