View source for Attica Prison riot

{{Short description|1971 prisoner rebellion in New York}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Attica Prison Uprising
| image             = Attica Prison Riot, 1971.jpg
| image_size        = 300px
| caption           = State troopers stand guard over prisoners after retaking Attica Correctional Facility during the riot.
| date              = September 9–13, 1971
| place             = [[Attica, New York]], U.S.
| coordinates       = {{Coord|42|50|59|N|78|16|18|W|}}
| combatant1        = Attica inmates
| combatant2        = {{Plainlist|
* {{flagdeco|New York}} [[New York State Police]]
* {{flagdeco|New York}} [[New York State Department of Corrections]]
* {{flagdeco|New York}} [[New York Army National Guard]]
}}
| commander1        = {{Plainlist|
* Herbert X. Blyden{{efn|name="elected"|Elected by inmates as a lead negotiator}}
* Frank Lott{{efn|name="elected"}}
* Peter Butler{{efn|name="elected"}}
* Donald "Don" Noble{{efn|name="elected"}}
* Carl Jones-El{{efn|name="elected"}}
* Frank "Big Black" Smith{{efn|Inmate responsible for the safety of hostages and observers}}
* Richard X. Clark{{efn|Head of the inmates and hostages internal security and served as a liaison between the inmates of D-yard and the authorities}}
* Cleveland McKinley "Jomo" Davis
* Elliott James "L.D." Barkley{{KIA}}
}}
| commander2        = {{Plainlist|
* Governor [[Nelson Rockefeller]]
* Commissioner Russell G. Oswald (Department of Corrections)
* Deputy Commissioner Walter Dunbar (Department of Corrections)
* Warden Vincent R. Mancusi (Attica Prison)
* Assistant Deputy Warden Karl Pfeil (Attica Prison)
* Superintendent William Kirwan (State Police)
* Chief Inspector John C. Miller (State Police)
* Major John Monahan (State Police)
* Lieutenant Joseph P. Christian (State Police) ([[Gunshot wound|GSW]])
}}
| strength1         = 1,281 inmates
| strength2         = 74 correctional officers{{efn|Who had avoided becoming hostages}}<br />550 state troopers
| strength3         = 42 correctional officers and civilian workers taken hostage
| casualties1       = 33 inmates killed (3 by other inmates){{efn|name="prisoners"|Three inmates killed by other inmates before the assault, 30 killed by police fire during the assault}}<br />85 inmates wounded{{efn|name="prisoners"}}
| casualties2       = 10 correctional officers killed (9 by correctional officers){{efn|One died from a head injury sustained before the assault, eight were killed by friendly fire during the assault, and one died later from gunshot wounds from friendly fire during the assault}}<br />
5 correctional officers wounded during the assault{{efn|Three by friendly fire, two by inmates' knives}}<br />
1 state trooper wounded{{efn|By friendly fire}}
}}

The '''Attica Prison riot''' took place at the [[Attica Correctional Facility|state prison]] in [[Attica, New York]]; it started on September 9, 1971 with a violent takeover of the prison control center in which one prison officer, William Quinn, was killed,<ref name=":1" /> and ended on September 13 with the highest number of fatalities in the history of United States [[prison riot|prison uprisings]]. Of the 43 men who died (33 inmates and 10 correctional officers and employees), all but one guard and three inmates were killed by law enforcement gunfire when the state retook control of the prison on the final day of the uprising.<ref name=":11">{{Cite web|last=Robbins|first=Tom|date=September 9, 2016|title=Revisiting the Ghosts of Attica|url=https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/09/09/revisiting-the-ghosts-of-attica|url-status=live|access-date=August 23, 2021|website=The Marshall Project|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160929131654/https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/09/09/revisiting-the-ghosts-of-attica |archive-date=September 29, 2016 }}</ref><ref name=":19" /><ref name="atticaDoc">{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B09L19X8MP/ref=atv_dl_rdr?autoplay=1  |title=Attica |publisher=Showtime| date=2021| access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref> The Attica Uprising has been described as a historic event in the [[prisoners' rights]] movement.<ref name=":20">{{Cite web|date=September 20, 2016|title=Organizing the Prisons in the 1960s and 1970s: Part One, Building Movements|url=http://www.processhistory.org/prisoners-rights-1/|url-status=live|access-date=August 23, 2021|website=Process|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002202829/http://www.processhistory.org:80/prisoners-rights-1/ |archive-date=October 2, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Fathi|first=David|date=September 14, 2018|title='Attica Is Every Prison; and Every Prison Is Attica'|url=https://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights/attica-every-prison-and-every-prison-attica|url-status=live|access-date=August 25, 2021|website=ACLU.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917142001/https://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights/attica-every-prison-and-every-prison-attica |archive-date=September 17, 2018 }}</ref>

Prisoners revolted to seek better living conditions and political rights, claiming that they were treated as beasts.<ref name=":10" /> On September 9, 1971, 1,281 of the approximately 2,200 men incarcerated in the [[Attica Correctional Facility]] rioted and took control of the prison, taking 42 staff hostage. During the four days of negotiations, authorities agreed to the majority of the prisoners' 28 demands,<ref name=":1">{{cite web |url=http://www.archives.nysed.gov/research/oag/attica-timeline |title=Timeline of Events of the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Subsequent Legal Actions |website=New York State Archives}}</ref> but did not accept the demand for the removal of Attica's warden or to allow the inmates complete [[amnesty]] from criminal prosecution for the prison takeover.<ref name=":3" /> By order of Governor [[Nelson Rockefeller]] (after consultation with President [[Richard M. Nixon]]),<ref name="atticaDoc"/> armed corrections officers and state and local police were sent in to regain control of the prison. By the time they stopped firing, at least 39 people were dead: 10 [[correctional officer]]s and civilian employees and 29 inmates, with nearly all killed by law enforcement gunfire.<ref name="atticaDoc"/> Law enforcement subjected many of the survivors to various forms of torture, including sexual violence.<ref name=":34">{{Cite book |last=Burton |first=Orisanmi |title=Tip of the spear: black radicalism, prison repression, and the long attica revolt |date=2023 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-39631-9 |location=Oakland, California}}</ref>

Rockefeller had refused to go to the prison or meet with prisoners. After the uprising was suppressed, he falsely stated that the prisoners "carried out the cold-blood killings they had threatened from the outset".<ref>the ''Milwaukee Star'' (1971).</ref> Medical examiners confirmed that all but the deaths of one officer and three inmates were caused by law enforcement gunfire.<ref name=":11" /><ref name=":23" /> The ''[[New York Times]]'' writer Fred Ferretti said the rebellion concluded in "mass deaths that four days of taut negotiations had sought to avert".<ref>Ferretti (1971).</ref>

As a result of the rebellion, the New York Corrections Department made changes in prisons to satisfy some of the prisoners' demands, reduce tension in the system, and prevent such incidents in the future. While there were improvements to prison conditions in the years immediately following the uprising, many of these improvements were reversed in the 1980s and 1990s. Attica remains one of the most infamous prison riots to have occurred in the United States.<ref name=":19">{{Cite web|date=September 8, 2020|title=Riot at Attica prison|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/riot-at-attica-prison|url-status=live|access-date=August 21, 2021|website=A&E Television Networks|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205052637/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/riot-at-attica-prison |archive-date=December 5, 2010 }}</ref><ref name=":20" />

== Background ==
The uprising occurred within the context of anti-colonial movements throughout the [[Third-worldism|Third-World]],{{cn|date=August 2025}} the [[Black power movement|Black Power Movement]] and [[New Left]] movements within the United States, and intensifying [[Political repression|state repression]] of these movements, including via [[war on crime]] and the FBI's [[COINTELPRO|Counter Intelligence Program]]. Some of the prisoners in Attica participated in the riot because they desired better living conditions. Historian and [[Left-wing politics|left-wing]] activist [[Howard Zinn]] wrote the following about the conditions in Attica prior to the uprising, 
<blockquote>Prisoners spent 14 to 16 hours a day in their cells, their mail was read, their reading material restricted, their visits from families conducted through a mesh screen, their medical care disgraceful, their parole system inequitable, racism everywhere.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Zinn|first=Howard|title=A People's History of the United States|publisher=HarperCollins|year=1980|isbn=0-06-052842-7|pages=520}}</ref></blockquote> Overcrowding contributed to the poor conditions, as in recent years the prison's population had increased from the 1,200 prisoners for which it was designed to 2,243.<ref name="Vince">{{cite news|date=September 24, 2012|title=Obituary:Vincent Mancusi|work=Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9563394/Vincent-Mancusi.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9563394/Vincent-Mancusi.html |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=September 27, 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Additionally, as in many American prisons, racial disparities also existed at Attica. Within the prison population, 54% of the incarcerated men were [[African Americans|African American]], 9% of them were [[Puerto Rican American|Puerto Rican]], and 37% of them were [[White Americans|white]].<ref name=":14">{{cite book|url=http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/mssc/attica/atticareport.pdf|title=Attica: The Official Report of the New York State Special Commission on Attica|publisher=Bantam Books|year=1972|location=New York|pages=|oclc=601935|access-date=December 1, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604021150/http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/mssc/attica/atticareport.pdf|archive-date=June 4, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> All of the guards<ref name=":5" /> or all but one of the guards<ref name=":11" /> (depending on the source) were white. Guards often threw out letters written in Spanish sent to or from Puerto Rican prisoners, and relegated black prisoners to the lowest-paid jobs and subjected them to regular racial harassment.<ref name=":7">{{Cite news|last=Forman, Jr.|first=James|date=August 30, 2016|title=Attica, Attica: The Story of the Legendary Prison Uprising|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/books/review/blood-in-the-water-attica-heather-ann-thompson.html|access-date=August 20, 2021}}</ref> There were also geographic disparities&nbsp;– most of the incarcerated men were from urban areas, including metropolitan New York, while most of the guards were from the local region.

Anthropologist [[Orisanmi Burton]] has shown that while improving prison conditions and racial disparities were an important concern, many Attica prisoners were critical of prison reform and participated in the uprising because they understood prisons like Attica as sites of revolutionary warfare.<ref name=":34"/> Burton therefore argues that the Attica rebellion was informed by the politics of [[Prison abolition movement|prison abolition]]. For example, in 1972 an Attica prisoner named Joseph Little told a government panel, "I'm not for no penitentiary reform. I'm for abolishing the whole concept of penitentiary reform."<ref name=":34"/>

During this period, there was a growing culture of activism in which prisoners not only demanded better treatment, but sought to participate in broader movements for radical social transformation within and beyond the United States.<ref name=":34"/> The previous year, multiple rebellions occurred throughout the New York City Jail system, including the Manhattan House of Detention, the Brooklyn House of Detention, The Queens Branch House of Detention at Kew Gardens, the Queens Branch House of Detention at Long Island City, and the Adolescent Remand Shelter on [[Rikers Island]].<ref name=":34"/> Inmates at the Manhattan House of Detention held five guards hostage for eight hours, until state officials promised to hear prisoner grievances and they also promised not to take any punitive action against the rioters.<ref name=":15">{{Cite web|last=Mendez|first=Rossy|date=September 29, 2017|title=New York City and the Attica State Prison Riot|url=https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/9/14/w8f4fopedetud85rsjbvxn3brxhv3z|url-status=live|access-date=August 21, 2021|website=NYC Department of Records & Information Services|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110102008/http://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/9/14/w8f4fopedetud85rsjbvxn3brxhv3z |archive-date=November 10, 2017 }}</ref> Despite that promise, officials had the primary ringleaders shipped to various New York State Prisons and many were brutalized, held for months in solitary confinement<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|title=Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy|publisher=Pantheon|year=2016|isbn=9780375423222|pages=51–52}}</ref><ref name=":34"/> and faced further criminal charges.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|title=Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy|publisher=Pantheon|year=2016|isbn=978-0375423222|pages=179}}</ref><ref name=":34"/> Incarcerated people and state authorities in [[Auburn Correctional Facility]] engaged in an ongoing conflict and confrontation between November 2, 1970, and June 9, 1971. Several participants in what came to be known as the Auburn prison riot were subsequently transferred to other New York State prisons, including Attica.<ref name=":34"/>

In July 1971, a group of Attica inmates presented a list of 27 demands regarding improvements in living conditions in Attica to state Commissioner of Corrections Russell Oswald and Governor [[Nelson Rockefeller]].<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|last=Kaba|first=Mariame|date=September 2011|title=Attica Prison Uprising 101: A Short Primer|url=https://niastories.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/attica_primerfinal.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=August 20, 2021|website=Project NIA|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140602032247/http://niastories.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/attica_primerfinal.pdf |archive-date=June 2, 2014 }}</ref> These demands included improvements in multiple areas such as diet, the quality of guards, rehabilitation programs, and, in particular, education programs. The inmates also demanded increased religious freedom, the ability to engage in political activity, and an end to censorship, which they argued were all vital to a proper education within the prison.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Angela |title=Are Prisons Obsolete? |date=2003 |publisher=Seven Stories Press |location=New York |page=57}}</ref> The commissioner did not take any actions on the list of demands. Attica warden Vincent Mancusi responded by adding additional restrictions to inmates' reading materials and personal belongings.<ref name=":6" />

In August 1971, [[George Jackson (Black Panther)|George Jackson]], an author and prominent member of the [[Black Panther Party]], was shot and killed during an escape attempt in which three prison guards and two white inmates were murdered at [[San Quentin State Prison]] in California. Through his writings, Jackson had encouraged imprisoned people throughout the United States to become politically active. As a result, Jackson became one of the first targets of the FBI's Black Extremist Activities in Penal institutions program, which later evolved into the [[PRISACTS|Prison Activists Surveillance Program]] (PRISACTS).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Burton |first=Orisanmi |date=2023-05-01 |title=Targeting Revolutionaries |url=https://doi.org/10.1215/01636545-10302807 |journal=Radical History Review |volume=2023 |issue=146 |pages=11–31 |doi=10.1215/01636545-10302807 |issn=0163-6545}}</ref> Many incarcerated people in Attica had read Jackson's books and cited Jackson's death as a major catalyst for the riot.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":26">{{Cite news |last=Bandele |first=Asha |date=September 9, 2011 |title=After the Attica Uprising |work=The Nation |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/after-attica-uprising/ |access-date=August 25, 2021}}</ref><ref name=":34" /> The day after Jackson's death, at least 700 Attica inmates participated in a hunger strike in his honor.<ref name=":6" />

==The initial uprising==
On Wednesday, September 8, 1971, two inmates fought during their recreation break, and a correctional officer came up to intervene.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|title=Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy|publisher=Pantheon|year=2016|isbn=978-0375423222|pages=66–69}}</ref> One inmate had already left the area, but the officer demanded the remaining inmate return to his cell, and in the ensuing argument the inmate hit the officer.<ref name=":8" /> Other inmates and guards joined the commotion, and another inmate also hit the same officer, Lt. Richard Maroney, but before the violence could intensify, Lieutenant Robert Curtiss moved to deescalate the situation.<ref name=":8" /> Later that evening, warden Vincent Mancusi ordered the two inmates, Leroy Dewer and Ray Lamorie, involved in the altercation to be taken to solitary confinement, but when the officers arrived at 5 Company to take the inmates away, other prisoners resisted.<ref name=":8" /> The other inmates in 5 Company shouted and threw things at the guards and one inmate, William Ortiz, hit an officer, Tom Boyle, with a can of soup, resulting in him being assigned to "keep lock", or confinement to his cell.<ref name=":8" /><ref name="as" />

The morning of Thursday, September 9, 1971, prisoners of 5 Company were still upset and demanded that officers tell them what would become of Ortiz. Officer Gordon Kelsey told them he did not know and tried to continue the routine.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|title=Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy|publisher=Pantheon|year=2016|isbn=978-0375423222|pages=72–75}}</ref> As inmates headed to breakfast, some managed to open Ortiz's cell door and he left with them to the mess hall.<ref name="as"/><ref name=":9" /> When the command staff found out what had occurred, they decided to return all of the men of 5 Company to their cells after breakfast. But they did not inform all the correctional officers, and when officers led inmates out toward the recreation area after breakfast, both officers and inmates were surprised to find the doors locked.<ref name="as"/><ref name=":9" /> The inmates believed they were about to be punished and a melee broke out, which resulted in chaos as some inmates attacked the guards and others tried to flee.<ref name=":9" /> The chaos spread to other nearby companies of inmates, and the uprising began.<ref name=":6" /><ref name="as">{{cite web |publisher=Attica Central School District |title=Attica Correctional Facility: 1971 Prison Riot |access-date=October 4, 2006 |url=http://www.atticacsd.org/hs/library/Prison/prison/riot.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930031630/http://www.atticacsd.org/hs/library/Prison/prison/riot.html |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> During this stage,  several guards and inmates were injured. Officer William Quinn would die in the hospital two days later of injuries sustained during the initial riot.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6" />

By noon on September 9, correctional officers and police controlled about half the prison and its inmates, while 1,281 of Attica's approximately 2,200 inmates controlled the other half, including D-yard, two tunnels, and the central control room, referred to as "Times Square".<ref name=":9" /> Inmates held 42 officers and civilian employees as hostages.<ref name="pbs">{{cite web|publisher=Public Broadcasting Service |work=American Experience – The Rockefellers |title=People & Events: Attica Prison Riot – September 9–13, 1971 |access-date=October 4, 2006 |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/peopleevents/e_attica.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060908154308/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/peopleevents/e_attica.html |archive-date= September 8, 2006 |url-status= dead}}</ref>

