Reasons Why Angela Davis is My Favorite Women’s Activist and should be Yours as Well

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1.) Even During Civil Rights, She Wasn’t Down with Misogyny

Angela Davis became involved with the Civil Rights movement, joining the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1967 and soon after, the Black Panther Party (BPP). However, she was only a part of the Black Panther Party for a short amount of time due to sexist practices among male members. She left and joined the Che-Lumumba Club in 1968, which was a communist party in Los Angeles. In the Che-Lumumba Club, Davis was able to vocalize her activist intentions without dealing with misogyny.

2.) When She Fell Down, She got Right back Up

Angela’s involvement with the Communist Party caused her to lose her job as an assistant professor at the University of California (UCLA). However, her students and faculty associates fought to have her reinstated into her position. The following year the California Board of Regents did not rehire her the following year despite her favorable reputation as teacher and her popularity among the students. In Angela’s defense a lawsuit was filed against UCLA. Angela won the case and was allowed to teach back at UCLA.

3.) Social Injustice Wasn’t Allowed in Her Book

Two of the four weapons used in the Soledad incident were registered in Angela’s name. Davis was on the FBI’s most wanted list for murder. Angela was undercover for two months and with a warrant for her arrest; women were being pulled over in cars and stopped on the street for being black. After two months Angela was taken into custody which caused outraged with the public and supporters created a huge international campaign “Free Angela Davis” to protest in Angela’s defense.

4.) Black Feminism

Angela focused on the corners of black women, especially oppression of Black women. Her book Women, Race, and Class highlights the racism and classism in the Women’s Suffrage Movement such as excluding the voices of Black, trans, and working-class women. She saw the goal of the women’s suffrage movement as a bourgeois white women’s goal who were interested in revolution than out voting their oppressor within bourgeois electoral systems. In other publications, Angela discusses slavery and how it has impacted American society’s concept of black women through sexual abuse and rape by white male plantation owners.

5.)She Still Kicks Butt Today

Angela continues to speak about the struggles of feminism, racial, gender, and equality issues. She advocates for improvement of prison conditions and is the founder of the Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to breaking down the prison industrial complex. In a speech she gave in 2015 Angela addressed imprisonment concerns in regard to gender and race issues.