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17 Nov, 4 tweets, 2 min read
A few minutes ago Henry Montgomery, who has been in prison in Louisiana for 57 years—since he was 17 years old—was unanimously granted parole and will be a free man for the first time since 1963.

Congratulations to Mr. Montgomery and all who fought for him. Today is a good day.
Montgomery was the petitioner in a 2016 Supreme Court case, Montgomery v Louisiana, in which the Court ruled that a 2012 decision which banned mandatory life without parole for children, could be applied retroactively. It has freed over 800 ppl & has now freed Montgomery himself.
Montgomery is 75 years old and will be supported by the folks at the Louisiana Parole Project (@paroleproject) as he reenters society. It’s long overdue, but there is a whole community of people ready to welcome him home.
The Louisiana Parole Project has set up a GoFundMe page for Mr. Montgomery if you'd like to support his reentry: gofundme.com/f/support-mont…

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More from @ClintSmithIII

Clint Smith Profile picture
11 Nov
The US is the only country in the world that sentences children to life without parole. One of those children was Henry Montgomery, whose 2016 Supreme Court case freed hundreds of people, except himself. He's been in prison for 57 years. He should be free. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
It can be difficult to wrap your head around how long 57 years in prison is. It can sometimes seem like an abstraction. But in so many ways, it's a lifetime.
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
In Montgomery v Louisiana the Court ruled that its 2012 decision, Miller v Alabama—which banned mandatory life without parole for children—could be applied retroactively. The decisions affected more than 2,600 people, thus far freeing over 800 ppl and potentially hundreds more.
Read 5 tweets
Clint Smith Profile picture
16 Sep
holy moly
Making the longlist for the National Book Award means more than I can say. I’m so grateful to be on a list that has so many writers and thinkers I admire, including my brother @NifMuhammad. So glad I get to share this moment with him.
Why yes, this absolutely does mean that we are having French fries for dinner
Read 4 tweets
Clint Smith Profile picture
29 Jul
Last month Connecticut became the first state in the country to make prison phone calls free. It’s a huge victory for the incarcerated and their families and will transform the lives of children with incarcerated parents. Every single state should do this. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
During the public hearing on legislation to make prison phone calls free in CT, some ppl talked about how they couldn’t pay their rent, their gas, or their light bill because of the money they spent trying to stay in touch with a loved one. No one should have to make that choice.
Approximately 2.7 million children have a parent who is incarcerated, and more than 5 million—7 percent of all American children—have had a parent who was held in prison or jail at some point.

Being able to stay in touch with an incarcerated parent is essential for a child.
Read 5 tweets
Clint Smith Profile picture
25 Jun
Many people have reached out expressing frustration that their local bookstores are sold out of HOW THE WORD IS PASSED. I'm so grateful for the support, but also please be patient with indie bookstores who are doing the best they can to get the book to you as quickly as possible.
Many independent bookstores, who are already struggling to survive, place small book orders because they have to be economically conservative in their business calculus. If they don't have a book in stock, just let them know you'd like them to order it and they'll get it to you.
It's more important than ever to support independent bookstores, whose presence shapes the cultural landscape of communities and whose work make the lives of writers like me possible. It's okay to wait a few days longer to get your book if it means sustaining these institutions.
Read 6 tweets
Clint Smith Profile picture
16 Jun
I’m so grateful for the way that HOW THE WORD IS PASSED has been received in the world. This book is only possible because of the historians whose scholarship has transformed my understanding of slavery in America. Here is a thread of some of their books. I hope you buy them 🧵:
"The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family" by @agordonreed

bookshop.org/books/the-hemi…
"Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory" by @davidwblight1

bookshop.org/books/race-and…
Read 28 tweets
Clint Smith Profile picture
1 Jun
My new book HOW THE WORD IS PASSED is out today. It explores how different places across the country reckon with, or fail to reckon with, their relationship to the history of slavery. I gave this book everything I have. Here are the places I visited 🧵:

littlebrown.com/titles/clint-s…
I start in my hometown of New Orleans, thinking about what it meant that I grew up in majority Black city in which there were more homages to enslavers than there were to enslaved people. I started the book after watching the Confederate statues come down in the city in May 2017
I traveled to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, trying to explore how a place remembers a man who both wrote one of the most important documents in the history of the western world, and who also enslaved over 600 people during his life including four of his own children.
Read 15 tweets

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