“This map of American violence is incomplete – please write in whatever you find lacking.”~Faith Ringgold
Offset poster
21 3/4 x 27 1/2 in.
The poster The United States of Attica was the most widely distributed of Faith Ringgold’s posters during the 1970s. It is dedicated to the men who died in 1971 at Attica prison for demonstrating against the deplorable conditions they faced as inmates. This red, black and green poster depicts a map of the United States noting Indigenous, slave, and immigrant uprisings and the dates and other details of acts of violence that occurred within each state since the late 1700s: racist violence, witch-hunts, assassinations, lynchings and other oppressive actions against the Indigenous and people of color in the United States. It also includes military imperialist violence committed by the Unites States abroad, for instance in Japan and Vietnam. Countless injustices and atrocities written in small handwriting fill the map entirely, and it’s surrounding periphery. A laconic invitation to add further acts of violence emphasizes historical continuity and ceaselessness of violence as a defining characteristic of the development of the United States of America.