Contributed by Paige Watkins
The Angola Three - Robert Hillary King, Albert Woodfox, and Herman Wallace - were Black liberationists known for spending decades in solitary confinement after being wrongfully convicted of killing a prison guard in Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola Prison.
The three men helped to create the prison’s chapter of the Black Panther Party and worked to organize prisoners in Angola - building a movement to improve the living conditions and the systemic oppression prisoners faced within the walls. They coordinated petitions, as well as work and hunger strikes to protest the prison's segregation, corruption, and violence.
The Angola 3
In 1972, Woodfox & Wallace were convicted of stabbing and killing a prison guard - Brent Miller. There was no physical evidence to tie them to the murder, and witness testimonies that worked to incriminate the 3 have since been discredited. Yet and still, the decades that followed the guard's murder were spent in solitary confinement. Robert King spent 29 years in solitary confinement before his release in 2001. In 2013, Wallace was released after over 41 years in solitary confinement. He died just 3 days after being released. To this day, organizers and activists are still calling for the release of Woodfox - who has spent over 40 years in solitary confinement. His conviction was overturned in November of 2014, but he has yet to be released from Angola.
For more information on the Angola 3, visit: Angola3.org
