Angela Davis was born and raised in the middle-class African American neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama, which got the nickname Dynamite Hill after the bombings by the Ku Klux Klan during the 1950s. Her mother was an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored (NAACP) and a Communist Southern Negro Youth Congress organizer.
As a high school junior, she moved to NYC to participate in a program that placed black students from the South in integrated schools in the North. There, she joined the communist youth group.
After high school, she received a scholarship to Brandeis University and studied French and philosophy. In 1965, after graduating magna cum laude, she continued to graduate school at the University of Frankfurt in Germany. The Socialist German Student Union activists inspired her to join political organizations in the United States, including the Black Panthers and the Che-Lumumba Club, an all-black branch of the Communist Party.
In 1969, at 25, Davis was hired as an assistant professor at the University of California in Los Angeles but got fired because of her communist association. She took her case to court, which ruled that she could not get fired for her party affiliation. She returned to her position but had to leave in the following year when her contract expired.
At the time, she became known as a supporter of the Soledad Brothers, three inmates of Soledad Prison convicted of murdering a guard. In August 1970, during the trial of George Lester Jackson, one of the defendants, his brother, took over the courtroom and tried to claim hostages to exchange for his brother. A shoot-out occurred while transporting the hostages, in which four people were killed, including Superior Court Judge Harold Haley. Davis was accused of being part of the event since the weapons were registered under her name. She went into hiding, and the FBI listed her on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List. After two months, she was caught and sent to jail. She became a symbol of resistance. The Free Angela Davis became a movement, with thousands of people in over 60 countries signing petitions for her release, arguing that she was a political prisoner targeted for her activism and political beliefs. After 16 months of incarceration and no trial, she got released on $100,000 bail. She was acquitted by the jury four months later.
Her time in prison only fueled her passion for fighting against injustice. After her release, she embarked on an international speaking tour, welcomed and praised mainly in communist countries, such as Cuba, East Germany, and the Soviet Union. In 1975, at the age of 31, she resumed her scholar career, teaching history, Black and Women’s studies in various academic institutes, including Claremont Colleges, San Francisco State University, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
She continued with her activism work, speaking publicly on various causes, from racial equality and women’s rights to prison reform and the inequality of capitalism. In 1991, she founded the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, and in 1997, she co-founded the Critical Resistance – an organization dedicated to abolishing the prison system.
Over the years, she has been writing and editing 12 books, focusing mainly on various aspects of politics, feminism, and civil rights. She is serving on the advisory board of the Prison Activist Resource Center and continues to advocate for equality for all.
This post is also available in:
Español
This post is also available in:
Español
