Angela Davis
{{Short description|American academic and political activist (born 1944)}}
{{Other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name = Angela Davis
| image = Angela Davis (15852241216) (cropped).jpg
| caption = Davis in 2014
| birth_name = Angela Yvonne Davis
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1944|1|26}}
| birth_place = Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| education = {{ubl|Brandeis University (BA)|University of Frankfurt|University of California, San Diego (MA)}}
| occupation = {{hlist | Activist | scholar}}
| party = {{ubl | CCDS (since 1991)}}
| otherparty = {{ubl | Communist Party USA (1969–1991)| Black Panther Party}}
| notable_works = {{unbulleted list | Women, Race and Class (1981) | Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003)}}
| spouse = {{marriage|Hilton Braithwaite|1980|1983|end=div}}{{cite web|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20077018,00.html|title=Angela Davis, Sweetheart of the Far Left, Finds Her Mr. Right|work=People|date=July 21, 1980|access-date=October 20, 2011|archive-date=March 11, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311073558/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20077018,00.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-03-08-vw-316-story.html|title=Angela Davis Now|work=Los Angeles Times|date=March 8, 1989|access-date=January 6, 2015|archive-date=January 16, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190116162027/http://articles.latimes.com/1989-03-08/news/vw-316_1_angela-davis/4|url-status=live}}
| partner = Gina Dent
| relatives = Eisa Davis (niece)
| school_tradition = {{hlist | Critical theory | Black feminism | Marxism}}
| main_interests = {{hlist | Social theory | socialism | prison abolition | intersectionality | Black Marxism}}
| awards = Lenin Peace Prize
| doctoral_advisor = Herbert Marcuse
|era = 20th century philosophy
21st century philosophy
| institutions = {{ubl | University of California, Los Angeles
San Francisco State University | University of California, Santa Cruz}}
}}
Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American Marxist and feminist political activist, philosopher, academic, and author. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Feminist Studies and History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz.{{cite web |title=Directory: Angela Y Davis |url=https://humanities.ucsc.edu/academics/faculty/index.php?uid=aydavis |website=UC Santa Cruz |access-date=17 August 2024}} Davis was a longtime member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS). She was active in movements such as the Occupy movement and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.
Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama; she studied at Brandeis University and the University of Frankfurt, where she became increasingly engaged in far-left politics. She also studied at the University of California, San Diego, before moving to East Germany, where she completed some studies for a doctorate at the University of Berlin. After returning to the United States, she joined the CPUSA and became involved in the second-wave feminist movement and the campaign against the Vietnam War.
In 1969, she was hired as an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). UCLA's governing Board of Regents soon fired her due to her membership in the CPUSA. After a court ruled the firing illegal, the university fired her for the use of inflammatory language. In 1970, guns belonging to Davis were used in an armed takeover of a courtroom in Marin County, California, in which four people were killed. Prosecuted for three capital felonies—including conspiracy to murder—she was held in jail for over a year before being acquitted of all charges in 1972.
During the 1980s, Davis was twice the Communist Party's candidate for the Vice President of the United States. In 1997, she co-founded Critical Resistance, an organization working to abolish the prison–industrial complex. In 1991, amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union, she broke away from the CPUSA to help establish the CCDS. That same year, she joined the feminist studies department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she became department director before retiring in 2008.
Davis has received various awards, including the Soviet Union's Lenin Peace Prize and induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame.{{Cite web |title=Davis, Angela |url=https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/angela-davis/ |website=National Women's Hall of Fame |access-date=May 14, 2020 |archive-date=August 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818022932/https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/angela-davis/ |url-status=live }} Due to accusations that she advocates political violence and due to her support of the Soviet Union,{{Cite web |date=January 23, 2019 |title=The Real Stain on Angela Davis' Legacy Is Her Support for Tyranny |url=https://thebulwark.com/the-real-stain-on-angela-davis-legacy-is-her-support-for-tyranny/ |website=The Bulwark |access-date=July 28, 2020 |archive-date=July 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728182910/https://thebulwark.com/the-real-stain-on-angela-davis-legacy-is-her-support-for-tyranny/ |url-status=live }} she has been a controversial figure. In 2020, she was listed as the 1971 "Woman of the Year" in Time magazine's "100 Women of the Year" edition.{{cite magazine |last1=Kendi |first1=Ibram X. |title=100 Women of the Year |url=https://time.com/5793638/angela-davis-100-women-of-the-year/ |magazine=Time |access-date=June 2, 2020 |archive-date=June 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620155257/https://time.com/5793638/angela-davis-100-women-of-the-year/ |url-status=live }} In 2020, she was included on Time{{'}}s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.{{Cite magazine|title=Angela Davis: The 100 Most Influential People of 2020|url=https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888290/angela-davis/|access-date=September 23, 2020|magazine=Time|archive-date=September 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924085624/https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888290/angela-davis/|url-status=live}}
Early life
Angela Davis was born on January 26, 1944,{{cite web |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/individuals/angela-davis |title=Angela Davis (January 26, 1944) |website=African American Heritage |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |access-date=January 24, 2020 |archive-date=December 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201225030805/https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/individuals/angela-davis |url-status=live }} in Birmingham, Alabama. She was christened at her father's Episcopal church.{{cite book | last=Nadelson | first=R. | title=Who is Angela Davis? : The Biography of a Revolutionary | publisher=P. H. Wyden | year=1972 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f7pAAAAAIAAJ | access-date=October 24, 2022 | page= | archive-date=October 24, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221024202407/https://books.google.com/books?id=f7pAAAAAIAAJ | url-status=live }} Her family lived in the "Dynamite Hill" neighborhood, which was marked in the 1950s by the bombings of houses in an attempt to intimidate and drive out middle-class black people who had moved there. Davis occasionally spent time on her uncle's farm and with friends in New York City.{{cite book|last=Davis|first=Angela Yvonne|title=Angela Davis: An Autobiography|date=March 1989|publisher=International Publishers|location=New York City|isbn=0-7178-0667-7|chapter=Rocks}} Her siblings include two brothers, Ben and Reginald, and a sister, Fania. Ben played defensive back for the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions in the late 1960s and early 1970s.{{cite book|last1=Aptheker|first1=Bettina|author-link1=Bettina Aptheker|title=The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis|url=https://archive.org/details/morningbreakstri00apth|url-access=registration|edition=2nd|year=1999|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, New York|isbn=0801485975}}
Davis attended Carrie A. Tuggle School, a segregated black elementary school, and later, Parker Annex, a middle-school branch of Parker High School in Birmingham. During this time, Davis's mother, Sallye Bell Davis, was a national officer and leading organizer of the Southern Negro Youth Congress, an organization influenced by the Communist Party aimed at building alliances among African Americans in the South. Davis grew up surrounded by communist organizers and thinkers, who significantly influenced her intellectual development.{{cite journal|last=Kum-Kum Bhavnani|first=Bhavnani|author2=Davis, Angela|title=Complexity, Activism, Optimism: An Interview with Angela Y. Davis|journal=Feminist Review|date=Spring 1989|issue=31|pages=66–81|doi=10.2307/1395091|jstor=1395091}} Among them was the Southern Negro Youth Congress official Louis E. Burnham, whose daughter Margaret Burnham was Davis's friend from childhood, as well as her co-counsel during Davis's 1971 trial for murder and kidnapping.
Davis was involved in her church youth group as a child and attended Sunday school regularly. She attributes much of her political involvement to her involvement with the Girl Scouts of the United States of America. She also participated in the Girl Scouts 1959 national roundup in Colorado. As a Girl Scout, she marched and picketed to protest racial segregation in Birmingham."The Radicalization of Angela Davis," Ebony, July 1971: n.p., Mag.
By her junior year of high school, Davis had been accepted by an American Friends Service Committee (Quaker) program that placed black students from the South in integrated schools in the North. She chose Elisabeth Irwin High School in Greenwich Village. There she was recruited by a communist youth group, Advance.{{Cite web|last=Bubbins|first=Harry|date=January 26, 2018|title=Angela Davis: Her Greenwich Village Connections|url=https://www.villagepreservation.org/2018/01/26/happy-birthday-angela-davis-2/|access-date=October 21, 2020|website=Village Preservation|language=en-US|archive-date=October 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024100927/https://www.villagepreservation.org/2018/01/26/happy-birthday-angela-davis-2/|url-status=live}}
Education
=Brandeis University=
Davis was awarded a scholarship to Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she was one of three black students in her class. She encountered the Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse at a rally during the Cuban Missile Crisis and became his student. In a 2007 television interview, Davis said, "Herbert Marcuse taught me that it was possible to be an academic, an activist, a scholar, and a revolutionary."{{cite web|url=http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2007/aug/23/bourgeois-marxist|title=The Bourgeois Marxist|author=Barbarella Fokos|publisher=sandiegoreader.com|date=August 23, 2007|access-date=October 21, 2010|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175944/https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2007/aug/23/bourgeois-marxist/|url-status=live}} She worked part-time to earn enough money to travel to France and Switzerland and attended the eighth World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki. She returned home in 1963 to a Federal Bureau of Investigation interview about her attendance at the communist-sponsored festival.{{cite book|last=Davis|first=Angela Yvonne|title=Angela Davis: An Autobiography|date=March 1989|publisher=International Publishers|location=New York City|isbn=0-7178-0667-7|chapter=Waters}}
During her second year at Brandeis, Davis decided to major in French and continued her study of philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre. She was accepted by the Hamilton College Junior Year in France Program. Classes were initially at Biarritz and later at the Sorbonne. In Paris, she and other students lived with a French family. She was in Biarritz when she learned of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing, committed by members of the Ku Klux Klan, in which four black girls were killed; she had been personally acquainted with the victims.
While completing her degree in French, Davis realized that her primary area of interest was philosophy. She was particularly interested in Marcuse's ideas. On returning to Brandeis, she sat in on his course. She wrote in her autobiography that Marcuse was approachable and helpful. She began making plans to attend the University of Frankfurt for graduate work in philosophy. In 1965, she graduated magna cum laude, a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
=University of Frankfurt=
File:Angela_Davis_at_Goethe_University_in_Frankfurt,_Germany.tif in Frankfurt, Germany. Davis studied the work of philosophers Kant, Hegel, and Adorno]] In West Germany, with a monthly stipend of $100, she lived first with a German family and later with a group of students in a loft in an old factory. After visiting East Berlin during the annual May Day celebration, she felt that the East German government was dealing better with the residual effects of fascism than were the West Germans. Many of her roommates were active in the radical Socialist German Student Union (SDS), and Davis participated in some SDS actions. Events in the United States, including the formation of the Black Panther Party and the transformation of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to an all-black organization, drew her interest upon her return.
