Seeking Truth in the Attica Collection

September 9–13, 2021, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Attica Prison Uprising, which was, at the time, the "single bloodiest encounter between Americans since the Civil War."¹ In just fifteen minutes, thirty-nine people were killed as New York State Police unleashed a barrage of gunfire into the confines of the prison's D Yard, including ten hostages. In the immediate aftermath, actions by New York State sought to obscure the events inside Attica from public view. From the first public statements falsely laying blame for the deaths of hostages at the hands of prisoners, to the collection of the physical evidence by the New York State Police, as argued by Heather Ann Thompson, to incriminate prisoners in a variety of crimes, to the legal morass that spanned more than thirty years, all have contributed to an obfuscated and distorted narrative in popular perception.²

While the events at Attica captivated national attention at the time, the memory of the uprising has largely faded from the wider collective memory, though the tragedies and lessons of Attica continue to resonate within communities of color today. This trend affirms the arguments made by Kenneth Foote that some sites of tragedy and violence "may assume meaning for the minority group, but time must pass before the minority cause symbolized by the site is accepted by a larger constituency."³ As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the uprising, it is time that we as a society seek to grapple with the complicated history of the Attica Prison Uprising.

Photograph of D Yard at Attica in the aftermath of the retaking. new york state archives

The uprising at Attica played out in the wake of the turbulence of late 1960s.⁴ Attica prison, located in Wyoming County, opened in 1931 and was originally intended to house prisoners from upstate. However, by the 1960s Attica became the overflow facility for New York City area offenders, which led to racial tensions between the predominantly minority prison population and white guards (in 1970, the Attica Prison population was 54 percent black, 37 percent white, and 9 percent Latino, while the general New York State population was less than 12 percent black).⁵ The racial disparity coupled with overcrowding (Attica was built for 2,000 inmates, but in 1971 housed 2,243 inmates) and the troubling poor conditions at the prison resulted in a tinderbox of explosive tension by the summer of 1971. Attica Correctional Facility was opened in 1931 and had not been significantly updated in the four decades since. Cell bars were thick with rust, and wind passed through cracks and holes in the cement walls. The cells offered no heating in the frigid upstate New York winters and were stifling during the summer months. The state of New York allocated only 63 cents per inmate per day for food. Meals were insufficient to meet the minimum dietary standards established by federal guidelines. Men incarcerated at Attica were allowed only one bar of soap and one roll of toilet paper each month. Most men at Attica earned only 6 cents per day at the various jobs assigned at Attica, with the luckiest taking in $2.90.⁶

In July 1971 a group of prisoners calling themselves the Attica Liberation Faction presented Russell Oswald, the commissioner of correctional services, with a list of demands including reform of the New York State parole system, improved living conditions, better medical care, improved wages in prison industry, and better oversight of facility staff.⁷ While Oswald publicly agreed with many of the called-for changes, progress was slow, and tensions continued to rise.⁸ Tensions continued to mount following the August killing of the outspoken George Jackson, a prisoner in San Quentin Correctional Facility in California. In protest, Attica prisoners executed a hunger strike, which put many of the guards on edge. On the morning of September 9, 1971, a heated exchange between prisoners and guards led to a prisoner rebellion, which soon escalated and spread as the prisoners overpowered