Fund Drive Special: Prisons on Fire: George Jackson, Attica & Black Liberation

Friday is the 45^th anniversary of the 1971 Attica Prison uprising. Twenty-nine prisoners and ten hostages were killed when police took back control of the facility after inmates resisted state repression, demanding better conditions. To mark the occasion in 2016, we’ll broadcast the CD Prisons on Fire: George Jackson, Attica & Black Liberation produced by Freedom Archives. The CD examines the legacy of the prison movement. And what these forgotten histories tell us about prisons, repression and the struggle for freedom today.

Through a mixtures of archival audio and contemporary interviews, music and narration, we hear the voices of George Jackson; Jonathan Jackson Jr.; Georgia Jackson (mother of George and Jonathan Jackson); Angela Davis; David Hilliard (former Black Panther Party leader); James Baldwin; Harry Belafonte; David Johnson, Hugo Pinell, Luis Talamantez and Sundiata Tate; Frank “Big Black” Smith (Attica Brother and prison activist); William Kunstler; Elizabeth Fink and Michael Deutsch (attorneys for the Attica Brothers); L.D. Barkley (Attica Brother, murdered in the retaking of the prison in September of 1971, and who announced the “Attica Manifesto” to the world); and Ruchell Magee (prison activist and leader, still in prison for his political activities).