=Postgraduate work=
Marcuse had moved to a position at the University of California, San Diego, and Davis followed him there after her two years in Frankfurt. Davis traveled to London to attend a conference on "The Dialectics of Liberation". The black contingent at the conference included the Trinidadian-American Stokely Carmichael and the British Michael X. Although moved by Carmichael's rhetoric, Davis was reportedly disappointed by her colleagues' black nationalist sentiments and their rejection of communism as a "white man's thing".{{cite book|last=Davis|first=Angela Yvonne|title=Angela Davis: An Autobiography|date=March 1989|publisher=International Publishers|location=New York City|isbn=0-7178-0667-7|chapter=Flames}}
She joined the Che-Lumumba Club, an all-black branch of the Communist Party USA named for revolutionaries Che Guevara and Patrice Lumumba, of Cuba and Congo, respectively.{{cite web|title=Angela Davis Biography: Academic, Civil Rights Activist, Scholar, Women's Rights Activist|url=http://www.biography.com/people/angela-davis-9267589|website=biography|publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC.|access-date=May 6, 2015|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175939/https://www.biography.com/people/angela-davis-9267589|url-status=live}}
Davis earned a master's degree from the University of California, San Diego, in 1968.{{cite web|url=http://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/angela-davis-40|title=Angela Davis {{!}} The HistoryMakers|website=thehistorymakers.org|language=en|access-date=February 7, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175938/https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/angela-davis-40|archive-date=March 31, 2019|url-status=dead}} She completed some work for a PhD at the University of California, San Diego around 1970 but never received a degree because her manuscripts were confiscated by the FBI.{{cite web|url=https://www.routledge.com/African-American-Philosophers-17-Conversations/Yancy/p/book/9780415921008|title=African-American philosphers: 17 conversations|author=George Yancy|publisher=Routledge|date=1998|access-date=August 7, 2023|archive-date=August 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230807070601/https://www.routledge.com/African-American-Philosophers-17-Conversations/Yancy/p/book/9780415921008|url-status=live}}
Instead, two years later, she received three honorary doctorates: In August 1972 from Moscow State University,{{cite book|last1=Graaf|first1=Beatrice de|title=Evaluating Counterterrorism Performance: A Comparative Study|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136806551|page=199|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=we6rAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA199|language=en|date=March 15, 2011|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412144915/https://books.google.com/books?id=we6rAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA199#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}} and from the University of Tashkent during that same visit,{{Cite news |date=1972-09-03 |title=Uzbeks Honor Angela Davis |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/03/archives/uzbeks-honor-angela-davis.html |access-date=2024-05-08 |work=The New York Times |pages=67 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} and in September 1972 from the Karl-Marx University in Leipzig, Germany.{{cite web|title=Unverwechselbarer "Afrolook": Angela Davis, Bürgerrechtskämpferin, erhält am 13. 09. 1972 die Ehrendoktorwürde|url=https://blog.archiv.uni-leipzig.de/index.php/2018/09/13/unverwechselbarer-afrolook-angela-davis-buergerrechtskaempferin-erhaelt-am-13-09-1972-die-ehrendoktorwuerde/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411001934/https://blog.archiv.uni-leipzig.de/index.php/2018/09/13/unverwechselbarer-afrolook-angela-davis-buergerrechtskaempferin-erhaelt-am-13-09-1972-die-ehrendoktorwuerde/|archive-date=April 11, 2021}} In 1981, she returned to Germany to continue working on her PhD.{{Cite web |title=ND-Archiv: 25.07.1981: Schwarze Rose kämpft für Recht und Frieden |url=https://www.nd-archiv.de/artikel/928115.schwarze-rose-kaempft-fuer-recht-und-frieden.html |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=www.nd-archiv.de |archive-date=January 30, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240130014923/https://www.nd-archiv.de/artikel/928115.schwarze-rose-kaempft-fuer-recht-und-frieden.html |url-status=live }} The Humboldt University of Berlin does not have a record of an often-cited PhD degree from Angela Davis.{{cite web|last1=Humboldt|first1=University|title=Library Catalogue Search|url=https://hu-berlin.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/search?vid=hub_ub&lang=en_US|website=Humboldt University Catalogue Search|access-date=August 7, 2023|archive-date=August 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230807070606/https://hu-berlin.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/search?vid=hub_ub&lang=en_US|url-status=live}}{{Citation |last=Lorenz |first=Sophie |title=»Schwarze Schwester Angela« - Die DDR und Angela Davis: Kalter Krieg, Rassismus und Black Power 1965-1975 |date=2020-06-27 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839450314/html?lang=en |work=»Schwarze Schwester Angela« - Die DDR und Angela Davis |access-date=2023-10-14 |publisher=transcript Verlag |language=de |doi=10.1515/9783839450314 |isbn=978-3-8394-5031-4 |archive-date=November 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103005243/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839450314/html?lang=en |url-status=live }}
Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, 1969–1970
File:Angela Davis enters Royce Hall for first lecture October 7 1969.jpg with Kendra Alexander at UCLA for her first lecture, October 1969]]
Beginning in 1969, Davis was an acting assistant professor in the philosophy department at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Although both Princeton and Swarthmore had tried to recruit her, she opted for UCLA because of its urban location.{{cite book|url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1427|title=Encyclopedia of Alabama|publisher=Auburn University|date=January 8, 2008|access-date=April 11, 2012|archive-date=March 13, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313145214/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1427|url-status=dead}} At that time she was known as a radical feminist and activist, a member of the Communist Party USA, and an affiliate of the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party.{{cite episode|title=Interview with Angela Davis|series=BookTV|airdate=October 3, 2004}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Peut8UbchIsC|title=The Angela Y. Davis Reader|editor-first=Joy|editor-last=James|publisher=Blackwell|date=1998|access-date=July 18, 2019|isbn=9780631203612|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412144947/https://books.google.com/books?id=Peut8UbchIsC|url-status=live}}
Davis had previously joined the Communist Party in 1968 and had become a member of the Black Panther Party, working with a branch of the Black Panther Party in Los Angeles where she directed political education.Davis, A. Y. (2016). Freedom is a constant struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the foundations of a movement. Haymarket Books. p. When Black Panther Party leadership determined that party members could not also be affiliated with other parties, Davis retained her Communist Party membership although continued to work with the Black Panther Party.Davis, A. Y. (2016). Freedom is a constant struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the foundations of a movement. Haymarket Books.
In 1969, the University of California initiated a policy against hiring Communists.{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-04-04-mn-45393-story.html|title=Jerry Pacht; L.A. Judge, Member of Judicial Commission|date=April 4, 1997|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|first=Myrna|last=Oliver|access-date=January 30, 2021|archive-date=January 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128045417/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-04-04-mn-45393-story.html|url-status=live}} At their September 19, 1969, meeting, the Board of Regents fired Davis from her $10,000-a-year post ({{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=10000|start_year=1969|r=-1|fmt=eq}}) because of her membership in the Communist Party,{{Cite news|last=Davies|first=Lawrence E.|title=UCLA Teacher is Ousted as Red|newspaper=The New York Times|date=20 September 1969|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/09/20/archives/ucla-teacher-is-ousted-as-red-a-battle-in-court-predicted-on-action.html|url-access=subscription|access-date=6 August 2023|archive-date=August 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230807012624/https://www.nytimes.com/1969/09/20/archives/ucla-teacher-is-ousted-as-red-a-battle-in-court-predicted-on-action.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|first=Wolfgang|last=Saxon|title=Jerry Pacht, 75, Retired Judge Who Served on Screening Panel|newspaper=The New York Times|date=14 April 1997|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/14/us/jerry-pacht-75-retired-judge-who-served-on-screening-panel.html|url-access=subscription|access-date=6 August 2023|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175930/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/14/us/jerry-pacht-75-retired-judge-who-served-on-screening-panel.html|url-status=live}} urged on by California Governor and future president Ronald Reagan.{{cite web |last1=Marquez |first1=Letisia |title=Angela Davis returns to UCLA classroom 45 years after controversy |url=http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/angela-davis-returns-to-ucla-classroom-45-years-after-controversy |website=UCLA Newsroom |publisher=University of California at Los Angeles |access-date=August 26, 2019 |date=May 5, 2014 |archive-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175940/http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/angela-davis-returns-to-ucla-classroom-45-years-after-controversy |url-status=live }} Judge Jerry Pacht ruled the Regents could not fire Davis solely because of her affiliation with the Communist Party, and she resumed her post.{{Cite news|title=UCLA Barred from Pressing Red's Ouster|newspaper=The New York Times|date=21 October 1969|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/10/21/archives/ucla-barred-from-pressing-reds-ouster-judge-calls-regents-effort-to.html|url-access=subscription|access-date=6 August 2023|archive-date=February 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201205759/https://www.nytimes.com/1969/10/21/archives/ucla-barred-from-pressing-reds-ouster-judge-calls-regents-effort-to.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news |title=University Censured for Dismissing Angela Davis |volume=42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rrEDAAAAMBAJ&q=board |access-date=August 26, 2019 |work=Jet |issue=XLII: 9 |page=8 |publisher=Johnson Publishing Company |date=May 25, 1972 |archive-date=April 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412144918/https://books.google.com/books?id=rrEDAAAAMBAJ&q=board#v=snippet&q=board&f=false |url-status=live }}
The Regents fired Davis again on June 20, 1970, for the "inflammatory language" she had used in four different speeches. The report stated, "We deem particularly offensive such utterances as her statement that the regents 'killed, brutalized (and) murdered' the People's Park demonstrators, and her repeated characterizations of the police as 'pigs{{'"}}.{{Cite news|last=Turner|first=Wallace|title=California Regents Drop Communist From Faculty|newspaper=The New York Times|date=20 June 1970|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/20/archives/california-regents-drop-communist-from-faculty.html|url-access=subscription|access-date=6 August 2023|archive-date=August 13, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813152106/https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/20/archives/california-regents-drop-communist-from-faculty.html|url-status=live}} The American Association of University Professors censured the board for this action.
Arrest and trial
{{See also|Marin County Civic Center attacks}}
Davis was a supporter of the Soledad Brothers, three inmates who were accused and charged with the killing of a prison guard at Soledad Prison.{{cite web|title=Angela Davis Biography: Academic, Civil Rights Activist, Scholar, Women's Rights Activist|url=http://www.biography.com/people/angela-davis-9267589|website=biography|publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC|access-date=May 6, 2015|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175939/https://www.biography.com/people/angela-davis-9267589|url-status=live}}
On August 7, 1970, heavily armed 17-year-old African-American high-school student Jonathan Jackson, whose brother was George Jackson, one of the three Soledad Brothers, gained control of a courtroom in Marin County, California. He armed the black defendants and took Judge Harold Haley, Deputy District Attorney Gary W. Thomas, and three female jurors as hostages.{{cite book|last=Aptheker|first=Bettina|title=The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis|year=1997|publisher=Cornell University Press}}{{cite news|agency=Associated Press|title=Search broadens for Angela Davis|newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard|date=August 17, 1970|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4BkRAAAAIBAJ&pg=6482%2C3554926|access-date=September 14, 2009}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} As Jackson transported the hostages and three black defendants away from the courtroom, one of the defendants, James McClain, shot at the police. The police returned fire.
