Original subtitles

[man] Some might even die before the revolution comes.

[woman] What does it mean to be a criminal in this society?

Brother George Jackson, one of the Soledad Brothers,

has been in prison for 10 years,

since he was 18 years old, on a second-degree robbery charge.

That tells me that something is wrong.

That tells me that maybe the real criminals in this society

are not all of the people who populate the prisons across the state,

but those people

who have stolen the wealth of the world from the people.

And lastly, free all political prisoners

or face the revolutionary wrath of the people.

All power to the people.

-[crowd cheers, claps] -[protester] All power to the people.

[protester 2] Right on. All power to the people.

[man 2] 1970, '71, if you didn't know who Angela Davis was,

you came from outer space five minutes ago.

[man] Come on, move on down, now.

[Jennings] Angela Davis was a national figure.

All reporters stand back.

[Jennings] She was very educated.

Excuse me, ma'am.

A professor at UCLA.

She would speak about George Jackson. And she was in the movement.

[singing "Spirit in the Dark"]

Aretha Franklin respected Angela Davis.

A lot. So they got to know each other.

Protest is a powerful tool.

But, for Aretha, protest was something that she did her way.

She did it with making folks aware because she was a voice.

[male news anchor] The FBI has put Black militant Angela Davis

on its list of ten most wanted fugitives.

She's charged with murder in California.

[song continues]

[camera shutters clicking]

[man] The dream's over.

-[man 2] In 1971… -[woman] Music said something.

[protesters chant]

[woman] The world was changing.

[man 3] We were creating the 21st century in 1971.

[man] You know, it's funny sometimes, um,

we seem to be able to do everything but get along.

[male announcer] Now, ladies and gentlemen, the Bitter End

is proud to present Curtis Mayfield.

[applause]

It has always been my way

to take in the overall feelings of my surroundings

and put them into music, whether it be political or social comment.

There is a way of bringing about any point, you know,

that we as a mass of people, especially problems, have.

♪ For peace no one is willing ♪

♪ Kind of make you get that feeling ♪

♪ Everybody smoke ♪

♪ Use the pill and the dope ♪

♪ Educated fools ♪

♪ From uneducated schools ♪

♪ Pimping people is the rule ♪

♪ Polluted waters in the pool ♪

♪ And Nixon talking about, "Don't worry" ♪

♪ He say, "Don't worry" ♪

♪ He say, "Don't worry" ♪

♪ He say, "Don't worry" ♪

♪ But they don't know ♪

♪ There can be no show ♪

♪ And if there's hell below ♪

♪ We're all gonna go ♪

Dad, he just called everybody out.

I was very young, but to me, I found that interesting as a kid

because for my dad, I mean, he had been in this safe space of formula and…

throughout the '60s when he was with the Impressions, you know.

And in 1971, wanted to get out of that containment.

You know, the '70s was a change of the tide

in terms of the civil rights movement, morphing into the Black Power movement.

And so, at that time, you had Marvin, you had Stevie, you had Curtis.

These guys were saying some stuff.

And the things that they were talking about were real.

[song continues]

[woman, through megaphone] …of their peer group

or people from their Black heritage…

[male] Poets, novelists, recording artists.

I think that we are obligated to try to be the drum majors of change.

[chanting] Black power. Freedom.

[Oyewole] ♪ When the revolution comes Some of us will probably catch it on TV ♪

♪ With chicken hanging from our mouths ♪

♪ You'll know it's revolution Because there won't be no commercials ♪

♪ When the revolution comes ♪

I was in prison in 1971.

And it was really like a bad joke

because the Last Poets album had just come out in 1970,

and it picked up steam in 1971.

♪ When the revolution comes ♪

♪ Transit cops will be crushed By the trains after losing their guns ♪

♪ And blood will run through the streets Of Harlem ♪

♪ Drowning anything without substance ♪

♪ When the revolution comes When the revolution comes ♪

We sold a million copies of an album…

because we were dealing with issues at hand.

There's a serious paranoia that exists when it comes to white folks in power.

Because we'd been so deliberately held powerless for so long.

And they're afraid we may flip the script.

♪ Speak not of revolution ♪

♪ Until you are willing to eat rats To survive ♪

♪ When the revolution comes ♪

-♪ When the revolution comes ♪ -♪ When the revolution comes ♪

[protesters screaming]

[male news reporter] Widespread racism and bewilderment over a strange war

are the seeds of the revolution.

[male reporter 2] This is where

the San Francisco police sergeant was murdered.

Police are under attack by revolutionaries.

[protesters singing] ♪ The revolution has come ♪

By 1971,

I thought not only was a revolution necessary, but it was inevitable,

and that we were living in revolutionary times.

[news reporter] At one minute before 1 o'clock this morning,

the switchboard at the Capitol received a phone call.

A man's voice said a bomb would go off in the building in half an hour.

At 1:30 in the morning, it did.

[Ayers] The bombing of the Capitol was in response

to the killing of Black Panthers,

and the disruption of the Black Freedom Movement and the war in Vietnam.

Panthers called us mother-country revolutionaries.

We called ourselves revolutionaries.

Revolutions are typically lead by the young.

[woman] The Weather Underground bombed the Capitol.

They bombed the Capitol to bring joy

to all the kids who hate the American government.

We didn't do it, but we dug it.

[news reporter] Credit for the Capitol bombing

was claimed by the Weather Underground.

[Ayers] The Weather Underground started with,

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" by Bob Dylan.

We thought the music and the politics was all swimming in the same sea.

It was all part of the same thrust.

The documents prove, for the first time, that the FBI undertook a program

to harass and destroy Black extremists and revolutionists.

"We must frustrate every effort of these groups and individuals

to consolidate their forces."

[female news reporter] The FBI distributed a Black Panther coloring book

that depicted the police as saber-toothed pigs.

These, and many other dirty tricks carried out by the bureau,

were revealed by files on its counter-intelligence program

code-named COINTELPRO.

[man] COINTELPRO, counterintelligence program.

We knew it was something, but we didn't know what it was called.

[male news anchor] FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, today

asserted that of the Black extremist groups,

the Black Panthers represent the greatest internal threat to the nation.

[male reporter] This memo apparently went out to 37 agents.

It ordered them to find informers in the Black ghettos.

It was a command, not a suggestion.

[man] I felt vindicated when the COINTELPRO papers were exposed.

I would always tell people, "Be careful what you say on the phone.

Did you just hear that click?"

We didn't trust the government any more than the government trusted us.

I wasn't a soldier. I was a musician.

So I used to think about this constantly.

"How can I use my music to help change things?"

And I was happy to be writing with Gil Scott-Heron at that time

because we wanted to write about what it meant

to be young Black men in America.

[Brian Jackson] No-knock is where the police don't need a reason

to bust down your door.

They just need to suspect.

♪ You explained it to me, I must admit ♪

♪ But just for the record You were talking shit ♪

♪ Y'all rap about no-knock Being legislated ♪

♪ For the people you've always hated ♪

♪ In this hellhole that you, we Call home ♪

♪ No-knock, the man will say ♪

♪ To keep that man from beating his wife ♪

♪ No-knock, the man will say To protect people from themselves ♪

♪ No-knockin', head-rockin' Enter-shockin', shootin', cussin' ♪

♪ Killin', cryin', lyin', and being white No-knock ♪

♪ No-knocked on my brother Fred Hampton Bullet holes all over the place ♪

You can't organize people until you've educated them.

You can't educate them until you take an analysis of what's going on.

♪ Who's gonna protect me from you? The likes of you? The nerve of you? ♪

By discussing ideas, by going into the substance of ideas.

♪ No-knock on my brother's head No-knock on my sister's head ♪

♪ And double-lock your door ♪

♪ Because soon someone May be no-knockin' ♪

♪ Ha ha! For you ♪

[Brian Jackson] Gil used to like to beat people over the head with lyrics.

We were extremely dangerous.

[protesters] Long live George Jackson. Power to the people.

Long live George Jackson. Power to the people.

[man] George Jackson.

