DYKES BEHIND BARS by Women Against Prison

Carol Crooks, Floating Foundation Of Photography in DYKE A Quarterly No. 1 p. 14

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History Of The Bedford Struggle

In November of 1973, Jan smith and Afeni Shakur of the South Bronx Legal Services helped the Beford women organize a day of solidarity with the families and friends of  women incarcerated in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the only women's prison in the state of New York.

On February 3, 1974 Carol Crooks, one of the Black women who had devoted tremendous energy to the November Solidarity Day, requested to be seen by a nurse. It was 8:30 A.M.; she had been awakened by a devastating throb in her head, moving steadily down her face. She asked a guard for a nurse. The guard had a previous history of acting hostilely towards Crooks and said that there was no nurse available and that she would have to wait with a migraine headache until the P.M. shift. Crooksie's response was one of panic from the pain. She pushed by the guard who was blocking her door and said she would find somebody else to help her. The guard pushed her back and called for more guards, saying that Crooks had assaulted an officer.