It was a wonderful experience, in hindsight, but in the moment, I was, What the hell am I doing here? In the cell it looked so magnificent, but when I got there I realized, you know, this is real.. Feel free to republish and share widely. Albert Woodfox's Forty Years in Solitary Confinement (Image: Alicia Maule/Innocence Project). They were thrown into solitary where they remained, year after year, decade after decade, long after the Black Panther party itself had ceased to exist. Its the greatest weapon you can use in social struggle to bring about change. [43] The song "The Rise of the Black Messiah" (2015), written by Amy Ray and performed by Indigo Girls, was inspired by the Angola 3. \u201cAlbert Woodfox, the activist who survived 44 years in solitary confinement, passed away yesterday at 75 years old \n\nHere\u2019s part of what he had to say when I interviewed him in 2020 about how he and the Angola 3 stayed strong \n\n@WWLTV\u201d, \u201cOur dear Albert Woodfox, with an unbreakable spirit, passed away today. He and Woodfox were among activists seeking to improve conditions at the notoriously cruel and violent prison. He did make that longed-for trip to Yosemite, and almost wished he hadnt. Albert Woodfox interviewed by Innocence Project Digital Engagement Director Alicia Maule on Zoom in February 2021. "I robbed people, scared them, threatened them, intimidated them. I went outside and just walked and walked. Claustrophobia was something he wrestled with throughout his four decades in solitary. It made him dig deep into reserves of compassion and resilience he never knew he had, and forced him to learn how to live in the absence of human touch. Together with Robert King, a fellow Black Panther convicted of a separate murder in prison in 1973, the men became known as the Angola Three. I am a soon-to-be 74 year old white woman, and this book is speaking to me at a gut wrenching level. Dwight Garner of The New York Times said that it was "uncommonly powerful". (Image: Courtesy of Albert Woodfox). Woodfox was sentenced to 50 years in prison. In 1971, Woodfox was serving a 50-year sentence for armed robbery at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, a former slave plantation then known as one of America's toughest prisons. "They liked to threaten and taunt us, but they made sure to do it only if they were outside our cells or when we were in restraints," he said. A member of the Angola 3 . During 44 years and 10 months in a prison cell, and being actively involved, organizing, and resisting, I had a lot thrown at me. Its a way of expressing what we are going through right now. Press "Enter" or click on the arrow to show results. )[2] The two men initiated an investigation of the case, challenging the conclusions of the original investigations at Angola about the murder of guard Miller, and also raising questions about the conduct of the prisoners' original trials in 1972. "Whether you know him as Fox, Shaka, Cinque, or Albert--he knew you as family. His proudest achievement was teaching another inmate to read. (October 13, 1941 October 4, 2013)[27] In July 2013 Amnesty International called for Herman Wallace's release on humanitarian grounds, saying, "Wallace is 71 years old and has advanced liver cancer. Echoes of wisdoms on my mothers lips, too young, Her name is Brenda. He named him Hobo. In an interview with The Guardian, Woodfox recalled his time at CCR and the treatment he received from the prison guards. These include the widow of the late guard Brent Miller, who believes the three men are innocent of her husband's murder. Did he miss anything about Angola? To mark the occasion, we spoke to him about his long journey to justice. "[11] He was referring to learning via the Black Panthers and reading while in prison about his history as an African American and racial inequities in the US. 'Solitary' Is an Uncommonly Powerful Memoir About Four Decades in Woodfox, Herman Wallace, and Robert King--the Angola Three--were immediately charged with the killing and locked up in solitary confinement. [2] "For Woodfox, the teachings of the Panthers were revelatory, giving his life a direction and moral meaning he had never previously found. Woodfox uses the power of his story to press for an end to solitary confinement, which nationally still holds 80,000 US prisoners in its brutal grip. The court ordered a new trial. This article has been a beautiful addition to my current reading of Solitary. On Tortuous Road to Freedom, 'Angola Three' Inmate Bides His Time They organized strikes and sit-downs, earning the respect of many of the prison's Black inmates and raising the ire of racist prison officials. So anytime you challenge inhumane treatment or you challenge unconstitutional conduct, they would gas you," he told NPR's Scott Simon in a 2019 interview. A mass of documentation gathered over years by his tireless defense lawyers points to them having been framed. I think hes going to play my character. Albert Woodfox is finally free! - Amnesty International Before going to trial, the prosecutor offered him a plea deal, with the sentences for the lower charges to be offset by the time he had already served. C. Murray Henderson, the prison's warden and a friend of the Miller family, called Woodfox a "hardcore Black Panther racist," per The New Yorker. (Image: William Widmer for the Innocence Project), Update (8/4/22): On August 4, 2022, Albert Woodfox, with an unbreakable spirit, passed away. Its strange you say that because I just bought a typewriter. Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). In 2008 U.S. District Judge James Brady reversed and vacated Woodfox's conviction and life sentence. Many years ago, a friend of mine traced Woodfox we go back to the 1700s in Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Florida. And that's what solitary confinement is designed for to break people. [11][12], Woodfox had escaped from the Orleans Parish courthouse during his sentencing hearing and fled to Harlem in New York City. He was released in 2001, the first of the Angola 3 to gain freedom. Woodfox always maintained his innocence, claiming for decades that he was set up by prison officials because he belonged to the Black Panther Party and was organizing fellow inmates to protest their conditions of confinement. He was released in February 2016, but says he is still adapting to life outside. He had been in solitary . Louisiana Attorney General James Caldwell promised to appeal the District Court's decision, saying, "We feel confident that we will again prevail at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Woodfox was tried and convicted twice for Miller's murder but courts later overturned both convictions. But upon being promised a pardon by Henderson if he ratted out the perpetrators, Brown immediately named inmate activists, including Woodfox. How could I make amends?. While the state had the option to dismiss the charges, it reindicted King and said it would retry him. In 2000, the Angola Three filed a civil suit against the Louisiana Department of Corrections "challenging the inhumane and increasingly pervasive practice of long-term solitary confinement". He tells his story in detail in Solitary, a 2019 non-fiction National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is a living wellspring of history, a former Black Panther whose Black radical ideology is rooted in his belief in humanity and profound love for his mother, Ruby Edwards. Albert Woodfox freed after 43 years in US solitary prison Woodfox, who would have to wait over two more years for his freedom, raised his fist triumphantly as he walked out of prison on February 9, 2016. Albert Woodfox may have survived 43 years in solitary, but it came at a price. The Panthers gave me a sense of self-worth, that I did have something to offer to humanity, he said. Concluding that this action amounted to a violation of the US Constitution, the judges struck down Woodfox's conviction. On the day of his passing, his attorney George Kendall sadly remarked, There will be a huge hole in the sky tonight., On Feb. 19, 2016, Albert Woodfox was freed after 44 years and 10 months of incarceration almost all of which he spent in solitary confinement. Albert Woodfox has been held in solitary confinement at Louisiana's Angola prison for 43 years. When Woodfox first emerged from captivity five years ago, he was amazed by the number of Confederate flags he saw stuck on windows or on car license plates. Legions of lawyers and laypeople, activists, celebrities, and international organizations and individuals rallied behind the Angola Three. King was received as a guest and dignitary by the African National Congress in South Africa, and spoke with Desmond Tutu. None whatsoever. Another brother had earlier served as a prison guard. Albert Woodfox, a wrongfully imprisoned Black Panther activist who spent his 43 years in solitary confinement uplifting himself and others before finally being freed in 2019, died Thursday of complications from Covid-19 at age 75. Supporters mounted new challenges by appeals in court. Who would have thought that all those years in solitary would have prepared me for living through this pandemic? he said. He was held on the tier known as closed cell restricted, or CCR, where prisoners were locked up alone for at least 23 hours a day. Its concern with humanity, building the value of humanity, building a better society. [9], King was released in 2001, following 29 years in solitary confinement. They had each been held for 36 years in solitary confinement. "May he rest in eternal peace and power. Albert Woodfox spent 43 years in solitary confinement. E very morning for almost 44 years, Albert Woodfox would awake in his 6ft by 9ft concrete cell and brace himself for the day ahead. The longest-serving prisoner to be held in solitary confinement in US history, Albert Woodfox, has walked free in Louisiana after 43 years. I have three grandkids, and I have four great-grandkids. He would get to know his daughter Brenda, whom hed had when he was 16 but hardly knew. Albert Woodfox at Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Feb. 2021. Breaking news: SCOTUS rules in favor of Rodney Reed . A handout image shows Woodfox, right, being accompanied by his brother Michel Mable, left, as he walks out of the West Feliciana parish detention center on 19 February 2016. ne of Woodfoxs techniques for surviving years alone in a 6ft by 9ft cell was to compose a list of what he would do were he to be set free. [33] At the time, he spoke to a reporter from The New York Times and said, "When I began to understand who I was, I considered myself free. echoes of a mother within darkest night. Albert Woodfox, the author and activist who spent 43 years in solitary confinement, died this week at the age of 75. Eventually, Woodfox and Wallace, together with another prisoner named Robert King, who was also a Black Panther, became known as the "Angola Three." It isnt all about ethnicity. The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length. I think I was in my early 40s, when I really came to a point in my life where I said, Okay, Im ready. On Friday, February 19th, Albert Woodfox turned sixty-nine and walked out of a Louisiana prison, celebrating his first birthday as a free man in more than forty-five years. It features Saul Williams, Nadirah X, Asdru Sierra, Dana Glover, Tina Schlieske, Derrick Ashong and Stewart. "I've been asked a lot: 'What would I change in my life?' Solitary confinement is one of the most brutal punishments an inmate in prison can experience. Not just to survive, but prosper as human beings. Today, he considers himself a committed activist and revolutionary and is . ", "With heavy hearts, we write to share that our partner, brother, father, grandfather, comrade, and friend, Albert Woodfox, passed away this morning," Woodfox's family said in a statement. King, who spent 29 years in solitary confinement, was freed in 2001 after his conviction was overturned. Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images If the Angola authorities thought that they could break Woodfox on the rack of solitary confinement, they hadnt counted on his powers of resistance. hide caption. Ostensibly, the punishment was meted out to Woodfox and his fellow member of a group of solitary prisoners who became known as the Angola 3, Herman Wallace, after they were accused and convicted of murdering a prison guard, Brent Miller. On Friday 19 February, Albert Woodfox was suddenly released. A committed activist in prison, he remains so today, speaking to a wide array of audiences, including the Innocence Project, Harvard, Yale, and. So how do you fit in? (Image: Courtesy of Albert Woodfox). Direct to your inbox. Woodfox said the strength and determination his mother instilled in him kept him going. [10], Wallace and Woodfox were each sent to Angola Prison in 1971: Wallace was convicted of bank robbery, and Woodfox was convicted of armed robbery. The state chose to prosecute Wallace again for the murder of Miller, although he was dying of liver cancer. Justice is long overdue but it has finally been served. I dont think America really understood the sacrifice that this man made. Almost all that time he spent in solitary confinement, on a life sentence for a murder which he did not commit. Woodfox's conviction was overturned thrice and he was eventually released from prison in 2016 after spending 43 years in isolation. "The pebbles that he threw in the pond become ripples, became a wave \u2026 this will carry him on to eternity."\u201d. Robert King and I, wherever we went to speak, always asked the inviting body to let us meet with some of the young leaders of the Black lives movement. He was released on February 19, 2016, after the prosecution agreed to drop its push for a retrial and accept his plea of no contest to lesser charges of burglary and manslaughter. Woodfox (left) pumps his fist as he arrives on stage during his first public appearance after his release from Louisiana's Angola Prison earlier in the day in 2016. And then you can hear the kids and see your kid riding up and down the block, playing in the street. On April 17, 1972, a 23-year-old prison guard named Brent Miller was stabbed to death. BBC Radio 5 live. Im more optimistic than Ive ever been. In Angola, in the cell, I didnt have a choice.. The scars of solitary: Albert Woodfox on freedom after 44 years in a Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace in Angola prison. , a 2019 non-fiction National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist. Robert and I both saw the potential of the Black Lives Matter movement and their resemblance to the Black Panther Party. Two prisoners and Black Panthers Mr. Woodfox and, is widely reported to have served the longest time in solitary confinement of any person in the U.S. His story has. It emerged after the trial that the main state witness against them, a fellow prisoner, had been paid for his testimony in cigarettes and promises of a reduced sentence. "Our cells were meant to be death chambers but we turned them into schools, into debate halls. "I think what I went through has made me a better man, a better human being," he told the Post. Arrogance of manhood wouldnt let me hear, I am sick to death of prosecutors who purposely withhold evidence that could exonerate but then ARE NEVER PUNISHED. lbert Woodfox may have survived 43 years in solitary, but it came at a price. According to the Innocence Project, Woodfox, Herman Wallace, Chester Jackson, and Gilbert Montague all Black Panthers were accused of Miller's murder despite a lack of evidence to support the claims. Im 74, so Ive seen a lot of upheaval in this country, and the Capitol insurrection was a defining moment in American society. days after his release, referring to theSouth Africanracial justice activist who spent years of his 27-year imprisonment in solitary confinement before being freed and subsequently elected the country's first post-apartheid president. His first conviction was overturned on appeal, and he pleaded guilty to a lesser conspiracy to commit murder charge. My grandparents on my stepdads side come from a small town in La Grange, North Carolina. Mom and my aunts made sure that all of us could cook and clean the house. In April 2015, his lawyer applied for an unconditional writ for his release. He had spent nearly. In the end, Woodfoxs meditations on isolation, resilience and the cost of freedom always bring him back to something more personal. I used to tell them, Why dont you spend 24 hours in your bathroom and find out for yourself. Well, thats no longer necessary this pandemic has forced everyone to isolate and they are freaking out!. In Angola prison, there have been some changes. Some of the hardest things have been the least expected. And they hadnt factored in the principles and values instilled within him by the Black Panther movement, which he says literally saved his life. The waterfall was so high theres a massive spray where the water hits the rocks, and as I turned into it, it was like someone had thrown a bucket of ice-cold water on me. Together with his time for armed robbery, he had already served 45 years, the total of the sentences for those crimes. [15], In 1997, Malik Rahim, a community activist in New Orleans and a former Black Panther member, together with young lawyer Scott Fleming, who had worked as a prisoner advocate while a law student, learned that Wallace, King, and Woodfox were still incarcerated in solitary confinement. \n\n"There will be a huge hole in the sky tonight,\u201d said his attorney George Kendall.\n\n https://t.co/uGalhflkgY\u201d, \u201cEx-Black Panther member Robert King remembers his time as part of the "Angola Three" alongside Alfred Woodfox.\n\n"He understood his reasoning for existing," says King. I think were doing a great job refusing to accept it now by building a level of consciousness. We will remember you today and every day \u2014 our fiercest fighter and brightest light. I came to see that America was still a very racist country.

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