Angela Davis: Woman Warrior

 Angela Davis: Woman Warrior

Quinn O'Malley 

Photo: Sophie Bassouls/Sygma via Getty Images

    Angela Davis is one of the most impactful trailblazers in American history. Angela Yvonne Davis was born in 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama. Being a young black girl in the United States, Angela faced racism very early on in her life. The New York Historical Society says, “Angela’s neighborhood was nicknamed “Dynamite Hill” because the Ku Klux Klan often attacked the homes of Black residents with bombs.” These attacks were part of Angela’s everyday life. But, in spite of the hate, young Angela Davis was also interested in activism. During her youth, Angela’s mother would take her to communist-based civil rights groups for African American citizens. The New York Historical Society also says, “As a high school junior, Angela participated in a program that paired Black students from the South with white families in the North. The goal was to integrate northern schools and connect more white Northerners to the Southern Black experience. Angela lived with a family in Greenwich Village, New York City. The school she attended was very progressive and reinforced the values instilled in Angela by her parents. She joined the school’s communist youth group.” In her college years, Angela studied French Literature at Brandeis University. She then went on to earn her PhD in philosophy while studying in Germany.

Photo: Oakland Museum of California

    Directly after her studies, Davis moved back to the United States and started becoming more and more involved in activism once again. She was deeply involved with Black civil rights groups. Angela even worked with the Black Panther Party. Over time, Angela knew she agreed with the core ideas of these groups, she realized she did not support the way these groups were treating the women in them. Angela then joined the Communist Party. In 1969, she accepted the position of a professor of philosophy at UCLA. Due to Angela’s political connections, the governor of California, future president Ronald Reagan, tried to get her fired from her teaching position. The case was taken to the Supreme Court and Angela was able to continue teaching philosophy for a few more months until the university fired her for comments she had made regarding politics. During this time, Angela discovered a group that would forever change her life, the Soledad Brothers Defense Committee. 

              Photo: University of Missouri 

    An article about Angela’s life from History details the organization, “Outside of academia, Angela Davis had become a strong supporter of three prison inmates of Soledad Prison known as the Soledad brothers (they were not related). These three men—John W. Cluchette, Fleeta Drumgo, and George Lester Jackson—were accused of killing a prison guard after 

several African American inmates had been killed in a fight by another guard. Some thought these prisoners were being used as scapegoats because of the political work within the prison.” Angela’s role in the committee was to raise funds and awareness in support of the three men. In 1970, during George Lester Jackson’s trial, his brother, Johnathon, busted through the courtroom doors with a gun. His goal was to take hostages and free his brother. In the end, Jonathan, Judge Harold Haley, and two other inmates were killed. Because of Angela’s connection to the organization, she was highly scrutinized. Eventually, she was brought up on several charges due to her involvement in the committee. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture explains, “Evidence showed that the guns were registered to her and rumors said she was in love with Jackson, which later proved untrue. Davis went into hiding and was placed on the FBI’s most wanted list. She spent eighteen months in jail, which led to the 'Free Angela Davis' campaign and the 'Angela Davis Legal Defense Committee.' This entire situation was broadcast around the world. In response to Angela’s situation John Lennon and Yoko One wrote their song, 'Angela' and The Rolling Stones wrote their song, 'Sweet Black Angel'.” 

Photo: New York Committee to Free
Angela Davis (c.1971)

    After she was released from prison in 1972, Angela didn’t stop there. In 1997, she came out as gay to Out Magazine. She has returned to teaching and has taught and spoke in many states around the country. During this time, Angela published a number of books including: Women, Race, and Class (1980), Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday (1999), Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003), Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture (2005), The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues (2012) and Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement (2016).

Erich Honecker and Angela Davis, Berlin, September 11, 1972
Photo by Peter Koard, Courtesy German Federal Archives

The impact of Angela’s work is still felt today. Harvard says, “Ms. Davis is currently the Distinguished Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Ms. Davis is an icon of resistance as well as one of the most influential intellectuals in the United States.” Angela Davis broke barriers for women in activism. Not only this, but she became a strong figure for black women in America. She became a model for inspired women all across America. The books that Angela wrote are still bought all across the country. Her books have made waves on the issue of the American prison system. 

Angela Davis, photographed outside her home
in Oakland, Calif., on July 25, 2020.John Edmonds 
(The New York Times)

Angela is still working to this day. My Black History reports, “Angela Davis is a member of the executive board of the Women of Color Resource Center, a San Francisco Bay Area organization that emphasizes education of and about women who live in conditions of poverty. She also works with Justice Now, which provides legal assistance to women in prison and engages in advocacy for the abolition of imprisonment as the dominant strategy for addressing social problems. Internationally, she is affiliated with Sisters Inside, a similar organization based in Queensland, Australia.”

She is still an academic and an activist. She still fights

for women and people of color all across the world. While Angela has gotten older, she realizes the

fight for justice has remained mostly the same

and continues to fight for change. 

Works Cited

         Boomer, Lee. “Life Story: Angela Davis.” Women & the American Story, 9 July 2022, https://wams.nyhistory.org/growth-and-turmoil/feminism-and-the-backlash/angela-davis/. 

         Angela Davis - Activist, Life & Books - History. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/angela-davis. 

         “Angela Davis.” Women Inspiring Change, 2 Mar. 2015, https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/womeninspiringchange/2015-honorees/angela-davis/. 

         Angela Davis-Civil Rights Activist, http://www.myblackhistory.net/Angela_Davis.htm.