He was in prison because as a teenager he stole $70.

Well, I was incarcerated under a one-to-life.

Where I could've done one year and been released, I've done ten.

[Shames] He got radicalized and started a Black Panther chapter at San Quentin

and published a book which became a best seller.

[George Jackson] Of course, here in prison we see the repression, the exploitation,

the-- the victimization of, uh, lower-class peoples.

[Angela Davis] People who have read his book

have seen articulated in this book the frustrations and the desires

that-- that Black people have had for hundreds of years in this country.

[male reporter] Again the clenched-fist salute,

as the self-proclaimed communist and former philosophy professor

entered the courtroom for her arraignment.

[male reporter 2] Angela Davis is accused, not of carrying out the crime,

but of supplying guns to those who allegedly did so.

Miss Davis has said that not only are the charges untrue,

but that the whole case against her is a frame-up.

To put the available pieces to this story together, one must go back in time.

[audio distorts]

[Shames] Angela Davis was on trial because Jonathan Jackson,

who was George Jackson's younger brother, took a judge hostage

to try and get them to release his brother George.

[male reporter] Judge Haley was killed in the truck,

as were two of the convicts and the man believed to be their accomplice.

[male news anchor] The FBI has put Black militant, Angela Davis,

on its list of ten most wanted fugitives.

She's charged with murder in California,

where authorities say she bought weapons for that San Rafael courtroom shoot-out.

[Shames] Angela Davis was in prison because the gun that was used was her gun.

But guns were legal in California.

And doesn't mean that she had any knowledge or was part of it.

[male news anchor] Black revolutionary Angela Davis

appeared without her distinctive Afro hairdo

as she was arraigned in New York City today as a fugitive from justice.

[Davis] Richard Nixon was the president of the FBI.

The actions of the FBI in apprehending Angela Davis…

The whole apparatus of the state was set up against me.

And they really meant to send me to the death chamber

in order to make a point

that they would suppress any efforts at revolution and liberation.

You see, Americans, of course, are very, very instantaneous.

They want everything instantly. So, consequently, when first st--

people first started to hear the word "revolution" over here,

they wanted to see it instantly.

And when they didn't see it instantly, said, "Well, must not gonna be one."

[audience laughs, cheers]

But information, you see, and information that leads to change,

takes place first in the mind,

because before you can change what people do,

you have to change their minds.

And you have to give them information, generally,

because they will not change their minds without information.

Over here, we have become victims of information.

We have become victims of people like Walter Concrete…

-[audience laughs] -…with-- with the news.

Howard? Hand me a bottle of Future, please.

Oh. This is the new, improved Future, Mrs. Jenkins.

-It's got a new-- -Howard, I'm sold on Future.

[Scott-Heron] "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

was a way of comparing many of the plastic things that we were getting into

that were of no use to us if we were really about the business of change.

♪ You will not be able To stay home, brother ♪

♪ You will not be able to plug in Turn on and cop out ♪

♪ You will not be able To lose yourself on skag ♪

♪ And skip out for beer During commercials ♪

♪ Because the revolution Will not be televised ♪

I push the button on the Xerox 914.

♪ The revolution will not be televised ♪

♪ The revolution will not be Brought to you by Xerox ♪

♪ In four parts Without commercial interruptions ♪

♪ The revolution will not show you Pictures of Nixon blowing a bugle ♪

♪ And leading a charge by John Mitchell General Abrams, and Spiro Agnew ♪

♪ To eat hog maws confiscated From a Harlem sanctuary ♪

[Brian Jackson] "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."

It was inspired by The Last Poets' "When The Revolution Comes."

It's a series of tongue-in-cheek comments about commercials.

Cheerios help you grow, grow, grow. Go!

[Scott-Heron] ♪ The revolution will not Give your mouth sex appeal ♪

♪ The revolution will not get rid Of the nubs ♪

♪ The revolution will not make you look Five pounds thinner ♪

♪ Because the revolution Will not be televised, brother ♪

♪ There will be no pictures of you and Willie Mays pushing that shopping cart ♪

[Shames] "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."

We used to all sing that.

