All power to the people. Express/Archive Photos/Getty Images
DCL
There she stood: proud, defiant, black, and female...fist in the air and the biggest damn Afro you could imagine. Angela Davis broke the mold. Preconceptions about women, about African-Americans, about communists, about dissent—they were all challenged both in mainstream society and in the radical movements of the time.
Best known for her involvement in the Black Panthers, Davis was also active with Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Pronounced "snick," SNCC was created in 1960...on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina after a group of black college students refused to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter where they were denied service. "Davis joined the Communist Party in 1968 and suffered discrimination like many blacks during the late 1960s for her personal political beliefs and commitment to revolutionary ideals," says Alex Burns of Disinfo.com. "Despite her qualifications and excellent teaching record, the California Board of Regents refused to renew her appointment as a philosophy lecturer in 1970."
That was the year Davis was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List forcing her underground. After her eventual arrest and a consequent international "Free Angela Davis" campaign, her trial was news across the globe. This series of events grew out of Davis' work to free a group of African-American prisoners held in California's Soledad Prison. Burns explains:
"She befriended George Jackson, one of the prisoners. On August 7, 1970, during an abortive escape and kidnap attempt from Marin County's Hall of Justice, the trial judge and three people were killed, including Jackson's brother Jonathan. Although not at the crime scene, Davis was implicated when police claimed that the guns used had been registered in her name."
Eighteen months later, Angela Davis—backed by massive global support and buoyed by her resolute pursuit of justice—was cleared of all charges by an all white jury. She promptly re-doubled her efforts and dedicated herself to challenging the prison-industrial complex. Davis resumed teaching and penned several books, including If They Come In The Morning (1971), Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974), Women, Race & Class (1981), Women, Race and Politics (1989), Blues Legacies & Black Feminism (1999), The Angela Y. Davis Reader (1999), and Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003).
WATCH VIDEO: Prison Wives: Never Give Up
"Her revolutionary politics and academic writings provide a link from 1960s groups like the Black Panthers to contemporary cases including Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu Jamal," Burns concludes. "Ultimately Davis represents a revitalizing force in New Left politics (she was at the forefront of Gulf War protests in the United States that were censored by the mainstream media) and individual life-affirming cultural studies (particularly blues and hip-hop music)."
You Can't Hold Back a Fierce Woman
In 1970, then-Governor of California Ronald Reagan publicly vowed that Davis would never teach in that state again. Reagan is dead and buried while Angela Davis is inspiring a new generation toward critical thought as a professor in the History of Consciousness Department at University of California, Santa Cruz...in California.
Angela Davis sez:
"Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary's life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime."
Here's to more lifetime commitments from this generation...
