WEBVTT - Bonus: Prison Radicalism - Part 2 with Brittany Friedman 0:00:01.880 --> 0:00:04.519 Rip Current is a production of iHeart Podcasts. 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:08.039 The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.880 of the host, producers or parent company. Listener discretion is 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:17.400 it five This is a rip Current bonus episode. 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.040 You don't need to listen to follow the Rip Current storyline, 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:24.040 but it provides more information, context, and analysis to enhance 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:24.919 the main podcast. 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:26.000 Enjoy. 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:35.320 This is the second of two interviews I conducted with 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:40.159 experts in prison radical movements. I spoke with Brittany Friedman, 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:43.960 who is assistant professor of sociology at the University of 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:48.839 Southern California. She is the author of Carcerol Apartheid, How 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:53.200 Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons. We talked about 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:57.400 the connection between freedom movements inside and outside prison, the 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:01.200 campaign by government and prison officials to eradicate the black 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:05.639 freedom movement in California prisons, and the alliance between prison 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:08.440 guards and white supremacist prison gangs. 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.320 Well, I'm Brittany Friedman. I am an assistant professor of 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:18.520 sociology at the University of Southern California, and most of 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:24.360 my research looks at institutional predation, so essentially, not just 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:30.440 bad actors, but systematically how institutions themselves can be what 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:36.000 we would consider bad actors in terms of enacting policies 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:41.480 and informally or formally that cause systematic harm, often to 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.560 disenfranchised populations. And one of the ways I tend to 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:52.040 examine that is primarily through conditions of confinement, so incarceration, 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:55.800 but also in society and really thinking about how our 0:01:55.840 --> 0:02:01.800 prisons are politically porous and so they mirror similar types 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:05.280 of control strategies that we see on the outside. 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.240 Can you just explain what you mean by politically porous? 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.200 Yes, So what I mean by that is a big 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:14.919 part of my work is looking at how the political 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.600 mobilization of the civil rights movement and the larger black 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:23.720 freedom struggle wasn't just present within prisons. Specifically, I'm looking 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.400 at California prisons, so there was this continuum between the 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:31.560 prison as an institution of control and the community in 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:35.480 struggle on the outside and on the outside. What we 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:42.960 saw during that era were coalitions across racial and ethnic boundaries, 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.480 very key. You know, famous coalitions come to mind in 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:49.560 terms of imagery when I say that, but also on 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:53.200 the inside there was a very strong effort to build coalitions, 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.520 and I became interested in studying the ways in which 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:02.160 the Department of Corrections back by other levels of law enforcement, 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:06.280 so thinking about cointail Pro at the time, also thinking 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.640 about larger state level agencies. 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:15.240 Co intel Pro was a controversial FBI program that officially 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.720 ran from nineteen fifty eight to nineteen seventy one. Its goal, 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:26.040 often employing illegal practices, was to disrupt, infiltrate, and discredit 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:31.120 organizations that the FBI considered subversive. Most of the targeted 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.400 groups were on the political left, including civil rights, black power, 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:40.160 and anti war organizations. We will examine co intel Pro 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.200 in greater depth in episode nine of Rip Current. 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.640 So how were they all organizing themselves to try to 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:52.080 squash these coalitions because we know from the research and 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.560 from popular media, we know about how they tried to 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:00.360 squash these coalitions on the outside, and so can think 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:04.920 of very key examples of trying to break up really 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:09.680 racial and ethnic unity around black freedom struggles or leftist 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.160 struggles of the time. And my research is thinking about, well, 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.279 what was happening in our prisons because they are poorous 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:20.040 people coming into the prison, are coming in with ideologies. 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.720 They don't just get incarcerated and lose their identity, right, 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:28.040 they bring it with them. They also gain new identities 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:30.360 from being in an environment with people who are bringing 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.599 their identities. And then also you have the Department of 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:39.480 Corrections trying to instill other identities, if you will, such 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:44.160 as being an inmate and being docile into people also. 