Heather Ann Thompson
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Heather Ann Thompson will deliver a lecture on the Attica Prison uprising of 1971. Her talk, “The Attica Prison Uprising and Why It Matters Today,” will occur on the 46th anniversary of the uprising, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 7 p.m. in Newton Hall, Room 202, on the SUNY Geneseo campus. The talk is free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will follow.
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize for History, Thompson, a professor of history at the University of Michigan, was awarded the Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy for her 2016 book, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, which deals with the racial conflict and mass incarceration that led to the 1971 uprising of almost 1,300 prisoners who took over the correctional facility for four days to protest years of mistreatment. The prison was retaken by a force of heavily armed police and corrections officers, resulting in the deaths of 39 men and more than 100 severely wounded individuals.
“The events at Attica, just 30 miles away from Geneseo, are significant as local history with considerable national importance,” says Emilye Crosby, professor of history and coordinator of Black Studies at Geneseo. “These events and our understanding of them remain quite relevant, with serious contemporary implications.”
Heather Ann Thompson has written extensively on the history of policing, mass incarceration and the current criminal justice system for popular and scholarly publications, and has brought her scholarly work and activist approach to related policy issues.
Additional campus events on the Attica uprising & its legacy
The following events are free and open to the public.
Screening and Q&A: On Monday, Sept. 11, 3:30 p.m. in Newton Hall, Room 201, the Emmy Award-winning documentary, Criminal Injustice: Death and Politics at Attica, produced by Christine Christopher and David Marshall will be shown. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with Christopher.
Panel Discussion, Monday, Sept. 11, 7 p.m. in the Ballroom, MacVittie College Union. “Attica Uprising,” a seven-member panel discussion featuring Malcolm Bell, a former prosecutor who discovered a state cover-up during his investigation of the retaking of Attica; Christine Christopher, Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and co-producer of Criminal Injustice: Death and Politics at Attica; Gary Craig, a journalist who has covered the Attica uprising for decades; Joe Heath, civil and Indigenous rights lawyer, and attorney for Attica inmates; Dee Quinn Miller, daughter of a corrections officer killed in the uprising and a founder of the Forgotten Victims of Attica; Michael Smith, former corrections officer and hostage; and Ellen Yacknin, judge and civil legal team attorney.
Discussion: Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2:30-3:45 p.m. in Newton 203, “Attica 46 Years Later—the Cover Ups Continue: a discussion” led by Joe Heath, civil and Indigenous rights lawyer, who will share his experiences from his third day in law school in Buffalo in September of 1971 as an organizer, law student, criminal trial lawyer and class action civil rights lawyer, up to the present.
Students can register to earn GOLD credit by attending any of these featured talks.
Thompson’s talk is an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecture, her appearance and these campus events are sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the English Department, the Xerox Center for Multicultural Teacher Education, Women and Gender Studies, the GOLD Program, the Center for Community and the Office of Multicultural Programs and Services.