Angela Davis

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Angela Davis

Davis in October 2006 Angela Yvonne Davis Born January 26, 1944 (age 67) Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. Ethnicity African-American Citizenship United States Education University of Santa Cruz Brandeis University, B.A., (1965) Alma mater University of California, San Diego,
M.A.

Humboldt University, Ph.D., Philosophy Occupation Activist, educator, author University of California, Santa Cruz Employer
(retired)

Influenced by Political party Spouse Relatives

Herbert Marcuse Communist Party USA (1969-1991), Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (1991currenty) Hilton Braithwaite div.[1] Ben Davis, brother

Angela Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis emerged as a nationally prominent activist in the 1960s, when she was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party. Prisoner rights have been among her continuing

interests; she is the founder of "Critical Resistance", an organization working to abolish the prison-industrial complex. She is a retired professor with the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz and is the former director of the university's Feminist Studies department.[2] Her research interests are in feminism, African American studies, critical theory, Marxism, popular music and social consciousness, and the philosophy and history of punishment and prisons.[3] Her membership in the Communist Party led to Ronald Reagan's request in 1969 to have her barred from teaching at any university in the State of California. She was tried and acquitted of suspected involvement in the Soledad brothers' August 1970 abduction and murder of Judge Harold Haley in Marin County, California. She was twice a candidate for Vice President on the Communist Party USA ticket during the 1980s.

Contents
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1 Early life 2 Education o 2.1 Brandeis University o 2.2 University of Frankfurt o 2.3 Postgraduate work 3 UCLA 4 Arrest and trial 5 In Cuba 6 Aleksander Solzhenitsyn 7 Activism 8 Bibliography o 8.1 Angela Davis interviews and appearances in audiovisual materials o 8.2 Archives 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Early life

Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Her father, Frank Davis, was a graduate of St. Augustine's College, a traditionally black college in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was briefly a high school history teacher. Her father later owned and operated a service station in the black section of Birmingham. Her mother, Sallye Davis, a graduate of Miles College in Birmingham, was an elementary school teacher. The family lived in the "Dynamite Hill" neighborhood, which was marked by racial conflict. Davis was occasionally able to spend time on her uncle's farm and with friends in New York City.[4] Her brother, Ben Davis, played defensive back for the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Davis also has another brother, Reginald Davis, and sister, Fania Davis Jordan.[5] Davis attended Carrie A. Tuggle School, a black elementary school; later she attended Parker Annex, a middle-school branch of Parker High School in Birmingham. During this time Davis mother was a national officer and leading organizer of the Southern Negro Congress, an organization heavily influenced by the Communist Party. Consequently Davis grew up surrounded by communist organizers and thinkers who significantly influenced her intellectual development growing up.[6] By her junior year, she had applied to and

was accepted at an American Friends Service Committee program that placed black students from the South in integrated schools in the North. She chose Elisabeth Irwin High School in Greenwich Village in New York City. There she was introduced to socialism and communism and was recruited by a Communist youth group, Advance. She also met children of some of the leaders of the Communist Party USA, including her lifelong friend, Bettina Aptheker.[7]

[edit] Education
[edit] Brandeis University
Davis was awarded a scholarship to Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she was one of three black students in her freshman class. She initially felt alienated by the isolation of the campus (at that time she was interested in Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre), but she soon made friends with foreign students. She encountered the Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse at a rally during the Cuban Missile Crisis and then became his student. In a television interview, she said "Herbert Marcuse taught me that it was possible to be an academic, an activist, a scholar, and a revolutionary."[8] She worked part time to earn enough money to travel to France and Switzerland before she went on to attend the eighth World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki, Finland. She returned home in 1963 to a Federal Bureau of Investigation interview about her attendance at the Communist-sponsored festival.[9] During her second year at Brandeis, she decided to major in French and continued her intensive study of Sartre. Davis was accepted by the Hamilton College Junior Year in France Program and, she wrote in her autobiography, she managed to talk Brandeis into extending financial support via her scholarship. Classes were initially at Biarritz and later at the Sorbonne. In Paris, she and other students lived with a French family. It was at Biarritz that she received news of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing, committed by the members of the Ku Klux Klan, an occasion that deeply affected her, because, she wrote, she was personally acquainted with the young victims.[9] Nearing completion of her degree in French, Davis realized her major interest was in philosophy. She became particularly interested in the ideas of Herbert Marcuse and on her return to Brandeis she sat in on his course without asking for credit. Marcuse, she wrote, turned out to be approachable and helpful. Davis began making plans to attend the University of Frankfurt for graduate work in philosophy. In 1965 she graduated magna cum laude, a member of Phi Beta Kappa.[9]

