Author of Pulitzer Prize-winning Attica history suing New York over ban on book in prisons

Democrat & Chronicle, April 1, 2022: Author of Pulitzer Prize-winning Attica history suing New York over ban on book in prisons

“Heather Ann Thompson, a Pulitzer Prize winner for her history of the bloody 1971 Attica uprising, is suing the state of New York because it has blocked incarcerated people from receiving her book while imprisoned.

“The New York Civil Liberties Union and the Civil Rights Clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of Thompson.

“‘People have a right to read, and people have a right to history,’ Thompson said in a news release from the Civil Liberties Union. ‘We also have a right to have our books read. It’s a shame we live in a country where we censor people and ideas.’”

Additional reading:

Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson on bookshop.org

Brown University, March 12, 2019: Professor Heather Ann Thompson lecture on Blood in the Water, The Attica Uprising of 1971

Time, September 8, 2021: 50 Years After Attica, Prisoners Are Still Protesting Brutal Conditions. Will America Finally Listen?