==Negotiations==
Once inmates had secured their section of the prison, they began organizing. Inmates elected leaders to represent them in negotiations, appointed inmates to serve as medics and security, and began drafting a list of demands for officials to meet before they would surrender.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":26" /> For example, Frank "Big Black" Smith (September 11, 1933 – July 31, 2004) was appointed as head of security, and he kept both the hostages and the observers committee safe.<ref name=":21">{{Cite web|last=Martin|first=Douglas|date=August 3, 2004|title=Frank Smith, 71, Is Dead; Sought Justice After Attica|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/03/us/frank-smith-71-is-dead-sought-justice-after-attica.html|url-status=live|access-date=August 23, 2021|website=The New York Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150308233541/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2004/08/03/us/frank-smith-71-is-dead-sought-justice-after-attica.html |archive-date=March 8, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=":2">[https://web.archive.org/web/20220514121849/https://www.atticaisallofus.org/?page_id=506%3E "Attica Timeline"]. Attica Is All of Us. N.p., n.d. Web. November 24, 2013.</ref> Additionally, 21-year-old Elliott James "L.D." Barkley, an ardent orator, was a strong force during the negotiations. He spoke eloquently to the inmates, journalist camera crews, and viewers at home.<ref name="Eyes on the Prize 1990">''Eyes on the Prize''. Dir. Henry Hampton. PBS Video, 1990. Film.</ref> Barkley, just days away from his scheduled release at the time of the uprising, was killed during the recapturing of the prison.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Schumach|first=Murray|date=September 21, 1971|title=Slain Attica Leader Is Eulogized|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/09/21/archives/slain-attica-leader-is-eulogized.html|access-date=August 25, 2021}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|quote= We are men! We are not beasts and we do not intend to be beaten or driven as such. The entire prison populace, that means every one of us here, has set forth to change forever the ruthless brutalization and disregard for the lives of the prisoners here and throughout the United States. What has happened here is but the sound before the fury of those who are oppressed. We will not compromise on any terms except those terms that are agreeable to us. We've called upon all the conscientious citizens of America to assist us in putting an end to this situation that threatens the lives of not only us but of every one of you, as well.
|source= Read by Elliott James "L.D." Barkley, September 9, 1971 |title=Declaration to the People of America}}

As speakers such as Barkley raised morale, the elected group of negotiators drafted proposals to present to the commissioner. ''The Attica Liberation Faction Manifesto of Demands'' was a compilation of complaints written by the Attica prisoners, which speak directly to the "sincere people of society".<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|date=October 1, 2011|title=The Attica Liberation Faction Manifesto of Demands|url=https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396811414338|journal=Race & Class|language=en|volume=53|issue=2|pages=28–35|doi=10.1177/0306396811414338|s2cid=220736353|issn=0306-3968|url-access=subscription}}</ref> It included 33 demands, including better medical treatment, fair visitation rights, improved food quality, religious freedom, higher wages for inmate jobs, "an end of physical abuse, for [access to] basic necessities like toothbrushes and showers every day, for professional training, and access to newspapers and books."<ref name=":0">{{ citation |author1=Olsson, Göran Hugo |author2=Rogell, Annika |author3=Barnes, Joslyn |author4=Glover, Danny |author5=Arnö, Axel |author6=Questlove. Keith, Om'Mas |author7=Carmichael, Stokely |author8=Seale, Bobby |author9= Davis, Angela Y.  |author10=Chisholm, Shirley  |author11=Farrakhan, Louis  |author12=Cleaver, Eldridge |title=The Black power mixtape 1967–1975 |date=2013 |publisher=Distributed by Pinnacle Films |oclc=864811922 }}</ref> The manifesto assigns the power to negotiate to five inmates elected to represent the others: Donald Noble, Peter Butler, Frank Lott, Carl Jones-El, and Herbert Blyden X.<ref name=":10" /> Additionally, the document specifically lists "vile and vicious slave masters" who oppressed the prisoners, such as the New York governor, New York corrections, and the United States courts.<ref name=":10" />

Inmates requested a team of outside observers to assist with negotiations, whom they considered knowledgeable of prison conditions, many of whom officials were able to persuade to come to Attica. Observers included [[Tom Wicker]], an editor of the ''[[New York Times]]''; James Ingram of the ''[[Michigan Chronicle]]''; State Senator [[John Dunne (politician)|John Dunne]], head of a Prisons Committee in the legislature; State Representative [[Arthur Eve]], U.S. congressman from New York; attorney [[Herman Badillo]]; civil rights lawyer [[William Kunstler]]; [[Clarence B. Jones|Clarence Jones]], publisher of the ''[[Amsterdam News]]'' in New York and former advisor to [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]; representatives of the [[Young Lords]], and others.<ref name=":3" /> Prisoners requested Minister [[Louis Farrakhan]], national representative of the [[Nation of Islam]], but he declined.<ref name="Oppenheimer">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/19/books/blood-in-the-water-a-gripping-account-of-the-attica-prison-uprising.html|title='Blood in the Water,' a Gripping Account of the Attica Prison Uprising|last=Oppenheimer|first=Mark|date=August 18, 2016|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=August 18, 2016}}</ref> Inmates also requested representatives from the [[Black Panther Party]]; [[Bobby Seale]] addressed the inmates briefly on September 11 but did not stay long and some believed that he inflamed tensions.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":6" />

The prisoners and team of observers continued to negotiate with Commissioner of Corrections Russell Oswald, who agreed to 28 of the inmates' demands, but refused to agree to amnesty for the inmates involved in the uprising or to fire the Attica warden.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> [[William Kunstler]], a lawyer who agreed to represent the inmates in negotiations, said, "The prisoners had two non-negotiable demands: the removal of the warden, and general amnesty, and they had already given up on the removal of the warden. And on the general amnesty, we had worked out several formulas that we were discussing with the commissioner hours before the attack, and if we had been allowed to continue, everyone would be alive and the matter would be settled today."<ref name=":0" />

The situation may have been further complicated by Governor Rockefeller's refusal even to come to the prison or meet with the inmates.<ref name="pbs" /> Instead, Rockefeller dispatched Commissioner of the Office of General Services [[Almerin C. O'Hara]], a retired National Guard major general, as his personal representative and liaison.<ref name="Andelman">{{cite news |last=Andelman |first=David A. |date=February 23, 1974 |title=State's Energy Chief: Almerin Cartwright O'Hara |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1974/02/23/issue.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York, New York |page=14 |via=[[TimesMachine]]}}</ref> Because Rockefeller was unwilling to compromise, some analysts' later evaluations of the incident postulated that Rockefeller's absence prevented the situation from deteriorating.<ref>Benjamin, G., & Rappaport, S. (1974). "Attica and Prison Reform". ''Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science'', 31 (3), 203–212. Retrieved October 6, 2006, from JSTOR database.</ref> Negotiations broke down, as Oswald was unwilling or unable to make further concessions to the inmates. Oswald and members of the observers committee called Rockefeller and begged him to come to the prison to calm the situation, but he refused.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":6" /> Following the governor's refusal, Oswald and Rockefeller agreed that Oswald would order the State Police to retake the facility by force, a decision which was later criticized.<ref name=":3" /><ref name="Time1972">{{cite magazine|title=A Year Ago at Attica |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=September 25, 1972 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903593,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090209172840/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903593,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 9, 2009 |access-date=April 27, 2008}}</ref>

==Retaking of the prison and retaliation==
On the night of Sunday, September 12, 1971, plans were drawn up to retake the prison by force. Members of the team of observers argued for Oswald to deliver to inmates one final appeal for a settlement before the forcible retaking.<ref name=":16" /> Oswald agreed, but was instructed not to phrase the demand as an ultimatum, as Rockefeller did not want to let inmates know that the assault was beginning.<ref name=":16">{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|title=Blood in the water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy|publisher=Pantheon|year=2016|isbn=978-0-375-42322-2|edition=First|location=New York|pages=183–184|oclc=945169854}}</ref> At 8:25&nbsp;a.m. on Monday, September 13, 1971, Oswald gave the inmates a statement directing them to release the hostages and accept the offered settlement within the hour.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":16" /> However, he did not tell them that negotiations had ended and he would take the prison back by force if they refused, even stating, "I want to continue negotiations with you."<ref name="Thompson">{{cite book|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|title=Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy|date=August 23, 2016|publisher=Pantheon|isbn=978-0375423222|page=188|author-link=Heather Ann Thompson}}</ref> The inmates rejected his offer, and as it appeared to them as though Rockefeller remained opposed to their demands the mood among the inmates deteriorated.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|title=Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy|publisher=Pantheon|year=2016|isbn=978-0375423222|pages=189–190}}</ref>