The judge and three of the black men were killed in the melee. One of the jurors, the prosecutor, and one of the attackers, Ruchell Magee, were injured. Although the judge was shot in the head with a blast from a shotgun, he also suffered a chest wound from a bullet that may have been fired from outside the van. Evidence during the trial showed that either could have been fatal.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-acquit.html|title=Angela Davis Acquitted on All Charges|newspaper=The New York Times|first=Earl|last=Caldwell|author-link=Earl Caldwell (journalist)|date=June 5, 1972|access-date=February 14, 2017|archive-date=February 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180221174350/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-acquit.html|url-status=live}} Davis had purchased several of the firearms Jackson used in the attack,{{cite magazine|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/harvard-new-home-angela-davis-papers-180968191/|title=Angela Davis' Archive Comes to Harvard|last1=Treviño|first1=Julissa|magazine=Smithsonian|date=February 16, 2018|access-date=October 4, 2018|archive-date=October 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004230117/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/harvard-new-home-angela-davis-papers-180968191/|url-status=live}} including the shotgun used to shoot Haley, which she bought at a San Francisco pawn shop two days before the incident.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/18/archives/a-shotgun-that-miss-davis-purchased-is-linked-to-the-fatal-shooting.html|title=A Shotgun That Miss Davis Purchased Is Linked to the Fatal Shooting of Judge|last1=Caldwell|first1=Earl|work=The New York Times|date=April 18, 1972|access-date=October 4, 2018|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175932/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/18/archives/a-shotgun-that-miss-davis-purchased-is-linked-to-the-fatal-shooting.html|url-status=live}} She was also found to have been corresponding with one of the inmates involved.{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Deborah Gray|last2=Bay|first2=Mia|last3=Martin|first3=Waldo E.|title=Freedom on My Mind|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's|isbn=978-0-312-64884-8|page=725|date=December 14, 2012}}
Davis had befriended George and Jonathan Jackson doing work attempting to free the Soledad Brothers. She had communicated frequently with George Jackson over letters and worked extensively with Jonathan Jackson in her work with the Soledad Brothers Defense Committee. She had grown close with the Jackson family in general during this time while working with them and speaking at events together.
File:Boston 1970 protest against the Vietnam War.jpg, 1970]]
As California considers "all persons concerned in the commission of a crime, ... whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense, or aid and abet in its commission, ... are principals in any crime so committed", Davis was charged with "aggravated kidnapping and first degree murder in the death of Judge Harold Haley", and Marin County Superior Court Judge Peter Allen Smith issued a warrant for her arrest. Hours after the judge issued the warrant on August 14, 1970, a massive attempt to find and arrest Davis began. On August 18, four days after the warrant was issued, the FBI director J. Edgar Hoover listed Davis on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List; she was the third woman and the 309th person to be listed.{{cite web|title=Biography|work=Davis (Angela) Legal Defense Collection, 1970–1972|url=http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/ead/scm/scmdavisa|access-date=June 14, 2013|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175932/http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/ead/scm/scmdavisa|url-status=dead}}
File:Angela Yvonne Davis Wanted Poster.jpg]] Soon after, Davis became a fugitive and fled California. According to her autobiography, during this time she hid in friends' homes and moved at night. On October 13, 1970, FBI agents found her at a Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in New York City.{{cite news|last=Charleton|first=Linda|title=F.B.I Seizes Angela Davis in Motel Here|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-fbi.html|access-date=April 26, 2011|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 28, 2011|archive-date=February 1, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130201044128/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-fbi.html|url-status=live}} President Richard M. Nixon congratulated the FBI on its "capture of the dangerous terrorist Angela Davis."{{Cite book|title=The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis|last=Aptheker, Bettina|date=January 21, 2014|publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9780801470141|oclc=979577423}}
On January 5, 1971, Davis appeared at Marin County Superior Court and declared her innocence before the court and nation: "I now declare publicly before the court, before the people of this country that I am innocent of all charges which have been leveled against me by the state of California." John Abt, general counsel of the Communist Party USA, was one of the first attorneys to represent Davis for her alleged involvement in the shootings.{{cite book|last1=Abt|first1=John|author-link1=John Abt|last2=Myerson|first2=Michael|title=Advocate and Activist: Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9REaIPPh4k4C&pg=PA273|page=273|year=1993|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana, Illinois|isbn=978-0-252-02030-8|access-date=March 18, 2023|archive-date=April 4, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404143542/https://books.google.com/books?id=9REaIPPh4k4C&pg=PA273|url-status=live}}
While being held in the Women's Detention Center, Davis was initially segregated from other prisoners, in solitary confinement. With the help of her legal team, she obtained a federal court order to get out of the segregated area.{{cite book|last=Davis|first=Angela Yvonne|title=Angela Davis: An Autobiography|date=March 1989|publisher=International Publishers|location=New York City|isbn=0-7178-0667-7|chapter=Nets}}
File:An Evening with Angela Davis flyer.tif, Jerry Butler, Carmen McRae, Pete Seeger, the Voices of East Harlem, and Ossie Davis]]
File:¡LIBERTAD PARA LOS PRISONEROS POLITICAS!.jpg urging freedom for political prisoners and depicting Angela Davis]]
Across the nation, thousands began organizing a movement to gain her release. In New York City, black writers formed a committee called the Black People in Defense of Angela Davis. By February 1971, more than 200 local committees in the United States, and 67 in foreign countries, worked to free Davis from jail. John Lennon and Yoko Ono contributed to this campaign with the song "Angela".Blaney, John. 2005 John Lennon: Listen to this Book. PaperJukebox. p. 117 In 1972, after a 16-month incarceration, the state allowed her release on bail from the county jail. On February 23, 1972, Rodger McAfee, a dairy farmer from Fresno, California, paid her $100,000 ({{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=100000|start_year=1972|r=-2|fmt=eq}}) bail with the help of Steve Sparacino, a wealthy business owner. The United Presbyterian Church paid some of her legal defense expenses.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-campaign.html|title=The Campaign to Free Angela Davis and Ruchell Magee|work=The New York Times|date=June 27, 1971|author=Sol Stern|author-link=Sol Stern|access-date=February 14, 2017|archive-date=March 31, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331164926/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-campaign.html|url-status=live}}
A defense motion for a change of venue was granted, and the trial was moved to Santa Clara County. On June 4, 1972, after 13 hours of deliberations, the all-white jury returned a verdict of not guilty. After the verdict, one juror, Ralph DeLange, made the Black Power salute to a crowd of spectators, which he later told reporters was to show "a unity of opinion for all oppressed people". Ten jurors later attended victory celebrations with the defense.{{Cite news|url=http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/693589-angela-davis-aquittal.html|title=5 Factors Noted in Angela Davis Innocent Verdict|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=June 28, 2024|archive-date=January 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170124175051/http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/693589-angela-davis-aquittal.html|url-status=bot: unknown}} The fact that she owned the guns used in the crime was judged insufficient to establish her role in the plot. She was represented by Howard Moore Jr. and Leo Branton Jr., who hired psychologists to help the defense determine who in the jury pool might favor their arguments, a technique that has since become more common. They also hired experts to discredit the reliability of eyewitness accounts.{{Cite book|title=Justice in the Round: The Trial of Angela Davis|last=Major, Reginald|date=January 1, 1973|publisher=Third Press |isbn=9780893880521}}{{Cite news|first=William|last=Yardley|title=Leo Branton Jr., Activists' Lawyer, Dies at 91|newspaper=The New York Times|date=27 April 2013|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/us/leo-branton-jr-who-defended-angela-davis-dies-at-91.html|url-access=subscription|access-date=6 August 2023|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175934/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/us/leo-branton-jr-who-defended-angela-davis-dies-at-91.html|url-status=live}}
Other activities in the 1970s
=Cuba=
After her acquittal, Davis went on an international speaking tour in 1972 and the tour included a trip to Cuba, where she had previously been received by Fidel Castro as a member of a Communist Party delegation in 1969.{{cite web|last1=Seidman|first1=Sarah|title=Feminism and Revolution: Angela Davis in Cuba|url=https://aha.confex.com/aha/2015/webprogram/Paper16621.html|website=American Historical Association|date=January 3, 2015|access-date=March 9, 2017|archive-date=July 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713084711/https://aha.confex.com/aha/2015/webprogram/Paper16621.html|url-status=live}} Robert F. Williams, Huey Newton and Stokely Carmichael had also visited Cuba, and Assata Shakur later moved there after she escaped from a U.S. prison. At a mass rally held by Afro-Cubans, she was reportedly barely able to speak because her reception was so enthusiastic.{{cite book|last=Gott|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Gott|title=Cuba: A New History|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2004|location=New Haven, Connecticut|page=[https://archive.org/details/cubanewhistory0000gott/page/230 230]|isbn=0-300-10411-1|url=https://archive.org/details/cubanewhistory0000gott/page/230}} Davis perceived that Cuba was a racism-free country, which led her to believe that "only under socialism could the fight against racism be successfully executed." When she returned to the U.S., her socialist leanings increasingly influenced her understanding of racial struggles.{{cite book|last=Sawyer|first=Mark|title=Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba|year=2006|publisher=University of California|location=Los Angeles|pages=95–97}} In 1974, she attended the Second Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women.
=Soviet Union=
File:RIAN archive 717718 Valentina Tereshkova and Angela Davis.jpg, 1972]]
In 1971, the CIA estimated that five percent of Soviet propaganda efforts were directed towards the Angela Davis campaign.{{Cite web|last=Hannah|first=Jim|date=August 24, 2017|title=Revolutionary research|url=https://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/newsroom/2017/08/24/revolutionary-research/|access-date=October 21, 2020|website=Wright State Newsroom|archive-date=October 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023110535/https://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/newsroom/2017/08/24/revolutionary-research/|url-status=live}} In August 1972, Davis visited the Soviet Union at the invitation of the Central Committee, and received an honorary doctorate from Moscow State University. She also received an honorary degree from the University of Tashkent during that same visit.
