The Age of Mass Incarceration

1968 to 2000

Every time we moved forward, a new tool pushed us back. The tool changed. The result did not.

Slavery ended with a door left open: "except as a punishment for crime."

In 1971, the President declared drug abuse "public enemy number one." In 1986, Congress punished crack cocaine a hundred times as hard as powder, and more than three of every four sentenced for crack were Black. In 1994, the Crime Act put $9.7 billion into prisons.

Tap Next to read each record. Every fact in them carries a small [Source] mark. Tap it to see where the fact comes from.

We don't need to raise our voice. The truth, told exactly, is enough.

1971 Proven

"Public Enemy Number One"

In 1971, President Nixon declared war on drugs.

Here is where the war began. Our neighborhoods would become its battlefield.

On 17 June 1971, President Richard Nixon spoke at the White House about drugs. [Source 1]

"America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse," he said. "In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive." [Source 1]

He asked Congress for $155 million in new money, to raise the year's spending on enforcement and treatment to more than $350 million. [Source 1]

The war was declared. In the years after, the prisons began to fill. [Source 2]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Richard Nixon, Remarks About an Intensified Program for Drug Abuse Prevention and Control, 17 June 1971 (The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara, 1971). “America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse”
  2. 2.Scholarly. National Research Council, The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences, Chapter 2, Rising Incarceration Rates (The National Academies Press, 2014), Chapter 2.

1971 Proven

Attica

Prisoners at Attica took over the prison in 1971. The state's assault to retake it killed hostages and prisoners alike.

The prisoners made their demands. The state answered with almost 2,000 rounds.

On 9 September 1971, prisoners took control of Attica Correctional Facility in New York. A corrections officer was fatally injured. [Source 1]

On 11 September they presented 28 demands. The state's commissioner accepted most of them, but the deal fell apart because it gave no amnesty. [Source 1]

On 13 September, state police and corrections officers retook the prison. Tear gas was dropped from a helicopter, and almost 2,000 rounds were fired. Twenty-nine prisoners and ten hostages were killed in the assault. [Source 1]

Officials first claimed the prisoners had cut the hostages' throats. The county pathologist found they had been "killed by law enforcement firearms." [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Attica Uprising Timeline (New York State Archives). “killed by law enforcement firearms”

1972 Proven

Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn broke into Congress in 1968, and ran for President in 1972.

Unbought and unbossed. The first of us to run for President in a major party.

Shirley Chisholm was born on 30 November 1924, in Brooklyn, New York. [Source 1]

In 1968 she became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. [Source 1]

On 25 January 1972 she said: "I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States of America." She was the first woman and the first Black American to seek it in a major party. [Source 2] [Source 1]

"I am not the candidate of black America," she said, "although I am black and proud." [Source 3]

She called her own story Unbought and Unbossed. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Scholarly. Shirley Chisholm (National Women's History Museum).
  2. 2.Primary record. Shirley Chisholm, Presidential Candidacy Announcement (25 January 1972) (American Rhetoric, 1972), Announcement. “I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States of America.”
  3. 3.Primary record. Shirley Chisholm, Presidential Candidacy Announcement (25 January 1972) (American Rhetoric, 1972), Announcement. “I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud.”

1972 Proven

The Tuskegee Study

From 1932 to 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service watched hundreds of Black men with syphilis go untreated, telling them they had "bad blood." Penicillin was the cure by 1943. They never got it.

The government of the United States let our men die so it could watch.

In 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service, working with the Tuskegee Institute, enrolled 600 Black men in Alabama: 399 with syphilis and 201 without. [Source 1]

The men were told they were being treated for "bad blood." For taking part, they were offered free exams, free meals and burial insurance. Burial insurance. [Source 1]

By 1943, penicillin was the treatment of choice for syphilis. The men were never offered it. [Source 1]

The study ran until 1972, when the Associated Press exposed it. [Source 1]

When people ask why some of us do not trust the doctors, this is part of the answer.