In preparation for prison authorities potentially taking the prison back by force, inmates had dug defensive trenches, electrified metal gates, fashioned crude battlements out of metal tables and dirt, and fortified the "Times Square" prison command center.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|title=Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy|publisher=Pantheon|year=2016|isbn=978-0375423222|pages=136}}</ref> After Oswald left following the inmates' rejection of his latest offer, the inmates decided to try to impress upon prison officials that they were serious about their demands, and to remind them that inmates had power over the hostages if the state was to come in by force.<ref name=":12" /> The inmates brought eight corrections officers to the catwalk on top of the command center and surrounded them with inmates armed with homemade weapons. According to surviving inmates, they did not intend to kill the hostages, but rather to use them as insurance.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|title=Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy|publisher=Pantheon|year=2016|isbn=978-0375423222|pages=192–194}}</ref> Shortly after inmates and hostages were positioned on the catwalk, Oswald gave the order to begin the retaking. Of the decision, he later said, "On a much smaller scale, I think I have some feeling now of how Truman must have felt when he decided to drop the A-bomb."<ref name=":3" />

At 9:46&nbsp;a.m. on Monday, September 13, 1971, tear gas was dropped into the yard and hundreds of [[New York State Police]] troopers, Bureau of Criminal Investigation personnel, deputy sheriffs, park police, and correctional officers opened fire into the smoke. Among the weapons used by the troopers were shotguns loaded with buckshot pellets, which led to the wounding and killing of hostages and inmates who were not resisting.<ref>{{cite news |title=Use of Shotguns in Attica Revolt Deplored in House Unit's Report; No Comment on Report |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/27/archives/use-of-shotguns-in-attica-revolt-deplored-in-house-units-report-no.html |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |date=June 27, 1973}}</ref><ref>https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/hague-decl-iv-3-1899/declaration?activeTab=default</ref> Correctional officers from Attica were allowed to participate, a decision later called "inexcusable" by the commission established by Rockefeller to study the riot and the aftermath.<ref name="Time1972" /> By the time the facility was reported as fully secured at 10:05&nbsp;a.m., law enforcement had shot at least 128 men and killed nine hostages and twenty-nine inmates.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|title=Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy|publisher=Pantheon|year=2016|isbn=978-0375423222|pages=207}}</ref> A tenth hostage, Correctional Officer Harrison W. Whalen, died on October 9, 1971, of gunshot wounds received during the assault.<ref>{{cite book |title=Attica: The Official Report of the New York State Special Commission on Attica |year=1972 |publisher=Bantam Books |location=New York |page=456 (digital page 496) |url=http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/mssc/attica/atticareport.pdf |oclc=601935 |access-date=December 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604021150/http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/mssc/attica/atticareport.pdf |archive-date=June 4, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Inmate survivors alleged that leaders were singled out and killed by troopers during and after the retaking. According to a doctor who treated survivors, "[m]any of the ringleaders were approached by guards and shot systematically. Some had their hands in the air surrendering. Some were lying on the ground."<ref name=":3">{{Cite magazine|date=September 27, 1971|title=War at Attica: Was There No Other Way?|magazine=Time|url=https://time.com/vault/issue/1971-09-27/page/22/|access-date=August 20, 2021}}</ref> One of the leaders, Elliott James "L.D." Barkley, who was frequently featured in news coverage, was allegedly alive after the initial retaking. Assemblyman [[Arthur Eve]] testified that Barkley was alive after the prisoners had surrendered and the state regained control; another inmate stated that the officers searched Barkley out, yelling his name, and executed him with a shot to the back.<ref name="Eyes on the Prize 1990" /><ref name="bspfilms.org" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Craig|first=Gary|date=February 9, 2013|title=Film raises questions about 1971 Attica prison riot|work=USA Today|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/09/documentary-raises-questions-attica-prison-riot/1905655/|access-date=August 25, 2021}}</ref> [[Sam Melville]], a member of the committee that helped organize and draft inmates' demands and who was known in the prison as a radical, was allegedly shot while he had his hands in the air trying to surrender.<ref name=":27">{{Cite web|title=Akil Al-Judi, et al., Plaintiffs-appellees, v. Vincent Mancusi, Karl Pfeil, Russell G. Oswald, Defendants-appellants, the Estate of Nelson A. Rockefeller, et al., Defendants, 926 F.2d 235 (2d Cir. 1991)|url=http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F2/926/235/258238/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|title=Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy.|publisher=Pantheon|year=2016|isbn=978-0375423222|pages=209, 252, 420–421, 635–636}}</ref>

The final death toll from the rebellion also includes the officer fatally injured by inmates during the initial uprising and three inmates who were subjected to vigilante killings by fellow inmates before the retaking of the prison. Ten hostages died from gunfire by state troopers and soldiers.<ref name=PBS>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/weatherunderground/|title=The Weather Underground |publisher=Independent Lens<!-- (c) 2017 Independent Television Service (ITVS) --> |website=Pbs.org |access-date=December 15, 2018}}</ref><ref name="Schmalleger-Smykla">{{cite book|author1=Schmalleger, F. |author2=Smykla, J. |name-list-style=amp|title=Corrections in the 21st Century |year=2001 |url=https://archive.org/details/correctionsin21s00schm |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=McGraw-Hill|isbn=9780028025674 }}</ref> The New York State Special Commission on Attica wrote, "With the exception of [[List of Indian massacres in North America|Indian massacres]] in the late 19th century, the State Police assault which ended the four-day prison uprising was the bloodiest one-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War."<ref name=":14" /><ref>{{cite web |last=Kohli |first=Sonali |date=March 3, 2015 |title=America's bloodiest day (since the Civil War) that no one talks about |url=https://qz.com/354199/americas-bloodiest-day-since-the-civil-war-that-no-one-talks-about/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613111751/https://qz.com/354199/americas-bloodiest-day-since-the-civil-war-that-no-one-talks-about/ |archive-date=13 June 2018 |access-date=June 13, 2018 |publisher=QZ}}</ref>

State officials, including Oswald and Rockefeller, initially stated that inmates slit the throats of many of their hostages.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web|last=Little|first=Becky|date=September 11, 2019|title=What the Nixon Tapes Reveal About the Attica Prison Uprising|url=https://www.history.com/news/nixon-tapes-attica-prison-uprising|url-status=live|access-date=August 21, 2021|website=History|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180905044656/https://www.history.com/news/nixon-tapes-attica-prison-uprising |archive-date=September 5, 2018 }}</ref><ref name=":23">{{cite news|last=Ferretti|first=Fred|date=September 15, 1971|title=Autopsies Show Shots Killed 9 Attica Hostages, Not Knives; State Official Admits Mistake|page=1|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/09/15/archives/autopsies-show-shots-killed-9-attica-hostages-not-knives-state.html}}</ref> The false information was widely reported in the media.<ref name=":11" /><ref name=":22" /> But less than 24 hours later, official medical examiners confirmed that all the hostages had been killed by bullets fired by law enforcement officers.<ref name=":22" /><ref name=":23" /><ref name="kqed.org">{{Cite web | url=http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/index.jsp?pgmid=21946 |title = Television &#124; KQED Public Media}}</ref> The Special Commission found that state officials failed to quickly refute the early rumors and false reports.<ref name="Time1972" />

Troopers and prison officers set about with physically violent and humiliating reprisals. Inmates were made to strip naked and crawl through mud, broken glass, and the prisoners' hand-dug latrines. State officials also subjected the prisoners to sexual violence and rape.<ref name=":34"/> Directed into the prison, they were forced to run hallways naked between lines of enraged officers, who beat the inmates and yelled insults and racial slurs.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name="kqed.org" /><ref name="bspfilms.org">{{Cite web | url=http://www.bspfilms.org/films-criminal-injustice-death-and-politics-at-attica.php | title=Criminal Injustice: Death & Politics at Attica}}</ref> Some inmates, including leaders such as Frank Smith,<ref name=":21"/> were subject to additional reprisals and punishments, including repeated physical abuse and being locked in solitary confinement.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":21"/><ref name=":27" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite news|last=Yuhas|first=Alan|date=May 22, 2015|title=New Attica documents reveal inmate accounts of torture after 1971 prison riot|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/22/new-attica-documents-reveal-inmate-torture|access-date=August 21, 2021}}</ref> Several days after the uprising's end, doctors treating wounded inmates reported evidence of more beatings.<ref name="Time1972" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Rockefeller Lays Hostages' Deaths to Troopers' Fire |first=William E. |last=Farrell |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0D10FF345B137A93C5A81782D85F458785F9 |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |date=September 17, 1971 |page=1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Kaufman|first=Michael T.|date=April 28, 1972|title=Doctor Testifies on Attica Abuses|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/28/archives/doctor-testifies-on-attica-abuses-surgeon-and-3-aides-tell-of.html|access-date=August 25, 2021}}</ref> As the repression was happening in Attica, incarcerated people in other New York State Prisons, especially [[Auburn Correctional Facility]] and [[Clinton Correctional Facility]], were subjected to similar forms of violence. Many of these men had previously been incarcerated in Attica and had been involved in political organizations.<ref name=":34"/>