On May 1, 1979, she was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union.{{cite news|title=Angela Davis Given Russian Peace Prize|access-date=May 4, 2014|newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard|date=May 1, 1979|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SQtWAAAAIBAJ&pg=5908%2C189855|page=120|archive-date=April 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210401220527/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SQtWAAAAIBAJ&pg=5908%2C189855|url-status=live}} She visited Moscow later that month to accept the prize, where she praised "the glorious name" of Vladimir Lenin and the "great October Revolution".{{cite news|title=Russia Davis Prize {{!}} AP Archive|url=http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/45045389d6759defac6845a2f3bdfcea|work=aparchive.com|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=March 5, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190305200838/http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/45045389d6759defac6845a2f3bdfcea|url-status=live}}
=East Germany=
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L0911-029, Berlin, Erich Honecker empfängt Angela Davis.jpg in the GDR, 1972]]
The East German government organized an extensive campaign on behalf of Davis.{{cite book|last1=Slobodian|first1=Quinn|title=Comrades of Color: East Germany in the Cold War World|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=9781782387060|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6UHCAAAQBAJ|language=en|page=157|date=December 30, 2015|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412144914/https://books.google.com/books?id=g6UHCAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}} In September 1972, Davis visited East Germany, where she met the state's leader Erich Honecker, received an honorary degree from the University of Leipzig and the Star of People's Friendship from Walter Ulbricht. On September 11 in East Berlin she delivered a speech, "Not Only My Victory", praising the GDR and USSR and denouncing American racism.{{cite book |last1=Farber |first1=Paul M. |title=A Wall of Our Own: An American History of the Berlin Wall |date=2020 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1-4696-5509-3 |page=97 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RvXGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 |language=en |access-date=July 15, 2020 |archive-date=April 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412144928/https://books.google.com/books?id=RvXGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}{{cite book|last1=Kosc|first1=Grzegorz|last2=Juncker|first2=Clara|last3=Monteith|first3=Sharon|last4=Waldschmidt-Nelson|first4=Britta|title=The Transatlantic Sixties: Europe and the United States in the Counterculture Decade|publisher=transcript Verlag|isbn=9783839422168|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5rvJBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA85|language=en|date=October 2013|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412144907/https://books.google.com/books?id=5rvJBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA85#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Hansen|first1=Jan|last2=Helm|first2=Christian|last3=Reichherzer|first3=Frank|title=Making Sense of the Americas: How Protest Related to America in the 1980s and Beyond|publisher=Campus Verlag|isbn=9783593504803|pages=317–332|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sIboCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA317|language=en|date=December 12, 2015|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412144953/https://books.google.com/books?id=sIboCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA317#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}
She visited the Berlin Wall, where she laid flowers at the memorial for Reinhold Huhn, an East German guard who had been killed by a man who was trying to escape with his family across the border in 1962. Davis said, "We mourn the deaths of the border guards who sacrificed their lives for the protection of their socialist homeland" and "When we return to the USA, we shall undertake to tell our people the truth about the true function of this border." In 1973, she returned to East Berlin, leading the U.S. delegation to the 10th World Festival of Youth and Students.{{cite book|last1=Rodden|first1=John|title=Repainting the Little Red Schoolhouse: A History of Eastern German Education, 1945–1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195344387|page=143|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LSzZlw2jBTIC&pg=PA143|language=en|date=January 3, 2002|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412145425/https://books.google.com/books?id=LSzZlw2jBTIC&pg=PA143#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}
=Jonestown and Peoples Temple=
In the mid-1970s, Jim Jones, who developed the cult Peoples Temple, initiated friendships with progressive leaders in the San Francisco area including Dennis Banks of the American Indian Movement and Davis.{{cite book|last=Scheers|first=Julia|author-link=Julia Scheeres|date=2011|title=A Thousand Lives: the Untold Story of Jonestown|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h1s_Ee8QDlcC&pg=PA33|location=New York|publisher=Simon and Schuster|page=33|isbn=9781451628968|access-date=September 11, 2015}}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} On September 10, 1977, 14 months before the Temple's mass murder-suicide, Davis spoke via amateur radio telephone "patch" to members of his Peoples Temple who were living in Jonestown in Guyana.{{cite book|last1=Reiterman|first1=Tim|last2=Jacobs|first2=John|title=Raven: The Untold Story of Rev. Jim Jones and His People|publisher=Dutton|year=1982|page=[https://archive.org/details/ravenuntoldstory00reit/page/369 369]|isbn=978-0-525-24136-2|title-link=Raven (book)}}{{cite web|title=Angela Davis & the Six Day Siege|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19021|publisher=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple|access-date=March 25, 2015|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175940/https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19021|url-status=live}} In her statement during the "Six Day Siege", she expressed support for the Peoples Temple's anti-racism efforts and she also told Temple members that there was a conspiracy against them. She said, "When you are attacked, it is because of your progressive stand, and we feel that it is directly an attack against us as well."{{cite web|title=Statement of Angela Davis (Text)|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19027|publisher=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple|access-date=September 11, 2015|archive-date=April 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401003346/https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19027|url-status=live}} On February 28, 1978, Davis wrote to President Jimmy Carter, asking him not to assist in efforts to retrieve a child from Jonestown. Her letter called Jones "a humanitarian in the broadest sense of the word".{{cite web |title=Letters of Support for Peoples Temple |url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/jvs-78-7b.pdf |website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple |access-date=10 April 2023 |archive-date=April 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410145514/https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/jvs-78-7b.pdf |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Letters of Support for Peoples Temple |url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19039 |website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple |access-date=10 April 2023 |archive-date=April 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410145513/https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19039 |url-status=live }}
=Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and political prisoners in socialist countries=
In 1975, Russian dissident and Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn argued in a speech before an AFL–CIO meeting in New York City that Davis was derelict in having failed to support prisoners in various socialist countries around the world, given her strong opposition to the U.S. prison system.{{cite book|last=Solzhenitsyn|first=Aleksandr|author-link=Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn|title=Warning to the West|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|date=October 1976|location=New York|pages=60–61|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-tU6cfmTSwAC&q=warning+to+the+west+solzhenitsyn+angela+davis&pg=PA61|isbn=0-374-51334-1|access-date=January 5, 2021|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412145349/https://books.google.com/books?id=-tU6cfmTSwAC&q=warning+to+the+west+solzhenitsyn+angela+davis&pg=PA61#v=snippet&q=warning%20to%20the%20west%20solzhenitsyn%20angela%20davis&f=false|url-status=live}} In 1972, Jiří Pelikán wrote an open letter in which he asked her to support Czechoslovakian prisoners;{{Cite newspaper The Times|author=Pelikan, Jiri|title=Angela Davises of the world unite|date=July 28, 1972|page=16|issue=58538}}{{cite news|last=Pelikan|first=Jiri|date=August 31, 1972|title=An Open Letter to Angela Davis|work=The New York Review}} Davis refused, believing that the Czechoslovakian prisoners were undermining the government of Husák and believing that Pelikán, who was living in exile in Italy, was attacking his own country.{{Cite newspaper The Times|title=Czech exile's plea rejected by Miss Davis|date=July 29, 1972|page=4|issue=58539|quote=Miss [Charlene] Mitchell, who said she was acting as a spokesman for Miss Davis, took the line that people in Eastern Europe got into difficulties and ended in jail only if they were undermining the government. Those who left to go into political exile were also attacking their own country. }} According to Solzhenitsyn, in response to concerns about Czechoslovak prisoners being "persecuted by the state", Davis had responded: "They deserve what they get. Let them remain in prison."{{Cite book|last=Solzhenitsyn|first=Aleksandr Isaevich 1918–2008|url=https://archive.org/details/SolzhenitsynTheVoiceOfFreedom|title=Solzhenitsyn: The Voice of Freedom|date=1975|publisher=Washington, DC: Washington : American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations|pages=32|language=en|access-date=January 10, 2019}}
Later academic career
File:Angela Davis urges - declare your independence - vote for Hall and Tyner LCCN2016648082.jpg campaign poster featuring Davis, 1976]]
Davis was a lecturer at the Claremont Black Studies Center at the Claremont Colleges in 1975. Attendance at the course she taught was limited to 26 students out of the more than 5,000 on campus, and she was forced to teach in secret because alumni benefactors did not want her to indoctrinate the general student population with Communist thought.{{Cite news |last=Times |first=Everett R. Holles Special to The New York |date=1975-11-16 |title=ANGELA DAVIS JOB DEBATED ON COAST |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/16/archives/angela-davis-job-debated-on-coast-new-teaching-post-starts-a-fresh.html |access-date=2023-10-04 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=October 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014050220/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/16/archives/angela-davis-job-debated-on-coast-new-teaching-post-starts-a-fresh.html |url-status=live }} College trustees made arrangements to minimize her appearance on campus, limiting her seminars to Friday evenings and Saturdays, "when campus activity is low".
Her classes moved from one classroom to another and the students were sworn to secrecy. Much of this secrecy continued throughout Davis's brief time teaching at the colleges.{{cite web|last=Holles|first=Everett R.|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-job.html|title=Angela Davis Job Debated on Coast|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 16, 1975|access-date=February 18, 2020|archive-date=February 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218014950/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-job.html|url-status=live}} In 2020 it was announced that Davis would be the Ena H. Thompson Distinguished Lecturer in Pomona College's history department, welcoming her back after 45 years.{{cite web|url=https://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/history/ena-thompson|title=Ena H. Thompson Lectureship|date=April 2, 2015|publisher=Pomona College|access-date=January 3, 2020|archive-date=February 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218014951/https://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/history/ena-thompson|url-status=live}}
Davis taught a women's studies course at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1978 and was a professor of ethnic studies at the San Francisco State University from at least 1980 to 1984; she taught political science courses there until 1990.{{cite news|last=Brooke|first=James|title=Other Women Seeking Number 2 Spot Speak Out|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-vp.html|access-date=April 26, 2011|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 29, 1984|archive-date=April 10, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410224503/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-vp.html|url-status=live}} She was a professor in the History of Consciousness and the Feminist Studies departments at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Rutgers University from 1991 to 2008.{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/152739/Angela-Davis|title=Angela Davis|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=April 3, 2012|archive-date=January 5, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105072514/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/152739/Angela-Davis|url-status=live}} Since then, she has been a distinguished professor emerita.{{cite web |url=http://feministstudies.ucsc.edu/faculty/singleton.php?&singleton=true&cruz_id=aydavis |title=Angela Davis profile |publisher=UC Santa Cruz |access-date=April 3, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120712103826/http://feministstudies.ucsc.edu/faculty/singleton.php?&singleton=true&cruz_id=aydavis |archive-date=July 12, 2012}}
Davis was a distinguished visiting professor at Syracuse University in the spring of 1992 and October 2010, and was the Randolph Visiting Distinguished Professor of philosophy at Vassar College in 1995.{{cite web|title=Watson Professorship|url=http://thecollege.syr.edu/administration/humanities_council/watson_professor.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130831065553/http://thecollege.syr.edu/administration/humanities_council/watson_professor.html|archive-date=August 31, 2013|access-date=April 3, 2012|publisher=Syracuse University}}{{cite web|url=http://www.syr.edu/news/articles/2010/angela-davis-10-10.html|title=Scholar, activist Angela Davis to give free lecture Oct. 12|publisher=Syracuse University|date=October 1, 2010|access-date=April 3, 2012|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304032649/http://www.syr.edu/news/articles/2010/angela-davis-10-10.html|url-status=dead}}
In 2014, Davis returned to UCLA as a regents' lecturer. She delivered a public lecture on May 8 in Royce Hall, where she had given her first lecture 45 years earlier.
