“Traitors In Our Midst”: Race, Corrections, and the 1970 Tombs Uprising
Editor’s Note: Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Tombs uprising, in October 1970. The revolt in the New York City jail took place almost one year before the far better known Attica Prison Uprising, but a number of the prisoners who took part in Attica participated in Tombs. In fact, many of the demands the Attica prisoners made echoed the demands of the Tombs uprising. In the former, guards taken hostage found themselves central to disseminating the prisoners demands and went on record supporting the prisoners. Similarly, the Tombs uprising involved guards sympathetic to the prisoners' conditions. But unlike the guards fortunate enough to survive the bloodbath that ended the Attica uprising, two Tombs guards were scapegoated and prosecuted for their role in the uprising.
By Willie Mack
In 1966, newly elected New York City Republican Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed George F. McGrath as Commissioner of Correction. McGrath was previously the commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Correction and was widely known as a respected and progressive liberal penologist. But by 1969, the New York City jails were in worse condition than ever before. In particular, the situation at the Manhattan Central Detention Complex — also known as “the Tombs” due to its dungeon-like atmosphere — had deteriorated dramatically. Plagued by overcrowding and poor conditions overall, the jail ranked at the bottom of the city’s jails.[1] To compound matters, the Tombs had become a microcosm of the city’s racial tensions which had come to a head during the 1964 Harlem uprising. Within the Tombs, relationships between prisoners and guards, and between the guards themselves, were dictated by racial stereotypes and fears. And in 1970, after two prisoner uprisings, the racial tensions that permeated society outside the jail walls would expose the racial tensions within the Correction Department as two Black guards were scapegoated for their actions during the second prisoner uprising at the Tombs.
McGrath, the Press and Prisoners. NY Daily News, October 1970.
Earlier in 1970, Democratic Representative Edward I. Koch surveyed 907 prisoners at the Tombs and the results were stunning. Prisoners complained of crowded and unsanitary conditions; four out of ten prisoners claimed to have witnessed guards assaulting prisoners.[2] The Tombs had become a true house of horrors. For his part, Commissioner McGrath responded that the survey included “some extremely serious exaggerations.” He claimed that prisoner’s problems stemmed from a “lack of training and work programs,” which created a “high level of boredom” and made “them feel their very rough world is even rougher than it actually is.”[3] Although McGrath blamed the prisoners’ complaints on overactive imaginations, he promised to look into the matter. Whether he did or did not, by August not much had changed.
The Correction Officers who worked within the jail were also concerned about the situation, even if they were mainly concerned with their own personal safety. In February and again in August of 1970, the guards attempted to bring attention to the years of neglect, failing budgets, aging facilities, and overcrowding by staging protests in front of City Hall.[4] Some guards at the Tombs took it upon themselves to rectify the problems. Correction Officer Earl D. Whitaker complained to his superiors about the systemic abuse of prisoners. Another guard, Alfred E. Warren, reportedly treated the prisoners like human beings, regularly conversing with them and even participating in occasional “jam sessions” with the prisoners. Whitaker was an immigrant who served in the United States Air Force before becoming a guard in 1967. He was known to be friendly with prisoners while maintaining a professional demeanor. He was also seen as aloof by his peers, not socializing with them outside of work. When he reported abuse by his fellow guards, he separated himself even more. Warren was a young twenty-year-old, recently hired and still in his probationary period. He was known to wear Black power insignias on his clothing outside of work, something that may have endeared him to the prisoners but distanced him from his fellow guards.[5]
Warren and Whitaker were both Black. As of 1966, half of the custodial force was Black, but the seniority ranks reflected a clear racial hierarchy. Only 45 out of a total of 179 captains were Black; four of 39 deputy wardens; and one of six wardens.[6] One year later, there were only 30 non-white officers out of a total of 242 higher-ranking officers.[7] In 1973, two Black state Correction Officers sued New York State alleging discriminatory hiring and promotion within the State Correction Department.[8] Since 85 percent of the prison population was Black and Puerto Rican, the lack of non-white senior officers and administrative leadership throughout the New York City jails only exacerbated racial tensions between the prisoners and the legal system.[9]
With the former hostages: L to R: Commissioner George F. McGrath with former hostages, Capt. Edward Landesman, Trevor Dennis, Roland Young, Edward Sabilio, and Vernn Allick, New York Times, August 1970.
On August 10, 1970, the prisoners at the Tombs, frustrated with the jail conditions, initiated an uprising. They took over the ninth floor of the facility and took eight Correction Officers hostage. They held the guards hostage for eight hours.[10] This initial uprising at the Tombs was a spark that led to another uprising two months later, on October 1.[11] On the third day of the October uprising, the prisoners at the Tombs released the guard Warren, who told the press that the hostages were “with the prisoners 100 percent.”[12] He told the press that the prisoners had “good gripes” and that the majority of Correction Officers agreed with the prisoners that there should be more Spanish speaking guards, increased educational opportunities, lower bails, speedier trials, and an “inmate council” to mediate prisoner complaints.[13] “There are real people up there,” he said to The New York Times. “They are not playing games.”[14] Warren recognized that the prisoners had real concerns and that their concerns needed to be addressed.
