Food, Punishment, and the Angola Three's Struggle for Freedom, 1971–2019

Abstract

Food is a site and means for collective political action, and the link between food and the abolition of the carceral state has proven a consequential blueprint for prisoner-led change. This essay explores how members of the Black Panther Party incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary, colloquially known as "Angola Prison," used food and agriculture to build solidarity among incarcerated people in the latter third of the twentieth century. Albert Woodfox, Robert King, and Herman Wallace, who collectively became known as the "Angola Three," led these protest actions. I rely on first-hand accounts of these events, including memoirs and interviews, to offer insight into the relationship between food and activism, which are consequential inside and outside of Angola Prison's walls. The Angola Three's program demonstrates how people incarcerated in Angola mobilized their bodies to resist the institution's goals of revoking their bodily autonomy and diminishing solidarity among prisoners.