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:48.480 So there's kind of this melting pot happening within prisons 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.840 within this larger struggles that we see historically. 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:56.800 There was a little break in our conversation to deal 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.839 with some background noise. We picked it up again with 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:04.680 Brittany continuing her explanation of the concept of political porousness. 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.800 So when I say that prisons are politically porous, what 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.599 I mean is that the political mobilization of the civil 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:18.000 rights movement and the larger Black freedom struggle wasn't just 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:22.760 present within prisons, right specifically California prisons. 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:24.000 There was a. 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:29.520 Continuum between the prison as an institution of control and 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:34.000 the community in struggle on the outside. And so on 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:38.839 the outside, you have at that time longstanding black political 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.520 movements happening, especially within religious groups that you have the 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:46.640 Nation of Islam, you have Black Christian churches mobilizing all 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.479 of the different cornerstones of the larger black freedom struggle 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:54.000 and the different sites of organizing. And you also have 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:59.680 racial and ethnic coalitions right going across the racial boundaries 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:04.600 that were really codified in state law and protected by 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.120 law enforcement. You have these coalitions working for a larger 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:13.800 black freedom but also for a leftist freedom agenda. And 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:18.080 on the inside in prisons you have the same thing happening. 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:23.000 So prisons they're built with walls, but they allow for 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.839 the transference of ideas, and that's what's key when we're 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:30.880 thinking about politically porous and ideas are brought in through people, 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:32.200 They're brought in through knowledge. 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:32.840 It's why the. 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:36.760 Department of Corrections for decades has always had a band 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:42.320 reading list. It's to prevent ideas from infiltrating that are 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:45.320 coming in from the outside, but also to prevent ideas 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:49.680 that are generated on the inside from people's experiences with incarceration, 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.320 with a type of political genocide that happens that I 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.719 can speak more about in my research, from getting out, 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:01.000 from knowledge of that, from getting out, I think what's 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:06.160 really key is thinking about how state efforts at the 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:10.680 federal level, thinking of quintil pro thinking of at the 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:13.920 state level, and then at the Department of Corrections level, 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.920 how they worked in tandem to try to prevent this 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:24.120 porousness from really spreading even more and generating coalitions from 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.040 the inside of prisons and also on the outside for 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.840 larger movements. And I think what's important to note is 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:37.600 that racial and ethnic coalitions in particular are essentially threatening 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.800 the racial order of the United States, which is really 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:47.560 the foundation for much of the other types of dispossession, 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:51.440 other types of harm that we see in our country 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:55.400 that are coming from a very classed and racist system. 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:59.880 And I think that those movements what they were trying 0:07:59.880 --> 0:08:02.680 to do is say, look, you know, we are of 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.760 different colors, we might be of different backgrounds, However we 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:11.360 have this shared knowledge that the system is organized to 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:17.640 divide us and also to dispossess us for the enrichment, 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:23.440 often financial, of a few. And so that's what I 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.760 mean when I say porous, when I say politically porous, 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.680 and also really zeroing in on coalitions and how the 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:33.160 state is trying to squash them. 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:36.680 Interesting. There are a few things I took notes on 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:38.840 that I want to get back to. But what year 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.360 or what era do you start looking at when you're 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:44.280 taking a look at this dynamic or phenomenon. 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.520 So I start as early as the nineteen fifties, because 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:53.120 in much of the current work we focus on the 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:57.160 hyper incarceration of black people and how it rises significantly 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:01.280 in the nineties, But as early as nineteen six, black 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:03.680 men were five times as likely as white men to 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:08.880 be incarcerated. So when we're thinking about a systemic backlash 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.640 or a white backlash against the black freedom struggle as 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:16.920 really a decisive factor for mass incarceration, then we have 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:21.680 to shift our timeline into different how and when different 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.720 branches of law enforcement began implementing policies. 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:27.280 To repress black political. 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:34.120 Activity, and showcase how this expanded the capacity of ourcarceral system, 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.720 so the capacity of law enforcement, the capacity of prisons 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:43.960 to systematically squash freedom movements before the late nineteen sixties, 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:48.199 which tends to be a starting point for scholars, and 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:50.600 in my work. The reason I do this is because 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.360 I love to dig in archives and find things that 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:57.440 people would like to hide or would rather not have 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:01.920 be found. So in doing that that type of investigative 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:08.080 historical work, I found evidence from institutional records for the 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:12.600 Department of Corrections in California that there was this systematic 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:16.920 effort to eliminate the Black freedom movement in particular as 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.480 like a gateway to other movements in terms of rolling 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:26.040 out protocols to identify, track and neutralize people that identified 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:31.200 as black militants in prison, also after their release, as 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.880 early as the late nineteen fifties in California, and it's 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:38.080 very likely sooner, right because I've found records for the 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:42.360 late nineteen fifties, but it could be sooner. And what 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:47.200 I mean by protocols, I found memos and formal policies 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:51.440 instructing correctional personnel on what to look for, what a 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:53.880 militant might look for, what they might read, what you 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.760 could find in their cell, how they might speak, how 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:01.079 they might present themselves on the yard, and to note 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:04.480 that in their file to identify them, and then also 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:11.199 policies for sharing that information across other agencies once they 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:15.559 were released. And this is as early as the fifties, 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:20.520 and even before that time period, as early as nineteen 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:26.080 fifty three, I found archival documents noting how the California 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:29.679 Department of Corrections was going to build and expand what 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:33.400 we now know as adjustment centers, and what these centers 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:36.760 were trying to do is really they became a key 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:41.240 site of political repression within California prisons because at first 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.760 they were designed as like a holding place for people 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.280 who were determined to be problematic in the early fifties, 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.440 and the people that the Department of Corrections defined as 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:56.000 problematic in the early fifties dramatically shifts later. So early 0:11:56.120 --> 0:12:01.199 they used words like psychotic inmates, people that had psychiatric 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:05.959 problems would be on the list to be identified and tracked. 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.880 But what happens is in the late fifties they start 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:15.120 to change who is identified as problematic. It becomes people 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:20.040 who are being identified and tracked using this black militant 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:26.400 subversive protocol. They began falling into the ranks of who 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:31.640 the ideal adjustment center prisoner is. And so even though 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.600 these systems were developed separately, they really come together in 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.720 a very short amount of time in the fifties. And 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:45.000 it's almost like just perfect horrific timing that the adjustment 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.880 center is created in such a systematized way in the 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.000 early fifties that it can then be quickly used once 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.120 they start developing these threat protocols in the late fifties. 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.839 So they go from sort of identifying people who have 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:05.880 you know, psychological pathologies to sort of pathologizing political views. 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.560 How long did the adjustment centers last or are they 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:11.839 still around? And I just am ignorant of it. 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:20.680 Well, the adjustment centers lasted for decades. They're technically still around. 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:25.920 But the California Department of Corrections really shifted in the 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.720 late eighties, so specifically in nineteen eighty nine with the 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:33.320 building of Pelican Bay. So when Pelican Bay is built, 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:38.160 people who were filling those adjustment centers were some of 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:43.000 the first people sent to Pelican Bay. People that so, 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:47.880 for example, Hugo Panell who becomes, you know, a very 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.880 prolific figure in the prison movement, Black prison movement in California, 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:56.400 one of the first people sent to Pelican Bay, who, 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.719 through his writings and through I interviewed people who were 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.200 close to him at the time while he was incarcerated. 