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Thompson HistoryWorkshop
Thompson HistoryWorkshop
On
September
9,
1971
over
1200
prisoners
took
over
a
maximum
security
prison
in
upstate
New
York.
Over
the
course
of
their
four
day
rebellion
the
world
watched
as
prisoners
negotiated
with
top
state
officials
for
better
living
conditions
and
basic
civil
rights.
Suddenly,
though,
on
September
13,
1971
Governor
Nelson
Rockefeller
ordered
the
forcible
retaking
of
this
prison
by
hundreds
of
heavily
armed
state
troopers.
The
result
was
a
massacre
of
prisoners
and
hostages
alike.
In
this
talk,
Heather
Ann
Thompson
will
not
only
shine
new
light
of
this
civil
rights
rebellion,
but
she
will
also
place
it
in
its
broader
historical
context.
Attica,
Thompson
suggests,
had
everything
to
do
with
the
U.S.s
subsequent
embrace
of
far
more
punitive
justice
policy
as
the
20th
century
became
the
21st.