Question: On the wall on the right there appears to be something written?
Answer: Says, "Black and White Together."
Q: Did you find that or similar slogans in many places in L block?
A: Yes, we did, throughout the corridor, in the L block.
The transcript goes on.
Q: [What is the photograph] 260?
A: 260, the words, "Convict Unity," written on the walls of L corridor.
Q: Did you find the message of unity throughout L block?
A: Yes. "
Q: Next photo?
A: 261 is another photograph in L corridor that depicts the words, "Convict race."
"'Convict race,' is my favorite," Staughton said. "Evidently the cultural creation of racial identity can work in more than one way. Among the Lucasville rebels, the process didn't separate the races, but overcame racism. Not since the early 1960s in the South have I experienced as much interracial solidarity as I have among convicted prisoners which the state of Ohio considers "the worst of the worst.' "
"The same solidarity took place among soldiers in Vietnam who protested the war," he said. "This is instructive. People draw on their cultural resources, on their music, traditions and symbols in radical or revolutionary conflicts. It is natural that blacks and whites would initially organize separately. But in Vietnam, or a supermax prison, troops and inmates face a common danger and a common enemy. It is easier to overcome cultural barriers. The danger in the wider society is less defined. It is more diffuse. This is the reason it is harder to bring groups together. But this is what must happen. Too many movements are directed from the top down. They are not rooted in local communities. It is we who should be building local movements to tell those in power what to do, not the other way around."
"My favorite book is Ignazio Silone's novel "Bread and Wine,' particularly the first edition before he started rewriting all his books." he said. "The religious element in my childhood was very recessive, more in the background than upfront. We never went to church, although it has always been there for me. My parents sent me to schools run by the Ethical Cultural Society. It is a kind of reform, Reformed Judaism institution. What Pietro Spina, the protagonist of "Bread and Wine,' struggles with is how to bring together the Christianity of his childhood and adolescence with his later Marxism. That has been my effort as well."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
3
2
