Biography
Richard Clark was an incarcerated organizer and leader during the 1971 Attica prison uprising. Contemporary reporting described his transfer through several prisons to Attica and stated that officials justified his Attica placement by alleging that he gave speeches advocating overthrow of the institution. His profile concerns political organizing and alleged repression in custody, distinct from his underlying robbery conviction, which he disputed.
The October 8, 1971 Militant describes Attica organizer Richard Clark as twenty-five, raised in New York City after entering Sheltering Arms Children's Service before age two and foster care until fourteen. He left high school in his senior year and joined the Navy. It reports his disputed robbery conviction at twenty-three, a separate accusation of stealing three shirts while on bail, conversion to the Black Muslim faith in prison, and transfer to Attica justified by officials through his speeches. The article did not yet establish whether he survived the retaking; that contemporary uncertainty is not a death finding. Source: https://www.themilitant.com/1971/3536/MIL3536.pdf#page=10
The March 1973 Attica News roster prints Richard Clark (Brother Richard) among the uprising prisoner defendants, linked to indictment 5: 34 first-degree kidnapping counts. The table lists maximum statutory exposure, not sentences actually imposed or time served; no custody dates or duration are inferred. Source: https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC510_scans/Attica/510.Prisons.AtticaNewsVol1No1.pdf#page=6
The contemporary March 3, 1972 report explicitly dates Richard X. Clark’s physical release to February 8 and his first subsequent forum appearance to February 18. It reports thirty-two months actually served of a four-year nominal robbery sentence, which Clark disputed. This near-contemporary exact date is preferred to the later primer’s approximate “mid-February” description. It does not establish an exact initial admission day. Source: The Militant, March 3, 1972, PDF page 11. https://www.themilitant.com/1972/3608/MIL3608.pdf#page=11
Photo: Mark Satinoff. Original-document crop individually identified by the printed caption. Source: The Militant, March 3, 1972, PDF page 11. https://www.themilitant.com/1972/3608/MIL3608.pdf#page=11
Richard Clark was an incarcerated organizer and leader during the 1971 Attica prison uprising. Contemporary reporting described his transfer through several prisons to Attica and stated that officials justified his Attica placement by alleging that he gave speeches advocating overthrow of the institution. His profile concerns political organizing and alleged repression in custody, distinct from his underlying robbery conviction, which he disputed. Actual imprisonment at Attica and earlier institutions is explicitly reported. The report identifies Clark as a prisoner leader and attributes officials' transfer rationale to his speeches. It did not know his survival status after the retaking; no death, release date, individual admission date, sentence length or total time served is inferred.
The reproduced 1972 interview introduction identifies Richard X. Clark, twenty-five, as a Black Muslim convicted of attempted robbery and marked with an X by guards after the retaking. It says officials tried to remove thirty days of good time when he was due for February parole, and he obtained actual release in mid-February only after a court suit. This supplies a month-level release in February 1972, not a fabricated day; the thirty days was threatened lost credit, not thirty extra days proven served. His testimony distinguishes prior criminal imprisonment from the reprisals faced during prison organizing.
Attica Prison Uprising 101: A Short Primer (Project NIA, September 2011), PDF page 50.
The December 1971 report names him among Attica inmates seeking an injunction against further physical abuse. It also reports that officials blocked his appearance at the congressional hearing.