==Public response==
[[File: Attica Prison Riot Memorial.jpg|thumb|Memorial in front of the prison to the officers and other prison employees who died in the uprising. All but one were killed by friendly fire.]]
Following the uprising, protests and riots occurred in prisons across the United States, including in prisons in New York, Massachusetts, Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia, and Georgia.<ref name=":6" /> According to a Prisoners Solidarity Committee newsletter from September 30, 1971, "[t]he 13 reported rebellions since the Attica massacre doubles the total number of reported prison rebellions since the beginning of this year".<ref name=":6" /> Numerous rallies in support of the prisoners occurred, especially in New York, but also in cities as far away as Los Angeles and Norman, Oklahoma; several rallies in support of Governor Rockefeller also took place.<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":13">{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|title=Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy|publisher=Pantheon|year=2016|isbn=978-0375423222|pages=281–284}}</ref> In addition, activists such as [[Angela Davis]] and artists such as [[John Lennon]] wrote works in support of the inmates and condemning the official response.<ref name=":13" />

At 7:30&nbsp;p.m. on September 17, militant [[Left-wing politics|left-wing]]  organization the [[Weather Underground]] launched a retaliatory attack on the New York Department of Corrections, exploding a bomb near Oswald's office. "The communiqué accompanying the attack called the prison system an example of 'how a society run by white racists maintains its control,' with white supremacy being the 'main question white people have to face.{{'"}}<ref>Berger, Dan, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6KC36MHH3j8C&dq=weather+underground+attica+rockefeller&pg=PT91 ''Outlaws of America: the Weather Underground and the politics of solidarity''], (AK Press, 2006) pp. 182–3, via Google Books. Retrieved September 12, 2011.</ref>

In response to public criticism, in November 1971 Governor Rockefeller established the New York State Special Commission on Attica, appointing members and naming Dean of NYU Law School [[Robert McKay (lawyer)|Robert B. McKay]] as chair. Known as the McKay Commission, the commission was directed to investigate the circumstances leading up to, during, and following the events at Attica.<ref name=":1" /> The commission's report, published in September 1972, was critical of Rockefeller, the Department of Corrections, and New York State Police for their handling of the prison retaking and for their negligence in protecting inmates from reprisals after the riot.<ref name=":14" />

==Lawsuits and payments==
In October 1971, Robert Fischer was appointed as Special Deputy Attorney General to lead the Attica Task Force and was charged with investigating any criminal acts that may have been committed during the uprising or retaking (Fischer was later succeeded as the Attica Task Force leader by Anthony Simonetti).<ref name=":1" /> Within four years of the uprising, 62 inmates had been charged in 42 indictments with 1,289 separate counts. One state trooper was indicted for reckless endangerment.<ref name=":1" /> In May 1975, two former inmates were convicted in the death of William Quinn, despite the fact that "[o]nly faltering evidence linked the two inmates to the actual beating that left Quinn dead".<ref name=":29">{{Cite news |last=Falciola |first=Luca |date=January 26, 2023 |title=Defending Attica: How radical lawyers played a key role standing up for survivors of the Attica uprising |url=https://inquest.org/defending-attica/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320215038/https://inquest.org/defending-attica/ |archive-date=20 March 2023 |access-date=March 20, 2023 |work=Inquest}}</ref> Charles Pernasilice, who was [[Catawba people|Catawba Indian]], was sentenced to a term of up to two years for attempted assault, and [[Splitting the Sky|John Hill]], who was [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]], was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years to life.<ref name=":30">{{Cite news |last=Risen |first=Clay |date=February 28, 2023 |title=Charles Pernasilice, Haunted by the Violence at Attica, Dies at 70 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/us/charles-pernasilice-dead.html |access-date=March 20, 2023}}</ref><ref name=":31">{{Cite news |last=Kaufman |first=Michael T. |date=May 9, 1975 |title=Hill Gets 20 Years for Attica Murder |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/09/archives/hill-gets-20-years-for-attica-murder-outrageous-display-kunstlers.html |access-date=March 20, 2023}}</ref> Supporters alleged that the trial was unfairly conducted and that the men's ethnicity contributed to their indictment and conviction, with Hill's lawyer [[William Kunstler]] saying at the sentencing, "I'm not going to give the impression to the outside world that there is justice here."<ref name=":31" /><ref name=":29" /><ref name=":30" />

In 1975, Malcolm Bell, a prosecutor in the Attica Task Force, sent a report to Governor [[Hugh Carey]] alleging that his superiors were covering up evidence of criminal actions by law enforcement officers in the retaking of Attica and preventing him from fully investigating and prosecuting law enforcement.<ref name=":17">{{Cite web|last=Robbins|first=Tom|date=May 26, 2015|title=The Attica Turkey Shoot|url=https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/05/26/the-attica-turkey-shoot|url-status=live|access-date=August 21, 2021|website=The Marshall Project|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150722022648/https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/05/26/the-attica-turkey-shoot |archive-date=July 22, 2015 }}</ref> After Bell's report was leaked to the public, Carey appointed Judge [[Bernard S. Meyer]] of the Supreme Court for Nassau County, New York to the post of Special Deputy Attorney General to investigate.<ref name=":17" /> The Meyer Report, released in December 1975, found "[t]here was no intentional cover-up", but "there were, however, serious errors of judgment" including "important omissions on the part of the State Police in the gathering of evidence."<ref name=":17" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Meyer|first=Bernard S.|date=October 27, 1975|title=Final Report of the Special Attica Investigation Volume 1|url=https://auburnpub.com/meyer-report-on-attica-prison-riot-volume-1/pdf_a62253a0-ffe9-11e4-8323-5f8c5be57305.html|url-status=live|access-date=August 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210824000738/https://auburnpub.com/meyer-report-on-attica-prison-riot-volume-1/pdf_a62253a0-ffe9-11e4-8323-5f8c5be57305.html |archive-date=August 24, 2021 }}</ref>

Initially, only the first of the three-volume Meyer report was released to the public; in 1981 the State Supreme Court ordered that the other two be sealed permanently.<ref name=":18">{{cite news|last=Kaplan|first=Thomas|date=April 19, 2013|title=Decades Later, State Seeks Release of Report on Attica Uprising|newspaper=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/20/nyregion/decades-later-state-seeks-release-of-report-on-attica-uprising.html?ref=atticariots1971|access-date=April 22, 2013}}</ref> The Forgotten Victims of Attica, a group made up of officers injured in the riot and families of killed officers, pushed for the State of New York to release state records of the uprising to the public. In 2013, Attorney General [[Eric Schneiderman]] said he would seek release of the entirety of volumes 2 and 3, totaling 350 pages.<ref name=":18" /> After redactions, 46 pages of the report were released in May 2015.<ref name=":4" /> The released pages contain accounts from witnesses and inmates describing torture, burning, and sexual abuse of inmates by prison authorities.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{cite web|last=Meyer|first=Bernard S.|date=October 27, 1975|title=Final Report of the Special Attica Investigation Volumes 2 & 3|url=https://ag.ny.gov/pdfs/MeyerReportVol2And3.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=August 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150822142514/http://www.ag.ny.gov/pdfs/MeyerReportVol2And3.pdf |archive-date=August 22, 2015 }}</ref> In 2021, the 50th anniversary of the uprising, the Forgotten Victims of Attica, surviving inmates, families of killed inmates, historians, and lawyers continued to push for the release of all records related to Attica.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Craig|first=Gary|date=September 8, 2021|title=50 years after Attica: The unfinished business of our nation's deadliest prison uprising|work=Democrat and Chronicle|url=https://www.democratandchronicle.com/in-depth/news/2021/09/08/attica-prison-riot-50th-anniversary-unfinished-business-no-apology/8147133002/|access-date=September 9, 2021}}</ref>

In December 1976, Governor Carey announced he was "closing the book on Attica". He pardoned all inmates who had previously pleaded guilty to obtain reduced sentences, commuted the sentences of the two inmates convicted in court, and dismissed pending disciplinary actions against 20 law enforcement officers relating to the uprising.<ref name=":1" />

Though the possibility of criminal suits was closed with Carey's decision, civil suits were allowed to proceed. Surviving inmates and families of inmates killed in the prison retaking sued the State of New York for civil rights violations by law enforcement officers and prison officials during and after the retaking of Attica. After decades in the courts, the state agreed in 2000 to pay $8 million ($12 million minus legal fees) to settle the case.<ref name=":27" /><ref>{{cite news|last=Chen|first=David W.|date=August 29, 2000|title=Compensation Set On Attica Uprising|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/29/nyregion/compensation-set-on-attica-uprising.html?pagewanted=all|access-date=April 22, 2013}}</ref>

