Tag: Memphis Tenn.

The Memphis Black Autonomy Federation has asked the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate “a pattern or practice” of misconduct by the Memphis Police Department. Memphis police killed 23 people in 2012 and 2013 – the largest number of people killed by police in this time period in America, the federation maintains.

Sept. 9, 2013, marks the 42th anniversary of the prison uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. Forty-two men, mostly inmates, were killed in the armed retaking of the prison under the orders of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. I was there, as one of the “observers” specifically requested by the inmates. We tried to negotiate a peaceful, non-violent settlement of the dispute.

Black Autonomy Federation is the activist arm of Power to the People, Inc., based in Memphis, Tenn., a non-profit tax-exempt organization. Meeting during the June 2013 annual conference, we created the organizational framework for the Black Autonomy Prison Federation because of mass imprisonment of Black youth and mindless violence in the Black community.