Heather Ann Thompson is an author, historian, and professor at the University of Michigan. She came to Cornell to speak about her newly published book “Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy” in Golden Smith Hall. I had the pleasure of attending this talk. Although I had no idea what to expect from it, I came out with so much more than I could’ve asked for.

At first, I thought the speaker was going to discuss her journey and specifically how she became interested in the prison system and chose that as her life long research topic. However, Thompson really delved into what Attica is and a very brief oversight of the injustice that occurred. On September 13, 1971, prisoners at Attica Prison had a revolt and held hostages in order to negotiate with the government to improve conditions within the Prison. The police came and surrounded the prison, while a helicopter hovering the prison courtyard sprayed toxic gas onto everyone and began shooting at all prisoners and hostages.

The account we all learn about in the news, online and in books have been heavily twisted to the side of the government Although I hadn’t heard of the story before, I could only imagine what the media said. Thompson told us the barriers she pushed through to listen to the real life accounts from family or persons in Attica Prison at the time. She really opened my eyes not only to what injustices this world has, but also how the media sways the public’s opinion. I have definitely learned that even if every single media outlet is publishing the same story, it may still not be all the truth.

It truly amazes me how much we do not know. Dr. Heather Ann Thompson, author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy, expressed the hidden story of a prison riot in Attica. I was torn between feelings of gratitude and outrage. Its times like these where outrage demands transparency and answers to question. Its times like these gratitude for reporters, journalist and  authors to tell stories doesn’t come  frequent enough.

Five days into a prison takeover by its 1,300 inmates, Attica Correctional Facility’s prisoners expected to end negotiations with New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller shortly, having made significant gains at the bargaining table. Especially since this prison takeout had captured the attention of news media outlets across the country, prisoners were confident they would begin to receive humane treatment while incarcerated.

When a helicopter flew over the yard at Attica, gases were dropped. The mixture of gases created a thick cloud  in the prison compound yard, that it settled in the eyes and throats of the inmates. With oxygenated masked, armed forces executed a military style assault. Under the orders of Gov. Rockefeller, prisoners and prison officers were subjected to death, bloodshed, and torture at the hands of the government. Meanwhile, government spokesperson stood outside the prison lying to the American people and journalist. Still to this today, communities in the US believe that the prisoners were responsible for the deaths that day.

Throughout her presentation, Dr. Thompson kept emphasizing trends and patterns that lead up to a moment like Attica. At the time, there were immense challenge to the criminal justice system, yet a strong push for an increase in the police state.

One possible explanation was a response or backlash to the civil rights era. But for Dr. Thompson, that answer wasn’t enough. She wanted to know: what was stirring inside the hearts and minds of Americans that pushed them to begin a war on crime before there was a need? Why was all this occurring on the heels of protests, policy adjustments, and public debate?

As I start reflecting on the current cultural-political climate, I can’t help but think about how this moment in time is very much “on the heels of” too. Statistics will paint a picture of how black women are graduating at faster rates than any other demographic, unemployment is decreasing. Not to mention, social media is giving rise to new social movements and we have just witnessed the first black president leave office scandal-free. But, for many in the 1960s, they probably felt similarly – filled with hope and promise.

Walking away from this experience has emphasized the importance of pushing back on what the government has to say. But to watch the patterns of society. If history has taught me anything, it is that history repeats itself. I hope that my local and global contributions can shed light on injustice, in its ugliest forms.

Last week, I had the opportunity to hear Heather Ann Thompson speak about her book “Blood in The Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy”. Previously, I had heard the term Attica thrown around occasionally but never actually knew the context, so I was intrigued to learn more.

What I hear in that lecture hall was truly sickening. On September 13, 1971, prisoners at Attica Prison staged a revolt and held hostages in order to negotiate and attain basic human rights that they had been denied, things as simple as sufficient food and water. After a false hope of meeting these demands, state police arrived and killed prisoners and hostages alike. Those left alive were subsequently humiliated and tortured.

This is not the story the public had heard, however. After careful crafting and, how Thompson described, “various meetings in the pool house to get everyone’s stories straight”, the public was informed that the prisoners were responsible for the dead after days of riots in the prison. In the process of writing this book, Thompson described the obstacles she encountered in gathering this information because of how warped the records continue to be and the misinformation that persists about what really happened on that September day.  It’s stories like these that have me questioning what other events in our history the government has manipulated in order to save face.

