Subject: Video Interview with Emory Douglas: The Angola 3, the
Prison-Industrial Complex, and Solitary Confinement
Video Interview with Emory
Douglas: The Angola 3, the Prison-Industrial Complex, and
Abolishing Solitary Confinement
By Angola 3 News
Emory Douglas first served as the
art director for the Black Panther Party’s newspaper, and later served as
Minister of Culture until 1980. Throughout these years, Douglas’ iconic artwork was published
in the BPP newspaper and beyond. His artwork is featured in the new book
entitled “Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas.” For more information about Douglas, please visit:
Douglas was interviewed in San Francisco by Angola 3 News in October 2009. This
is the first segment of our interview to be released. In this segment, Douglas
speaks about the Angola 3, the prison-industrial complex, and
abolishing solitary confinement.
37 years ago in Louisiana, 3 young
black men were silenced for trying to expose continued segregation, systematic
corruption, and horrific abuse in the biggest prison in the US, an 18,000-acre
former slave plantation called Angola. In 1972 and 1973 prison officials
charged Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King with murders they did
not commit and threw them into 6x9 ft. cells in solitary confinement, for over
36 years. Robert was freed in 2001, but Herman and Albert remain behind bars.
Three court cases are now pending.
Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace are both appealing to have their convictions
overturned. On October 9, 2009, the State Supreme Court denied Wallace's writ,
so he will now be filing a habeus petition in Federal Court.
The joint federal civil rights
lawsuit of Woodfox, Wallace, and Robert King, arguing that their time in
solitary confinement is “cruel and unusual punishment,” will go to trial any
month in Baton Rouge, at the U.S.
Middle District Court.
Angola 3
Fact Sheet
· In
the early 1970’s, while in various jails waiting to begin serving prison terms
for robberies they were convicted of separately committing, Albert Woodfox and
Herman Wallace were exposed to – and became committed to upholding – the
principles of the Black Panther Party.
· When
they arrived at the Louisiana State Prison at Angola,
they found that it lived up to its reputation as one of the bloodiest and most
brutal penitentiaries in the United
States, with drugs, gambling, stabbings and rapes routine matters of daily
occurrence.
· Since
one of the most basic of the Black Panther Party principles called for the
practice of improving life in one’s community, Woodfox and Wallace requested of
the national organization that they be granted permission to establish the
first BPP chapter inside prison.
· Officially
recognized as a Black Panther Party chapter, Woodfox, Wallace and a few other
brave souls began organizing the prisoners at Angola to stop all
prisoner-to-prisoner violence, even the rapes of new prisoners that had become
an expected part of life at the prison among a population most of whom were
scheduled to die in the institution.
· As
the prisoner-to-prisoner violence did, in fact, decrease greatly, the money
made by the guards and administration through the wide-spread vice and
corruption decreased, as well, much to their displeasure. Additionally, with the prisoners
organizing in their own best interests, the administration no longer felt it
was in control.
· On
April 17, 1972, a young White guard was brutally stabbed to death while most of
the prisoners were at breakfast. Almost
immediately, Woodfox and Wallace were placed in solitary confinement and within
days, a viciously brutal serial rapist doing a life sentence claimed that he
had seen the two men stab the guard to death.
· Despite
the fact that there was no other evidence whatsoever that Woodfox and Wallace
had committed the crime, despite the fact that a bloody shoeprint and bloody
fingerprint at the scene did not belong to either of them, and despite the fact
that given their locations, it would have been impossible for them to commit
the murder, they were ultimately convicted of the crime (based only on the
testimony of the rapist who was subsequently released from prison, though he
was never originally supposed to be paroled).
· In
the fall of 1972, Robert King, also exposed to and espousing the Black Panther
Party principles after he was incarcerated, was also brought to Angola to serve a sentence for robbery. Upon arrival, he was immediately
placed in solitary confinement for “investigation related to the murder,”
despite the fact that he was not even in the institution at the time it was
committed. King, together
with Woodfox and Wallace, then, became known as “The Angola 3.”
· In
1998, Albert Woodfox’ conviction was overturned, but a new grand jury, chaired
by the former wife of a former warden at Angola (a woman who had written a book
about the prison in which she repeated a number of lies about Woodfox,
including that he was a convicted rapist, which he is not) determined that he
should be re-tried. The new
trial was held in Amite, Louisiana, the home town of the
murdered guard. Despite the
fact that there was no new evidence and the supposed eye-witness was dead
(which meant that he could not be cross-examined), Woodfox was found guilty
once more using only the written transcript of the “witness’” testimony from
the original trial.
· In
2001, after Robert King had spent 29 years in solitary confinement, his
conviction for the murder of another prisoner was overturned and King was
released. One week later,
he held a press conference at the institution, saying, “I may be free of Angola, but Angola will never be free of me.” And he has worked tirelessly around
the world ever since in the effort to free his two brothers yet inside.
· In
July of 2008, Woodfox’ conviction was yet again overturned, but the State
appealed the decision and blocked Woodfox ability to post bond and be released,
so he is still incarcerated and still in solitary confinement. The Appellate Court heard the case in
March of 2009 and is expected to release its ruling momentarily.
· International
human rights organization Amnesty International has called for the immediate
release of both Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace. But Louisiana Attorney General Buddy
Caldwell, calling Woodfox “the most dangerous man on the planet,” has vowed to
take the case personally all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if
necessary. And Angola Warden Burl Cain was quoted in the
Washington Post as saying, “Albert Woodfox is still into Black Pantherism and
he belongs in solitary confinement whether he did anything or not.”
Angola 3
News is an official project of the National Coalition to Free the Angola 3.
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