Alfred Earl Warren. Notice the “liberation beads” on his left wrist. New York Times October 1970.
After the October uprising ended, Commissioner McGrath, refusing to acknowledge the conditions within the jails and his own lack of oversight played in the uprising, looked for others to blame. He found two potential scapegoats in Warren and Whitaker. Warren was promptly fired on November 23, 1970 because his work was “below the standard.”[15] It was a vague charge and went completely against the feedback that Warren had previously received that he would one day make “a beautiful guard.” Warren contested his firing. In a court filing, he stated that he believed he was dismissed because his supervisors thought of him as a “militant.” He contended that when off-duty he wore “liberation beads” and “black-power emblems,” which led other guards to label him as a “Black Panther.” He also noted that his relationship with the prisoners was an issue, since the other guards at the Tombs did not like that he “got along with the inmates.”[16] Specifically, he felt that his willingness to help the prisoners during the uprising exacerbated these feelings towards him and sealed his fate.
Warren’s actions likely reflected his experiences growing up in Harlem. As a 20-year-old black man from Harlem, he must have been aware of the domestic context of the symbols he wore. He also would have been familiar with the racial tensions and over-policing in his neighborhood that climaxed during the 1964 Harlem uprising. He had been a teenager, 15-16 years old, during the Harlem uprising in 1964, an event that surely would have impacted his psyche. Nevertheless, Warren probably became a Correction Officer because it was a steady job that paid well and only required a high school diploma.[17]
While Warren was the only guard fired after the uprising, Whittaker was arrested for encouraging the uprising. According to the indictment, Whittaker had “urged and encouraged inmates to riot and hold hostages.”[18] Whitaker denied any wrongdoing and claimed that the charges were designed to “hush him up” because he “spoke out publicly in defense of some of the inmates.”[19] Whitaker claimed that he was warned previously that “they’re going to get you” because he had reported the beating of a prisoner by a guard. Whitaker said he was “framed” and “railroaded” because he broke the unspoken rules that protects “guards who like brutality.” Whitaker claimed he was an outsider who “did not socialize with other correction officers.” “I was not on the side of anybody,” he claimed. Rather, he considered himself a “humane officer” that treated the prisoners with respect.[20]
The accusations against Warren and Whitaker came directly from McGrath who was told by assistant deputy warden Charles McElhone, a captain and a hostage during the uprising, that there were “traitors in our midst.”[21] Seven guards testified against Whitaker claiming he urged the prisoners to continue to hold out as they would lose “everything they’d won” if they capitulated. They also testified that he was separated from the other hostages for unknown reasons and that he gave details of an escape plan formulated by one of the hostages, quite possibly McElhone, to the prisoners.[22] Whitaker rebutted the testimony claiming that he was locked in a closet and chained to a fence that put him in a position to be one of the first shot if police stormed the Tombs.[23] He argued that his goal was to keep himself and his fellow guards alive.[24] The prisoners testified that Whitaker received no special treatment and that he was separated from the other hostages because they feared that he could physically overpower them. A prisoner, Curtis Brown, one of the accused leaders of the uprising, also claimed that the prisoners separated out a white guard, David White. But there were no accusations of conspiracy levied against White.[25]
Prisoners in their cells at The Tombs, New York Times, April 8, 1970
Race structured all of the relationships within the New York City jails. For example, a few months after the uprisings in 1970, the Board of Correction, the public oversight body responsible for providing guidance and advice to the Department of Correction, implemented a plan to hire more non-white Correctional Aides.[26] These Aides would work to bridge the gap between the guards and the prisoners — specifically Black and Puerto Rican prisoners. President of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, Leo Zeferitte responded to the city’s efforts to hire Black and Puerto Rican Aides as “just more bodies from the ghettos” in his jails.[27] One year later, in the aftermath of the 1971 Attica Prison rebellion, New York City Deputy Warden John Cunningham told assembled guards at Roll-Call that “A bunch of no-good rotten, black radical bastards were the cause of this situation [Attica Uprising]. The only brothers that you guys have are your fellow officers, and you better believe it. If it happens here there would be no negotiations, we would go straight in to get the men out.”[28] It should be noted that during the Attica uprising, all the prison guards and hostages were white and many openly praised the prisoners about their treatment and supported their demands. Despite this, there was no question about who was on whose side.[29] Unlike what happened to Warren and Whitaker, the Attica guards experienced no retribution for defending the prisoners. The only thing that separated the Attica guards from Warren and Whitaker was their skin color.