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. The Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee: Timeline (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). “bad blood”

1974 Proven

Sterilized by the State

For decades, North Carolina's Eugenics Board sterilized thousands of poor people, and in its later years, mostly women who were not white.

The state decided which of us should not have children. Its own report says so.

From 1929 through 1974, North Carolina's Eugenics Board had nearly 7,600 people sterilized: women and men, boys and girls as young as ten. [Source 1]

Eighty-five of every hundred were women. Forty of every hundred were not white, most of them Black. After the 1950s, the great majority were "non-white" women. [Source 1]

Many were poor, undereducated, sick or disabled, and were sterilized by force or coercion. State staff admitted that some were threatened with losing their welfare. [Source 1]

The family lines that were cut can never be given back.

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Final Report to the Governor of the State of North Carolina, Governor's Task Force to Determine the Method of Compensation for Victims of North Carolina's Eugenics Board (North Carolina Department of Administration, Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims, 2012).

1982 Proven

Fred Hampton

On 4 December 1969, Chicago police raided the apartment of Fred Hampton, 21, chairman of the Black Panthers, before dawn, and shot him dead in his bed. In 1982, the governments behind the raid paid his family and the survivors.

Twenty-one years old, in his own bed. The FBI had drawn them the map.

Fred Hampton was twenty-one, the chairman of the Chicago Black Panthers. [Source 1]

An FBI informant, William O'Neal, his bodyguard, drew up a floor plan of Hampton's apartment and gave it to the authorities. [Source 2] [Source 1]

In the early morning of 4 December 1969, fourteen police officers raided it. As a federal appeals court later put it: "Immediately upon the police entry there was an enormous burst of gunfire." [Source 3]

A federal grand jury's ballistics expert found that the police had fired 99 bullets, and the Panthers one. Hampton was shot to death in his bed. Mark Clark was killed too. [Source 2] [Source 1]

In 1979, that appeals court ruled that the survivors and families "did offer sufficient evidence to warrant a jury determination of whether a conspiracy existed." [Source 4]

In 1982, the city, the county and the federal government paid $1.85 million to the families and survivors. [Source 2]

Ninety-nine to one. That was not a shootout.

Sources

  1. 1.Scholarly. Equal Justice Initiative, Assault on "Black Power" (Era 3 panels) (Equal Justice Initiative, 2023), Era 3 panels.
  2. 2.News report. Daniel Hautzinger, The Killing of Fred Hampton (WTTW Chicago, 2019). “the police had fired 99 bullets while the Panthers had fired one”
  3. 3.Primary record. United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Hampton v. Hanrahan, 600 F.2d 600 (7th Cir., 12 September 1979) (Justia, 1979), Opinion. “Immediately upon the police entry there was an enormous burst of gunfire.”
  4. 4.Primary record. United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Hampton v. Hanrahan, 600 F.2d 600 (7th Cir., 12 September 1979) (Justia, 1979), Opinion. “did offer sufficient evidence to warrant a jury determination of whether a conspiracy existed”

1983 Proven

Harold Washington

On 12 April 1983, Harold Washington was elected the first Black mayor of Chicago.

Chicago's Black voters came out and made history.

Harold Washington was born in Chicago on 15 April 1922. [Source 1]

On 12 April 1983, he was elected the 51st mayor of Chicago, the city's first Black mayor. [Source 1]

On 29 April he took office, and told the city: "Business as usual will not be accepted by the people of this City." [Source 2]

"I hope someday to be remembered by history as the Mayor who cared about people and who was, above all, fair." [Source 3]

Sources

  1. 1.Scholarly. Mayor Harold Washington Biography (Chicago Public Library).
  2. 2.Primary record. Harold Washington, Mayor Harold Washington Inaugural Address (29 April 1983) (Chicago Public Library, 1983), Inaugural address, 29 April 1983. “Business as usual will not be accepted by the people of this City.”
  3. 3.Primary record. Harold Washington, Mayor Harold Washington Inaugural Address (29 April 1983) (Chicago Public Library, 1983), Inaugural address, 29 April 1983. “I hope someday to be remembered by history as the Mayor who cared about people and who was, above all, fair.”

