In September 1971, Lenny Klaif was a third-year law student at the University of Iowa, when he took up the cause of prisoner rights in the tragic aftermath of the Attica Prison Riots. Klaif had graduated from the University of Buffalo, mere miles from the prison. Four days into the riots, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller sent in the state troopers, and in a hail of bullets, killed 43 people, including 10 prison guards. 

It took 30 years before the lawsuits and legal actions were concluded, and Klaif was in the middle of it, getting to know such seminal characters like Frank "Big Black" Smith, who was appointed security chief by his fellow prisoners, Howard Kunstler, the tenacious civil rights lawyer, and Liz Fink, the indefatigable attorney for the Attica Brothers. Klaif, hired by the ACLU, is proud to note that "I was the lowest paid lawyer in my graduating class."

The riots sparked a flash point in American history, between civil rights activists and the "law and order" forces that twice elected Richard Nixon. In Klaif's experience, the legal defense proved an organizing purpose for the prisoners, most of whom never returned to a life of crime. Klaif discusses the heady historical moment with a panoply of colorful characters and his role in it. We did not discuss the Armenian genocide, Venus flytraps or Albert Spalding's baseball innovations.

Declaration to the People of America, Read by Elliott James "L.D." Barkley, September 9, 1971: We are men! We are not beasts and we do not intend to be beaten or driven as such. The entire prison populace, that means each and every one of us here, have set forth to change forever the ruthless brutalization and disregard for the lives of the prisoners here and throughout the United States. What has happened here is but the sound before the fury of those who are oppressed. We will not compromise on any terms except those terms that are agreeable to us. We've called upon all the conscientious citizens of America to assist us in putting an end to this situation that threatens the lives of not only us, but of each and every one of you, as well.