American prisoner artist, C-Note's, 2016, ink on paper artwork, Black August - Los Angeles.
Black August is an annual commemoration and prison-based holiday to remember Black political prisoners, Black freedom struggles in the United States and beyond, and to highlight Black resistance against racial, colonial and imperialist oppression. It takes place during the entire calendar month ofAugust.[1]
Black August as acultural movement has had a significant impact in the arts. The 2008filmBlack August (film) focuses on the experiences of prison activistGeorge Jackson. A book named Black August: 1619 – 2019 by Gloria Verdieu released in 2019. The Black Collective launched theBlack August Mixtape in 2019. In visual art, the virtual exhibition "Black August" opened at the Crenshaw Dairy Mart in 2020.[4][5][6][7][8]
Dates celebrated or commemorated during Black August
August 1:Emancipation Day in Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, and Canada -- commemorating the anniversary of theSlavery Abolition Act 1833 (abolishing slavery in the British Empire) coming into force on 1 August 1834
August 10: TheAttica Prison Rebellion of 1971 is frequently invoked and commemorated as part of Black August, as it was a key moment in the radical prison movement. Although the officially recognized dates of the rebellion are September 9-13, 1971, the bookTip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt, by Orisanmi Burton argues that "Attica is Black August resistance."[9] Burton describes what he calls the "Long Attica Revolt," arguing that the event we refer to as "Attica," actually began in the Manhattan House of Detention (aka "The Tombs") on August 10, 1970 and persists in different forms into the present day.[10] From this perspective, the revolt fits within the August calendar, August 10, 1970 -
August 11:Watts riots also known as the Watts Uprising, August 11-16 1965[11]
August 28:Emmet Till, age 14 (b. July 25, 1941 – d. August 28, 1955), is abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955
August 29:August Rebellion: A group of about 200 women incarcerated atBedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, a maximum-security prison in New York State, launch an uprising, taking control of two buildings and a recreational yard protesting the treatment of Black teenager, Carol Crooks, in 1974[13]
August 30:Gabriel's Rebellion, a planned rebellion of enslaved persons in Richmond, Virginia in 1800
^Burton, Orisanmi (2023).Tip of the spear: black radicalism, prison repression, and the long attica revolt. Oakland, California: University of California Press. p. 230.ISBN978-0-520-39633-3.
^Burton, Orisanmi (2023).Tip of the spear: black radicalism, prison repression, and the long attica revolt. Oakland, California: University of California Press. pp. 28, 230.ISBN978-0-520-39633-3.
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