1986 Proven

One Hundred to One

The 1986 drug law punished crack far more harshly than powder cocaine, and the people it punished were mostly Black.

The same drug, in two forms. One form sent us to prison a hundred times faster.

In 1986, Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. It set mandatory prison terms of five and ten years for crack and powder cocaine. [Source 1]

It took 100 times as much powder cocaine as crack to trigger the same mandatory sentence. Five grams of crack meant at least five years. [Source 1]

More than three-quarters of the people sentenced for crack were Black. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Report to the Congress: Impact of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (United States Sentencing Commission, 2015).

1991 to 1992 Proven

Rodney King

On 3 March 1991, Los Angeles police officers were filmed kicking, stomping and clubbing Rodney King. A mostly white jury in Simi Valley acquitted them. Los Angeles burned for four days, and 54 people died.

This time it was on video. The whole world saw it. The jury acquitted them anyway.

On 3 March 1991, after a high-speed chase, Rodney King, twenty-five, was arrested near Hansen Dam in Los Angeles. A bystander's video showed several officers kicking, stomping and clubbing him, again and again. [Source 1]

That July, the city's own commission named it: "The videotaped beating of Rodney G. King by three uniformed officers of the Los Angeles Police Department," with a sergeant and a large group of other officers standing by. It found "a significant number of LAPD officers who repetitively misuse force." [Source 2] [Source 3]

Four officers were charged. The trial was moved to Simi Valley, forty miles away. [Source 1]

On 29 April 1992, a mostly white jury acquitted the officers on all but one of eleven counts. [Source 1]

For four days, Los Angeles burned. Fifty-four people died, more than 2,300 were hurt, and the damage came to $1 billion. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Scholarly. George Hodak, April 29, 1992: Rodney King verdict (ABA Journal, American Bar Association, 2010).
  2. 2.Primary record. Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department (the Christopher Commission), Report of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, Summary (9 July 1991) (Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Research Library, 1991), Summary. “The videotaped beating of Rodney G. King by three uniformed officers of the Los Angeles Police Department”
  3. 3.Primary record. Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department (the Christopher Commission), Report of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, Summary (9 July 1991) (Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Research Library, 1991), Summary. “there is a significant number of LAPD officers who repetitively misuse force”

1994 Proven

Justice, Years Late

Two killers from 1963, the year of the Birmingham bombing and the murder of Medgar Evers, were finally sent to prison for life.

They grew old believing they had gotten away with it. Some had not.

In 1977, Robert Chambliss was sent to prison for life for the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. [Source 1]

In 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was finally convicted of the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers, 31 years and three trials later, and sentenced to life in prison. [Source 2]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. A Byte Out of History: '63 Baptist Church Bombing (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2007). “around 10:24 on September 15, 1963”
  2. 2.Primary record. Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument (National Park Service).

1994 Proven

Florida Pays for Rosewood

The state that let a Black town burn in 1923 paid the survivors it could still find.

It took seventy-one years. But Florida paid.

In January 1923, white mobs burned the Black town of Rosewood, Florida, and its people fled for their lives. [Source 1]

In 1994, Florida found it had a "moral obligation." On 4 May 1994, Governor Lawton Chiles signed a $2.1 million bill. Nine survivors were paid $150,000 each, and a scholarship fund was created for their descendants. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Rosewood (historical marker) (Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources). “moral obligation”

1994 Proven

Denny's

Thousands of Black customers said Denny's refused them equal service. In 1994 the chain settled, and a federal court decree barred it from discriminating.

Thirty years after the lunch counters opened, we still could not get served the same.

