Rethinking Race: The Lucasville Riot
Race, mass incarceration, and the Shadow of the Lucasville Prison Riot
The Department of Criminal Justice Studies participated in the Rethinking Race event series with several events, one of which dealt with one of the biggest prison uprisings in the 20th century in the U.S.: The Lucasville Riot in Ohio in 1993.
Transgressing racial boundaries, the uprising had united Sunni Muslims, the Aryan Brotherhood and the Black Gangster Disciples against injustice and ongoing abuses. We explore the uprising through the award-winning documentary “The Shadow of Lucasville” (2013, djones) and the leader of the Sunni Muslims, Imam Siddique Hasan, called into the event live from Ohio State Penitentiary’s Death Row.
The event was large (94 attendees!) and powerful, as it includes a really insightful discussion between a former warden who spoke up and engaged in a controversial dialogue with Hasan and djones which really encapsulated the spirit of our department to reflect different standpoints with measure and respect in the pursuit of social justice.
Note: This event recording is 2 hours and 20 minutes long and the first half is the screening of a documentary. You can watch the documentary independently on youtube for free: The great Incarcerator II: Shadow of Lucasville (djones, 2013).
Watch the event recording above that includes the documentary (2.20 hours). To watch just the documentary visit: The great Incarcerator II: Shadow of Lucasville
Resources and Literature
- Flyer of the event, pictured right.
- Slides to event
- Free Ohio Movement
- Djones' website
- New York Times article on Keith Lamar (Feb 11, 2022)
- Keith Lamar's website
- Liat Ben Moshe discusses the impact of Lucasville in her book: Decarcerating Disability
Related degrees: