Hard Time
A documentary by Ronald Harpelle and Kelly Saxberg
Shebafilms@shaw.ca

“Hard Time” is a one-hour documentary about Robert King's journey, from a life of poverty in rural Louisiana, through the state corrections system, to becoming a political activist who has devoted his life to the plight of political prisoners in the United States.

When Robert King was sent to the Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana for the first time for a crime he did not commit, he learned that the justice system was corrupt, When he was sent to prison a second time for an crime he did not commit, he knew that he had to resist his detention. And resist he did. Robert King and two other prisoners formed the only Black Panther political cell in a U.S penitentiary. They focused on prisoner rights and attempted to protect young men, called “fresh fish” by other inmates, from being sexually abused. Their efforts to organize prisoners to defend themselves raised the ire of prison authorities and the three Black Panthers of Angola prison became known as the Angola Three. King remained Angola for 31 years and spent 29 of them in solitary confinement. His two comrades have been in solitary for 38 years, also for crimes they did not commit. The story of the Angola Three is well-known in justice circles throughout the United States, but the story of Robert King is not. “Hard Time” is the story of Robert King’s journey through and radicalization in the Louisiana corrections system.

King, as his friends call him, was no ordinary prisoner. As a teenager he had some minor run-ins with the law. This resulted in his being incarcerated for one year at the State Industrial School for Colored Youth. On his way out, he was told that his next conviction would land him in a state prison and, within a few years he found himself in Angola Prison, convicted along with three others of a robbery committed by only two suspects. King, then in his twenties, was identified as the 40-year-old suspect. Knowing that he was innocent, he refused a plea bargain that would have resulted in 10 years of incarceration and was eventually sentenced to 35 years. It was at this point that King understood that there was a difference between what was legal and what was moral. He was legally incarcerated because he had been found guilty of a crime. King came to understand that laws and the people who enforce them, are not necessarily moral. Not only was he innocent, but the system and people in charge of it, conspired to put him in jail and, in his eyes, the system was morally bankrupt.

While awaiting the initial verdict and the results of the automatic appeal of his sentence, he spent two years in the New Orleans Parish Prison before being sent to Angola. One day, from his cell, he heard the TV which was blaring out of sight in the hallway, announce that a shootout was taking place between the police and the Black Panther Party. He had heard of the Black Panthers, but he did not know they were active in New Orleans. After the shootout, the New Orleans 12 were brought to the Parish Prison and King met his first Black Panthers. In the months that followed as everyone awaited the Louisiana court system’s decision on their fates, King had an epiphany. He came to understand that, as he puts it, “I was born in the U.S.A. Born black, born poor. Is it then any wonder that I have spent most of my life in prison?” Upon arrival in Angola, King discovered two other Black Panthers and they formed the only chapter of the party in a U.S. prison. On the outside the Party was crushed by J. Edgar Hoover and the U.S. authorities. On the inside, they struggled to protect young prisoners from the predators and the violence of Angola. As a result of these activities King, along with Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, were targeted by the guards and prison authorities. King was sent back to New Orleans to await the verdict of another appeal and during his absence a guard was murdered. Wallace and Woodfox were accused of the murder and found guilty based on testimony given by a prisoner who was then granted special privileges and eventually released on the warden’s recommendation long before his sentence was supposed to end. The two men were placed in solitary confinement where they remain today, 38 years later. Six months after the guard was murdered King was returned to Angola and immediately placed in solitary confinement as a suspect in the murder. The fact that he was 100 miles away and in another prison, did not deter Angola’s administration from placing him in a 6 by 9 foot cell for 23 hours a day for the next 29 years.

Of course, the prison authorities were not able to keep King in solitary for 29 years for a murder that occurred when he was not even within the 18,000 acres of Angola Prison. Even in Louisiana this would have been too much. The opportunity presented itself two years after King went into solitary confinement when a fight broke out between two prisoners during their daily hour-long exercise period. Ten prisoners were on the same tier at the time, one died and King, along with 8 others were initially charged with the murder. A short investigation took place, and one individual confessed to killing the other prisoner in self-defense. However, witnesses from among the prisoners soon came forward and identified King as an assailant too. As a result of the investigation, seven of the prisoners were cleared of the crime, but King and the self-confessed murder were both charged and tried in the neighbouring town of St. Francisville by an all-white jury made up of individuals whose family and friends were all somehow connected to Angola Prison, the source of the town’s economy. The prisoner who had committed the crime was indignant and at the very beginning of the trial became verbally abusive. King remained silent, but both prisoners soon had their mouths taped shut with Duct Tape and they spent the next two days being tried, shackled and gagged. Ultimately, the unfairness of the trial and the fact that the other prisoner confessed to the crime and that the “star” witnesses turned out to have lied. One witness died and another who was released became a Baptist minister who conscious compelled him to recant his testimony decades later when King was re-tried. This is how Robert King became one of the Angola 3 and this tale of injustice, as incredible as it is, is only the backdrop for a documentary about how one man developed into a politicized social activist who spends his time struggling to help free political prisoners like Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox from prisons in the United States.

Robert King’s story is told in exclusive interviews and from the podiums where he speaks to crowds about his experiences in solitary confinement for 29 years for a crime he did not commit. Robert was interviewed at his home in Austin, Texas, in his old neighbourhood in New Orleans and at public forums in New York. In addition to the footage of King telling his story to the camera, the filmmakers also visited Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana, taking a guided tour of this former slave plantation that stretches over 18,000 acres, an area larger than Manhattan. The plantation is home to 5,200 inmates who live in 6 prison units. The average sentence at Angola is 85 years, most of the inmates are of African descent, and most will die in prison. While in the prison we are guided by Gary Young, who is the head of communications, we meet a prisoner who has served 25 years of a 60 year sentence for armed robbery, we see men working in fields, walking around compounds and otherwise going about their daily lives, we visit the prison museum, and we other images of prison life, and death. In New Orleans we meet two activists. One worked to free Robert King and the other is working to free the other two members of the Angola 3. We also visit the New Orleans Parish Prison and the State Industrial School for Colored Youth to get a glimpse of other places where King developed his understanding of the world he lived in. Archival footage of such things as Angola Prison, the Civil Rights movement, the Black Panther Party, police shootouts with militants, and King’s release at the main gate, provide the viewer with context for the story.

King’s story is well-rehearsed, but natural in its presentation. This is because King recently published “From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of a Black Panther.” Like the book, the film begins King’s story of being born in Louisiana in1942, it tells of his journey to Chicago as a hobo at the age of 15. He then returned to the South, married and had a child. A teenager when he entered the Louisiana penal system for the first time, King tells of his attempts to break out of this system, and his persistent pursuit of justice where there is none.

This is a story of inspiration and courage, and the triumph of the human spirit. The conditions in Angola almost defy description, yet King never gave up his humanity, or the work towards justice for all prisoners that he continues to do today. In his characteristic use of the English language, King strips bare the economic and social injustices inherent in society. Robert King tells a compelling story because he is a compelling individual. As he often says, he has “had a lot of time to think about things” and his capacity to overcome adversity was the result of his resolve to make sure that although he was in prison, prison was never in him. Voices like Robert Kings are rare because few people in situations as trying as his, are able to maintain their sanity and continue struggling for as long and as hard as he has. “Hard Time” is a film of courage and hope in the face of brutality.