Across the country, Black customers complained that Denny's restaurants had treated them unequally. [Source 1]

There were 4,300 complaints of racial bias, from coast to coast. [Source 1]

In May 1994, Denny's agreed to pay a record $46 million to its Black customers. [Source 1]

Under the court's decree, Denny's was barred from "denying service, or offering less favorable terms and conditions of service, to any person on the ground of race or color." [Source 2]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Denny's bias suits settled for $46 million (Tampa Bay Times, 1994).
  2. 2.Primary record. United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Amended Consent Decree, United States v. Flagstar Corporation and Denny's, Inc. (N.D. Cal., May 1994) (U.S. Department of Justice, 1994), Amended Consent Decree. “Denying service, or offering less favorable terms and conditions of service, to any person on the ground of race or color”

1994 Proven

The Crime Act of 1994

Congress wrote the era of punishment into federal law, from new cells to sixty crimes that could now carry death.

More prisons, more police, more life sentences. Our communities paid for it.

In 1994, Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. [Source 1]

It put $9.7 billion into prisons, and paid for 100,000 new police officers. [Source 1]

It made life in prison without parole mandatory for federal offenders with three or more convictions for serious violent felonies or drug trafficking. [Source 1]

It extended the federal death penalty to about 60 offenses. [Source 1] [Source 2]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994: Fact Sheet (Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, 1994).
  2. 2.Scholarly. National Research Council, The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences, Chapter 2, Rising Incarceration Rates (The National Academies Press, 2014), Chapter 2.

1995 Proven

The Million Man March

On 16 October 1995, hundreds of thousands of Black men gathered on the National Mall in Washington, pledging to better their lives, their families and their communities.

While the nation was building prisons for us, our men stood up together in Washington.

On 16 October 1995, Black men from across the country gathered on the National Mall in Washington. The march was led by Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. [Source 1]

The National Park Service estimated the crowd at about 400,000. Private counts put it at 800,000 or more. [Source 1]

From the podium, Farrakhan told them: "God called us here to this place, at this time, for a very specific reason." And: "We got to resolve today that we're going back home to do something about what's going on in our lives." [Source 2] [Source 3]

The men who came pledged to better their own lives, their families and their communities. [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Black men gather on National Mall to celebrate 20th anniversary of Million Man March (PBS NewsHour, 2015).
  2. 2.Primary record. Louis Farrakhan, Address at the Million Man March, Washington (16 October 1995), transcript (Voices of Democracy, University of Maryland, 1995), Address, 16 October 1995. “God called us here to this place, at this time, for a very specific reason.”
  3. 3.Primary record. Louis Farrakhan, Address at the Million Man March, Washington (16 October 1995), transcript (Voices of Democracy, University of Maryland, 1995), Address, 16 October 1995. “We got to resolve today that we're going back home to do something about what's going on in our lives”

1996 to 1997 Proven

Texaco

Secret tapes caught Texaco's executives mocking Black employees, and the company paid a record settlement.

It was all on tape: the contempt, and the plan to destroy the evidence.

Black employees of Texaco sued the oil company for discrimination. [Source 1]

In November 1996, secret recordings were made public. They caught executives belittling Black employees, and plotting to destroy evidence in the case. [Source 1]

Texaco settled for $176 million, the largest settlement of its kind in U.S. history. The 1,348 plaintiffs averaged more than $63,000 each, and Black salaried workers still at the company got 11 percent raises. [Source 1]

On 21 March 1997, a federal judge certified "a Settlement Class consisting of all African-Americans employed in a salaried position in the United States." Of the settlement, he wrote: "It should be and hereby is approved." [Source 2] [Source 3]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Texaco settles bias suit for $176 million (Deseret News, 1997).
  2. 2.Primary record. United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Roberts v. Texaco, Inc., No. 94 Civ. 2015, Memorandum Decision and Judgment (S.D.N.Y., 21 March 1997) (Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse, University of Michigan, 1997), Memorandum Decision, 21 March 1997. “a Settlement Class consisting of all African-Americans employed in a salaried position in the United States”
  3. 3.Primary record. United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Roberts v. Texaco, Inc., No. 94 Civ. 2015, Memorandum Decision and Judgment (S.D.N.Y., 21 March 1997) (Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse, University of Michigan, 1997), Memorandum Decision, 21 March 1997. “It should be and hereby is approved.”