In 2005, the state separately settled with surviving prison employees and families of the slain prison employees for $12 million.<ref>{{cite news|date=January 14, 2005|title=State and Prison Workers Settle Attica Riot Claims|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/14/nyregion/14attica.html|access-date=April 22, 2013}}</ref> Frank "Big Black" Smith advocated both for compensation for inmate survivors and the families of the deceased, and for their correctional officer counterparts who had been killed or injured and their bereaved as well.<ref name=":21"/>

==Effects on the New York State prison system==
Partially in response to the Attica uprising, the New York State Department of Corrections implemented changes including:<ref name=":11" /><ref>{{Cite news|last1=Winerip|first1=Michael|last2=Robbins|first2=Tom|last3=Schwirtz|first3=Michael|date=August 25, 2016|title=Revisiting Attica Shows How New York State Failed to Fulfill Promises|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/nyregion/revisiting-attica-shows-how-new-york-state-failed-to-fulfill-promises.html|access-date=August 23, 2021}}</ref>

# Providing more basics such as more showers, soap, medical care, and family visits
#Introducing a grievance procedure in which inmates could report actions by a staff member that violated published policy
#Creating liaison committees in which inmates elect representatives to speak for them in meetings with prison officials
#Allocating funding to Prisoners Legal Services, a statewide network of lawyers to assist inmates
#Providing access to higher education
#Allowing more religious freedom for inmates
While there were improvements in prison conditions in the years immediately following the uprising, during the "tough on crime" era of the 1980s and 1990s many of these improvements were reversed.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Steel|first=Lewis M.|date=September 26, 2016|title=Understanding the Legacy of the Attica Prison Uprising|work=The Nation|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/understanding-the-legacy-of-the-attica-prison-uprising/|access-date=August 23, 2021}}</ref> For example, the 1994 Crime Bill eliminated all Pell Grants for prisoners, resulting in the defunding of higher education within prisons. As a result, all university-level education programs in prisons ended with no other educational options for inmates.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Angela |title=Are Prisons Obsolete? |date=2003 |publisher=Seven Stories Press |location=New York |page=58}}</ref>  Overcrowding worsened, with the prison population of New York increasing dramatically from 12,500 at the time of the Attica uprising to 72,600 in 1999.<ref name=":11" /> In 2011, after a man incarcerated in Attica was brutally beaten by guards, for the first time in New York State history, correction officers were criminally charged for a non-sexual assault of an inmate.<ref name=":24">{{Cite news|last=Robbins|first=Tom|date=2015-02-28|title=A Brutal Beating Wakes Attica's Ghosts|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/nyregion/attica-prison-infamous-for-bloodshed-faces-a-reckoning-as-guards-go-on-trial.html|access-date=2021-08-23|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=":25">{{Cite news|last=All Things Considered|date=March 3, 2015|title=Attica Prison Guards Plead Guilty To Misconduct After Beating Inmate|work=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/03/03/390484867/attica-prison-guards-plead-guilty-to-misconduct-after-beating-inmate|access-date=August 23, 2021}}</ref> The guards pleaded guilty in 2015 to a misdemeanor charge of misconduct in order to avoid prison time.<ref name=":25" /> In news stories regarding the incident, current and former inmates of Attica reported that the prison maintained a reputation as "a facility where a small group of correction officers dole out harsh punishment largely with impunity"<ref name=":24" /> and inmates conveyed numerous stories of poor conditions and severe treatment by guards.<ref name=":11" /><ref name=":25" />

Interpreting the post-Attica reforms through the lens of counterinsurgency theory and practice, anthropologist Orisanmi Burton has argued that these temporary "improvements" to prison conditions were designed to fracture that organizing and activism taking place within prisons and to create a cleavage between the prison population's reformist and revolutionary/abolitionist elements.<ref name=":34"/>

== Books ==
Published in 1972, the first historical account of the Attica Prison Uprising was written by The New York State Special Commission on Attica and was entitled ''Attica: The Official Report''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=The New York State Special Commission on Attica |title=Attica: The Official Report |publisher=Bantam Book |year=1972}}</ref>

Published in 1974, The Brothers of Attica is a first hand account written by a former Attica prisoner and [[Nation of Islam]] member named Richard X. Clark.

''In 1975,''  [[Tom Wicker]], a ''New York Times'' editor, who was present at the prison as an observer, published ''A Time to Die''.

Another Attica observer, [[Clarence B. Jones|Clarence Jones]], released (with Stuart Connelly) his historical account ''Uprising: Understanding Attica, Revolution and the Incarceration State'' in 2011.

In 1985, Malcolm Bell, a former prosecutor for the Attica Task Force and eventual whistleblower, released his account of the investigation and alleged coverup ''The Turkey Shoot: Tracking the Attica Cover-up''.

A detailed historical account of the uprising was published by historian [[Heather Ann Thompson]] in 2016. The book, entitled ''[[Blood in the Water (Thompson book)|Blood in the Water]]'', draws on interviews with former inmates, hostages, families of victims, law enforcement, lawyers, and state officials, as well as significant archives of previously unreleased materials.<ref name="Oppenheimer" />

Published in 2021, ''The Prison Guard's Daughter: My Journey Through the Ashes of Attica'' is a memoir by Deanne Quinn Miller (with Gary Craig), the daughter of the prison guard killed during the initial riot, William Quinn, and an organizer with The Forgotten Victims of Attica, a group made up of surviving hostages and families of prison employees who were killed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Memmott |first=Jim |date=August 27, 2021 |title=Attica memoir opens the door on grief and reconciliation, adding to our understanding |url=https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/columnists/memmott/2021/08/27/attica-prison-uprising-memoir-deanne-quinn-miller-gary-craig-jim-memmott/5576451001/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827153318/https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/columnists/memmott/2021/08/27/attica-prison-uprising-memoir-deanne-quinn-miller-gary-craig-jim-memmott/5576451001/ |archive-date=August 27, 2021 |access-date=September 9, 2021 |website=Democrat and Chronicle}}</ref>

In 2022, Joshua Melville, the son of Sam Melville, one of the inmates killed in the retaking of the prison, released ''American Time Bomb: Attica, Sam Melville, and a Son's Search for Answers''. The memoir tells the story of the life of Sam Melville, the Attica Uprising, and the broader goals and controversies of the [[New Left]] movement.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rodriguez |first=Isidoro |date=February 8, 2022 |title=The Life (and Death) of an 'American Time Bomb' |url=https://thecrimereport.org/2022/02/08/the-life-and-death-of-sam-melville-working-class-revolutionary/ |access-date=February 13, 2022 |work=The Crime Report}}</ref>

In 2020, a non-fiction graphic novel entitled ''Big Black: Stand at Attica'' was published. It was co-written by Frank "Big Black" Smith,<ref name=":21" /> an inmate leader during the uprising.<ref name="A Graphic Novel Remembers Attica">{{cite news |last=Gustines |first=George Genes |date=February 14, 2020 |title=A Graphic Novel Remembers Attica |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/books/big-black-stand-at-attica-graphic-novel.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928205018/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/books/big-black-stand-at-attica-graphic-novel.html |archive-date=September 28, 2021 |accessdate=October 11, 2021 |newspaper=[[New York Times]]}}</ref> The book was included on the 2020 list of Top Ten Best Graphic Novels for Adults compiled by the Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table of the [[American Library Association]].<ref name="Best Graphic Novels for Adults Reading List">{{cite news |title=Best Graphic Novels for Adults Reading List |url=https://www.ala.org/rt/gncrt/best-graphic-novels-adults-reading-list |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008222417/https://www.ala.org/rt/gncrt/best-graphic-novels-adults-reading-list |archive-date=October 8, 2021 |accessdate=October 11, 2021 |publisher=[[American Library Association]]}}</ref>

