SLAVE REVOLT AT ATTICA

It so happens that on some Friday’s I just reprint an article of interest or importance from another source en lieu of the Oread Daily. Today, my friends, is such a day.
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It’s been just a little more then 34 years since the prison revolt at Attica took place. I remember it like it was yesterday. What happened there should never be forgotten.




The following is taken from the web site:
It's About Time - Black Panther Party Legacy & Alumni

SLAVE REVOLT AT ATTICA
---BY ELBERT "BIG MAN" HOWARD

In September 1971, before I was able to leave New England and return to the warmth of California, I got a call that Chairman Bobby Seale was headed to upstate New York and that I was to accompany him. We were going to Attica State Prison. It had been broadcast on the radio that a riot had broken out and part of the prison was under the control of the inmates.

The inmates had a list of demands that they presented to the prison authorities and they requested civilian observers. They wanted representatives of the government, several newspapers, the Young Lords, Black Muslims, the Black Panther Party and some other social and professional groups.

Bobby, his driver - Van Taylor - me and a couple of other Panthers hit the highway for Attica, 40 miles east of Buffalo, New York. After we had driven a while and were close to the prison, we stopped and asked a state trooper for directions. He recognized bobby Seale right away. Bobby explained that we had been asked to come as part of the negotiating team at Attica. The state trooper told us to follow him and he escorted us right up to the prison.

When we pulled up to the prison, the front was full of state and local police, national guardsmen, emergency medical personnel and lost of news media personnel and equipment. Once we were recognized as Panthers, the news people and reporters were all over us with questions and requests for interviews. Bobby told them that we had just arrived and had nothing to say at that point.

Word got inside that we were there. Attorney Bill Kunstler came out and told us he would let Commissioner Russell Oswald know that we were there and make arrangements to let us in the prison. Oswald came out and directed his armed guards to let us pass through. Inside, there were members of the press; New York Times, Daily News, Washington Post, Muhammad Speaks, and of course, The Black Panther News Service -us.

I remember Dr. Benjamin Spock, David Dellinger, Bill Kunstler, members of the Young Lords and the Black Muslims. We were briefed on the inmate’s demands and the hostage situation. There were at least 30 guards and civilian employees taken as hostages.

I forgot to mention that outside with all the police and medical personnel were the families of the prison guards being held hostage. There were wives and children crying and asking us to do all we can to help settle the situation so their loved ones would be released unharmed. That part of it I'll never forget because their pleas went out to Governor Rockefeller and fell on deaf ears.

On Sept. 9, 1971, approximately 1,000 of the 2,254 inmates (85% of whom were Black) took control of the southeast portion of the prison compound. The inmates issued a list of demands for; higher wages, religious and political freedom, dietary, medical and recreational improvements, and total amnesty and freedom from reprisals upon the surrendering of the hostages. Negotiations between the inmates and Commissioner Oswald began.

The civilian observer committee, including us, the BPP, were admitted into the prison and served as a liaison between Oswald and the inmates during 4 days of tense negotiations. Oswald offered a list of twenty-eight reforms that he was willing to grant. He acceded to nearly all the inmates' major demands, except the ouster of Attica Superintendent Vincent R. Mancusi and total amnesty.

The Warden's office areas were alive with telephones ringing off the hook with news people calling out reports and officials talking to the Governor's office.

Runners were coming and going to the yard; taking and bringing messages between the commissioner and the inmate revolt leadership.

Governor Nelson Rockefeller rejected the amnesty request and despite requests by the observer committee, refused to travel to Attica to participate or show any king of understanding of the negotiations.

At dusk, as it was getting dark, the inmates agreed to let members of the BPP and some members of the media into the restricted area of Cellblock "D" which let out into the yard where the inmates' command center was and where the hostages were held. To get to the yard we had to walk down a long semi-dark corridor that was about 100 feet long and maybe 10 feet wide. There was one overhead light in the corridor. There were cellblocks on the left and a wall on our right. Some cell doors had mattresses standing up against them. Water was standing in places on the floor.