1997 Proven

Tuskegee: Paid and Apologized

The government that let our men go untreated settled in court, and a quarter century later a President apologized from the White House.

Twenty-five years after it ended, a President said the word sorry.

For forty years, from 1932 to 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service watched Black men in Alabama go untreated for syphilis. [Source 1]

In 1974, a lawsuit won a $10 million settlement. [Source 1]

On 16 May 1997, President Bill Clinton said: "What the United States Government did was shameful, and I am sorry." [Source 2]

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. The Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee: Timeline (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). “bad blood”
  2. 2.Primary record. William J. Clinton, Remarks in Apology to African-Americans on the Quality of Care in the Tuskegee Study, May 16, 1997 (Public Papers of the Presidents) (U.S. Government Publishing Office, 1997), Remarks, 16 May 1997. “What the United States Government did was shameful, and I am sorry.”

1998 Proven

James Byrd Jr.

James Byrd Jr. was murdered by three white men in Jasper, Texas, in 1998.

A lynching in 1998. Not 1898. 1998.

James Byrd Jr. was born on 2 May 1949. [Source 1]

Before dawn on 7 June 1998, in Jasper, Texas, three white men offered him a ride. [Source 1]

They beat him, chained him to the back of their truck by his ankles, and dragged him. He was killed. [Source 1]

The highest criminal court in Texas later described "the act of chaining Byrd to the truck and dragging him for a mile and a half." What was left of his body was "dragged another mile and a half before it was deposited in front of the church." [Source 2] [Source 3]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. Imagine a World Without Hate: James Byrd Jr. (Anti-Defamation League).
  2. 2.Primary record. Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, King v. State, 29 S.W.3d 556 (Tex. Crim. App., 18 October 2000) (Justia, 2000), Opinion. “the act of chaining Byrd to the truck and dragging him for a mile and a half”
  3. 3.Primary record. Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, King v. State, 29 S.W.3d 556 (Tex. Crim. App., 18 October 2000) (Justia, 2000), Opinion, footnote. “dragged another mile and a half before it was deposited in front of the church”

1999 Proven

The Land Taken From Black Farmers

Black families lost nearly every farm they owned in the twentieth century. In 1999 a federal court made the Department of Agriculture settle with them.

Our grandparents held the land. The government's own farm agency helped take it.

"Forty acres and a mule." That is how a federal judge began his ruling for Black farmers in 1999. Then he wrote: "For most African Americans, the promise of forty acres and a mule was never kept." [Source 1]

In 1920 there were 925,000 Black farms in the United States. By 1992 there were about 18,000. [Source 2]

The farmers said the Department of Agriculture "willfully discriminated" against them when they asked for loans and aid. In 1983 the Department had shut down its own Office of Civil Rights, and stopped answering their complaints. [Source 3]

As early as 1965, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights had found the Department discriminating against Black farmers. [Source 4]

On 14 April 1999, Judge Paul L. Friedman approved the settlement. Farmers who took the quicker path, called Track A, would get $50,000, and their debt to the Department would be forgiven. [Source 5]

Land is the wealth that passes down. This is how ours was lost.