Whitaker was acquitted of conspiracy charges in 1973 and successfully sued to get his job back.[30] Warren was also cleared of any wrongdoing. Warren and Whitaker, while not prisoners, are a telling part of the narrative around the uprising at the Tombs and its reflection of New York City society at this time. Both of them were condemned because of their Blackness. They were under increased scrutinization because they were Black. Their Blackness made them targets that placed them under constant supervision, even though they were law enforcement officers. Any non-white guard or employee working within the New York City jails, from the day they were hired, found that their skin color differentiated them from their peers. They were strangers among friends who were under constant surveillance by their white peers. It wasn’t enough that they were guards or employees, they had to prove their allegiance and differentiate themselves from the prisoners who were their racial peers. They were condemned, as historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad would argue, because of their Blackness.[31]
Willie Mack is a PhD student at SUNY-Stony Brook and a contributing editor for Gotham. His research interests include 20th century U.S. history, race, capitalism, and carceral studies.
[1] David Burnham, “Legal Aid Plans to Sue On Conditions at Tombs,” August 13, 1970 in New York Times, NYTimes.com
[2] David Burnham, “The Tombs Called ‘Dungeon of Fear,’” April 8, 1970, in New York Times, NYTimes.com.
[3] ‘The Tombs Called ‘Dungeon of Fear,’” New York Times.
[4] George J. Rios, “Changes in the New York City Houses of Detention: riots and reactions, August–October 1970 – March 1974”, MPA Thesis, John Jay College, New York, 197.
[5] Laurie Johnston, “Guard Says He Was Warned For Reporting Tombs Beating,” April 24, 1972, NY Times, NYTimes.com; “A Willing Hostage: Alfred Earl Warren,” in NY Times October 5, 1970, NYTimes.com.
[6] “Faster Uppings Sought In Correction Dept.,” New York Amsterdam News (1962-1993); May 28, 1966; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Amsterdam News.
[7] “3 New Captains in Corrections Dept.” New York Amsterdam News (1962-1993) October 21, 1967; The decrease could be because of temporary assignments that had expired. Needs more research.
[8] "2 Charge Bias in Prison Appointments." New York Amsterdam News (1962-1993),Aug 04, 1973. http://ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.i.ezproxy.nypl.org/docview/226667087?accountid=35635.
[9] “Faster Uppings Sought In Correction Dept.,” New York Amsterdam News (1962-1993); May 28, 1966; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Amsterdam News.
[10] “Prisoner Grievances,” Aug 11, 1970, New York Times.
[11] Robert D. McFadden, “Prisoners Rebel in 2 More Jails; 23 Held Hostage,” October 3, 1970, in New York Times, NYTimes.com.
[12] “Prisoners Rebel in 2 More Jails; 23 Held Hostage,” New York Times.
[13] “A Willing Hostage: Alfred Earl Warren,” in New York Times October 5, 1970, NYTimes.com.
[14] “A Willing Hostage: Alfred Earl Warren,” New York Times.
[15] Thomas A. Johnson, “Tombs Dismisses Guard Trainee Who Carried Inmates’ Note to the Mayor,” December 18, 1970, New York Times, NYTimes.com.
[16] Johnson, “Tombs Dismisses Guard.”
[17] For more on police recruitment efforts in black communities see Fortner, Black Silent Majority; James Forman Jr., Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America; Dulaney, Black Police; and Bolden, A Study of the Black Guardian Organization. On economic pressures in the black community during this period see Wilhelm, Who Needs the Negro?
[18] Juan M. Vasquez, “Guard is Indicted With 8 Prisoners In Riot at Tombs,” New York Times, January 26, 1971, NYTimes.com.
[19] Vasquez, “Guard is Indicted.”
[20] Laurie Johnston, “Guard Says He Was Warned For Reporting Tombs Beating,” April 24, 1972, New York Times, NYTimes.com.
[21] “Guards At Tombs Accused In Rising,” January 11, 1973 NYTimes, NYTimes.com. Barry Gottehrer, an aide to Lindsay at the time of the uprising, also notes that during the uprising, a white prisoner mentioned that for weeks two guards had been encouraging the prisoners to riot, but he acknowledges that he has no proof to support this accusation.
[22] “Two Tombs Guards Testify Co-Worker Encouraged Rioters,” January 9, 1973, New York Times, NYTimes.com.
[23] Johnston, “Guard Says He Was Warned For Reporting Tombs Beating,” New York Times.
[24] C. Gerald Fraser, “Guard Explains Motive In Riot,” January 13, 1973, New York Times, NYTimes.com.
[25] C. Gerald Fraser, “Inmate Testifies In Trial of Guard,” January 12, 1972, New York Times, NYTimes.com; Mack, “Silent Knowledge.”
[26] Crisis in the prisons: New York City responds: a commitment to change. (New York: New York (N.Y.). Department of Correction) 1972.
[27] "Insulting Many," New York Amsterdam News (1962-1993), Oct 16, 1971, NYPL.org.
[28] Paris L. Davis, "Correction Officers Complain," October 2, 1971 in New York Amsterdam News (1962-1993), http://ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.i.ezproxy.nypl.org/docview/226716651?accountid=35635.
[29] Heather Ann Thompson, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy,” (New York: Pantheon, 2016): 148.
[30] C. Gerald Fraser, “Guard At Tombs Cleared in Rising,” January 19, 1973, New York Times, NYTimes.com; “Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Correction,” March 4, 1974.
[31] Khalil Gibran Muhammad, The Condemnation of Blackness,” (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010).