Albert Woodfox was a former member of the Black Panthers who spent over 43 years in solitary confinement in a Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images
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Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images
Albert Woodfox was a former member of the Black Panthers who spent over 43 years in solitary confinement in a Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images
Albert Woodfox, who spent almost 44 years in solitary confinement, is considered the longest in US history. — died Thursday of coronavirus-related complications, according to his family.
He was 75.
In 1965, Woodfox was imprisoned in the Louisiana State Penitentiary on charges of armed robbery. Woodfox and the late Herman Wallace were convicted of the 1972 murder of Brent Miller, a corrections officer, but have long maintained their innocence.
The prison is on a former plantation known as Angola, and Woodfox, Wallace, and another inmate, Robert King, became known as “Angola 3” due to the enormous length of their solitary confinement.
Albert Woodfox on over 40 years in solitary confinement
Amnesty International and other human rights groups believed that Angola 3 was the target of mistreatment due to their Black Panther party activities in the prison.
Woodfox spent the next 43 years in a 6-foot-by-9-foot cell for 23 hours a day, subjected to claustrophobia, gassing, beatings, and other forms of torture.
“Well, gas was the standard weapon used by the security forces. So any time you defy inhuman treatment or unconstitutional behavior, you will be gassed,” he told NPR’s Scott Simon in a 2019 interview.
“And depending on the severity of the confrontation, they opened your cell and they came and beat you, and then they chained you up and took you to the dungeon, and you probably stayed there for at least 10 days,” he added.
Woodfox (left) waves his fist as he takes the stage during his first public appearance since his release from the Angola prison in Louisiana earlier in the day in 2016.
Max Becherer/AP
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Max Becherer/AP
Woodfox (left) waves his fist as he takes the stage during his first public appearance since his release from the Angola prison in Louisiana earlier in the day in 2016.
Max Becherer/AP
Woodfox is remembered for his optimism and resilience throughout these many years of torture.
He spent his time teaching himself and others. He taught the inmates to read and played games with them.
He also refused to remain silent. Woodfox protested and organized strikes against deplorable prison conditions, racial injustice, and exploitative working hours.
“I spent a lot of time reading, writing, educating myself. I used this time to study both criminal and civil law,” Woodfox said.
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“And we lived on what we call an organized level according to the principles of the Black Panther party, developing unity among the other guys on the level. We taught the kids to read and write, which I consider my biggest achievement,” he said. .
Woodfox said that the strength and determination his mother instilled in him kept him going. The fact that Wallace and King were not only his comrades, but also his best friends, also helped him get through the lockdown, he says.
His conviction for Miller’s murder was overturned multiple times during his time in solitary confinement. Woodfox was released on his 69th birthday in 2016 after a plea bargain on lesser charges.
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He spent the next six years educating the United States and the world about the horrors of the criminal justice system and speaking out against solitary confinement.
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King released from prison 2001. Wallace was released in 2013 but died of cancer soon after.
Memoirs of Woodfox 2019 Lonelywhich he co-wrote with his partner Leslie George, was a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist.
Throughout his solitary confinement, Woodfox did not lose hope of being released.
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“It’s the only thing I didn’t give up. When it all started, we knew that if we were going to survive, we needed to look outside, in society, so instead of turning inward and becoming institutionalized, we decided that we would turn to society,” he said in a 2016 interview. of the year on NPR. Everything is taken into account.
“I would not let prison staff define who I was and what I believed in,” he added.