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:07.920 The Adjustment Center was very influential in political development because 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.160 it became this site of torture in the form of 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:15.200 solitary confinement as a means to adjust, hence the name 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:17.839 the adjustment center. They were actually thinking that we can 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:22.320 adjust people's behavior by having them here and then also 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:27.520 it became a site of torture where officers would allow 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:33.320 for racialized torture to happen. So people that I interviewed 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:37.280 talked about experiencing some of the worst acts by either 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:43.280 white correctional officers or allowing white incarcerated people to assault 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:46.480 and abuse them because they were basically hidden away in 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:51.120 this segment of the prison called the adjustment center, and 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:54.560 this was a way to try to root out their 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.320 political allegiance to a larger black struggle. But it was 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:03.040 also from one of the arguments I make in my 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:07.640 work is that the officers were also trying to really 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.560 enforce the racial line to prevent any sort of coalitions 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:16.520 from happening, specifically with white incarcerated people. They played a 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.400 very active role in keeping the boundary. I could give 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.040 examples of some of the ways they did that. The 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:27.520 most infamous ways are we know historically in California prisons 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:31.160 of some of the key shootings that happened that there 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:34.880 has been evidence to suggest that officers were behind orchestrating it. 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.720 So I'm thinking about the Solidad incident that led to 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:42.320 the death of three self identified black militants. Officer Opie 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:45.520 Miller who is a white correctional officer. It's now a 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:49.080 very famous event right in our history that's leading up 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:51.840 to the time period that you're looking at with Sarah 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:56.480 Jane Moore. But in nineteen seventy when Officer Opie Miller, 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:01.200 he shoots three black militants, shoots them on the yard 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:05.280 after an incident that is alleged it was orchestrated by 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:10.240 officers and members of the Arian Brotherhood and in order 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:13.000 to allow for these three people to be killed. And 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.760 they weren't just they were also leaders. They were very 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:21.880 well respected leaders in the black incarcerated population. Especially W. L. 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.440 Nolan in particular, is one of the people killed, who 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:29.320 is really an early mentor to those who end up 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.840 founding the Black Gorilla Family after his murder. So in 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.760 my work I show more of the everyday ways they 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.960 did this. So they would spread rumors to for example, 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.560 the white population that oh, you know, the black prisoners 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.280 are plotting, which would not be true. They would just 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:48.760 say this because they were trying to keep an environment 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.200 that would prevent them from ever having any sort of 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.280 realization that actually, we're all incarcerated and they're all like 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.800 officers are above all of US, but the officers kept 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:03.480 trying to foster a unity across these boundaries to use 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:06.520 for their own strategic ends, because we know what ends 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:10.040 up happening to some of the groups that they united with. 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:14.080 My forthcoming book shows how they were uniting with people 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:17.000 who ended up founding the Rian Brotherhood. But we know 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.520 that over time, once the Arian Brotherhood is no longer useful, 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:24.280 like they do end up being locked up in Pelican 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:29.359 Bay in other super federal facilities actually, but in the 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:34.000 early stages in the fifties, sixties, seventies, they are very 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:38.480 useful for the type of control strategies that I'm talking 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.919 about to keep this separation. I like to think of 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:43.960 it as old school divide and conquered. 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.560 The time period that I'm focused on in the podcast 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:58.919 is early seventies. Where do you see the origins of 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.000 h I guess this is it's like a continuation. But 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:07.680 where did the particular sort of political ideologies that seemed 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:12.080 to be really influential late sixties early seventies, when did 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:12.960 those develop? 