RHE ANGOLITE EXPERIMENT
The Angolite Experiment.
Between August 1977 and November 1986, Wilbert Rideau and I shared the editorship of The Angolite, the official publication of the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
The Rideau/Sinclair writing team was hailed as the Woodward/Bernstein of prison journalism. Our co-editorship produced prestigious individual journalism awards (a George Polk Award and an ABA Silver Gavel for each of us for individual by-lined articles); the Robert F. Kennedy and Sidney Hillman awards given to The Angolite; and a host of other lesser journalism award distinctions for the Rideau/Sinclair writing team.
It became known as The Angolite Experiment.
In a recent Substack article, I detailed how The Angolite Experiment began and why it ended. I will let that public record speak for itself in that article.
The Substack article is a public response to a recent The New Yorker Magazine interview with Rideau in which he presents the narrative that he singlehandedly propelled The Angolite into national prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
While the narrative has been spun by Rideau and his supporters, and casually accepted by members of the mainstream media willing to promote that narrative, for decades, it is simply not true. The below link to a 1982 Louisiana Public Broadcasting report reveals the truth, as supported by prison officials, that The Angolite Experiment was not a one-pony show as the Rideau narrative presents.
Why raise the issue now?
Rideau and I both are in our twilight years. He will die riding that one-pony narrative into the abyss and I will fall off this earth saying it is a lie. I am putting my side of the story in the public domain to let the reader decide—if they have any interest to do so—what they will: accept, reject, or ignore either or both sides.
And that is fine with me. The reader is always the king in any literary endeavor AND I BOW TO THE KING.
https://www.google.com/search?q=LPB+wilbert+Rideau+and+Billy+Sinclair&oq=LPB+wilbert+Rideau+and+Billy+Sinclair&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigAdIBCTEzNTAzajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:5eca7b7f,vid:6G_9VsByaU8,st:0