On Resistance, Hunger Strikes, and Sanctuary

#ImmigrationDetentionSyllabus

N., “Resistance,” pencil on paper. The Refugee Art Project

The **#ImmigrationDetentionSyllabus** is a sixteen-part series of readings and tools to support education, research, and action to dissect and dismantle the U.S. immigration detention system. The syllabus is organized by theme and curated by historian [Tina Shull](https://medium.com/u/6e34ba3479d9) at [Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC)](http://endisolation.org).

Part Fourteen, “On Resistance,” provides readings, reports, and multimedia resources on the history of resistance to immigration detention and incarceration, including hunger strikes and the Sanctuary movement, as well as tools for resisting Trump’s deportation policies.

Readings

Aptheker, Bettina and Angela Davis, eds. If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance. Third Press, 1971.
Abu-Jamal, Mumia. Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A. City Lights Books, 2009.
Berger, Dan. Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era. University of North Carolina Press, 2014.
Chase, Robert, “We Are Not Slaves: Rethinking the Rise of Carceral States through the Lens of the Prisoners’ Rights Movement,”The Journal of American History 102 (2015) 73–86.
Contreras, Irina, “Descado en Los Angeles: Cycles of Invisible Resistance,” in Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders, and Global Crisis. University of Georgia Press, 2012.
Davis, Angela, Frank Barat, and Cornel West, Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. Haymarket, 2016.
Escobar, Edward J. “The Unintended Consequences of the Carceral State: Chicana/o Political Mobilization in Post-World War II America,”Journal of American History 102.1 (2015), 174–84.
Gómez*,* Alan Eladio,**“‘Nuestras vidas corren casi paralelas’: Chicanos, Independentistas, and the Prison Rebellions in Leavenworth, 1969–72,” in Behind Bars: Latino/as and Prison in the United States*. *Palgrave, 2009.

Edited by Jenna M. Loyd, Matt Michelson, and Andrew Burridge.

- Hammer, Zoe, “Community, Identity, and Political Struggle: Challenging Immigrant Prisons in Arizona,” in [*Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders, and Global Crisis*](https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Walls-Cages-Geographies-Transformation/dp/0820344125/ref=sr_1_1%3Fs=books%26ie=UTF8%26qid=1502923438%26sr=1-1%26keywords=beyond+cages+and+walls). University of Georgia Press, 2012. - Hill, Gord, [*500 Years of Indigenous Resistance*](http://www.powells.com/partner/37407/biblio/9781604861068?p_isbn)*. *PM Press, 2009. - Jaffe, Sarah, “[Beyond Good Immigrants: An Interview with Aly Wane](http://progressive.org/multimedia/beyond-good-immigrants-an-interview-with-aly-wane/),” *The Progressive*, March 2017. - Kateel, Subhash and Aarti Shahani, “Families for Freedom: Against Deportation and Delegalization,” in [*Keeping Out the Other: A Critical Introduction to Immigration Enforcement Today*](https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Out-Other-Introduction-Immigration/dp/0231141297/ref=sr_1_1%3Fs=books%26ie=UTF8%26qid=1502930248%26sr=1-1%26keywords=keeping+out+the+other). Columbia University Press, 2008. - Kaplan, Esther,[ “Organizing Inside,”](https://www.poz.com/article/Organizing-Inside-1656-9407)*Poz Magazine*, November, 1998. - King, Martin Luther, Jr., [“Letter from Birmingham Jail,”](https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf) April 16, 1963. - Malcolm X and Alex Haley. [*The Autobiography of Malcolm X*](http://www.worldcat.org/title/autobiography-of-malcolm-x/oclc/26096589&referer=brief_results)*. *Random House: 1965. - McLeod, Allegra M., “[Immigration, Criminalization, and Disobedience](http://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol70/iss2/8),” *University of Miami Law Review* 70: 556, 2016. - Price, Joshua M., “A Politics for Our Time? Organizing against Jails,” in [*Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders, and Global Crisis*](https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Walls-Cages-Geographies-Transformation/dp/0820344125/ref=sr_1_1%3Fs=books%26ie=UTF8%26qid=1502923438%26sr=1-1%26keywords=beyond+cages+and+walls). University of Georgia Press, 2012.

Forced Passages by Dylan Rodríguez

- Rodríguez, Dylan. [*Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime*](https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/forced-passages)*. *University of Minnesota Press, 2006. - Shakur, Assata. [*Assata: An Autobiography*](http://www.worldcat.org/title/assata-an-autobiography/oclc/16713906&referer=brief_results). L. Hill, 1987. - Shimabukuro, Mira. [*Relocating Authority: Japanese Americans Writing to Redress Mass Incarceration*](https://www.worldcat.org/title/relocating-authority-japanese-americans-writing-to-redress-mass-incarceration/oclc/933434226&referer=brief_results). University of Colorado Press, 2015. - Sohi, Seema. [*Echoes of Mutiny: Race, Surveillance, and Indian Anticolonialism in North America*](https://books.google.com/books?id=fCnnAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false). Oxford University Press, 2014. - “[The True Story of a Texas Prison Riot](https://www.thenation.com/article/the-true-story-of-a-texas-prison-riot/),” *The Nation*, June 2015. - Thompson, Heather Ann, [*Blood in the Water: The Attica Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy*](http://www.powells.com/book/blood-in-the-water-9780375423222%3Fp_isbn%26partnerid=37407)*. *Pantheon, 2016.

Undoing Border Imperialism, by Harsha Walia

- Viturro, Mariana, “¡La Policía, la Migra, la Misma Porquería! Popular Resistance to State Violence,” in [*Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders, and Global Crisis*](https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Walls-Cages-Geographies-Transformation/dp/0820344125/ref=sr_1_1%3Fs=books%26ie=UTF8%26qid=1502923438%26sr=1-1%26keywords=beyond+cages+and+walls). University of Georgia Press, 2012. - Walia, Harsha, [*Undoing Border Imperialism*](https://www.akpress.org/undoing-border-imperialism.html). AK Press, 2013.

Mohammad, coffee on paper. The Refugee Art Project

### Hunger Strikes

Readings: