Attica, 55 Years Later

Fifty-five years ago on September 9th, 1,281 men took over D Yard at Attica and read a list of demands into a microphone. Not weapons. Demands. Medical care. Religious freedom. An end to censorship. To be paid more than pennies for their labor. To be treated as men.

Four days later the state answered with gunfire. Thirty-nine people died in the retaking — including ten of the hostages the state claimed it was rescuing.

We say Attica was a rebellion. It was also a liturgy. Men who had been buried alive by the carceral state stood up and testified about their own humanity — which is exactly what the prophets did, and exactly what the Black Church has always been called to do.

Fifty-five years later the demands have barely changed. That is the indictment.

What would it mean for your congregation to hear that testimony and answer differently than the state did?

Abolition 101 traces this history — slave codes to convict leasing to the New Jim Crow.