You know how kids nowadays--

you go down the street and they're doing rap.

People were doing Gil Scott-Heron.

♪ There will be no pictures of pigs ♪

♪ Shooting down brothers On the instant replay ♪

♪ There will be no pictures of pigs ♪

♪ Shooting down brothers On the instant replay ♪

[Brian Jackson] We weren't really telling anybody anything that they didn't know.

But maybe what we could do is say, "Hey, do you see this?

Well, we see it too, so you're not alone."

♪ You will not have to worry about A dove in your bedroom ♪

♪ The tiger in your tank Or the giant in your toilet bowl ♪

♪ The revolution will not go better With Coke ♪

♪ The revolution will not fight germs That may cause bad breath ♪

♪ The revolution will put you In the driver's seat ♪

♪ The revolution will not be televised ♪

♪ Will not be televised Will not be televised ♪

[Oyewole] Gil, he and I were joined together poetically

because we wanted to have a movement of folks

who were talking the same basic language.

See, our people don't do a great deal of reading.

You know, we watch a lot of television.

You know, but we don't read many books. You know, and I'm about that.

And trying to get as much help as I can--

-Do you have hope for what's happening? -Oh, you're damn right. [chuckles]

You know, we have survived everything that's gone down and come out stronger.

["Rock Steady" plays]

[male reporter] Defense attorneys are expected to depict Miss Davis

as a political prisoner, the victim of a governmental vendetta.

[Davis] J. Edgar Hoover, in collusion with Nixon,

decided to make an example of me.

There will continue to be frame-ups.

I will not be free until all Black people are free.

♪ Rock steady, baby ♪

♪ That's what I feel now ♪

♪ Let's call this song Exactly what it is ♪

[singers] ♪ What it is, what it is ♪

-♪ It's a funky and low down feelin' ♪ -♪ What it is ♪

-♪ In my hips from left to right ♪ -♪ What it is ♪

-♪ What it is is I might be doin' ♪ -♪ What it is ♪

♪ This funky dance all night, oh! ♪

♪ Wave your hands up in the air Gotta a feelin' and ain't got a care ♪

[male reporter] In America, supporters of the Black liberation movements

are stepping up the pressure in the campaign to free Angela Davis.

Messages of support have come in from all over the world.

[female reporter speaking Russian]

[woman] We had a nice long visit with Angela.

And she's in very high spirits. She's feeling good.

♪ Step and move your hips With a feelin' from side to side ♪

♪ Sit yourself down in your car And take a ride ♪

♪ While you're movin' rock steady Rock steady ♪

[Purdie] What made anything work for Aretha is the melody, the rhythm.

The energy was about love.

You don't have to hate your fellow man. Getting angry doesn't solve it.

-♪ What it is ♪ -♪ This funky dance all night, oh! ♪

♪ Wave your hands up in the air Got the feelin' and ain't got a care ♪

[Purdie] Angela Davis was super important,

but she put love inside all of that hurt.

♪ Rock steady, whoo! Rock steady ♪

Aretha Franklin offered bail for Angela Davis.

It was an important gesture for her.

When I learned about it,

it was one of the most moving moments I experienced during that time.

♪ Rock steady ♪

♪ Rock steady ♪

[male reporter] Suspicion remains that Angela Davis

may be tried on guilt by association,

that she's Black and militant, and a close friend of George Jackson's.

[male interviewer] Was the incident for which you are charged now,

was it a revolutionary act on your part?

Are you asking me to confess to something?

[male interviewer] No.

[Davis] I think that, uh, what George Jackson said

about, uh, uh, life in prison is very appropriate here.

He says that prison, um,

either breaks a person or makes the person stronger.

[male narrator] Saturday, August 21st.

[male reporter] George Jackson was killed as he broke and ran

outside the adjustment center.

[male reporter] Authorities at California's San Quentin Prison

have locked up the entire prison population

following the deaths of six persons.

Associate Warden James Park says a guard shot and killed

Soledad brother George Jackson as he tried to escape.

Three guards and two other prisoners were found dead with slashed throats.