Way down at the end of the corridor was a cell gate guarded by three or four inmates with their faces covered so as not to be identified. Verbal signals were yelled out that the Panthers were coming in.

If ever there was a place that looked and smelled of death, this was it. It was just hours away. I remember a bible scripture that came into my mind and for some reason, while walking, I said it to myself, "Yea though I Walk through the valley and shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thine art with me, thy rod and thy shaft they comfort me in the presence of my enemy, and I will dwell in the house of the lord forever."

Anyway, we got to the end of the corridor and were let into the yard. The yard was crowded. There were fires going at various locations around the yard. There were employees of the prison, hostages if you will, sitting around the fires. Most were dressed in prison clothes. You could tell they were hostages because most of them were white, dirty and looked very sad, but unharmed. You could tell that they were clinging to hope that it would soon be over and that they would be alive.

The revolt leaders or committee had a command post set up in the yard. They had a table with seats behind it, lights and a P.A. system. When it was announced that Bobby Seale and a delegation of the BPP was there, the whole yard erupted with applause and yells of acknowledgment. On our way to our seats, I shook hands with many, many inmates who said, "Hey Big Man, All Power to the People." I had no idea these guys knew me or who I was. Then, on the other hand, I had made the papers up and down the east coast during the New Haven and New York trials.

With the BPP and the press present, the inmate leaders stated their demands. Bobby Seale told them that he had to consult with Huey P. Newton, the Minister of Defense of the BPP before he made a statement but we stood in support of their demands. Bobby went to find a phone to contact Huey. Huey agreed that although very little could be done at that point, the Black Panther Party would stand in solidarity with the inmates in whatever way possible.

On Sunday morning, Sept. 11, 1971, the assembled forces of 211 state troopers and correction officers retook Attica using shotguns, rifles and tear gas. After the shooting was over, 10 hostages and 29 inmates lay dead or dying. Four hundred rounds of ammunition had been fired. Four hostages and 85 inmates suffered gunshot wounds. It was initially reported that several hostages died at the hands of knife- wielding inmates. Pathology reports later revealed that hostages and inmates all died from gunshot wounds. No guns were found in the possession of inmates.

Frank "Big Black" Smith, Attica survivor, reported: "It was very, very barbaric; you know, very, very cruel. They ripped our clothes off. They made us crawl on the ground like we were animals. And they snatched me. And they lay me on a table and beat me in my testicles. And they burned me with cigarettes and dropped hot shells on me and put a football up under my throat and they kept telling me that if it dropped, they were going to kill me. And I really felt, after seeing so many people shot for no apparent reason that they really were going to do this. They set up a gauntlet in the hallway and they broke glass up in the middle of the hallway and they made people run through the gauntlet.

They had police on each side with the clubs they call nigger sticks and they were hitting people. It just hurt. You see one human being treating another human being this way and they really hurt me. I never thought it would happen. I never thought so many would be treated like animals. And the way they treated me, the way they beat me and after they took me off the table, they ran me through the gauntlet. And the way they broke my wrist, over my head. They took me to the hospital and dumped me on the floor, playing with me with shotguns, pointing it in my face and putting the barrel of the shotgun over my eyes and telling me - Nigger we're going to kill you."

After all these years, the question still goes unanswered, what was the hurry. The inmates and hostages were inside a thirty-foot wall. They were not going anywhere. Nobody knows what the hurry was. "There's always time to die."
Big Man

Elbert "Big Man" Howard, one of the original six members of the Black Panther Party, served as the Party's deputy minister of information and as a member of the International Solidarity Committee. He was the founding editor of the Party's newspaper, the Black Panther Party Community News Service. He currently works as an advisor to several groups in Memphis working to improve education and health care.

