Angela Davis was born in segregated Alabama in 1944 and attended an integrated school in New York. She became involved in socialist and communist movements, as well as the Black Panther party. Accused of being an accomplice in a murder, she was eventually acquitted and spent time in Cuba before becoming a professor and activist for prison reform and social justice causes.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama on January 26, 1944, Angela Yvonne Davis grew up in a segregated society that was about to experience great change. Gifted with a brilliant mind, Davis applied to a program run by the American Friends Service Committee that allowed minority children growing up in the United States’ Deep South region to seek an education in racially integrated schools in the northern part of the United States. village.
At the age of fourteen, Angela Davis began classes at Elizabeth Irwin High School, located in New York’s Greenwich Village. It was during her stay at Elizabeth Irwin that she Davis had the change to learn about the principles of socialism and communism. Eventually, she Angela Davis became active with the Advance program, sponsored by the Communist Party USA. Davis also associated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while she was in college.
After completing her education, Angela Davis began working as an acting assistant on the campus of the University of California in Los Angeles. During this time, Davis self-identified as a radical feminist, social activist, and member of the emerging Black Panther party. Her presence on the UCLA campus was briefly interrupted when she was fired in late 1969. Her reason given was her active membership in the Communist Party, rather than any mention of her socialist philosophies or her involvement with the Black Panthers. A strong and vocal show of support for Davis from the community led to a reversal of her firing.
During the summer of 1970, Angela Davis seemed to become more involved in the Black Panther business. At the same time, the Black Panther movement was receiving more national attention, not entirely positive. In part this is due to the support of the leaders of the Black Panther movement for the so-called Soledad Brothers, three men who were incarcerated in the Soledad prison in California. An attempted hostage-taking trial of a third party, James McClain, resulted in several people being shot and killed. Among those who died was Judge Harold Haley, who was killed while being kidnapped. The gun used to kill Haley was allegedly registered under Angela Davis’ name.
Named as an accomplice in the murder, Davis fled California and was eventually captured in New York City two months later. After eighteen months, Angela Davis was tried and acquitted of all charges associated with the attempted kidnapping and subsequent deaths of Haley and others.
Following her release, Angela Davis spent several years in Cuba where she was warmly received. While a staunch supporter of the socialist regime in the Soviet Union and also an avid worker for prison reform, Davis was often accused of ignoring the conditions endured by prisoners in Soviet prisons, choosing instead to focus on the need for prison reform in the United States.
During the 1980s Angela Davis twice ran for Vice President of the Communist Party and also wrote the first of several books. Davis continued to lobby for prison reforms, identifying herself as a prison abolitionist. A popular guest speaker across the country, Angela Davis is currently Professor of the History of Consciousness at the University of California, as well as the Presidential Chair for the University of California at Santa Cruz campus. Angela Davis continues to work as an activist on many causes, including prison reform, the fight against the death penalty, and racial and gender equality.
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