Park says a visitor smuggled a .38 caliber revolver to Jackson.

[man] George Jackson, the day he was killed in Attica,

it was announced on the news,

a lawyer came to see him the day before

and he smuggled the gun back into the prison.

[prison guard] Apparently a gun was smuggled in.

It was in the possession of George Jackson.

[Roche] Unbelievable.

You have any kind of visitor or outside person…

Take your pants off.

…you strip search.

So why didn't they find the gun on search?

[man] We can now tie in

that there was help from the outside

because the wig is definitely an outside wig.

It's, uh, it has a label in the-- in the sweatband.

And, uh, it is an honest-to-God bona fide wig.

[Jennings] They said he was trying to hide the gun under a wig.

It's a made-up story.

How you gonna walk with a gun on top of your head

without it falling out?

[Ayers] San Quentin Prison,

with its high walls and its triple-locked exit ways.

There's absolutely no explanation

that makes sense to me that you had to kill him.

I mean, he's a single person standing in a yard

and you have an army surrounding him.

[woman] They were afraid that the people were beginning to listen.

That's the reason why they framed him to be murdered the way he was.

To try to discredit everything that he had said.

[Nelson] Well, I think Jackson's aims have been clearly stated.

He was dedicated to violence.

His writings, uh, clearly state that he's dedicated to violence.

I can be violent also, and I imagine so can you.

You see, that's the whole story of America.

They take their violence and turn it back around on somebody else.

I don't have to talk about American violence.

You can look all over the world and see American soldiers everywhere

fighting in other people's countries and killing them.

So if I were-- if I were running the country in America,

I wouldn't open my mouth about violence.

As many people as they've murdered in Vietnam in the past ten years,

and they're gonna talk about violence?

As many Black people that get killed every day in this country

and nobody knows or cares, and you wanna tell me about violence?

How they wiped out a whole nation of Indians

and they're gonna say something to me about violence? I don't wanna hear it.

[Roche] In Attica, me and a lot of other guys was thinking,

"If they do that to him, executed him,

and get away with it…

[scoffs] …same thing might happen to me."

[man] When Attica got word of it,

they actually went to the mess hall wearing black armbands,

and we knew we were in trouble 'cause they could organize that quick.

It was mandatory meals, and they all went to the mess hall.

They all went through the lines, and nobody took even a glass of water.

[Roche] Nobody said nothing.

The lieutenant that was in the mess hall that morning,

he said it was so quiet, he could hear his watch ticking.

♪ Well, I stepped into an avalanche ♪

♪ It covered up my soul ♪

♪ When I am not this hunchback That you see ♪

♪ I sleep beneath the golden hill ♪

[explosion]

♪ You who wish to conquer pain ♪

♪ You must learn, learn to serve me well ♪

[Ayers] The killing of George Jackson…

I thought the assassination of a leader of the Black prison movement

can't go unanswered.

♪ You strike my side by accident ♪

[Ayers] And so, we, the Weather Underground,

undertook to again issue a screaming response

to the state taking a life,

and we bombed the California Department of Corrections in San Francisco.

[male news anchor] The Underground Weatherman Organization

claimed responsibility for the San Francisco

and Sacramento bombings saying they were, I quote,

"in outraged response to the assassination of Soledad brother George Jackson."

[male reporter] The bombings came just hours before Jackson's funeral

at this Episcopal church in the poor Black section of Oakland.

[man] Step back, please. Step back.

[male priest] George says to us, "Arise and walk.

Silver and gold have I none,

but in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I say rise up and walk."

In the name of my brother Jonathan Jackson,

in the name of James McClain, in the name of William Christmas,

in the name of Angela Davis,

and in the name of George Jackson, I say rise up and walk.

♪ I woke up this morning ♪

♪ There were tears in my bed ♪

♪ They killed a man I really loved Shot him through the head ♪

♪ Lord, Lord They cut George Jackson down ♪

♪ Lord, Lord They laid him in the ground ♪

Look on us.

From the time we've left the Black wombs of our beautiful mothers,

Black people have been crippled and maimed and murdered

suffering from the Black condition.

