Angela Davis

Angela Davis born January 26,1944 in Birmingham Alabama, was and is a activist, scholar, and writer who fought for the oppressed. She is best known for being a radical African American educator and activist for civil rights and many other social issues.

From a young age, Davis was very aware of her current status as an African American and a woman. With that awareness, as a teenager created interracial groups that mainly focused on police brutality.

Davis studied in Brandies University in Massachusetts and majored in philosophy. She graduated from University of California in San Diego. In the late 1960s, Davis was associated with the Black Panthers. She spent most of her time with an all communist black group called the Che-Lumumba Club.

She taught at University of California in Los Angeles. Davis had issues with the staff because she was associated with a communist party. When the school fired her, Davis tried to get her job back with the court behind her. But still ended up leaving with her contract expiring in 1970.

Davis became a strong supporter of three prison inmates in Soledad Prison. She referenced them as Soledad Brothers even though they were not related. John W. Cluchette, Fleeta Drumgo and George Lester Jackson were accused of killing a prison guard after several African Americans inmates were killed in fight by another guard. During Jackson’s trial in 1970, an escape attempt was made but during the attempt, several people in the court room were killed. Davis ended up being charged with murder, and her part in the attempt. Davis ended up spending 18 months in prison because of the evidence. But was acquitted in 1972.

Davis returned to teaching at University of California in Santa Cruz. She taught the History of Consciousness. Davis wrote several books such as Women, Race, Class, and Are prisons obsolete?

Davis teaches us that we should never give up on our rights as African American people. We should keep fighting for our basic human rights and our African American men.