In 2016, Davis was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in Healing and Social Justice from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco during its 48th annual commencement ceremony.{{cite web|first=Olivia|last=Ford|url=http://www.ciis.edu/ciis-today/news-room/headlines-archive/2016-honorary-doctorate-angela-y-davis-at-one-with-communities-of-struggle|title=2016 Honorary Doctorate: Angela Y. Davis at One with Communities of Struggle|website=CIIS News and Events|publisher=California Institute of Integral Studies|date=May 13, 2016|access-date=May 23, 2016|archive-date=February 26, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226003149/http://www.ciis.edu/ciis-today/news-room/headlines-archive/2016-honorary-doctorate-angela-y-davis-at-one-with-communities-of-struggle|url-status=dead}}
Political activism and speeches
Davis accepted the Communist Party USA's nomination for vice president, as Gus Hall's running mate, in 1980 and in 1984. They received less than 0.02% of the vote in 1980.Goodman, Walter, [https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/02/us/hall-at-74-still-seeks-presidency.html "Hall, at 74, still seeks Presidency"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629073656/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/02/us/hall-at-74-still-seeks-presidency.html |date=June 29, 2020 }}, New York Times, November 2, 1984. She left the party in 1991, founding the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. Her group broke from the Communist Party USA because of the latter's support of the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt after the fall of the Soviet Union and tearing down of the Berlin Wall.{{cite book|title=Battleground: Women, Gender, and Sexuality|last=Lind|first=Amy|author2=Stephanie Brzuzy|year=2008|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=978-0-313-34038-3|volume=1|page=406|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CdoIS5YdygkC&pg=PA406|access-date=February 24, 2012|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412145416/https://books.google.com/books?id=CdoIS5YdygkC&pg=PA406|url-status=live}} Davis said that she and others who had "circulated a petition about the need for democratization of the structures of governance of the party" were not allowed to run for national office and thus "in a sense ... invited to leave".{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roXCuwrELHM | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/roXCuwrELHM| archive-date=December 11, 2021 | url-status=live|title=Angela Davis interviewed by Julian Bond: Explorations in Black Leadership Series |publisher=University of Virginia |website=YouTube |date=July 21, 2009 |access-date=June 29, 2021}}{{cbignore}} In 2014, she said she continues to have a relationship with the CPUSA but has not rejoined.{{cite news|last1=Morrison|first1=Patt|title=Angela Y. Davis on what's radical in the 21st century|url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-morrison-davis-20140507-column.html|work=Los Angeles Times|date=May 6, 2014|access-date=February 21, 2020|archive-date=March 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200310032022/https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-morrison-davis-20140507-column.html|url-status=live}} In the 2020 presidential election, Davis supported the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden.{{cite web |url=https://thegrio.com/2020/07/14/angela-davis-backs-biden/ |title=Angela Davis backs Biden because he 'can be most effectively pressured' by the left |last=Telusma |first=Blue |date=July 14, 2020 |website=TheGrio |access-date=October 10, 2020 |archive-date=October 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201007140653/https://thegrio.com/2020/07/14/angela-davis-backs-biden/ |url-status=live }}
Davis is a major figure in the prison abolition movement.{{Cite web|url=https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-prison-abolition-movement|title=What the Prison-Abolition Movement Wants|last=Kelly|first=Kim|website=Teen Vogue|date=December 26, 2019|language=en|access-date=April 24, 2020|archive-date=April 14, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414024539/https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-prison-abolition-movement|url-status=live}} She has called the United States prison system the "prison–industrial complex"{{cite news|date=September 10, 1998|url=http://www.colorlines.com/archives/1998/09/masked_racism_reflections_on_the_prison_industrial_complex.html|first=Angela|last=Davis|publisher=Color Lines|title=Masked racism: reflections on the prison-industrial complex|access-date=December 1, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321103120/http://colorlines.com/archives/1998/09/masked_racism_reflections_on_the_prison_industrial_complex.html|archive-date=March 21, 2015|url-status=dead}} and was one of the founders of Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization dedicated to building a movement to abolish the prison system.{{Cite web|title=Freedom Struggle: Angela Davis on Calls to Defund Police, Racism & Capitalism, and the 2020 Election|url=https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/7/freedom_struggle_angela_davis_on_calls|access-date=October 2, 2020|website=Democracy Now!|language=en|archive-date=April 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220414114614/https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/7/freedom_struggle_angela_davis_on_calls|url-status=live}} In recent works, she has argued that the US prison system resembles a new form of slavery, pointing to the disproportionate share of the African-American population who were incarcerated.{{cite book|last=Davis|first=Angela|title=Are Prisons Obsolete?|year=2003|publisher=Open Media Series|location=Canada}} Davis advocates focusing social efforts on education and building "engaged communities" to solve various social problems now handled through state punishment.
As early as 1969, Davis began public speaking engagements.{{Cite web |title=Angela Davis 10/8/1969 |url=https://comm.ucla.edu/angela-davis-10-8-1969/ |access-date=2023-10-19 |website=UCLA Communication |language=en-US |archive-date=November 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231106072527/https://comm.ucla.edu/angela-davis-10-8-1969/ |url-status=live }} She expressed her opposition to the Vietnam War, racism, sexism, and the prison–industrial complex, and her support of gay rights and other social justice movements. In 1969, she blamed imperialism for the troubles oppressed populations suffer:
{{blockquote|We are facing a common enemy and that enemy is Yankee Imperialism, which is killing us both here and abroad. Now I think anyone who would try to separate those struggles, anyone who would say that in order to consolidate an anti-war movement, we have to leave all of these other outlying issues out of the picture, is playing right into the hands of the enemy.{{cite web|last=Davis|first=Angela|title=Speech by Angela Davis at a Black Panther Rally in Bobby Hutton Park|url=http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/15/18589458.php|work=East Bay|access-date=April 26, 2011|archive-date=May 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515012459/http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/15/18589458.php|url-status=live}}}}
She has continued lecturing throughout her career, including at numerous universities.{{cite web|url=http://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu/conference|title=Who Speaks for the Negro|publisher=Jean and Heard Alexander Library, Vanderbilt University|access-date=April 11, 2015|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175951/https://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu/conference|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.democracynow.org/2005/12/13/angela_davis_the_state_of_california|title=Angela Davis: 'The State of California May Have Extinguished the Life of Stanley Tookie Williams, But They Have Not Managed to Extinguish the Hope for a Better World'|publisher=Democracy Now!|date=December 13, 2005|access-date=October 21, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101017050807/http://www.democracynow.org/2005/12/13/angela_davis_the_state_of_california| archive-date= October 17, 2010|url-status=live}}{{cite web|last=Bybee|first=Crystal|url=https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/25/18630556.php|title=Fourth Annual Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Summit|publisher=East Bay|date=November 11, 2009|access-date=October 21, 2010|archive-date=March 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328103627/https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/25/18630556.php|url-status=live}}{{cite web|last=Bernstein|first=Gregory|url=https://vanderbilthustler.exposure.co/a-fireside-chat-on-activism-with-angela-davis|title="A Fireside Chat on Activism" with Angela Davis|work=Vanderbilt Hustler|date=March 11, 2015|access-date=April 11, 2015|archive-date=June 27, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627061152/https://vanderbilthustler.exposure.co/a-fireside-chat-on-activism-with-angela-davis|url-status=live}}Bromley, Anne. [http://news.clas.virginia.edu/woodson/x15305.xml "Angela Davis to Headline the Woodson Institute's Spring Symposium"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090412040456/http://news.clas.virginia.edu/woodson/x15305.xml |date=April 12, 2009 }}, The Woodson Institute Newsletter. April 2, 2009; accessed November 3, 2009.{{cite web|url=http://www.risd.edu/About/News/Davis_Calls_Students_to_Action/?dept=4294967928|access-date=September 11, 2015|title=Davis Calls Students to Action|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913085531/http://www.risd.edu/About/News/Davis_Calls_Students_to_Action/?dept=4294967928|archive-date=September 13, 2015}}University of Rochester [https://web.archive.org/web/20190202192834/https://events.rochester.edu/event/angela_davis#.XFXve1ngrfY Angela Davis: The University's Role in Educating Students to be Engaged Citizens]. Archived from [https://events.rochester.edu/event/angela_davis the original] on February 2, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
In 2001, she publicly spoke against the war on terror following the 9/11 attacks, continued to criticize the prison–industrial complex, and discussed the broken immigration system.{{Cite web|title=Once Labeled a Terrorist, Angela Davis Talks of Recent Events|url=https://www.depauw.edu/news-media/latest-news/details/11770/|access-date=June 21, 2021|website=DePauw University|language=en|archive-date=June 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624205135/https://www.depauw.edu/news-media/latest-news/details/11770/|url-status=dead}} She said that to solve social justice issues, people must "hone their critical skills, develop them and implement them." Later, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she declared that the "horrendous situation in New Orleans" was due to the country's structural racism, capitalism, and imperialism.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JKENb33U4E| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611032755/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JKENb33U4E| archive-date=June 11, 2010 | url-status=dead|work=YouTube|title=Angela Davis making a live public speech|access-date=September 11, 2015}}
File:Angela-Davis-Mar-28-2006.jpg in 2006]]
Davis opposed the 1995 Million Man March, arguing that the exclusion of women from this event promoted male chauvinism. She said that Louis Farrakhan and other organizers appeared to prefer that women take subordinate roles in society. Together with Kimberlé Crenshaw and others, she formed the African American Agenda 2000, an alliance of black feminists.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MLz7jo09yiAC&q=angela+davis+African+American+Agenda+2000,&pg=PA78|title=Dark Continent of Our Bodies: Black Feminism and the Politics of Respectability|author=E. Frances White|publisher=Temple University Press|year=2001|isbn=978-1-56639-880-0|access-date=October 29, 2020|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412145345/https://books.google.com/books?id=MLz7jo09yiAC&q=angela+davis+African+American+Agenda+2000,&pg=PA78#v=snippet&q=angela%20davis%20African%20American%20Agenda%202000%2C&f=false|url-status=live}}
Davis has continued to oppose the death penalty. In 2003, she lectured at Agnes Scott College, a liberal arts women's college in Decatur, Georgia, on prison reform, minority issues, and the ills of the criminal justice system.{{cite web|url=http://www.agnesscott.edu/spotlightDetails.aspx?Channel=%2FChannels%2FAdmissions%2FAdmissions+Content&WorkflowItemID=91360c59-8fdf-4a2c-871e-2a520121de7d|title=ASC Spotlight–Africana Studies|publisher=Agnesscott.edu|access-date=October 20, 2011|archive-date=March 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311040413/https://www.agnesscott.edu/spotlightDetails.aspx?Channel=%2FChannels%2FAdmissions%2FAdmissions+Content&WorkflowItemID=91360c59-8fdf-4a2c-871e-2a520121de7d|url-status=dead}}
On October 31, 2011, Davis spoke at the Philadelphia and Washington Square Occupy Wall Street assemblies. Due to restrictions on electronic amplification, her words were human microphoned.[http://www.nationofchange.org/angela-davis-occupy-wall-st-nyc-1320071291 Nation of Change] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103193610/http://www.nationofchange.org/angela-davis-occupy-wall-st-nyc-1320071291 |date=November 3, 2011 }}, nationofchange.org; accessed February 28, 2015.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0X7zC19xco| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/w0X7zC19xco| archive-date=December 11, 2021 | url-status=live|title=Occupy Philly address| date=October 29, 2011|publisher=Youtube.com|access-date=December 4, 2013}}{{cbignore}} In 2012, Davis was awarded the 2011 Blue Planet Award, an award given for contributions to humanity and the planet.{{cite web|url=http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=4801|title=Censure award for TEPCO Award to be handed over in Tokyo to those responsible for Fukushima (Ethecon)|date=June 22, 2012|website=financegreenwatch.org|access-date=May 31, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221204904/http://financegreenwatch.org/?p=4801|archive-date=February 21, 2014|url-status=dead}}
At the 27th Empowering Women of Color Conference in 2012, Davis said she was a vegan.{{cite web|title=Grace Lee Boggs in Conversation with Angela Davis|url=http://www.radioproject.org/2012/02/grace-lee-boggs-berkeley|publisher=Making Contact|date=2012|access-date=March 15, 2014|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175937/https://www.radioproject.org/2012/02/grace-lee-boggs-berkeley|url-status=live}} She has called for the release of Rasmea Odeh, associate director at the Arab American Action Network, who was convicted of immigration fraud in relation to her hiding of a previous murder conviction.{{cite web|title=Angela Davis: Free Rasmea Odeh, political prisoner|url=http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2014/11/04/angela-davis-free-rasmea-odea/18429933|work=The Detroit News|date=November 4, 2014|access-date=December 18, 2014|archive-date=March 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328070924/https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2014/11/04/angela-davis-free-rasmea-odea/18429933/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-feds-woman-hid-terror-conviction-to-get-citizenship-20131022-story.html|title=Feds: Woman hid terror conviction to get citizenship|date=October 22, 2013|author=Jason Meisner|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=June 19, 2017|archive-date=July 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708093533/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-feds-woman-hid-terror-conviction-to-get-citizenship-20131022-story.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/05/federal-trial-rasmea-odeh-immigration-fraud|title=Arab-American activist on trial for allegedly concealing terror role in immigration papers|date=November 5, 2014|work=The Guardian|access-date=June 19, 2017|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175932/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/05/federal-trial-rasmea-odeh-immigration-fraud|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/trial-set-for-jerusalem-terror-convict-who-moved-to-us|title=Trial set for Jerusalem terror convict who moved to US|date=September 3, 2014|work=The Times of Israel|access-date=June 19, 2017|archive-date=April 13, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413225628/http://www.timesofisrael.com/trial-set-for-jerusalem-terror-convict-who-moved-to-us/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.613739|title=Palestinian convicted of two bombings back in U.S. court over immigration fraud|date=September 2, 2014|work=Haaretz|access-date=June 19, 2017|archive-date=September 24, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924210859/http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.613739|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Sommer|first1=Allison|title=The Palestinian Woman Convicted of Terror Casting a Shadow Over 'Day Without Women'|url=http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-1.775997|access-date=March 10, 2017|work=Haaretz|date=March 9, 2017|archive-date=January 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180115075558/https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-1.775997|url-status=live}}
Davis supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.{{cite news|title=Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: What is BDS?|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/01/boycott-divestment-sanctions-bds-170110165203991.html|work=aljazeera.com|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=March 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328182217/https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/01/boycott-divestment-sanctions-bds-170110165203991.html|url-status=live}}
File:Angela Davis at Oregon State University.jpg
Davis was an honorary co-chair of the January 21, 2017, Women's March on Washington, which occurred the day after President Donald Trump's inauguration. The organizers' decision to make her a speaker was criticized from the right by Humberto Fontova{{cite news|last1=Fontova|first1=Humberto|title=Humberto Fontova – Women's March Celebrates World's Top Torturers of Women|url=http://townhall.com/columnists/humbertofontova/2017/01/28/womens-march-celebrates-worlds-top-torturers-of-women-n2277739|work=Townhall|language=en|date=January 28, 2017|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=January 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128055321/http://townhall.com/columnists/humbertofontova/2017/01/28/womens-march-celebrates-worlds-top-torturers-of-women-n2277739|url-status=live}} and the National Review.{{cite news|last1=Crookston|first1=Paul|title=The Top Five Worst Speeches at the Women's March on Washington|url=http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444154/womens-march-speeches-marked-left-wing-extremism-social-justice|work=National Review|date=January 24, 2017|language=en|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=January 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128055426/http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444154/womens-march-speeches-marked-left-wing-extremism-social-justice|url-status=live}} Libertarian journalist Cathy Young wrote that Davis's "long record of support for political violence in the United States and the worst of human rights abusers abroad" undermined the march.{{cite news|last1=Young|first1=Cathy|title=Women's March on Washington honors Soviet tool: Column|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/01/21/womens-march-washington-honors-soviet-tool-column/96851084/|work=USA Today|date=January 21, 2017|access-date=January 29, 2017|archive-date=January 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128130305/http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/01/21/womens-march-washington-honors-soviet-tool-column/96851084/|url-status=live}}
On October 16, 2018, Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, presented Davis with an honorary degree during the inaugural Viola Desmond Legacy Lecture, as part of the institution's bicentennial celebration year.{{cite web |title=Angela Yvonne Davis – Convocation – Dalhousie University |url=https://www.dal.ca/academics/convocation/history_traditions/honorary_degree_recipients/bicentennial_hon_degree/angela_davis.html |website=Dalhousie University |publisher=dal.ca |access-date=June 24, 2020 |archive-date=June 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628000707/https://www.dal.ca/academics/convocation/history_traditions/honorary_degree_recipients/bicentennial_hon_degree/angela_davis.html |url-status=dead }}
On January 7, 2019, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) rescinded Davis's Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award, saying she "does not meet all of the criteria". Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and others cited criticism of Davis's vocal support for Palestinian rights and the movement to boycott Israel.{{Cite web|url=http://www.startribune.com/alabama-civil-rights-institute-rescinds-angela-davis-honor/503991152/|title=Alabama civil rights institute rescinds Angela Davis honor|first=Jay|last=Reeves|website=Star Tribune|date=January 7, 2019|access-date=January 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175931/http://www.startribune.com/alabama-civil-rights-institute-rescinds-angela-davis-honor/503991152/|archive-date=March 31, 2019|url-status=dead}}{{cite news |last1=Lartey |first1=Jamiles |title=Birmingham Civil Rights Institute under fire for rescinding Angela Davis honor |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/07/birmingham-civil-rights-institute-rescinds-honor-angela-davis |access-date=January 27, 2019 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=January 7, 2019 |archive-date=January 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190127112202/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/07/birmingham-civil-rights-institute-rescinds-honor-angela-davis |url-status=live }} Davis said her loss of the award was "not primarily an attack against me but rather against the very spirit of the indivisibility of justice."{{cite web |last1=Davis |first1=Angela |title=Statement on the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute |url=https://portside.org/2019-01-08/statement-birmingham-civil-rights-institute |website=Portside |date=January 8, 2019 |access-date=January 27, 2019 |archive-date=January 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190118192922/https://portside.org/2019-01-08/statement-birmingham-civil-rights-institute |url-status=live }} On January 25, the BCRI reversed its decision and issued a public apology, stating that there should have been more public consultation.{{cite news |title=Angela Davis to receive civil rights award after museum reverses decision |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/25/alabama-civil-rights-museum-angela-davis |access-date=January 27, 2019 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=January 25, 2019 |archive-date=January 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126222643/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/25/alabama-civil-rights-museum-angela-davis |url-status=live }}{{cite news |title=Reversing Course, Civil Rights Museum to Honor Angela Davis After All |url=https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/reversing-course-civil-rights-museum-to-honor-angela-davis-after-all-1.6873399 |access-date=January 27, 2019 |agency=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |newspaper=Haaretz |date=January 25, 2019 |archive-date=January 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126141343/https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/reversing-course-civil-rights-museum-to-honor-angela-davis-after-all-1.6873399 |url-status=live }}
In November 2019, along with other public figures, Davis signed a letter supporting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn describing him as "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia, and racism in much of the democratic world", and endorsed him in the 2019 UK general election.{{cite news|last=Neale|first=Matthew|url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/new-letter-supporting-jeremy-corbyn-2568734|title=Exclusive: New letter supporting Jeremy Corbyn signed by Roger Waters, Robert Del Naja and more|work=NME|date=November 16, 2019|access-date=November 27, 2019|archive-date=November 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191126184628/https://www.nme.com/news/music/new-letter-supporting-jeremy-corbyn-2568734|url-status=live}}
On January 20, 2020, Davis gave the Memorial Keynote Address at the University of Michigan's MLK Symposium.{{Cite web|last=Bruckner|first=Meredith|date=January 15, 2020|title=Political activist Angela Davis to keynote University of Michigan's 34th annual MLK Symposium|url=https://www.clickondetroit.com/all-about-ann-arbor/2020/01/15/political-activist-angela-davis-to-keynote-university-of-michigans-34th-annual-mlk-symposium/|access-date=October 21, 2020|website=Click on Detroit|language=en|archive-date=October 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025015810/https://www.clickondetroit.com/all-about-ann-arbor/2020/01/15/political-activist-angela-davis-to-keynote-university-of-michigans-34th-annual-mlk-symposium/|url-status=live}}
Davis was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021.{{Cite web|title=New Members|url=https://www.amacad.org/new-members-2021|access-date=April 24, 2021|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|language=en|archive-date=May 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210523105313/https://www.amacad.org/new-members-2021|url-status=live}}
In recent years, Davis' work has reflected her concern over the incarceration of poverty-stricken and marginalized groups.{{Cite web |title=Angela Davis |url=https://dacaseminar.fas.harvard.edu/people/angela-davis |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=dacaseminar.fas.harvard.edu |language=en |archive-date=February 25, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225002038/https://dacaseminar.fas.harvard.edu/people/angela-davis |url-status=live }}
Personal life
From 1980 to 1983, Davis was married to Hilton Braithwaite. In 1997, she came out as a lesbian in an interview with Out magazine.{{Cite web|last=Neumann|first=Caryn E.|date=July 11, 2013|title=Angela Davis|url=http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1427|access-date=March 24, 2021|website=Encyclopedia of Alabama|language=en|archive-date=February 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227103459/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1427|url-status=live}} By 2020, Davis was living with her partner, the academic Gina Dent,{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/19/t-magazine/angela-davis.html|title=Angela Davis Still Believes America Can Change|first=Nelson|last=George|date=October 19, 2020|website=The New York Times|access-date=November 12, 2020|archive-date=November 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112210157/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/19/t-magazine/angela-davis.html|url-status=live}} a fellow humanities scholar and intersectional feminist researcher at UC Santa Cruz.{{cite web |url=https://feministstudies.ucsc.edu/faculty/index.php?uid=ginadent |website=USC Feminist Studies |title=Associate Professor |publisher=University of California – Santa Cruz |access-date=June 25, 2021 |archive-date=June 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625011555/https://feministstudies.ucsc.edu/faculty/index.php?uid=ginadent |url-status=live }} Together, they have advocated for the abolition of police and prisons,{{Cite web|last=Constantino|first=Annika|date=October 28, 2020|title=Angela Davis, Gina Dent discuss abolition as 'a politic and a practice'|url=https://www.dailycal.org/2020/10/27/angela-davis-gina-dent-discuss-abolition-as-a-politic-and-a-practice/|access-date=December 29, 2021|website=The Daily Californian|language=en-US|archive-date=December 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229173921/https://www.dailycal.org/2020/10/27/angela-davis-gina-dent-discuss-abolition-as-a-politic-and-a-practice/|url-status=dead}} and for black liberation and Palestinian solidarity.{{Cite web |title=Scholar Angela Davis on Prison Abolition, Justice for Palestine, Critical Race Theory & More |url=https://www.democracynow.org/2021/12/28/angela_davis_25th_anniversary_taped_segment |access-date=March 6, 2022 |website=Democracy Now! |language=en |archive-date=March 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220306171713/https://www.democracynow.org/2021/12/28/angela_davis_25th_anniversary_taped_segment |url-status=live }}
In a 2023 episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, Henry Louis Gates revealed to Davis that she is a descendant of William Brewster, a passenger on the Mayflower.{{cite web |last1=Gates |first1=Henry Louis |title=Finding Your Roots |url=https://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots |website=PBS |access-date=2023-04-05 |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405025341/https://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/ |url-status=live }} Another ancestor revealed in the episode was Alabama politician John A. Darden, who is Davis's grandfather.{{cite web|url=https://www.today.com/popculture/tv/angela-davis-finding-your-roots-mayflower-ancestors-rcna71700|title=Angela Davis 'can't believe' ancestry revelations going back to the 1600s|first1=Chrissy|last1=Callahan|publisher=Today|date=February 22, 2023|access-date=May 21, 2023|archive-date=March 31, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331072625/https://www.today.com/popculture/tv/angela-davis-finding-your-roots-mayflower-ancestors-rcna71700|url-status=live}}thenation.com/article/society/angela-davis-pbs-genealogy/ In another episode titled Secret Lives it is revealed that Davis is related to Niecy Nash.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/video/secret-lives-/|title=Finding Your Roots | Secret Lives | Season 9 | Episode 3 | PBS|via=www.pbs.org|access-date=April 10, 2024|archive-date=April 10, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240410020712/https://www.pbs.org/video/secret-lives-/|url-status=live}}
Representation in other media
- The first song released in support of Davis was "Angela" (1971), by Italian singer-songwriter and musician Virgilio Savona with his group Quartetto Cetra. He received some anonymous threats.{{cite web|author=Matteo Ceschi|url=https://www.academia.edu/1467460|title=Singing What We Were to Know What We Are: The Quartetto Cetra and National History Italian TV Entertainment|publisher=Academia.edu|access-date=June 7, 2014|archive-date=July 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713084752/https://www.academia.edu/1467460|url-status=live}}
- In 1972, German singer-songwriter and political activist Franz Josef Degenhardt published the song "Angela Davis", the opener to his sixth studio album Mutter Mathilde.
- The Rolling Stones song "Sweet Black Angel", recorded in 1970 and released on their album Exile on Main Street (1972), is dedicated to Davis. It is one of the band's few overtly political releases.{{cite web|author=Kurutz, Steve & The Rolling Stones|url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/sweet-black-angel-mt0007413945|title=Sweet Black Angel|publisher=Allmusic.com|access-date=December 4, 2013|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175930/https://www.allmusic.com/song/sweet-black-angel-mt0007413945|url-status=live}} Its lines include: "She's a sweet black angel, not a gun-toting teacher, not a Red-lovin' schoolmarm / Ain't someone gonna free her, a free de sweet black slave, free de sweet black slave".{{Cite web|title=Sweet Black Angel – The Rolling Stones {{!}} Song Info|url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/sweet-black-angel-mt0007413945|access-date=February 18, 2019|website=AllMusic|language=en-us|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175930/https://www.allmusic.com/song/sweet-black-angel-mt0007413945|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|last=WakeAL.com|first=Matt|title=The Rolling Stones' 'Sweet Black Angel' was about Birmingham native Angela Davis|url=https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/news/20190218/rolling-stones-sweet-black-angel-was-about-birmingham-native-angela-davis|access-date=February 19, 2019|website=Tuscaloosa News|language=en|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331181435/https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/news/20190218/rolling-stones-sweet-black-angel-was-about-birmingham-native-angela-davis|url-status=live}}
- John Lennon and Yoko Ono released their song "Angela" on the album Some Time in New York City (1972) in support of Davis, and a small photo of her appears on the album's cover at the bottom left.{{Cite web|url=https://www.udiscovermusic.com/behind-the-albums/john-lennon-some-time-in-new-york-city/|title=John Lennon – Some Time In New York City|last=Havers|first=Richard|date=May 20, 2015|website=uDiscover Music|language=en-US|access-date=July 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190718220047/https://www.udiscovermusic.com/behind-the-albums/john-lennon-some-time-in-new-york-city/|archive-date=July 18, 2019|url-status=dead}}
- The jazz musician Todd Cochran, also known as Bayete, recorded his song "Free Angela (Thoughts...and all I've got to say)" in 1972.{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/worlds-around-the-sun-mw0000942377|title=Worlds Around the Sun – Bayeté, Todd Cochran {{!}} Songs, Reviews, Credits {{!}} AllMusic|website=AllMusic|access-date=January 19, 2018|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175935/https://www.allmusic.com/album/worlds-around-the-sun-mw0000942377|url-status=live}}
- Tribe Records co-founder Phil Ranelin released a song dedicated to Davis, "Angela's Dilemma", on Message From the Tribe (1972), a spiritual jazz collectible.{{cite book|title=Message From The Tribe|publisher= Tribe Records}} AR 2506.
- In 2019, Julie Dash, who is credited as the first black female director to have a theatrical release of a film (Daughters of the Dust) in the US, announced that she would be directing a film based on Davis's life, from a screenplay by Brian Tucker.{{cite web|url=https://shadowandact.com/sundance-exclusive-julie-dash-to-helm-angela-davis-biopic-from-lionsgate|title=Sundance Exclusive: Julie Dash To Helm Angela Davis Biopic From Lionsgate|last=Obie|first=Brooke|date=January 27, 2019|website=Shadow and Act|access-date=January 28, 2019|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175936/https://shadowandact.com/sundance-exclusive-julie-dash-to-helm-angela-davis-biopic-from-lionsgate|url-status=live}}
=References in other venues=
On January 28, 1972, Garrett Brock Trapnell hijacked TWA Flight 2. One of his demands was Davis's release.{{cite news|last1=Killen|first1=Andreas|title=The First Hijackers|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/magazine/the-first-hijackers.html|access-date=February 1, 2017|work=The New York Times Magazine|date=January 16, 2005|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175935/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/magazine/the-first-hijackers.html|url-status=live}}
File:U2 @ Soldier Field, Chicago 6 3 2017 (39152077155).jpg's concert in Soldier Field, Chicago, 2017]]
In Renato Guttuso's painting The Funerals of Togliatti (1972),{{Cite web |title=Funerali di Togliatti; Author: Guttuso Renato |url=http://www.mambo-bologna.org/en/archivio/collezionecontemporanea/opera-1106/ |access-date=June 29, 2021 |website=MAMbo – Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna; Collezione on-line |archive-date=June 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629200222/http://www.mambo-bologna.org/en/archivio/collezionecontemporanea/opera-1106/ |url-status=live }} Davis is depicted, among other figures of communism, in the left framework, near the author's self-portrait, Elio Vittorini, and Jean-Paul Sartre.{{cite web|url=http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000dJxCkQIelLg/s/750/750/exhibition%20guttuso25.jpg|title=Detail of the painting|website=photoshelter.com|access-date=February 28, 2015|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175932/http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000dJxCkQIelLg/s/750/750/exhibition%2520guttuso25.jpg|url-status=live}}
In 1971, black playwright Elvie Moore wrote the play Angela is Happening, depicting Davis on trial with figures such as Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, and H. Rap Brown as eyewitnesses proclaiming her innocence. The play was performed at the Inner City Cultural Center and at UCLA, with Pat Ballard as Davis. The documentary Angela Davis: Portrait of a Revolutionary (1972) was directed by UCLA Film School student Yolande du Luart.{{Cite news|last=Thompson|first=Howard|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/14/archives/portrait-of-miss-davis-revolutionary.html|title=Portrait of Miss Davis, Revolutionary|date=January 14, 1972|work=The New York Times|access-date=February 12, 2020|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=February 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212221821/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/14/archives/portrait-of-miss-davis-revolutionary.html|url-status=live}} It follows Davis from 1969 to 1970, documenting her dismissal from UCLA. The film wrapped shooting before the Marin County incident.
In the movie Network (1976), Marlene Warfield's character Laureen Hobbs appears to be modeled on Davis.{{Cite thesis|last=Goldsworthy|first=Rupert|title=Revolt into style: Images of 1970s West German "terrorists"|date=2007|url=http://gradworks.umi.com/32/95/3295339.html|url-access=subscription|access-date=January 28, 2017|archive-date=February 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202061621/http://gradworks.umi.com/32/95/3295339.html|url-status=live}} "In [Network, there is] a figure seemingly based on Angela Davis, called Laureen Hobbs, a verbose young Black Communist leader..."
Also in 2018, a cotton T-shirt with Davis's face on it was featured in Prada's 2018 collection.{{cite web |first=Jo |last=Brand |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/dec/24/from-vaginal-eggs-to-sexy-handmaids-jo-brands-feminist-quiz-of-the-year |title=From vaginal eggs to sexy handmaids: Jo Brand's feminist quiz of the year | Life and style |newspaper=The Guardian |date=December 24, 2018 |access-date=December 24, 2018 |archive-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175935/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/dec/24/from-vaginal-eggs-to-sexy-handmaids-jo-brands-feminist-quiz-of-the-year |url-status=live }}
A mural featuring Davis was painted by Italian street artist Jorit Agoch in the Scampia neighborhood of Naples in 2019.
Ms. Davis by Amazing Améziane and Sybille Titeux de la Croix is a graphic biography focusing on Davis's early years and trial. It was published in French in 2020 and in English in 2023.{{cite book |last1=Améziane |first1=Amazing |last2=de la Croix |first2=Sybille Titeux |title=Ms. Davis |year=2023 |publisher=Fantagraphics Books |isbn=978-1683965695}}
Books written
- If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance (New York: Third Press, 1971), {{ISBN|0-893-88022-1}}.
- Angela Davis: An Autobiography, Random House (1974), {{ISBN|0-394-48978-0}}.
- Joan Little: The Dialectics of Rape (New York: Lang Communications, 1975){{cite web|url=http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2002/davis.asp|title=Joan Little: The Dialectics of Rape|website=Ms.|access-date=April 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180130215952/http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2002/davis.asp|archive-date=January 30, 2018|url-status=dead}}
- Women, Race and Class, Random House (1981), {{ISBN|0-394-71351-6}}.
- Women, Culture & Politics, Vintage (1990), {{ISBN|0-679-72487-7}}. The essay "Let Us All Rise Together: Radical Perspectives on Empowerment for Afro-American Women" (an address to the National Women's Studies Conference at Spelman College, June 25, 1987) is included in Daughters of Africa (1992), edited by Margaret Busby, pp. 570–77.
- The Angela Y. Davis Reader (ed. Joy James), Wiley-Blackwell (1998), {{ISBN|0-631-20361-3}}.
- Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday, Vintage Books (1999), {{ISBN|0-679-77126-3}}.
- Are Prisons Obsolete? , Seven Stories Press (2003), {{ISBN|1-58322-581-1}}.
- Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prisons, Torture, and Empire, Seven Stories Press (2005), {{ISBN|1-58322-695-8}}.
- The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues (City Lights, 2012), {{ISBN|978-0872865808}}.
- Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement, Haymarket Books (2015), {{ISBN|978-1-60846-564-4}}.
- Herbert Marcuse, Philosopher of Utopia: A Graphic Biography (foreword, City Lights, 2019), {{ISBN|9780872867857}}.
Interviews and appearances
- 1971
- An Interview with Angela Davis. Cassette. Radio Free People, New York, 1971.
- Myerson, M. "Angela Davis in Prison". Ramparts, March 1971: 20–21.
- Seigner, Art. Angela Davis: Soul and Soledad. Phonodisc. Flying Dutchman, New York, 1971.
