Alcatraz Island - Poster of the Week
- politicalgraphics
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
Alcatraz
Artist Unknown
Photo by John Slavicek
Offset, Circa 1970
United States
4967
Poster text:
They made many promises, but kept only one. They promised to take our land, and they took it.
Earlier this week, President Trump ordered the Bureau of Prisons, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security to rebuild and reopen Alcatraz prison. This maximum security federal prison closed in 1963 due to high operating costs. The island where it stands is currently managed by the National Park Service as a historic landmark. The symbolic gesture of reopening the prison not only keeps up the appearance that the government is successfully incarcerating dangerous migrants, but also continues Trump’s attempts to erase history.
According to oral histories, Alcatraz Island had been used by Indigenous people as a camping spot, an area for gathering food, as well as a hiding place for many Native Americans fleeing the California Mission system. In November 1969, a group of Native Americans, many of them students, chartered a boat and occupied the island under the name "Indians of All Tribes." The protesters hoped to reclaim the land and build an American Indian university, cultural center, and museum. The US government forcibly ended the occupation, and the activists were subsequently targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program.
John Trudell, one of the leaders of this nineteen-month long occupation, said “when one lives in a society where people can no longer rely on the institutions to tell them the truth, the truth must come from culture and art." This poster from five decades ago brings us closer to the truth; it reminds us to take the President’s promises seriously. Reopening Alcatraz prison would be unpopular and expensive—more symbolic than practical. But this administration has made progress in reopening at least five other closed prisons to be used as immigrant detention centers. This must not continue!
References: