WWAD: Angela Davis

Angela Davis
Angela Davis:
An Autobiography
(New York: International Publishers Co., 1989)

Angela Yvonne Davis was born in 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama to schoolteachers B. Frank and Sally E. Davis. In 1949 the family moves from the projects to a larger house which would become known as "dynamite hill" because of the constant bombings of protest against blacks moving into the area. Experiencing prejudice at such an early age and looking for a way to keep their dignity, Angela and her friends would yell the worst epitaphs at the white people as they drove through "dynamite hill."

Angela grew up under the auspices that if you work hard enough you will be rewarded and therefore will rise above the obstacles that faced blacks in their everyday lives. She witnessed it in her parents who overcame many obstacles to put themselves through college and both went on to become teachers and raise a middle-class family.

At the age of fifteen she was faced with the decision of where to continue her education. Her choices were an early entrance program at Fisk University in Nashville, one of the most academically prestigious black universities in the country or an experimental program in New York which integrated southern black students. After back and forth decisions she eventually chose to go to New York. While in New York she became enthralled with the communist party after reading the Communist Manifesto written by Carl Marx explaining the aims of communism. Around the same time the civil rights movement was gaining momentum down in the south.

After graduating from Elizabeth Irwin High School in New York it was on to Brandeis University in Massachusetts where she was only 1 of 3 black females there on scholarship. After spending two years there she went on to attend her junior year studying in France. This was a place where she came to realize how important it was to be able to break down the superficial barriers which separated all the different races and ethnicities.

In September 16, 1963 Angela graduated Brandeis magna cum laude and went on to do her graduate studies in philosophy in Germany. In 1965, while studying in Germany the black Liberation Movement was gaining momentum in the U.S. and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee was becoming the foremost advocate of "Black Power." Angela was tired of watching these struggles for equality from afar and after two years, in 1967, decided it was time to return home and get politically involved.

In 1968 and living in San Diego, Angela joined the Black Panther Party which at the time was just a small group of intellectuals and who later on merged with SNCC, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee unsuccessfully. Later on in 1968, looking for people with whom she could share a common ideology, Angela joined the Che Lumumba Club, the black wing of the communist party who's aim was to help the Black Liberation struggle in Los Angeles and to provide leadership as far as the black Movement was concerned.

During her years as a communist member Angela frequently participated in militant demonstrations and protests aimed at helping the plight of minorities. This did not come without consequences. In 1969 she lost her job as assistant professor at the University of California at Los Angeles when found to be a member of the communist party. She was later reinstated but her contract was not renewed in 1970.

In 1970 her biggest fight came when she was accused of being involved in a 1970 prison break during a trial at the Marin County courthouse which left 4 dead including a judge. Her involvement with the Soledad brothers, the prisoners that she was fighting to free at the time and who had connections to the trial and her very active involvement in the communist party and the Black Liberation Movement made her a prime target for accusation. She was put on the F.B.I's ten most wanted list for murder, kidnapping, and interstate flight and accused of supplying the guns used in the Marin County shootout that left four dead. After two months in hiding she was apprehended. After spending 16 months in jail she was tried and acquitted on all charges.

Angela Davis still today is active in the black Liberation Movement only now her controversial behavior has lessened. She is well known on the lecture circuit and even ran for vice-president of the United States in the 1980 election under the communist party.