[edit] University of Frankfurt

In Germany, with a stipend of just $100 a month, she first lived with a German family. Later, she moved with a group of students into a loft in an old factory. After visiting East Berlin during the annual May Day celebration, she felt that the East German government was dealing better with the residual effects of fascism than were the West Germans. Many of her roommates were active in the radical Socialist German Student Union (SDS), and Davis participated in SDS actions, but events unfolding in the United States the formation of the Black Panther Party and transformation of SNCC, for example impelled her to return to the US.[9]

[edit] Postgraduate work

This section requires expansion. Marcuse, in the meantime, had moved to the University of California, San Diego, and Davis followed him there after her two years in Frankfurt.[9]

Returning to the United States, Davis stopped in London to attend a conference on "The Dialectics of Liberation." The black contingent at the conference included the American Stokely Carmichael and the British Michael X. Although moved by Carmichael's fiery rhetoric, she was disappointed by her colleagues' black nationalist sentiments and their rejection of communism as a "white man's thing." She held the view that any nationalism was a barrier to grappling with the underlying issue, capitalist domination of working people of all races.[10] Davis earned her master's degree from the San Diego campus and her doctorate in philosophy from Humboldt University in East Berlin.[11] Davis is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Women's and Gender Studies Department at Syracuse University.[12] She also worked as a visiting professor with the Syracuse University Department of African American studies.

[edit] UCLA
Davis was an acting assistant professor in the philosophy department at the UCLA, beginning in 1969. At that time, she also was known as a radical feminist and activist, a member of the Communist Party USA and an associate of the Black Panther Party.[2] The Board of Regents of the University of California, urged by then-California Governor Ronald Reagan, fired her from her $10,000 a year post in 1969 because of her membership in the Communist Party. Black students and several professors, however, claimed that they fired her because of her race. The Board of Regents was censured by the American Association of University Professors for their failure to reappoint Davis after her teaching contract expired.[13] On October 20 when California judge, Perry Pacht, ruled that the Regents could not fire Davis because of her affiliation with the Communist Party, Davis resumed her post at the University. The Regents, unhappy with the decision, continued to search for ways to release Davis from her position at UCLA. They finally accomplished this on June 20, 1970 when they fired Davis on account of the inflammatory language she had used on four different speeches. We deem particularly offensive, the report said, such utterances as her statement that the regents killed, brutalized (and) murdered the Peoples Park demonstrators, and her repeated characterizations of the police as pigs. [14][15][16]

[edit] Arrest and trial

See also: Marin County courthouse incident On August 7, 1970 Jonathan Jackson, a heavily armed, 17-year-old African American high school student gained control over a courtroom in Marin County, California. Once in the courtroom, Jackson armed the black defendants and took Judge Harold Haley, the prosecutor, and three female jurors as hostages.[17][18] As Jackson transported the hostages and two black convicts away from the courtroom, the police began shooting at the vehicle. The judge, one of the jurors, the prosecutor, and the three black men were killed in the melee. Davis had purchased the firearms used in the attack, including the shotgun used to kill Haley, which had been purchased two days prior and sawed-off.[18] She had also written numerous letters found in the prison cell of one of the murderers. Since California considers all persons concerned in the commission of a crime, whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense principals in any crime so committed, San Marin County Superior Judge Peter Allen Smith charged Davis with aggravated kidnapping and first degree murder in the death of Judge Harold Haley and issued a warrant for her arrest (21). Hours after the judge issued the warrant on August 14, 1970 a massive attempt to arrest Angela Davis began. On August 18, 1970, four days after the initial warrant was issued, FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover made Angela Davis the third woman and the 309th person to appear on the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List.[17][19]