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:18.760 Well, I would say that it's instead of develop, I 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.679 think of them as really crystallizing during the era that 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:26.760 you're concerned with. In terms of forming. I mean, I 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.199 can take for example, the reading list that people used. 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.119 They had political reading groups during the time period that 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.960 you're interested in, where they would meet in the yard 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:39.520 or in commissary or in yourselves and have these little 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:43.800 reading groups and share books. And this was a way 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:47.880 to generate solidarity, but also to teach and past ideas 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:52.919 and really for people to become indoctrinated in a particular framework, 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:58.960 a black radical leftist framework. And these ideas were coming 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:04.719 about as early as the late nineteenth century. And what 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:08.600 I mean by that is they were reading sociologists actually 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:14.040 like Marx, Engles Durkheim. They were reading people from the 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:20.200 early twentieth century, Marcus Garvey Dubois. So they're reading all 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:25.000 of these scholars and writers, some of whom were also activists, 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.040 and the time period that I'm looking at is reading. 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:28.760 Them in the fifties. 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.880 And also, I don't want to leave out how important 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:35.879 the Nation of Islam was as well in their own literature, 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:40.920 and there was really a unifying force amongst different black 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:44.520 militant groups, even if they didn't agree on religion. So 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:46.880 for me, the era that I look at is how 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:51.120 this started taking off in the fifties in sixties, and 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:55.080 then I am very much interested in when does it 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:59.480 actually crystallize into action, And that's for me, I would 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:03.920 make the art that it starts crystallizing into action in 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:07.040 the sixties because you have a series of events that 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:12.120 happen in California prisons where the Department of Corrections and 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:17.040 the white supremacist population amongst the incarcerated that would become 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:21.440 the areaan brotherhood essentially went too far. They amped up, 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:24.760 if you will, the violence. And it's because during that 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:28.439 time period in the sixties, you see a big influx 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:32.600 of black people into California prisons, many of whom do 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:39.200 self identify as either black militants or having allegiances, affiliations, 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.800 or affinities for the black freedom struggle, which makes sense, 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:45.680 right They're coming in from the outside, and that goes 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.199 back to my point about it being politically porous. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:49.440 But also in the. 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:55.280 Sixties, you have a very strong contingent of white incarcerated 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:59.440 people who are also bringing with them their own societal allegiances, 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:03.800 their own ideas from the fifties and sixties about what 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:07.960 black freedom would be and their prejudices against it. They're 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:13.119 also bringing in their experiences in different organized groups. So 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:16.320 for example, bikers were very influential in the founding of 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:18.560 the Area and brotherhood. They're bringing in all of these 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:24.600 ideologies and cultural frames that are very anti black at 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.560 the time. And so in the sixties, this is really 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:33.960 creating a recipe for potential disaster because the populations are rising. 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:35.000 That are very conflictual. 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:38.840 But what the Department of Corrections does, and in particular 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:43.239 officers white officers at the time, begin to see the 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:49.080 white incarcerated population, especially the self identified white supremacist population, 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:54.240 as allies, as allies in a similar fight. And we 0:21:54.280 --> 0:22:00.000 see this with the increase in different actions such as 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:04.879 setups of black militant prisoners where in a setup meaning 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:10.119 officers turning a blind eye and in particular areas of 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.040 the prison where black militants could be beaten up or 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:18.399 fatally injured of there being correctional officers actually arming right 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:21.960 supremacist prisoners. So that's something that I have also found 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:24.679 in my data. And when I say arming, like giving 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:29.080 actual street knives versus black militants would have like little 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:33.359 shanks that they made. So this starts increasing in the sixties. 