- Walker, Joe. Angela Davis Speaks. Phonodisc. Folkways Records, New York, 1971.{{cite web| url = https://folkways.si.edu/angela-davis-speaks/african-american-spoken-american-history/music/album/smithsonian| title = Smithsonian Folkways Recordings| access-date = September 15, 2018| archive-date = September 15, 2018| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180915084604/https://folkways.si.edu/angela-davis-speaks/african-american-spoken-american-history/music/album/smithsonian| url-status = live}}
- 1972–1985
- Black Journal; 67; "Interview with Angela Davis", 1972-06-20, WNET. Angela Davis makes her first national television appearance in an exclusive interview with host Tony Brown, following her recent acquittal of charges related to the San Rafael courtroom shootout.{{Cite journal |title=Interview with Angela Davis |journal=Black Journal |url=http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-1v5bc3tn06 |language=en |access-date=July 7, 2021}}
- Jet, "Angela Davis Talks about her Future and her Freedom", July 27, 1972: 54–57.
- Davis, Angela Y. I Am a Black Revolutionary Woman (1971). Phonodisc. Folkways, New York, 1977.
- Phillips, Esther. Angela Davis Interviews Esther Phillips. Cassette. Pacifica Tape Library, Los Angeles, 1977.
- Cudjoe, Selwyn. In Conversation with Angela Davis. Videocassette. ETV Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, 1985. 21-minute interview.
- 1991–1997
- A Place of Rage Online. Directed by Pratibha Parmar, Kali Films, season-01 1991, vimeo.com/ondemand/aplaceofrage.
- Davis, Angela Y. "Women on the Move: Travel Themes in Ma Rainey's Blues" in Borders/diasporas. Sound Recording. University of California, Santa Cruz: Center for Cultural Studies, Santa Cruz, 1992.
- Davis, Angela Y. Black Is... Black Ain't. Documentary film. Independent Television Service (ITVS), 1994.
- Interview Angela Davis (Public Broadcasting Service, Spring 1997){{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/interviews/davis.html|title=Interview with Angela Davis {{!}} The Two Nations of Black America {{!}} Frontline|website=pbs.org|access-date=April 27, 2018|archive-date=April 28, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180428094043/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/interviews/davis.html|url-status=live}}
- 2000–2002
- Davis, Angela Y. The Prison Industrial Complex and its Impact on Communities of Color. Videocassette. University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, WI, 2000.
- Barsamian, D. "Angela Davis: African American Activist on Prison-Industrial Complex". Progressive 65.2 (2001): 33–38.
- "September 11 America: an Interview with Angela Davis". Policing the National Body: Sex, Race, and Criminalization. Cambridge, Ma. : South End Press, 2002.
- 2010–2016
- Mountains That Take Wing: Angela Davis & Yuri Kochiyama – A Conversation on Life, Struggles & Liberation, documentary film released 2010.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1538867/|title=Mountains That Take Wing|date=June 7, 2010|website=imdb.com|access-date=July 25, 2022|archive-date=July 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725083718/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1538867/|url-status=live}}
- The Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975, a documentary film prominently featuring Davis in a number of rarely seen Swedish interviews, was released in 2011.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1592527/|title=The Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975|date=April 1, 2011|website=imdb.com|access-date=July 1, 2018|archive-date=February 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190214234523/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1592527/|url-status=live}}
- "Feminism and Abolition: Theories and Practices for the 21st Century", University of Chicago, 2013
- "Activist Professor Angela Davis" episode of Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4, December 3, 2014.[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04svjxn "Activist Professor Angela Davis"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141226000631/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04svjxn |date=December 26, 2014 }}, Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4, December 3, 2014.
- Criminal Queers, a fictional DIY film examining the relationship between the LGBT community and the criminal justice system, was released in 2015.{{Cite web|url=https://henryart.org/programs/criminal-queers-screening-conversation|title=Criminal Queers Screening & Conversation – Henry Art Gallery|website=henryart.org|access-date=September 15, 2018|archive-date=September 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915084653/https://henryart.org/programs/criminal-queers-screening-conversation|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://inthesetimes.com/article/the-filmmakers-behind-criminal-queers-explain-why-queer-liberation-is-priso|title=The Filmmakers Behind 'Criminal Queers' Explain Why "Queer Liberation is Prison Abolition"|website=In These Times|date=June 26, 2015|access-date=January 30, 2021|archive-date=January 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128114626/https://inthesetimes.com/article/the-filmmakers-behind-criminal-queers-explain-why-queer-liberation-is-priso|url-status=live}}
- 13th, documentary file about the 13th Amendment and history of the civil rights movement, released 2016.
- Visions of Abolition: From Critical Resistance to A New Way of Life , released 2011; updated in 2021 Revisions of Abolition; https://www.visionsofabolition.org/
Archives
- The National United Committee to Free Angela Davis collection is at the Main Library at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California (A collection of thousands of letters received by the committee and Davis from people in the US and other countries.) {{cite book|url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/4083517|title=National United Committee to Free Angela Davis records, circa 1970–1972|last=National United Committee to Free Angela Davis|date=1970–1972|language=en|access-date=March 2, 2017|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175933/https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/4083517|url-status=live}}
- The complete transcript of her trial, including all appeals and legal memoranda, has been preserved in the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Library in Berkeley, California.{{cite web|url=http://www.mcli.org/law/bancroft.html|title=Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute {{!}} Using the Law {{!}} Bancroft Library|website=mcli.org|access-date=March 2, 2017|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175937/http://www.mcli.org/law/bancroft.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/meiklejohn/publications.html|title=Publications of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute|last=The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley|website=bancroft.berkeley.edu|language=en|access-date=March 2, 2017|archive-date=March 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324180555/http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/meiklejohn/publications.html|url-status=dead}}
- Davis's papers are archived at the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in Cambridge, Massachusetts.{{cite web|url=https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news/in-news/angela-davis-donates-papers-schlesinger-library|title=Angela Davis Donates Papers to Schlesinger Library|first=Sarah J.|last=Hong|publisher=Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study|website=radcliffe.harvard.edu|date=February 14, 2018|access-date=February 27, 2018|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175945/https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news/in-news/angela-davis-donates-papers-schlesinger-library|url-status=dead}}
- Records including correspondence, statements, clippings and other documents about Davis's dismissal from the University of California, Los Angeles due to her political affiliation with the Communist Party are archived at UCLA.{{Cite web|url=http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/ucla/uarc/uars0815.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126081631/http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/ucla/uarc/uars0815.pdf |archive-date=January 26, 2021 |url-status=live|title=UCLA University Archives. Collected materials about Angela Davis. 1969–1982}}
See also
- Africana philosophy
- Billy Strachan, headed the London branch of the Angela Davis Defence Committee{{Cite book |last=Horsley |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hew9zQEACAAJ |title=Billy Strachan 1921–1988 RAF Officer, Communist, Civil Rights Pioneer, Legal Administrator, Internationalist and Above All Caribbean Man |publisher=Caribbean Labour Solidarity |year=2019 |location=London |page=27 |language=en |issn=2055-7035 |access-date=8 May 2023 |archive-date=August 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813152241/https://books.google.com/books?id=hew9zQEACAAJ |url-status=live }}
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
; Popular media
- {{cite news|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/interviews/davis.html |publisher=PBS |title=Interview with Angela Davis|work=Frontline}}
- {{cite news|url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0158221|title=Resisting the Prison Industrial Complex|author=Davis, Angela (Guest)|work=Democracy Now|access-date=December 13, 2005|archive-date=December 14, 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051214191457/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0158221|url-status=dead}} Round table discussion.
- {{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/community/transcripts/chattr092298.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000817201121/http://www.time.com/time/community/transcripts/chattr092298.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 17, 2000 |title=Attacking the Prison Industrial Complex|date= 1998|magazine=Time}} Chat-room users' interview with Davis.
- {{cite news|url=http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/03.13/09-davis.html|title=Angela Davis|work=Harvard Gazette|date=March 13, 2003|access-date=December 13, 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051223222203/http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/03.13/09-davis.html|archive-date=December 23, 2005|url-status=dead}}
- {{cite news|url= http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/10/27/18456544.php |title= Practical Activism Conference in Santa Cruz |work=indybay.org|date=October 27, 2007}}. Audio recording of Davis.
- {{cite news|author=Younge, Gary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/usa/story/0,,2207188,00.html |title=We used to think there was a black community|work=Guardian|date= November 8, 2007|author-link=Gary Younge }} Interview.
- {{cite news|url=http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/19/angela_davis_on_the_prison_abolishment |title=Angela Davis on the 40th Anniversary of Her Arrest and President Obama's First Two Years|work=Democracy Now!|date= October 19, 2010}} Video interview.
- {{cite news|url=http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/AngelaD |series=In Depth|title=Interview with Angela Davis|date= October 3, 2004|publisher= C-Span}}
- Roberts, Steven V., [https://www.nytimes.com/1970/08/23/archives/angela-davis-the-making-of-a-radical-not-convicted.html "Angela Davis: The Making Of a Radical"], The New York Times, August 23, 1970.
- Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta, {{"'}}Hell, Yes, We Are Subversive{{'"}} (review of Angela Y. Davis, Angela Davis: An Autobiography, Haymarket, 2022, 358 pp.; and Charisse Burden-Stelly and Jodi Dean, eds., Organize, Fight, Win: Black Communist Women's Political Writing, Verso, 2022, 323 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXIX, no. 14 (September 22, 2022), pp. 58, 60–62.
; Books
- {{cite book|first1=Mike|last1=Davis|author-link1=Mike Davis (scholar)|first2=Jon|last2=Wiener|author-link2=Jon Weiner|title=Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties|publisher=Verso Books|location=New York|date=2020}}
; Primary sources
- [https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8x06bbs/ Donald Kalish papers, Box 4 and Box 7]. UCLA Library Special Collections.
External links
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
- {{cite news|url=http://blackhistorydaily.com/black_quotes/angela__davis_quotes.html|title= Davis quotations |work=Black History Daily}}
- {{C-SPAN|21225}}
- {{IMDb name|id=0204171}}
- {{cite web |url=http://www.aacvr-germany.org/AACVR.ORG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=102&Itemid=70 |title=Angela Davis Biography, The Civil Rights Struggle, African American GIs, and Germany |publisher=aacvr-germany.org |access-date=January 24, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503212824/http://www.aacvr-germany.org/AACVR.ORG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=102&Itemid=70 |archive-date=May 3, 2011 |url-status=dead }}
- {{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1427|title=Angela Davis|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Alabama|date=|access-date=March 4, 2009|archive-date=March 13, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313145214/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1427|url-status=dead}}
- {{cite web|url=http://purl.lib.ua.edu/81493 |title=Angela Davis Ephemera Collection, W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library|publisher= University Libraries Division of Special Collections, The University of Alabama}}
- {{cite web|url=http://floridamemory.com/items/show/232439 |title=Film clip, Davis speaking at Florida A&M University's Black History Month convocation|date= 1979|publisher= Florida Memory}}
- [https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis.html The New York Times archive of Davis-related articles]
- [https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/resources/9669 Angela Y. Davis Papers, 1937–2017] MC 940. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
- [http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/99153697818103941/catalog Angela Y. Davis Collection of the Schlesinger Library] A/D260. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
- [https://culturalstudies.ucsc.edu/inscriptions/volume-7/angela-y-davis-elizabeth-martinez/ "Coalition Building Among People of Color"] A discussion with Angela Y. Davis and Elizabeth Martínez (1993)
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