Captive Nation

Focusing on the intersection of black activism and the prison system, this book explores how, during the civil rights era, activists highlighted the plight of prisoners as symbols of racial oppression. It reveals how confinement became an integral aspect of black life in the U.S., positioning black prisoners as global political icons amidst shifting notions of race and nation. Tracing the evolution of this struggle from the 1950s to the 1980s, it offers a profound analysis of the role prisons played in the black radical imagination.