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A Peaceful Protest at the Atlanta Penitentiary Leads to A Brutal Crackdown in 19 : White Lies In Episode 6, we sneak into the graveyard of the Atlanta federal penitentiary with a radical peace activist to learn more about what happened in the prison in late 1984. A peaceful protest by detainees held in the Atlanta pen resulted in a violent crackdown, and one of the detainees, a man named Jose Hernandez-Mesa, was charged in federal court with inciting a riot. We tell the story of his trial — and the surprising verdict that began reshaping public opinion about the Mariel Cubans who were being detained. Want to hear the next episode of White Lies a week before everyone else? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded.

White Lies

The Trial

season 2, episode 6

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Headstones of Cuban men who died while they were detained at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. According to a document compiled by the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, 32 Cuban men died in the prison between 1980 and 1987. There were homicides, heart attacks, the vague "natural causes." But nearly a third of them died by suicide. Chip Brantley/NPR hide caption

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Chip Brantley/NPR

Headstones of Cuban men who died while they were detained at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. According to a document compiled by the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, 32 Cuban men died in the prison between 1980 and 1987. There were homicides, heart attacks, the vague "natural causes." But nearly a third of them died by suicide.

Chip Brantley/NPR

In Episode 6, we sneak into the graveyard of the Atlanta federal penitentiary with a radical peace activist to learn more about what happened in the prison in late 1984. A peaceful protest by detainees held in the Atlanta resulted in a violent crackdown, and one of the detainees, a man named Jose Hernandez-Mesa, was charged in federal court with inciting a riot. We tell the story of his trial — and the surprising verdict that began reshaping public opinion about the Mariel Cubans who were being detained.

Want to hear the next episode of White Lies a week before everyone else? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded.