Blood in the Water, The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy with Author Heather Ann Thompson

An extended conversation with Heather Ann Thompson, author of Blood in the Water, the first definitive history of the 1971 Attica Prison Uprising, the state's savage response, and the prisoners' decades-long struggle for justice.

On September 9, 1971, nearly 1,300 prisoners took over the Attica Correctional Facility in New York. Holding guards and civilian employees hostage, the prisoners negotiated with officials for improved conditions. But on September 13, the state sent hundreds of heavily armed troopers and correction officers into the prison. They killed thirty-nine men"hostages as well as prisoners"and severely wounded more than a hundred. Drawing from more than a decade of extensive research, historian Heather Ann Thompson sheds new light on every aspect of the uprising and its legacy.