Biography

"The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension between the requirement that positions be taken on current issues as they arise and the desire that one's contributions will somehow survive the ravages of time"-Angela Davis, ("Women, Culture and Politics," 1989).

Student, Professor, Communist, Activist, Radical, Presidential Candidate, Fugitive, Feminist, Philosopher.  Each label describes Angela Yvonne Davis, who was born January 26,1944, in Birmingham, Alabama to B. Frank and Sally E. Davis.  The daughter of two schoolteachers, Angela developed a strong appreciation for education and philosophy in particular.  She received her B.A. from Brandeis University in 1965 and was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, San Diego.  It was under the direction of Herbert Marcuse in California that Davis became involved with the Communist Party in 1968.  Her burgeoning radicalism led to her eventual dismissal as Assistant Professor from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1969.  In 1970, the California Board of Regents also severed her position as a lecturer in philosophy.

 Despite the stress to her academic career, Davis continued to be a prominent figure in national and local politics.  She continued to work closely with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Communist Party, as well as the Black Panthers.  Her work with the Black Panthers, a revolutionary group founded in 1966 by Huey P. Newton, brought her into contact with issues that besieged the African-American community, such as unemployment, unfair housing and schooling, police brutality, racism, and the need for better representation within the United States government.  Davis became involved with the cause of black prisoners specifically and grew close to a young revolutionary, George Jackson.  Jackson was part of the Soledad (Prison) Three who were implicated in a futile escape and kidnapping attempt from the Hall of Justice in Marin County, California on August 7, 1970.  The assault left four dead including the trial judge presiding over their case and Jackson’s younger brother.

 Davis was suspected of being an accomplice to the endeavor and was later charged with kidnapping, murder, and conspiracy.  Her fugitive status landed her high on the FBI's "Most Wanted List."  She was eventually apprehended in October of 1970 after more than a month underground and convicted of the charges brought against her.  However, due to the resounding "Free Angela" campaign for her release and a second trial, Davis was acquitted in 1972 after spending sixteen months in prison.

 Upon her release, Davis formed the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and ran unsuccessfully for Vice-President on the Communist Party ticket in 1980.  Currently, Angela Davis is back on staff at the University of California, San Diego as a professor of Philosophy.  Davis has published five books, given numerous speeches, and appeared in the racially significant film "A Place of Rage."  Today, she continues her work as a writer, activist, and champion of reform in the American prison system
 

Brief Analysis of Writings

Davis has published a number of important theoretical works that fall under the category of Third World Feminism.  She writes from a fresh, analytical perspective that examines the intersections of race, class and gender, while examining history and contemporary politics.  Her work came at the same time that the second wave of feminism was underway in the Untied States with the emergence of writing by Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinman, Doris Lessing, and other white, middle-class feminists.  Davis’s writing was part of the growing movement toward Black Feminist Thought as an alternative way to analyze the condition of women.  However, in this school of thought, all women are not taken to be equal; rather, their individual oppressions are placed contextually in a matrix of race, class, and gender.  Davis’s book Women, Race and Class explores the American women's movement using a Black Feminist framework to look at women in the U.S. starting with the abolitionist movement to present day issues that plague women of color.  Her companion text, Women, Culture and Politics takes up the issues brought forth in her earlier historical account, such as racism, violence, health, children, education.  In her latest work, Davis breaks from her previous historical texts and examines the lives of black American jazz singers in her book Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday.  Davis approaches the lives of these American musical legends from a feminist perspective to give an enlightening view of the impact that black working-class blues singers had on shaping African-American feminism.  Her work remains a pillar in the history of third world feminism and Black consciousness

Accomplishments and Works by Davis

1955-Awarded scholarship to progressive school in New York City.
1965-Received BA from Brandeis University with honors
1971-Published essays "If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance"
1974- Published Angela Davis: An Autobiography
1981-Published book Women, Race and Class
1988-Published book Women, Culture and Politics
1995-Awarded National Association of Black Journalists Ethel Payne Fellowship for Africa
1998-Published book Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
 

Author: Amy Bhatt, Spring 2000
 

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