Summary

As the state mounted its offensive, a team of lawyers from around the nation, led by the National Lawyers Guild, created the Attica Brothers Legal Defense (ABLD) to give each of the indicted inmates quality legal representation. Lawyers, law students, community organizations, and volunteers alike flocked to communal houses in upstate New York by the summer of 1973 to begin investigating the state’s indictments against the so-called “Attica Brothers” (313). The ABLD’s largest obstacle, especially when matched against the state, was funding. Fundraising was the group’s first objective, while volunteers dedicated “some 800-odd hours” researching on behalf of the inmates (316). Multiple legal groups, community organizations, and celebrities helped raise funds and perpetuate information by producing informational brochures and holding discussions with some of the Attica Brothers who had already been released. The next steps for the ABLD were to find and...