In October 2023, ''[[Tip of the Spear|Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt]]'' was published by the University of California Press. Drawing on previously untapped archival sources and oral history, anthropologist Orisanmi Burton focuses on the revolutionary, internationalist, and abolitionist dimensions of the Attica rebellion, which the author argues had been largely ignored by previous historical accounts. The book is especially critical of historian Heather Ann Thompson's account, arguing that because of its uncritical over-reliance on state-records and its failure to engage non-traditional sources produced and archived by the prisoners themselves, ''Blood in the Water'' produces a distorted image of Attica through the eyes of the state.<ref name=":35">{{Cite book |last=Burton |first=Orisanmi |url=https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520396326/tip-of-the-spear |title=Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt |date=2023-10-31 |publisher=The University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-39632-6 |edition=1st |location=Oakland, CA |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":36">{{Cite web |date=2024-01-11 |title=A Story That We Only Think We Know: On Orisanmi Burton's "Tip of the Spear" |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-story-that-we-only-think-we-know-on-orisanmi-burtons-tip-of-the-spear |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books}}</ref><ref name=":37">{{Cite web |last=Barber |first=Nick |date=2024-04-03 |title=A Poetics of Living Rebellion |url=https://www.publicbooks.org/a-poetics-of-living-rebellion/ |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=Public Books |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=abolitionjournal |date=2017-01-26 |title=Diluting Radical History: Blood in the Water and the Politics of Erasure |url=https://abolitionjournal.org/diluting-radical-history-blood-in-the-water-and-the-politics-of-erasure/ |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=Abolition |language=en-US}}</ref> ''Tip of the Spear'' also challenges the official chronology and geography of the Attica rebellion, arguing that the eruption that occurred in Attica on September 9, 1971, was the culmination of series of rebellions that had been erupting in various New York City jails and state prisons for a year prior to Attica. For this reason, Burton reframes the Attica riot as "The Long Attica Revolt." The book also shows that in response to the rebellion, prison management techniques began to incorporate elements of counterinsurgency theory and practice, as well as psychological warfare and behavior modification, and mind control experimentation.<ref name=":35" /> ''Tip of the Spear'' has received critical acclaim from outlets such as ''The Progressive'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bader |first=Eleanor J. |date=2023-11-24 |title=Lessons of the Long Attica Revolt |url=https://progressive.org/api/content/8aefdade-8957-11ee-ac42-12163087a831/ |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=Progressive.org |language=en-us}}</ref> ''The Los Angeles Review of Books'',<ref name=":36" /> ''Public Books'',<ref name=":37" /> ''Verso'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=Verso Author Picks: Books Read in 2023 |url=https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/verso-author-picks-books-read-in-2023 |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=Verso |language=en}}</ref> ''Medical Anthropology Quarterly'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fernandez |first=Fabian |date=2024-03-24 |title=Tip of the spear: Black radicalism, prison repression, and the long Attica revolt By Orisanmi Burton, Oakland: University of California Press. 2023. 328 pp. |url=https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/maq.12854 |journal=Medical Anthropology Quarterly |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=264–266 |language=en |doi=10.1111/maq.12854 |issn=0745-5194|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and ''Current Anthropology.''<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fernandez |first=Fabian |date=June 2024 |title=Tip of the spear: Black radicalism, prison repression, and the long Attica revolt By Orisanmi Burton, Oakland: University of California Press. 2023. 328 pp. |url=https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/maq.12854 |journal=Medical Anthropology Quarterly |language=en |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=264–266 |doi=10.1111/maq.12854 |issn=0745-5194|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==In popular culture==
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{{In popular culture|date=March 2021}}
Direct coverage of the Attica Prison rebellion:

* On September 9, 2021, the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the uprising, the documentary [[Attica (2021 film)|''Attica'']] premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.<ref name=":28">{{Cite news|last=Obenson|first=Tambay|date=September 9, 2021|title='Attica': Filmmaker Stanley Nelson on Why the 1971 Prison Uprising Remains an 'Evergreen' American Story|work=IndieWire|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2021/09/attica-interview-stanley-nelson-1234662314/|access-date=September 9, 2021}}</ref> In order for director [[Stanley Nelson Jr.|Stanley Nelson]] "To tell the story of Attica, he conducts dozens of new interviews with prisoners, journalists, and other eyewitnesses. He makes powerful use of surveillance footage and the extensive news coverage that made Attica a national event."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Powers|first=Thom|title=Attica|url=https://tiff.net/events/attica|url-status=live|access-date=September 9, 2021|website=TIFF|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804141348/https://tiff.net/events/attica |archive-date=August 4, 2021 }}</ref> Produced by Firelight Films and Showtime Documentary Films, the film was released on Showtime in fall 2021.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Rapold|first=Nicholas|date=November 1, 2021|title=Talking About 'Attica,' the Newest Documentary on the Prison Uprising|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/01/movies/attica-documentary-prison-uprising.html|access-date=November 8, 2021}}</ref>
* In preparation for the 50th anniversary of the Attica prison massacre in 2021, [[HBO Max]] released a documentary titled ''[[Betrayal at Attica]]'' on August 1, 2021. The plot is described as: "On September 13, 1971, the State of New York shot and killed 39 of its citizens, injured hundreds more, and tortured the survivors. The plan to retake D Yard led to one of the bloodiest days in American history and set the stage for the worst aspects of modern policing. Radical lawyer [[Elizabeth Fink]] tells the story of the Attica prison rebellion, and how she exposed the cover-up that went on for decades."<ref>{{Citation|title=Betrayal at Attica (2021) – IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15210254/|language=en-US|access-date=2021-08-17}}</ref>
*In 2019 Icarus Films released ''Ghosts of Attica'', a documentary directed by Brad Lichtenstein featuring extensive interviews with survivors of the uprising, including Frank "Big Black" Smith,<ref name=":21"/> who served as the inmate head of security during the uprising; Mike Smith, one of the hostages who was shot during the retaking; Elizabeth Fink, a lawyer who headed the lawsuits for the inmates; and several members of the observer's committee, including [[Tom Wicker]], Congressman [[Herman Badillo]], Assemblyman [[Arthur Eve]], and [[William Kunstler]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ghosts of Attica|url=https://icarusfilms.com/if-gho|url-status=live|access-date=September 9, 2021|website=Icarus Films|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171216133551/http://www.icarusfilms.com:80/if-gho |archive-date=December 16, 2017 }}</ref>
* As part of a 40th-anniversary commemoration, filmmakers Chris Christopher and David Marshall, in association with Blue Sky Project, produced a 60-minute, Emmy-nominated documentary called ''Criminal Injustice: Death and Politics at Attica'', first aired on PBS in 2012, which brings together a range of previously unavailable interviewees who deconstruct and expose many myths and misconceptions about the Attica Prison rebellion, its causes, and its coverup.<ref name="bspfilms.org" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Criminal Injustice: Death and Politics at Attica|url=https://search.alexanderstreet.com/preview/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cvideo_work%7C2041689|url-status=live|website=Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210826013752/https://search.alexanderstreet.com/preview/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cvideo_work%7C2041689 |archive-date=August 26, 2021 }}</ref>
*ScreenSlate describes [[Cinda Firestone]]'s documentary, titled ''Attica'' (1974), as follows: "Firestone's 1974 film, restored in 2007, culls together primary footage from surveillance and news cameras along with prisoner, family, and guard interviews to create an account of the massacre that has been described as temperate, but undeniably damning concerning the state's actions.<ref>{{cite news|date=September 13, 2011|title=Tuesday, September 13 >> Featured Screening: ''Attica'' at BAMcinématek|work=ScreenSlate|url=http://www.screenslate.com/whats-showing-today/tuesday-september-13|url-status=dead|access-date=February 2, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219220655/http://www.screenslate.com/whats-showing-today/tuesday-september-13|archive-date=February 19, 2014}}</ref>
*At least three fictionalized TV movies of the rebellion have been produced: ''[[Attica (1980 film)|Attica]]'' (1980) directed by [[Marvin J. Chomsky]], with [[George Grizzard]] and [[Morgan Freeman]]; [[John Frankenheimer]]'s ''[[Against the Wall (1994 film)|Against the Wall]]'' (1994), with [[Samuel L. Jackson]], [[Kyle MacLachlan]], and [[Clarence Williams III]]; and ''The Killing Yard'' (2001), directed by [[Euzhan Palcy]], with [[Alan Alda]] and [[Morris Chestnut]].

Notable references to the Attica Prison rebellion:

*The riot was famously referenced in a quote in the 1975 Sidney Lumet-directed film, ''[[Dog Day Afternoon]]'', when [[Al Pacino]]'s character shouts, "Attica! Attica!," to the reporters and policemen gathered outside during his hostage crisis. The line was placed at number eighty-six on ''[[AFI's 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes|100 Years...100 Movie Quotes]]''.<ref>
{{cite web |url=https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movie-quotes/ |title=AFI's List of Nominated Quotes |publisher=American Film Institute |access-date=22 December 2019}}</ref>  Two years later in 1977, [[John Travolta]]'s character of Tony Manero would quote Pacino's Attica chant in the movie ''[[Saturday Night Fever]]''.

