From Angola Prison to the New Orleans flood

Robert King Wilkerson, a former prisoner in Louisiana and one of the “Angola 3,” recently visited San Francisco and spoke with Workers World about his prison experience, his becoming a political activist and his experience at home in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Robert King Wilkerson

Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola was originally a large plantation of white owners of slaves of African origin. Gradually a town grew up around the plantation and was called Angola.

Some of the descendants of the Old South’s slave owners remain in the area, including the Butler and Mayeaux families. It was not a great leap from plantation to prison, with many of the originally all-white prison guards coming from the town of Angola.

The Angola 3, all African-American men, were imprisoned in Angola Prison in the early 1970s and remained in solitary confinement for three decades. They were each originally imprisoned on unrelated robbery charges.

At that time many prisoners had become activists in their communities, like Baton Rouge and New Orleans, before incidents with racist police and authorities put them together in Angola Prison.

Among these prisoners were Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, who formed a chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP) right inside Angola Prison. Around this time Robert King Wilkerson was also imprisoned.

Wilkerson said, “That’s when I began to get political consciousness. I was drawn to the revolutionary program of the BPP. I liked the philosophy of the 10-Point Program, especially Point #1: We want freedom.

“I also liked the rest of the program, especially the breakfasts for children and the community healthcare clinics. And the BPP program included other things important to Black people, like military service exemption, housing and busing families of prisoners to and from visits.”

Wilkerson said it was then that he, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox organized political education classes in the prison, where they learned real history. The prison was segregated then, but their classes were open to Blacks and whites. This informal integration really bothered the prison administration, he explained.

That was when the three of them were charged with the death of a fellow prisoner, which Wilkerson says was a frameup. Although another inmate confessed to the killing and was convicted of murder, the three men, known as the “Angola 3,” were additionally accused, tried and convicted.

Later their inmate accusers retracted their trial testimony, saying they had been coerced by prison administration officials. But the Angola 3 remained imprisoned and in solitary confinement for 29 years.

Over those years the three continued to advocate for prisoner rights, despite each being kept in solitary confinement. Wilkerson said, “We found a way to communicate.” They waged a hunger strike to protest the strip and anal body searches all prisoners, already in handcuffs and shackles, were regularly subjected to.

Although that dehumanizing practice was eventually curtailed, it has gradually been reintroduced, Wilkerson said, “under the guise of ‘state security.’”

In October the New York Times reported a survey that showed Angola Prison has the largest population of prisoners serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Wilkerson said that traditionally in Louisiana, when a person was “sentenced to life” it was understood that it was “without possibility of parole.” Thus, he said, “At least 2,000 or more remain ‘lifers’ and the only rare exception is through the clemency process, but it is a difficult, contradictory procedure and rigged against the prisoner.”

Regarding the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Wilkerson said, “It shouldn’t have gotten to that point. Ever since the 1965 Category 3 Hurricane Bessie, everyone in New Orleans knew the levees needed repair after years and years of neglect. If the levees had been repaired, Hurricane Katrina would have meant some electric power losses and little else.

“After the storm had passed and I felt out of danger, I took down the coverings he had put at his windows and stepped outside where there were only some occasional mild wind gusts. Then the levees failed.

“Anyone who tells you it took days for the water to rise is wrong. It took minutes for the water to rise. In a half hour my house had seven-and-one-half feet of water in it.”

Both he and his dog were able to remain dry on the second floor, and eventually friends rescued them with a boat and he temporarily evacuated to Austin, Texas.

Wilkerson also said that he has heard people saying that the situation in New Orleans was so bad it was close to a “race war.” But “it would have been a Civil War type situation because some whites wanted to help, to struggle alongside the African Americans, for dignity and safety.”

Wilkerson is now involved in the survival of New Orleans. And he remains more committed than ever to win the release of the remaining two members of the Angola 3, who are still imprisoned, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace.

Despite evidence that led to his own release on Feb. 8, 2001, new evidence of the innocence of the other two men has not yet led to their exoneration and release. Their story is not unlike that of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Wilkerson urges people who want to help out the people in New Orleans and the Angola 3 to go to the following websites and get involved. They are: www.commongroundrelief.org and www.angola3.org.