Each August marks the annual commemoration of a month honoring the legacy of Black prisoners kept behind bars for political activism. Black August is a month to honor the history of struggles for Black liberation, in defiance of racial, colonial, and imperialist oppression, both inside and outside prison walls.

The 1971 Attica prison revolt, in which incarcerated people rose up in a struggle against oppression and inhumane conditions, and were subsequently repressed by state forces with horrifying brutality, is honored each year during Black August.

On September 9, 1971, Attica prisoners took over a part of the prison in an event especially notable for its mass participation. Out of roughly 2,200 men imprisoned at Attica, 1,281 seized control of the facility.

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