===Music===
The incident is directly referenced in several songs and the name of a band:
* The album [[Attica Blues (album)|''Attica Blues'']] (1972) by [[Archie Shepp]], and especially its title song, is dedicated to the riots.<ref name=popmatters>{{cite web|last1=Bergstrom|first1=John|title=Archie Shepp / Attica Blues Orchestra – I Hear the Sound|url=http://www.popmatters.com/review/180151-archie-shepp-attica-blues-orchestra-i-hear-the-sound/|website=[[PopMatters]]|access-date=12 January 2016|date=1 April 2014}}</ref>
* The song "[[Rubber Bullets]]" (1973) by British band [[10cc]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=I Write The Songs|url=http://www.the10ccfanclub.com/htm/esiwts.htm|access-date=2021-09-30|website=www.the10ccfanclub.com|archive-date=April 16, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190416190846/http://www.the10ccfanclub.com/htm/esiwts.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* The song "[[Attica State (song)|Attica State]]" (1972) by British singer [[John Lennon]].
* The song "Attica Part 1" (1972) By Caribbean Folk singer [[Exuma]].
* The song "The Hostage" (1972) by American folk musician [[Tom Paxton]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Duffy |first=Thom |date=2022-10-31 |title=Tom Paxton Turns 85 |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/tom-paxton-folk-greenwich-singer-songwriter-interview-8013846/ |magazine=Billboard}}</ref>
* The song "Remember Rockefeller at Attica" (1975) by jazz musician [[Charles Mingus]], included in his album ''[[Changes One (Charles Mingus album)|Changes One]]''.
* The song "Hardcore Rap Act" (1995) by Brooklyn-based hip hop duo [[Das EFX]].
* The song "[[If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)]]" (1996) by rapper [[Nas]].

===Poetry===
* Boxer [[Muhammad Ali]] recited a poem during an interview on [[RTÉ]] on a visit to Ireland in July 1972, imagining what Attica's prisoners would have said before their death.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Savali|first1=Kirsten West|title=#Attica45: Muhammad Ali Recites His Powerful Poem About the Attica Prison Uprising|url=https://www.theroot.com/attica45-muhammad-ali-recites-his-powerful-poem-about-1790856696|website=The Root|access-date=May 13, 2018|date=September 10, 2016}}</ref>
* In 1972, [[avant-garde]] composer and pianist [[Frederic Rzewski]] wrote two pieces connected to the Attica uprising, both for percussion ensemble and speaker. "Coming Together" sets a text by [[Sam Melville]], a leader of the uprising and one of the people who lost their lives as a result of it, from a letter he wrote in 1971. The second and shorter piece, "Attica", is set to the statement made by inmate Richard X. Clark when he was released from the prison: "Attica is in front of me now." The two pieces were recorded in 1973 for the Opus One label by the Blackearth Percussion Group, with Steven ben Israel of the [[Living Theater]] as the speaker.<ref>Rzewski, Frederic. ''Coming Together / Les Moutons de Panurge / Attica''. Opus One: 20.</ref>

===Television===
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* A TV movie named ''[[Attica (1980 film)|Attica]]'' dramatized the riot, airing on March 2nd, 1980.
* In the season 1 finale of ''[[Oz (TV series)|Oz]]'' "A Game of Checkers", Tim McManus reveals to Said that he grew up in Attica and was a child when the riots occurred days before his birthday, with McManus hoping to prevent the deaths of the inmates and correctional officers during the Emerald City riot.
* In the final episode of ''[[Orange Is the New Black]]'' season 4, the prisoners rise and chant "Attica! Attica!". The entirety of season 5 is devoted to the rebellion itself, which contains significant parallels to the Attica uprising.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Thompson|first1=Heather Ann|title=Editorial: 'Orange' is the New Attica on Netflix|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/editorial-orange-new-attica-netflix-n768936|website=NBC News|date=June 7, 2017 |publisher=NBC|access-date=June 28, 2017}}</ref>
* The Attica Prison uprising served as a source of inspiration for the Bell Riots in the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "[[Past Tense (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)|Past Tense]]".<ref>Source: Time Travel Files: "Past Tense". DVD extra included with ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Complete Third Season''. {{ASIN|B00008KA5A}}.</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|New York (state)}}
* [[Prison riot#List of notable prison riots|List of notable prison riots]]
* ''[[Inmates of Attica Correctional Facility v. Rockefeller]]''
* [[Walpole prison strike]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book |editor1-first=Henry |editor1-last=Hampton |editor2-first=Steve |editor2-last=Fayer |editor3-first=Sarah |editor3-last=Flynn |title=Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pgGDZ62WrNgC |year=1990 |publisher=Bantam Books |location=New York |isbn=9780553352320 |oclc=690078672}}
* Zinn, Howard. "Surprises". ''A People's History of the United States: 1492–Present''. New ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. 506–539. Print.
* "The Attica Liberation Faction Manifesto of Demands". ''Race & Class'' 53.2 (2011): 28–35. Academic Search Complete. Web. November 20, 2013.
* "Episodes from the Attica Rebellion". ''The Black Scholar'' 4 (1972): 34–39. JSTOR. Web.
* ''Criminal Injustice: Death and Politics at Attica''. Christine Christopher. Blue Sky Project, 2013.
* Ferretti, Fred. "Like a War Zone". ''The New York Times'' September 18, 1971: 1+. ProQuest. Web.
* "41 Dead. Attica: National Tragedy". ''Milwaukee Star'' September 18, 1971: 1–2. African American Newspapers, 1827–1998. Web.
* Bell, Malcolm. ''The Turkey Shoot: Tracking the Attica Cover-up''. Grove Press edition, 1985. {{ISBN|0-394-55020-X}}.

==External links==
*[https://niastories.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/attica_primerfinal.pdf Attica Manifesto presented to Commissioner Oswald and Governor Rockefeller on July 2, 1971 by the Attica Liberation Faction]
*[https://niastories.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/attica-zine.pdf Five Demands & 15 Practical Proposals delivered to Commissioner Oswald on September 9, 1971]
*[http://digital.wustl.edu/e/eii/eiiweb/bar5427.0627.010marc_record_interviewee_process.html Interview with Laverne Barkley]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050111094510/http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Crime/Correction_and_Rehabilitation/Prison_History/Attica_Prison_Riot/ Yahoo! Directory: Attica Riot links]
*"[https://www.ted.com/talks/orisanmi_burton_what_really_happened_during_the_attica_prison_rebellion?language=en What really happened during the Attica Prison Rebellion?]" TED-Ed, May 2021.
*[http://www.democratandchronicle.com/section/attica01 Attica Prison Riot: Memories strong after 40 years]
*[http://www.democratandchronicle.com/section/attica Democrat and Chronicle: Attica – A History In Photographs]
*[http://www.talkinghistory.org/attica/ Talking History: Attica Revisited]
*[http://www.talkinghistory.org/attica/photos.html Photographs taken during and after the prison riot]
*[http://www.nationalreview.com/nroriginals/print/?q=OGI3ZjFmMWQ1YmQxNjA0MWI0M2ZmZTBkYTEyNGRmNDc= "The Truth about Attica by an Inmate"], ''[[National Review]]'', March 31, 1972
*[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/sfeature/sf_5.html video interviews with Frank Smith] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111185504/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/sfeature/sf_5.html |date=November 11, 2012 }}
*[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/peopleevents/e_attica.html Short history] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908154308/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/peopleevents/e_attica.html |date=September 8, 2006 }} on ''[[American Experience]]'' at PBS.org
*[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/milestones/m12_attica.html Short history] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819135530/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/milestones/m12_attica.html |date=August 19, 2016 }} from ''Eyes on the Prize'' at PBS.org
*[http://libcom.org/history/1971-the-attica-prison-uprising The Attica Prison Uprising on libcom.org] – with links to related articles on the prisoners' movement, Black Panthers, Vietnam, etc.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120910072029/http://www.law.buffalo.edu/baldycenter/attica40/ 40 Years After the Attica Uprising: Looking Back, Moving Forward] – Conference website exploring the uprising 40 years later
*[https://www.truthdig.com/articles/how-power-works/ How Power Works]. [[Chris Hedges]] for [[Truthdig]], October 23, 2016.
*[https://rozsixties.unl.edu/items/show/468 We Are Attica: Interviews with Prisoners from Attica] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20210123144649/https://rozsixties.unl.edu/items/show/468 internet archive])
*[https://www.workers.org/2021/02/54535/ L.D. Barkley – A leader in the Attica uprising] by Monica Moorehead published on February 17, 2021 ([https://web.archive.org/web/20210226125445/https://www.workers.org/2021/02/54535/ internet archive])

{{Prison riots and uprisings|state=expanded}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1971 riots]]
[[Category:1971 in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Attica Correctional Facility]]
[[Category:History of African-American civil rights]]
[[Category:Prison riots in the United States]]
[[Category:Prison massacres]]
[[Category:Prison uprisings]]
[[Category:Riots and civil disorder in New York (state)]]
[[Category:September 1971 in the United States]]
[[Category:Rebellions in the United States]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1971]]
[[Category:1970s crimes in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Mass murder in the United States in the 1970s]]
[[Category:1971 murders in the United States]]
[[Category:Violence against men in the United States]]
[[Category:Police brutality in New York (state)]]
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[[Category:United States military killing of American civilians]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in 1971]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Attacks on prisons and jails in the United States]]