Sources

  1. 1.Primary record. Paul L. Friedman, United States District Judge, Pigford v. Glickman, Opinion approving the Consent Decree, Civil Action No. 97-1978 (PLF) (D.D.C. 14 April 1999) (Pigford Monitor, archived by the University of North Texas Libraries, 1999), Opinion, part I. “For most African Americans, the promise of forty acres and a mule was never kept.”
  2. 2.Primary record. Paul L. Friedman, United States District Judge, Pigford v. Glickman, Opinion approving the Consent Decree, Civil Action No. 97-1978 (PLF) (D.D.C. 14 April 1999) (Pigford Monitor, archived by the University of North Texas Libraries, 1999), Opinion, part I. “from 925,000 in 1920 to approximately 18,000 in 1992”
  3. 3.Primary record. Paul L. Friedman, United States District Judge, Pigford v. Glickman, Opinion approving the Consent Decree, Civil Action No. 97-1978 (PLF) (D.D.C. 14 April 1999) (Pigford Monitor, archived by the University of North Texas Libraries, 1999), Opinion, part I. “in 1983 the Department of Agriculture disbanded its Office of Civil Rights”
  4. 4.News report. Sky Chadde, Number of Black-owned farms has decreased drastically since 1900 (Investigate Midwest, 2025).
  5. 5.Primary record. Paul L. Friedman, United States District Judge, Pigford v. Glickman, Opinion approving the Consent Decree, Civil Action No. 97-1978 (PLF) (D.D.C. 14 April 1999) (Pigford Monitor, archived by the University of North Texas Libraries, 1999), Opinion, parts II and III. “a virtually automatic cash payment of $50,000”

1999 Proven

Abner Louima

In 1997, Abner Louima, an immigrant from Haiti, was tortured while in custody. The officer who did it went to prison for thirty years.

Inside a police station in Brooklyn, officers did to a man what no one should do to anyone.

On 9 August 1997, Abner Louima, an immigrant from Haiti, was arrested outside a club in Brooklyn, New York, and taken to the 70th Precinct. [Source 1] [Source 2]

Officers beat him on the way. In the station bathroom, with Louima handcuffed, Officer Justin Volpe "kicked and punched him, then forced a broken broomstick about six inches into his rectum," as a federal appeals court later described it. [Source 3] [Source 1]

He was in the hospital for two months. [Source 1]

On 25 May 1999, Volpe pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison without parole. [Source 4] [Source 2] [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.Scholarly. Eric W. Metchik, Louima torture case (EBSCO Research Starters, 2022).
  2. 2.News report. Twenty Years Later: The Police Assault on Abner Louima and What it Means (WNYC, 2017). “30 years in prison without parole”
  3. 3.Primary record. United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, United States v. Volpe (2d Cir., 16 August 2000) (FindLaw, 2000), Opinion. “Volpe kicked and punched him, then forced a broken broomstick about six inches into his rectum.”
  4. 4.Primary record. United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, United States v. Volpe (2d Cir., 16 August 2000) (FindLaw, 2000), Opinion. “pleaded guilty”

2000 Proven

Amadou Diallo

A young man from Guinea, standing in his own doorway in the Bronx, was shot dead by four plainclothes officers in 1999. In 2000, all four were acquitted.

Forty-one shots at a man holding his wallet.

Amadou Diallo was twenty-three, an immigrant from Guinea living in the Bronx, New York. He wanted to earn a degree in computer science. [Source 1] [Source 2]

Just after midnight on 4 February 1999, four plainclothes officers of the Street Crime Unit confronted him in the doorway of his building on Wheeler Avenue. [Source 2] [Source 1]

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. The officers fired 41 shots. Nineteen of them hit him. [Source 2]

In December 1999, the court that moved the trial to Albany named the two undisputed facts: "41 shots were fired and that Mr. Diallo was unarmed." [Source 3]

On 25 February 2000, the jury in Albany found all four officers not guilty of every charge. [Source 2] [Source 1]

Sources

  1. 1.News report. 20 years ago, Amadou Diallo was killed by police in a hail of 41 bullets (NY1 Spectrum News, 2019). “When I learned he was shot and killed, it was just the world stopped for me then.”
  2. 2.News report. 20 years ago, Amadou Diallo was killed by police in a hail of 41 bullets (NY1 Spectrum News, 2019).
  3. 3.Primary record. Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, First Department, People v. Boss, 261 A.D.2d 1 (N.Y. App. Div., 16 December 1999) (FindLaw, 1999), Opinion. “41 shots were fired and that Mr. Diallo was unarmed”