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:37.640 The Arean Brotherhood formally organizes themselves actually in sixty four, 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:40.920 which I argue they wouldn't have been able to organize 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:44.200 themselves in that fashion if they did not have backing. 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:47.120 But they are able to organize in nineteen sixty four, 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:50.720 And in nineteen sixty five we have the Watts riots 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:54.520 in Los Angeles that also impacts the climate in California prisons. 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:59.119 You see in the archival data hampering down more and 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:03.320 more ideas unification tracking, shifting off, shipping off to the 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:08.080 Adjustment Center for black incarcerated people suspected. So they start 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:11.440 casting a wider net after the Watts riots because they 0:23:11.480 --> 0:23:15.479 are sharing information with local police departments, and there's this 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:20.639 whole information share of how doc should handle their population 0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:23.080 given what's going on on the outside. So all of 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:28.600 this is coalescing until oh and then in nineteen sixty seven, right, 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:31.119 we have one hundred and fifty nine race riots in 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:36.760 the US, and FBI initiates actually Cointail Pro. 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:39.040 Black Hate, which is a specific. 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:43.200 Subprogram of Cointail Pro to hamper down on the Black 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:49.000 freedom movement. And from my archival sources and interviews I 0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:52.680 have in nineteen sixty eight, the Area and Brotherhood kind 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:56.480 of shifting into a more formal alliance with the Mexican 0:23:56.560 --> 0:24:01.440 mafia as a way to be bigger and have more 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:06.480 political control against the black population. In nineteen sixty eight, 0:24:06.560 --> 0:24:11.199 also new Estra Familia begins to establish itself and it 0:24:11.440 --> 0:24:16.320 aligns with black militant so it really divides the Chicano 0:24:16.400 --> 0:24:19.960 or Mexican descended population. And then you have a series 0:24:20.000 --> 0:24:24.440 of assassinations that happen in the late sixties. So Bunchie 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:29.040 Carter and John Higgins are assassinated at UCLA in nineteen 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:33.200 sixty nine, in January. In December in nineteen sixty nine, 0:24:33.200 --> 0:24:37.399 you have Fred Hampton is assassinated in Chicago. You also 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:41.119 have a few days later the shootout, the famous shootout 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:44.320 of forty first in Central between the LAPD and the 0:24:44.359 --> 0:24:48.800 Black Panther Party. And during all of those happenings, right, 0:24:49.440 --> 0:24:53.280 what's key is how they're informing each other. Because when 0:24:53.320 --> 0:24:57.359 you have the different incidents on the outside, it creates 0:24:57.960 --> 0:25:02.120 a hampering down of doc the incarcerated population, and then 0:25:02.320 --> 0:25:06.000 resistance to it. So there's constantly this repression and resistance 0:25:06.040 --> 0:25:08.439 that's happening on the inside and the outside at the 0:25:08.480 --> 0:25:12.159 same time. And then in the late sixties, you have 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:16.000 many people who would come to found the Black Gorilla Family, 0:25:16.080 --> 0:25:21.800 which becomes sort of a coalition of different black militant 0:25:21.840 --> 0:25:26.439 clicks into one united front to really take on Doc 0:25:26.960 --> 0:25:30.520 and to take on the Arian brotherhood. That happens from 0:25:30.520 --> 0:25:34.040 my data in nineteen seventy, but just before that, you 0:25:34.119 --> 0:25:37.280 have a series of final incidents that are key. So 0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:41.959 several people who would end up founding the Black Gorilla 0:25:42.000 --> 0:25:46.320 Family in San Quentin. They are transferred into San Quentin 0:25:46.320 --> 0:25:51.040 at the same time, right before the Solidad incident that 0:25:51.119 --> 0:25:55.280 happens in January nineteen seventy or just after it. So 0:25:55.560 --> 0:26:00.000 after Officer Opie Miller is acquitted for the Solidad incident, 0:26:00.680 --> 0:26:05.080 he's acquitted January sixteenth, nineteen seventy, there is a killing 0:26:05.119 --> 0:26:10.440 that happens in Solidad of an officer and the killing 0:26:10.840 --> 0:26:16.720 is essentially pinned on those who were early members and 0:26:17.160 --> 0:26:20.159 founders of who would be early members and founders of 0:26:20.160 --> 0:26:24.880 the Black Gorilla Family, and they are named the Soladad Brothers, right, 0:26:24.960 --> 0:26:27.879 and they're charged for killing Officer Mills, which is a 0:26:27.880 --> 0:26:32.040 different officer, and they're charge February fourteenth, nineteen seventy. At 0:26:32.040 --> 0:26:35.440 this time, also some of the most famous people who 0:26:35.520 --> 0:26:40.800 are involved during this era. Hugo Panels transferred to San Quentin. 0:26:41.800 --> 0:26:45.120 George Jackson, one of the Solodad brothers, transferred to San Quentin, 0:26:45.800 --> 0:26:49.400 and so you have this sort of transfer of people 0:26:49.600 --> 0:26:54.240 who end up leading the early Black Gorilla Family established 0:26:54.240 --> 0:26:57.399 in San Quentin. As I noted earlier, the Arian Brotherhoods 0:26:57.480 --> 0:27:00.919 established in San Quentin only a few years prior. And 0:27:00.960 --> 0:27:05.560 then we have some famous incidents that happened in August 0:27:05.640 --> 0:27:09.239 in nineteen seventy so the Marion Courthouse incident, we have 0:27:09.600 --> 0:27:12.560 the manhunt for Angela Davis. Right, there's a series of 0:27:12.600 --> 0:27:16.720 incidents that happened in the early seventies on the outside 0:27:17.240 --> 0:27:21.600 that kind of culminate with what happens in August twenty first, 0:27:21.680 --> 0:27:26.719 nineteen seventy one, when the Black Gorilla Family attempts to 0:27:26.760 --> 0:27:32.880 free George Jackson. And from the research that I've done, 0:27:33.040 --> 0:27:35.480 so the interviews that I've done, and just to give 0:27:35.520 --> 0:27:39.400 some contacts, I did interviews with early members and founders 0:27:39.440 --> 0:27:43.800 of the Black Gorilla Family. I did interviews with associates 0:27:43.800 --> 0:27:49.240 of Aryan groups, associates of Soriano, which is considered southern 0:27:49.280 --> 0:27:53.320