The plaintiffs are thirty-six of the women who last June staged a peaceful demonstration on the prison grounds in protest of harassment and inhumane conditions of confinement. The protest was brutally quelled.

The lawsuit, prepared with the help of the National Conference of Black Lawyers and the Prisoners Rights Organized Defense, names as defendants North Carolina Gov. James Holshouser, Secretary of Corrections David Jones, and unnamed "John Does" and "Richard Coes." Jones, in turn, has threatened to charge the plaintiffs with "assaulting" his officers.

After the women began their protest on June 15, 450 male guards--armed with billy clubs, tear gas, pepper gas, dogs, and riot gear--were called in from Raleigh's prison for men. This force was supplemented with 150 state highway patrolmen and 50 city policemen. An undetermined number of national guardsmen were placed on standby.

Five days later, this army managed to subdue the women prisoners. Three small women were selected out of a group of chanting and singing prisoners to be carried to "security" isolation. Despite their attempts to walk peacefully, the male guards grabbed and jerked them by the arms, dislocating the shoulder of eighty-nine-pound Anne Willett.

Some of the demonstrators were confined to Dorm C (the "punishment cottage"), while thirty-four others were transferred to the Western Correctional Center at Morganton, an all-male facility.

One of the major issues of the rebellion is inadequate medical care.  
 
January 15, 1951
With brutal contempt for the will of the American people, Truman's "State of the Union" message to Congress ignored the great popular demand that overshadows every other today: Stop the war now and withdraw the U.S. troops from Korea!

He did not offer even the courtesy of a reference to the flood of letters to the White House, Congress, and the press voicing overwhelming public sentiment to "save our boys" from the disastrous consequences of his "police action"--his undeclared Korean war. Instead, he made it clear he intends to risk utter disaster for the GIs in Korea.

He evaded entirely, furthermore, the fundamental Constitutional issue that has been raised in the "Great Debate" on foreign policy: His conduct of war without consultation of Congress, let alone the consent of the people. Should a single man, as Truman did in the case of Korea and as he clearly plans to do with relation to China and Western Europe, commit this country to war or engage armed forces on foreign soil wherever and whenever he sees fit? That is one of the most crucial questions on which the American people expected Truman to speak. But he disdained to answer it.

Instead, he presented us with the appalling prospect of ever-increasing and accelerated preparations for "full war mobilization" and a "full-scale war." And although he did not dare to spell out the details, he indicated a future of growing scarcity, higher prices, heavier taxes, frozen wages--the austerity of a garrision state.  
 
 
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