♪ Sent him off to prison For a seventy dollar robbery ♪

♪ They closed the door behind him And they threw away the key ♪

♪ Lord, Lord They cut George Jackson down ♪

♪ Lord, Lord They laid him in the ground ♪

[male speaker] George certainly died in a significant way.

We say that, even after death, George Jackson still is alive

because his ideas, his spirit will be manifested in the physical.

And we'll raise our children to fight for freedom

as George Jackson fought for freedom.

♪ He wouldn't take shit from no one He wouldn't bow down or kneel ♪

♪ Authorities, they hated him Because he was just too real ♪

♪ Lord, Lord They cut George Jackson down ♪

♪ Lord, Lord They laid him in the ground ♪

[Ayers] I think Bob Dylan's "George Jackson,"

it was affirming, for sure, but it also felt like--

it felt like we were living it together.

The people we listened to, the people we admired in the political world,

everybody was walking the same path.

[song continues]

[Jennings] That particular day I made a commitment to myself,

from what I seen, and what people had sacrificed,

I'd be a revolutionary the rest of my life.

[male reporter] The trouble started around 9:00 this morning.

[male reporter 2] In Attica, New York,

about 1,000 long-term convicts today rioted

and they gained control of the maximum security prison.

They also seized 33 guards as hostages and injured others in the fighting.

State police have regained control of most of the prison,

but the trouble isn't over yet.

[Roche] Thursday, September 9.

We took the prison. It was on.

[Almeter] There was 1,250 inmates and I think 38 of us.

Most of the guys were really beat.

I was beaten, some guys were stabbed, some guys were cut,

and I was shaking in my pants.

I had done a year in Vietnam and I'm thinking,

"I'm gonna end up dying eight miles from where I grew up."

[male reporter] As far as the prisoners are concerned,

do they have weapons and such that they're holding hostages with?

Our information is that, uh, none of the prisoners are armed.

[male news anchor] We're looking out in the direction of B block.

Most of the prisoners have concealed their faces

by wearing scarves, towels, and what have you.

[male reporter 2] Have the inmates made any demands?

I, uh, I don't know.

They say that they only wanna speak with the governor or me.

[male news anchor] Prisoners would only talk

to New York State Corrections Commissioner, Russell Oswald,

who is now inside.

"We want a stop to slave labor here. We are men!

We are not beasts, and we do not intend to be driven or beaten as such.

The entire prison populace has set forth to change forever

the ruthless brutalization and disregard for the lives of the prisoners here

and throughout the United States.

What has happened here is but the sound before the fury

of those who are oppressed."

[Brian Jackson] Attica. They were protesting about some common dignity

that should be afforded to every human being.

Gil, he was great at building a scene, just like a playwright.

He used to say, "We sold survival kits on wax."

♪ Here I am ♪

♪ After so many years ♪

♪ Hounded by hatred ♪

♪ And trapped by fear ♪

[prisoners chattering]

♪ I'm in a box ♪

[speaks indistinctly]

-[man] Ain't nothing dead about us. -We ain't gonna die.

-[man 1] Not dead. -We are not dying here.

[man 3] Count on it!

♪ Help me, I'm the prisoner ♪

♪ Won't you hear my plea? ♪

♪ I need somebody ♪

[prisoners chattering, cheering]

♪ Yeah, to listen to me ♪

♪ I beg you, brothers and sisters ♪

♪ I'm counting on you, yeah ♪

[Scott-Heron] Every time you see folks taking their--

their lives in their hands and standing up for what they believe in,

and trying to do something progressive for themselves and their people,

you're seeing a revolutionary act.

So Brian and I, that's what we've been interested in.

[man] Good morning, governor.

The governor of New York State was Nelson Rockefeller,

and he figures prominently in the Attica tragedy.

Both Nixon and Rockefeller feared that this was a communist conspiracy.

And while the negotiations were going on…

[police officer] Yeah, I'm still on.

…the police were getting ready to storm the prison.

[male news anchor] Guards and troopers standing by the entry

where the cells are located.

Pretty tense at this point.

[Roche] We had the yard from Thursday till Monday morning.

Right. Go down to the supply truck and pick up the shotguns and rifles.

[Roche] They had police, national guards, sheriff deputies,

plus correctional officers from other joints, outside. [chuckles]

This was gonna be George Jackson on mass scale.

[man on PA, indistinct]

[male news anchor] Reinforcements have moved in.

[Bell] Before the assault, the inmates placed several hostages

on the catwalks with inmates holding knives to their throats…

to deter troopers from coming in.

But it didn't work that way.

Authorities were willing to sacrifice the hostages

in order to get its prison back.

[Almeter] When I heard the first helicopter…

as soon as I smelled the gas, I said my goodbyes to the maker.

-[police officers chattering] -[gunfire]

[Almeter] State police, they couldn't see. I don't know how they were firing.

Most of us were dressed in inmate clothing

so I know they couldn't see who they were shooting at.

They just shot.

[man on radio] Place your hands on top of your head.

[Roche] They had the helicopter saying, "Stand up,

put your hands on top of your head. You won't be harmed."

[man on radio] I repeat, you will not be harmed.

[Roche] Guys were getting up and getting killed.

-[gunfire] -[man on radio, indistinct]

They got that-- People are dying in there. And the scene is--

I'm-- I'm gonna cut this off.

[breathes shakily]

Uh, helicopters are still flying overhead.

It seems that people are dying in there, and… and I'm upset.

And it's-- it is unfortunate what has happened here.

Whatever happens, uh, after the situation here at Attica,

the penal system here in the United States,

and the people who are kept inside of them, will never be the same.

[Almeter] The guy that was holding me, somebody shot him. It went by my head.

Never thought I was going to live through it. Never.

[Roche] I had terrible nightmares for years.

Years.

I'd wake up smelling gas. Hear gunshots, I'd wake up.

[Barkley] We are men!

We are not beasts and we do not intend to be beaten or driven as such.

[Bell] Elliott Barkley was in Attica on a relatively minor charge.

And he died with this police bullet in him.

Twenty-nine inmates and ten hostages were killed by police gunfire.

But the total number shot was 128.

[Georgia Jackson] As many Black people that get killed every day in this country

and nobody knows or cares.

How they wiped out a whole nation of Indians

and they're gonna say something to me about violence.

[Bell] It was the most lethal state-sponsored violence

since the murders at Wounded Knee.

[Muhammad Ali] I wrote a poem, uh, concerning the Attica prisoner killing.

It explains how the Black brothers felt who died that day up in that prison.

Warden Rockefeller sent word,

"Shoot to kill if they don't give up in five minutes."

And a Black man came out, and he said,

"Better far from all we see

To die fighting to be free

What more fitting end could be?"

"Let us die by being Black Better far that we should go

Standing here against the foe Is the sweeter death to know"

"Better calling death to come

Than to die another dumb Muted Black man in the slum"

"Better than of this prison rot

If there's any choice we've got Kill us today on the spot"

[Bell] There was great animosity among a great many of the troopers.

After the retaking, troopers were saying,

"Got me a ****. Did you get one?"

"Oh, yeah, I got one."

[Nelson Rockefeller] Uh, Mr. President.

[Nixon] Are these primarily blacks that you're dealing with?

[Rockefeller] Oh yes, the whole thing was led by the blacks.

[Nixon] Are all the prisoners that were killed blacks?

-[Rockefeller] Uh… -Or are there any whites?

[Rockefeller] I haven't got that report.

[Jennings] Many of the prisoners were from New York and they were from Harlem.

And so they had this big benefit. And Aretha Franklin was the headliner.

[Purdie] By doing the concert at the Apollo,

that was her way of speaking to what's going on.

Attica affected Aretha because she knew people that were in Attica,

and she knew the families of folks that were there.

She understood. Aretha sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

[singers] ♪ Don't trouble the water ♪

♪ Leave it alone, why don't you Why don't you let it be? ♪

[Purdie] It was a protest, but it was also something that you can love.

The gospel feel. It was like she preached.

-[vocalizing] -♪ Yes it do ♪

♪ Oh, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ When you're down and out ♪

♪ If you look up ♪

♪ See yourself on the street ♪

-♪ When evening falls ♪ -[singers] ♪ When evening falls ♪

-♪ So hard ♪ -♪ So hard ♪

♪ I'll be there to comfort you ♪

♪ I'll take your part ♪

♪ I'll take it when darkness comes ♪

♪ Pain is all, is all around ♪

♪ Just like a bridge ♪

♪ Over troubled water ♪

♪ I'll be there, lay me down ♪

-[singers] ♪ Like a bridge ♪ -♪ Just like a bridge ♪

-♪ Over troubled ♪ -♪ Over ♪

♪ Troubled water ♪

♪ I'm gonna be there To lay ♪

[singers] ♪ Come and lay me down ♪

-♪ Lay me down ♪ -♪ Come and lay me down ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

[woman] He suffered. He gave his life.

But I hope he gave his life for something. For a reason.

-[male reporter] For what? -For what?

So we Blacks can have a chance in this country

that we call ours as well as yours.

We can have a chance. We can walk the street.

We can live decently.

We can get good jobs.

He had a stigma.

Convict number 25985. A stigma.

And when-- [stammers] If he would've came out-- He was due out March of '72.

He would've came out, he couldn't have got a job.

They wouldn't have gave them any.

♪ Everybody gather round ♪

♪ And listen to my song ♪

♪ I've only got one ♪

♪ We who are young Should now take a stand ♪

♪ Don't run from the burdens Of women and men ♪

♪ Continue to give, continue to live ♪

♪ For what you know is right ♪

[protesters chanting] Free Angela! Free Angela! Free Angela!

When we cry "Free Angela Davis,"

our cries are only coming

and our love is only coming as an extension of ourselves.

[applause]

♪ And we just keep on keeping on ♪

[Curtis Mayfield] As a young, Black, creative person,

I'm a believer in lending food for thought

through my lyrical contents.

♪ Many think that we have blown it ♪

♪ But they too will soon admit ♪

♪ That there's still a lot of love Among us ♪

♪ And there's still a lot of faith Warmth and trust ♪

♪ When we keep on keeping on ♪

Keep on keeping on, y'all.

To any people that may feel somewhat oppressed,

when you hear these words, they've got to hopefully

give you a bit of inspiration as to where you wanna go.

I always said, "Let's follow the yellow brick road," you know?

♪ Some years back I remember Still in my mind so well ♪

♪ My mama made this work ethic And I found it never fails ♪

-♪ Never worry too long ♪ -[singers] ♪ Worry too long ♪

♪ About what goes wrong ♪

♪ Today it's sorrow We got joy tomorrow ♪

[Jennings] A revolutionary doesn't necessarily have to have a gun,

you know?

Curtis Mayfield, the music was great.

You have a good time, you dance and party, but you will leave with a message.

You know? You would leave with a message.

Well, I think throughout this country, people are becoming increasingly aware

of the fact that whatever the government, uh, does is not a priori the truth.

And it's not only the struggle around political prisoners

that has begun to change the climate in this country

so that an acquittal like this could occur…

but, uh, also the reaction to the war in Vietnam

and the reaction to, uh, Nixon's, uh, economic policies.

I think there's a lot more resistance now.

This is the happiest day of my life. [chuckles]

[reporter speaks indistinctly]

[woman vocalizing]

[applause]

[singing "Amazing Grace"]

Power to the people.

[song continues]

[vocalizing]

[vocalizing]

[vocalizing]

[song ends]

[cheers, applause]

[man] Jim had left the band.

[Mick Jagger] We were stuck in the south of France.

[man 2] And Sly, he didn't even want to leave his house.

[man 3] It was getting progressively more messed up.

[woman] We got heavily into drugs.

[man 2] He never had it under control.

[man 4] A lot of nights they played like shit.

[Elton John] We're all completely loose cannons.

[man 5] The military police came one night.

[man 4] Ahmet Ertegun said to me, "Get us an album." So that's it.

["Ball of Confusion" playing]