I’m from New York, and I had never heard of the Attica prison uprising, a fact which speaks volumes about the whole incident. It seems that there were no bounds to the deviousness of the state government in covering up the fiasco. It took Dr. Thompson 13 years to write the book because it was so difficult for her to find the information from archives about the event. In fact, she had to spend most of her time researching the incident interviewing parties involved, both guards and prisoners. The tale that they told demonstrated the vast dichotomy between what the state told the public about the event. This lack of archives about the event ended up hurting almost all of the parties involved because it was impossible for those hurt to defend themselves in court because the state could deny what happened. There were a number of false witness statements which cluttered the facts.

Dr. Thompson told us that the most important lesson from Attica is that we need to dig and search for both sides of the story, and not just take what the media presents us with as fact. The good in the whole Attica story is that the determination of ordinary people matters, while the bad is that the true history is not always told right away and every day.

With the recommendation by my sports politics professor, and seeing that it was a rose scholar event, i decided to attend Heather Ann Thompson’s discussion about her book documenting the Attica prison uprising in 1971. While the talk provided great information about the uprising, one of the main lessons learned could be applied to our current day life.

One of the interesting points made by Thompson was about the obstacles she had to overcome in order to start working on the book. She said that a lot of the information regarding the incident was not permissible for the public to see and that she had to get special permission in order to look at it. This leads into the problems with how the information regarding the incident has been blurred. The uprising started because the prisoners were demanding better conditions and the stop to abuse and they took hostages. After negotiations fell through, the state police was then sent to take back the prison. One of the images from the presentation slides that stood out to me was where there was a group of state troopers ready to storm the prison and one of them was looking back towards the camera looking almost afraid and skeptical. Like “something bad is about to happen”- foreshadowing.

In reality, during the uprising many of the prisoners were shot and killed or hit with tear gas (keep in mind that most of them were unarmed). What the public heard through the media was that the prisoners were the ones who escalated the events and caused the killings. On the front page of the NYT, there was a headline and story regarding the uprising that apparently had no corroboration. This informed what i took away most from this talk. The main lesson that i took away from this talk was that you have to read everything with a grain of salt and always be skeptical/questioning- look at all of the facts. There is alot of “fake news” and “alternative facts” swirling around the media nowadays and it is important that we do not rush to conclusions. It is worth it to take the time and find out the truth.

On March 7th, Ms. Heather Thompson the author of Blood in the Water – The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy lectured on her experiences on research and writing her historic bestseller. Thompson covered
a thorough history and recap of the uprising along with the racial and political tensions of the time, background politics that led up to it, commentary from inmates and corrections officers who witnessed it, negotiations for and thoughts on the hostages, the reasons for the decision to go in with force, and the aftermath and cover up by those involved. She also talked about the difficulties she encountered while researching her book. She signed up for what she thought would be a three-year project, and it stretched to 13 years. Her difficulties uncovering the whole picture through press coverage, interviews, and documents led her on a journey for truth in a world of inaccuracies, exaggerations, and lies.

Ms. Thompson talked about the interviews and reactions from participants from all sides of the event. She thanked them for daring to tell their stories, and recounted how all of them were not only willing, but wanting, to tell it. Her voice is the voice of many that has been silenced for too long. She also pointed out several everyday heroes, like the coroner who refused to alter the cause of death for one inmate, who was beaten and shot to death, and stood firm in the face of the anti-prisoner political climate. Ms. Thompson also expressed her historian’s personal perspective of her research and emphasized that what we often see and hear about an event has so many sources of input, all with their own influences, and the whole picture is never really the whole picture. To fill the gaps, it is always best to get first hand accounts because the details, including the feelings and emotions of all involved, are important in telling the story.
I purchased a copy of Ms. Thompson’s book and am looking forward to reading it.

On March 7th, I had the opportunity to hear about the Attica Prison uprising. Prior to  the lecture, I had never heard of Attica or the riot. Although I had never known about the situation, at least I was able to learn about the situation with all of its truths. When the uprising occurred, what was told to the public was untrue. The cover-up told to the public back then can still be seen today when we think about the bias news coverage that is presented to us.

Furthermore, how hard it was to uncover what actually occurred at the prison makes me question how much of history are we missing today. Heather Thompson spoke about how back then, the governor made the book and information on Attica closed . So, Heather had to get lots of information directly from the people who lived it instead. Thus, we have to think, for the events that occurred long ago that can’t be traced to directly living individuals anymore, how many of those events are we missing/have been told incorrectly?