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The following is taken from the web site of Court TV

INTERVIEW WITH FRANK "BLACK" SMITH

Why did Attica happen? What were prison conditions like in 1971?

Attica was about wants and needs. Attica was a lot about class and a lot about race. Let me give you an example. The 4th of July was a big day; the corrections officers opened up the four prison yards. Well, corrections had a "black ice time" and "white ice time." That meant that corrections called the white inmates to get ice for their Kool-Aid or their drinks, then they'd call the blacks. It wasn't just, "Alright, ice time!" Corrections had that kind of separation. The football teams had separation. The jobs, there was separation. Basically, the white inmates had the white-collar jobs: working in the package room, around the warden or assistant warden. The labor part of prison was basically for minority people in 1971. Then if corrections saw four or five blacks standing around talking, they'd make you bust up. But if it was four or five whites, corrections didn't say nothing to them. Basically, 80 to 90 percent of the people in Attica State Prison were, and are, coming out of the New York City area. You put that urban attitude and class of people with corrections officers and their upstate rural attitudes, class, and behavior, and you automatically create a conflict.

During Attica's four-day takeover, you were named chief of security. At the start, you were apolitical. What changed you?

There was a lot of change. Corrections brought in big-time educational programs and started going up on wages. Corrections started letting more religious practices into prison and started conjugal visits. You might have a little more time out of your cell, where you can breathe better. Even the medical things started changing.

But that's not enough to create a different value system and outlook in life. You need to address the human behavior thing, how you react and interact as a human being. You're not going to accomplish that if the corrections officers don't have any of that themselves, if all they do is look down on you with no humane concern and call you some form of an animal. So you can't have all the programs for the inmates and not have any kind of training for the keeper.

Society is so aggravated with crime and the punishment of crime, they don't see the revolving door. A person goes in, and he or she is going to come out. Something in between that has to be put in place. Rehabilitation and reform have to become a force, because prison doesn't know what to do. All they know is how to turn the key and lock the door. You have to do meaningful things while you're there: job training, rehabilitation, heavy drug treatment, broad educational programs. The average person who goes there doesn't have a high school diploma. It should be mandatory to get a high school diploma. If someone goes there and does drugs or some kind of addiction, it should be mandatory that they get into a program. It should be mandatory that when they come out that they continue the program. The court has got to set guidelines for this when it is issuing the sentence. If you had parole officers who really acted as helpers, instead of sitting around and just telling you to look for a job, that would help. They have work relief programs, but if you take someone from the city who's in Attica and let them out for work relief, they don't know anybody upstate. Their family's down here, and they're the folks who might help them get set up and start life again, maybe talk to someone about giving them a job. They should send those people to a downstate facility for work relief.

(Note: time frame referred to just below is from a couple of years ago)
A lot of the reforms are gone now. There are no educational programs anymore, no life skill programs, or training for jobs. The Governor stopped all of those programs about a year ago. Cut backs. They figure it's better to have more prisons than more educational programs. You had 15 state prisons then, now you have 70 or 80 [in New York]. And they're still building. A lot of them have double bunks, and they have young kids in state prison with adults. That's a big problem.

Why should people care about Attica today?

Attica is not just an isolated prison. Attica is attitudes and behavior, crime and punishment, education. It's about communication, it's about alleviating racism as much as we can, it's about the criminal justice system. It's about how the police can do what they want to when they want to do it. It's about how court-sentencing guidelines should be different. People should learn from and remember Attica, just like they learned from Kent State and other such events. People need to see they are part of the problem and part of the solution. Attica is all of us.

Frank "Big Black" Smith served nine years in Attica for
robbing a crap game - he was released in 1974. He was the prison
football coach and was popular and well liked by inmates and staff
alike. This was the reason he was chosen to be the chief of security
by the inmates during the rebellion. He was responsible for the
safety of the observers and negotiators during the four day
uprising. Frank "Big Black" Smith died just a little over one year
ago.