Book Review: Stitching Freedom: A True Story of Injustice, Defiance, and Hope in Angola Prison

The seams are textbook straight. You made sure of it.

There’ll be no need for a thread-ripper for you. No, you planned before you picked up a needle, and you were careful with each poke of the thread. A few snips here, a quick tack there, and you’ll be done. As in the new book “Stitching Freedom” by Gary Tyler (with Ellen Bravo), this project almost took a lifetime.

Growing up in St. Rose, Louisiana, Gary Tyler tried to avoid major trouble.  He says he was often the victim of racism in school, though, and he didn’t put up with it so he ran afoul of authority now and then. On the day he was suspended for “causing problems in the classroom,” he wasn’t worried; he considered it another day off.

He didn’t know that it would be his last day of freedom for more than forty-one years.

After wandering around awhile, visiting with friends and a cousin, Tyler went back to the school that day, where an altercation on a bus ended in the death of a white teenager. Tyler was there, but he wasn’t involved; witnesses confirmed it, before telling different stories at trial, then recanting. Still, he was arrested for the murder, taken to jail, tried, and sent to Angola Prison, sentenced to die by electric chair.

Still a teenager, Tyler was careful who he befriended in Angola, keeping away from trouble and finding mentors in the OGs who’d been there awhile. With their guidance, he learned things he hadn’t known, legal terms, how to find the right lawyer, how to raise money and get by. They corrected his grammar and his thinking. They taught him how to present himself. He learned the value in service, and he became a prison seamster.

Tyler says he knew prison would be bad, but despite that he knew other young men who’d been there, he underestimated how bad it would get. And he never would’ve believed he’d find men who’d become his family and who’d save his life.

Crime features big in the news lately, doesn’t it? You could be forgiven if you’re feeling fatigue from it, but check out “Stitching Freedom.” Here, the crime is racism.

Surprise: you won’t get the sense that author Gary Tyler needed a halo; no, he admits to being a bit of a rascal sometimes, with rather typical teen behavior before his incarceration. This honesty stretches: he also presents believable, abundant evidence that despite his proximity to where the crime occurred, he didn’t do what he was accused of doing. Through that account and beyond, he shows readers how racism kept him down, and how he kept his hopes up and his head high.

“Stitching Freedom” isn’t scary or particularly scared-straight-ish, and there’s a bit of humor at the end in Tyler’s post-prison memories of learning about modern life. That means you can read his story yourself, and feel comfortable giving it to a teenager who needs it. Find this book, and then watch your time get all sewn up.