Faith Ringgold (American, born 1930)
The United States of Attica, 1971
Lithograph

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EXHIBITION HISTORY:

Group Exhibition - ANGELA DAVIS: SEIZE THE TIME (10/7/22 - 6/18/23)
Oakland Museum of CA, Oakland, CA 94607

Group Exhibition - ANGELA DAVIS: SEIZE THE TIME (9/8/21 - 6/15/22)
Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901

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Faith produced this poster in tribute to the men who died in the police raid on the prisoner's rebellion in Attica, New York. It was yet another in a series of events that were extensively televised in the 60s and the 70s where we were all on the edge of our seats watching what would happen to these brave men who had dared to publically risk their lives in order to protest the conditions in the prisons. Of course, the final debacle took place in the wee hours of the morning long before we had the technological advantages of the internet and of a CNN.

The result of the prisoner's entirely nonviolent endeavor was not only that many of them tlost their lives and/or were subsequently tortured, but that conditions for prisoners in the State of New York grew even worse. Faith's approach to this poster was to research all the various genocides and murders, including all the casualties of war, that had taken place in American history and write them into a map of the United States. Indeed, the poster invites others to contribute further documentations of unfair brutalities committed under the auspices of the United States government or from the time the colonies were first settled. The colors she uses were red and green, in honor of Marcus Garvey's Black Nationalist Flag so popular in the 60s.
— Michele Wallace (Faith Ringgold's daughter)

source: http://ringgoldinthe1960s.blogspot.com/2010/05/united-states-of-attica-by-faith.html

This piece was donated by Faith Ringgold to Revolution Books, 437 Malcolm X Blvd. in Harlem to help raise funds to keep its doors open. Originally I had purchased Ringgold's Women Free Angela print but because the bookstore collective had a falling out politically with Davis, they refused to complete the sale--instead returning the print to Ringgold who replaced it with the Attica poster. Disappointed, I continued with the purchase anyway.