How Did Angela Davis Impact Society

Angela Davis an Autobiography is a declaration of Davis’ life journey within “Bombingham” (Birmingham) Alabama to her political ties within Communist Party. Davis is a prototype of an anomaly within the US. She went from being placed on the FBI’s most wanted list, to escaping the death penalty, to becoming a professor at one of the premiere colleges within the US, University of California- Los Angeles . How did she do it ? What is Davis’ secret ? Simply becoming aware of the world she lived in, but was engulf in systemic ways of doing things.

At one period, Davis had become an ardent supporter of three prison inmates of Soledad Prison known as the Soledad brothers. Although, she was not related these three men — John W. Cluchette, Fleeta Drumgo and George Lester Jackson (Biography, 2018). She found interest in them because they were unjustly being 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 (Biography, 2018). She became involved in the case of the Soledad Brothers, a group of prisoners at Soledad Prison.

Her path became rocky quickly. At first she wanted to make the students in her school aware of the mission/goals of the Black Lives Matter. She was met with dismissal of this movement by students, as well as, teachers. She was shunned by some she considered her friends. She felt an issue so important to the safety of her fellow students and those in her community would be embraced. It wasn’t, but this did not deter her from continuing to share the voice the movement, even when she stopped being so popular.

Angela Davis, is an African American professor, writer, scholar, activist in civil right and social issues. She was born on January 26, 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama to Frank Davis, a service station owner and Sallye Davis, a teacher but participant in the NAACP. At a young age, Angela Davis learned of racial prejudice in her hometown, by witnessing bombings in her neighborhood referred as “Dynamite Hill” and having her interracial studies groups broken up by police. As, a teenager these experiences did not deter her rather continued to excel in her academics. She attended Brandeis University in Massachusetts, where she earned her B.A. in 1965 (magnum cum laude). However, while in college she learned of the Sixteen Street Baptist Church Bombing

Angela Davis achieved many great things in her life and now she is getting recognized by many people on International Women's Day. She had worked very hard to become the person that she is today. Angela is an American Politician activist, who then become an academic scholar and which then lead to her becoming an author who has had her book read by many people. She was always involved in many marches all over including the Black Panther Party, and the Civil Rights Movement. Davis has always been involved in all different types of activities which played a big role in her life. After she started to get involved she has started to have a higher interest in such political and more informational things.

“You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.” This quote relates to Shirley Chisholm because even though she was a women and African American, it did not stop her from becoming a congresswoman. Also becoming the first African American Women to run for presidency (biography.com). Shirley Chisholm’s life was influenced by her early life. Their major accomplishments to American society including becoming the first African American congresswoman helped them earn their place in history as an important African American.

She was the first southern black female elected to the United States House of Representatives and the first African American woman to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. She originally wanted to attend the University of Texas but since it was so segregated she don’t not get admitted and chose Texas Southern University, majoring in political science and history.

Patricia Hill Collins’s work, Black Feminist Thought seeks to center Black Women into intersectionalist thought, addressing the power struggles that face them not only due to their race but also to the gender. Masculine rhetoric and powerful male leaders such as Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver have overshadowed Black Women’s stories, both in and out of the Civil Right Rights/Black Power

Angela Davis was a prominent political activist in the United States. She was a member of the Communist Party of the USA where she ran for vice president in 1980 and 1984. She was also involved with the Black Panthers and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Davis spent sixteen months in prison due to charges of murder and conspiracy but was acquitted of all charges and released. She has authored many books that delve into the social position of black women in America and the prison system. In Women, Race, & Class Davis discusses the diverse ways the women’s rights movements have mistreated and ignored black women’s struggle for freedom.

African American women have long been stereotyped, discriminated against and generalized in this country. They have had to face both being black in America while also being a woman in America. African American women encountered and still do encounter double discrimination of both sex and race (Cuthbert, 117). Women like Elise Johnson McDougald, Marion Vera Cuthbert and Alice Dunbar-Nelson all tried to shed light on what it was like to be an African American woman living in the 20th century yet literature often portrayed them as emotional, hypersexual, unintelligent and of lesser worth. The literature highlighted that African American women have to serve both their employer and their husbands and families. They are not supposed to have an opinion or stand up for themselves, especially to a white man. ***Concluding sentence?

Katie L. Love writes in her article Black Feminism: An Integrated Review of Literature, “The experiences of African-American woman are both complex and unique, based on similarities in experiences with racism and sexism stereotyping and in a shared history”(Love 11.) Black women’s history in feminism has been infrequent. Their battle is not only with sexism, but also also race and how they are not seen as equals within white culture because of their skin color even though for centuries they did nothing but get traded, sold, and taken from their home lands. Despite this they just wanted be treated as equals, but they are invisible to the white community. “Where did my body end and the crystal and white world begin?”(Ellison 238.)

In 1963, four black girls were killed in a bombing of a church, the bombing took place in her hometown and it became known as the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing. This sparked a passion in Davis for philosophy because she was personally affected by the bombing, she knew two of the people killed in it. As a result of this tragedy she joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and then the Black Panther Party.

Wether it was recruitment, mobilization, or obtaining and securing resources, African American women were the backbone and the unsung heros of these movements. “Given the context of the times, the period 1954-65, women who participated in the civil rights movement experienced unprecedented power” (Robnett 1996).

Society continues to nurture these depriving situations and demonstrate lack of concern towards black women by not celebrating them for the roles they played in the movements. Taylor (1998) asserted that, “despite the fact that the most celebrated leaders of the modern civil rights movements were men, African American women participated at every stage in the struggle for justice and equality” (239). Although black women were not in public eyes during these movements, it was their vision and organizing roles they played that helped in the progression of many liberation movements.

In 1969, Davis came back the America and joined several radical civil rights organizations. She was a member of the Communist Party, USA and a member of the Black Panther Party along with being an assistance professor at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA). Governor at the time, Ronald Reagan, tried to terminate her position as UCLA professor because of her Communist affiliation, but that was overturned. Yet, devastation struck only a few months later.