#FreeCeCe: Abolitionist Geographies, Prison Solidarity Movements, and Black Trans Liberation

Notably in the Black Power Movement, prisoner solidarity campaigns and committees formed to advocate for the release of Black radicals, such as Angela Davis, George Jackson, and Mumia Abu Jamal. More recently with the dawn of the Movement for Black Lives, organizers have used individual stories of incarcerated people to raise awareness about the greater problems intrinsic to policing and the carceral state. This paper explores one such support committee that formed to free CeCe McDonald, a Black trans woman and avowed abolitionist, who was arrested in 2011 for defending herself from a white supremacist attack. The #FreeCeCe committee used blog posts, social media, and art to inform the public about McDonald’s experience in men’s prisons, the dangers transgender women face, and the need for prison abolition. The committee sought not only to free McDonald but to transform the conditions that make violence against Black trans women possible. Using oral histories, the documentary Free CeCe!, and McDonald’s intellectual production since her release, this paper argues the movement to free McDonald represents how prisoner solidarity committees have used an individual’s story to gain greater traction for prison abolition movements.