Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, September 14th, 1971, Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, New York is, I guess, relatively speaking, calm on this day and stable.

But in the prior four days, an uprising had rocked the complex.

39 people killed including 29 prisoners and 10 prison guards, days of violence,

hostage taking more.

The Attica revolt would become a huge news story,

a cultural touchstone, and it would open up

a conversation about the horrific conditions

inside American prisons that, well, you know, we'll discuss how much that

conversation has led to actual change then and now. But here to do that, as always,

are Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there. Hello Jody. Hey there. And our special

guest for this episode is Heather Ann Thompson professor at the University of

Michigan and author of the book, Blood in the Water, the Attica Uprising

uprising of 1971 and its legacy.

Heather, welcome to the show. Thanks for doing this.

Great to be here.

So when you read accounts of the revolt, they often say that they were quote unplanned and you hear that it was an

unplanned revolt. I'm just curious kind of what you make of that framing of the of that word and

I guess that's also a chance to talk a little bit about how this four day

uprising began. Was it truly unplanned? Well I mean it depends how you think

about it and made it was not some diabolical master mining of of militants the way that the state of New York would have you believe in terms of it had no purpose it had no reason it was meant to just simply destabilize the US government.

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