Kite Line: The Long History of Black Radicalism on the Inside, Part Two

Kite Line is a long running anti-prison radio show out of Bloomington, Indiana.

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This week, we return to the history of black radicalism within the prison system. You can hear more from Dr. Micol Seigel and Dr. Garrett Felber about this in last week’s episode.

Early in this episode, the prisoner reporting on Operation PUSH, the sit-down strike in Florida’s prisons, mentions being transferred to a different area in order to prematurely stifle the strike’s effectiveness. Felber helps situate this repression today by speaking about punitive transfers as a means of punishment in the 50s and 60s. These were made in order to separate prisoner activists from one another, but actually led to the spreading of the Nation of Islam within the prison system.

They further explore the way repression and activism function in tandem, and more about the evolution of black radicalism inside prisons and its relationship to the Civil Rights Movement, ending with how the Nation of Islam’s struggles impact us today.