“Aboveground, Underground, and Locked Down”

Abstract

Incarcerated people in Washington have published a variety of periodicals, ranging from general prison news to radical newspapers that debated ideologies like communism, anarchism, and Black nationalism. This article examines radical periodicals published in and concerning prisons to better understand struggles over the prisoners’ press in Washington. First, it contextualizes this history with a discussion of militant prisoner support movements in the 1970s. These movements included the Sunfighter, an underground newspaper; and the George Jackson Brigade, a guerrilla group, whose members were involved with both the Sunfighter and subsequent prison newspapers. This article then analyzes the politics, inside-outside relationships, and censorship of two radical prisoner quarterlies: the Marxist-Leninist Red Dragon and the Anarchist Black Dragon. Influenced by their prison environment, these newspapers provided space for networks and writings that sought to address interconnected problems such as mass incarceration, sexual violence, and racism. Ultimately, these newspapers demonstrate how prisoners’ politics are worthy of closer consideration by historians, as their ideas and actions shaped news, public discourse, and movements on both sides of the prison walls.