Soon after, Davis became a fugitive and fled California. According to her autobiography, during this time she hid in friends homes and moved from place to place at night. On October 13, 1970 FBI agents found her at the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in New York City.[20] President Richard M. Nixon congratulated the FBI on its capture of the dangerous terrorist, Angela Davis." On January 5, 1971, after several months in jail, Angela Davis appeared at the Marin County Superior Court and declared her innocence before the court and nation: "I now declare publicly before the court, before the people of this country that I am innocent of all charges which have been leveled against me by the state of California." John Abt, general counsel of the Communist Party USA, was one of the first attorneys to represent Davis for her alleged involvement in the shootings.[21] While being held in the Women's Detention Center there, she was initially segregated from the general population, but with the help of her legal team soon obtained a federal court order to get out of the segregated area.[22]

Angela Davis and Erich Honecker in GDR, 1972 Across the nation, the thousands of people who agreed with her declaration began organizing a liberation movement. In New York City, black writers formed a committee called the Black People in Defense of Angela Davis. By February 1971 more than 200 local committees in the United States, and 67 in foreign countries worked to liberate Angela Davis from prison. Thanks, in part, to this support, in 1972 the state released her from prison.[17] After spending 18 months behind bars, Davis was acquitted of all charges by an all-white jury. On February 23, 1972, Rodger McAfee, a dairy farmer from Caruthers, California with the help of Steve Sparacino, a wealthy business owner, paid her $100,000 bail. Portions of her legal defense expenses were paid for by the Presbyterian Church (UPCNA).[17][23] During the trial, Davis was sketched by courtroom artists Rosalie Ritz and Walt Stewart.[24]

In 1972, she was tried and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The fact that she owned the guns used in the crime was judged not sufficient to establish her responsibility for the plot. Her experience as a prisoner in the US played a key role in convincing her to fight against the prison industrial complex that exists in the US.[17] John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded their song "Angela" on their 1972 album Some Time in New York City in support. The Jazz musician Todd Cochran, also known as Bayete, recorded his song "Free Angela (Thoughts...and all I've got to say)" that same year. The Rolling Stones recorded the song "Sweet Black Angel" on their 1972 album Exile on Main Street.[25]

[edit] In Cuba
After her release, Davis visited Cuba following her fellow radicals Huey Newton, Stokely Carmichael, and Assata Shakur. Her reception by Afro-Cubans at a mass rally was so enthusiastic that she was reportedly barely able to speak.[26] During this visit she also became convinced that only under socialism could the fight against racism be successfully executed. During her stay in Cuba, Davis witnessed what she thought was a racism free country which led her to believe that blacks could only achieve racial equality in a socialist society. When she returned to the United States, her socialist leanings increasingly influenced the ways she looked at race struggles within the US.[27]

[edit] Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

In a New York City speech on July 9, 1975, Russian dissident and Nobel Laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn told an AFL-CIO meeting that Davis was derelict in supporting prisoners in various socialist countries around the world, given her stark opposition to the U.S. prison system. In particular, Solzhenitsyn claimed that a group of Czech prisoners appealed to Davis for support, which he said she refused to offer.[28] In a speech at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania, Davis denied Solzhenitsyn's claim.[29]

[edit] Activism
In 1980 and 1984, Angela Davis ran for Vice-President along with the veteran party leader of the Communist Party, Gus Hall. However, given that the Communist Party lacked support within the US, Davis urged radicals to amass support for the Democratic Party. Revolutionaries must be realists, said Davis in a telephone interview from San Francisco where she was campaigning. During both of the campaigns she was Professor of Ethnic Studies at the San Francisco State University.[30] In 1979 she was also awarded with the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union for her civil rights activism. She visited Moscow in July of that year to collect the prize.

Angela Davis as honorary guest of the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1973 Davis has continued a career of activism, and has written several books. A principal focus of her current activism is the state of prisons within the United States. She considers herself an abolitionist, not a "prison reformer," and has referred to the United States prison system as the "prison-industrial complex".[31] Davis suggested focusing social efforts on education and building "engaged communities" to solve various social problems now handled through state punishment.[2] Davis was one of the primary founders of Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization dedicated to building a movement to abolish the prison system. In recent work, Angela Davis argues that the prison system in the United States more closely resembles a new form of slavery than a criminal justice system. According to Davis, between the late 19th century and the mid-20th century the number of prisons in the US sharply increased while crime rates continued to rise. During this time, the African American population also became disproportionally represented in prisons. "What is effective or just about this "justice" system?" she urged people to question.[32] To encourage people to critically think about the criminal justice system and its racist history, Davis has also spent years lecturing in schools, parks, and other public places to the American public. She has lectured at San Francisco State University, Stanford University, Bryn Mawr College, Brown University, Syracuse University, and other schools.[2] She states that in her teaching, which is mostly at the graduate level, she concentrates more on posing questions that encourage development of critical thinking than on imparting knowledge.[2] In 1997, she declared herself to be a lesbian in Out magazine.[33] As early as 1969 Davis began publicly speaking, voicing her opposition to the Vietnam War, racism, sexism, and the prison industrial complex, and her support of gay rights and other social justice movements. In 1969 she blamed imperialism for the troubles suffered by oppressed populations. We are facing a common enemy and that enemy is Yankee Imperialism, which is killing us both here and abroad. Now I think anyone who would try to separate those struggles, anyone who would say that in order to consolidate an anti-war movement, we have to leave all of these other outlying issues out of the picture, is playing right into the hands of the enemy, Davis declared.[34] In 2001 she publicly spoke against the war on terror, the prison industrial complex, and the broken immigration system and told people that if they wanted to solve social

justice issues they had to hone their critical skills, develop them and implement them." Later, after the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she declared, the horrendous situation in New Orleans, is due to the structures of racism, capitalism, and imperialism with which our leaders run this country.[35] Davis spoke out against the 1995 Million Man March, arguing that the exclusion of women from this event necessarily promoted male chauvinism and that the organizers, including Louis Farrakhan, preferred women to take subordinate roles in society. Together with Kimberl Crenshaw and others, she formed the African American Agenda 2000, an alliance of Black feminists.[36] Davis is no longer a member of the Communist Party, leaving it to help found the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, which broke from the Communist Party USA because of the latter's support of the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 and the Communist parties of the Warsaw Pact.[37] She remains on the Advisory Board of the Committees.[38]

Davis at the University of Alberta, March 28, 2006. Davis has continued to speak out against the death penalty. In 2003, Davis lectured at Agnes Scott College, a liberal arts women's college in Atlanta, on prison reform, minority issues, and the ills of the criminal justice system.[39] At the University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz), she participated in a 2004 panel concerning Kevin Cooper. She also spoke in defense of Stanley "Tookie" Williams on another panel in 2005,[40] and 2009.[41]

As of February 2007, Davis was teaching in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz.[42] In addition to being the commencement speaker at Grinnell College in 2007, in October of that year, Davis was the keynote speaker at the fifth annual Practical Activism Conference at UC Santa Cruz.[43] On February 8, 2008, Davis spoke on the campus of Howard University at the invitation of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. On February 24, 2008, she was featured as the closing keynote speaker for the 2008 Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference. On April 14, 2008, she spoke at the College of Charleston as a guest of the Women's and Gender Studies Program. On January 23, 2009, she was the keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Commemorative Celebration on the campus of Louisiana State University.[44] On April 16, 2009, she was the keynote speaker at the University of Virginia Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies symposium on The Problem of Punishment: Race, Inequity, and Justice.[45] On January 20, 2010, Davis was the keynote speaker in San Antonio, Texas, at Trinity University's MLK Day Celebration held in Laurie Auditorium. On January 21, 2011, Davis was the keynote speaker in Salem, OR at Willamette University's MLK Week Celebration held in Smith Auditorium where she declared that her biggest goal for the coming years is to shut down prisons. During her remarks, she also noted that while she supports some of President Barack Obama's positions, she feels he is too conservative. On January 27, 2011, Davis was the Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration speaker at Georgia Southern University's Performing Arts Center (PAC) in Statesboro, Georgia. On June 10, 2011, Davis delivered the Graduation Address at the Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington.[46] As of 31 October 2011, Davis had spoken at the Philadelphia and Washington Square Occupy Wall Street assemblies where, due to restrictions on electronic amplification, her words were human microphoned.[47][48]

[edit] Bibliography
Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prisons, Torture, and Empire, Seven Stories Press (October 1, 2005), ISBN 1583226958. Are Prisons Obsolete?, Open Media, (April 2003), ISBN 1583225811 Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday, Vintage Books, (January 26, 1999), ISBN 0679771263 Women, Culture & Politics, Vintage, (February 19, 1990), ISBN 0679724877. The Angela Y. Davis Reader, (Joy James, Ed.), Wiley-Blackwell (December 11, 1998), ISBN 0631203613. Women, Race, & Class, (February 12, 1983) Angela Davis: An Autobiography, Random House, (September 1974), ISBN 0394489780 If They Come in the Morning: voices of Resistance (New York: Third Press, 1971) 1970's-Joan Little: The Dialectics of Rape(New York: Lang Communications, 1975) The Meaning of Freedom (City Lights, 2012)

[edit] Angela Davis interviews and appearances in audiovisual materials

1971
o

Davis, Angela Y. An Interview with Angela Davis. Cassette. Radio Free People, New York, Myerson, M. "Angela Davis in Prison." Ramparts Magazine March 1971: 20-21. Seigner, Art. Angela Davis: Soul and Soledad. Phonodisc. Flying Dutchman, New York, Interview with Angela Davis in San Francisco on June, 1970

1971.
o o

1971.
o

Walker, Joe. Angela Davis Speaks. Phonodisc. Folkways Records, New York, 1971. "Angela Davis Talks about her Future and her Freedom." Jet July 27, 1972: 54- 57.

1972
o

1977 Davis, Angela Y. I am a Black Revolutionary Woman (1971). Phonodisc. Folkways, New York, 1977. o Phillips, Esther. Angela Davis Interviews Esther Phillips. Cassette. Pacifica Tape Library, Los Angeles, 1977. 1985 o Cudjoe, Selwyn. In Conversation with Angela Davis. Videocassette. ETV Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, 1985. 21 minute interview with Angela Davis. 1992 o Davis, Angela Y. "Women on the Move: Travel Themes in Ma Rainey's Blues" in Borders/diasporas. Sound Recording. University of California, Santa Cruz: Center for Cultural Studies, Santa Cruz, 1992. 2000 o Davis, Angela Y. The Prison Industrial Complex and its Impact on Communities of Color. Videocassette. University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, 2000. 2001 o Barsamian, D. "Angela Davis: African American Activist on Prison-Industrial Complex." Progressive 65.2 (2001): 33-38. 2002 o September 11 America: an Interview with Angela Davis." Policing the National Body: Sex, Race, and Criminalization. Cambridge, Ma.: South End Press, 2002.
o

[edit] Archives
1. The National United Committee to Free Angela Davis is at the Main Library at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California (A collection of thousands of letters received by the Committee and Davis from people in the US and other countries.) 2. The complete transcript of her trial, including all appeals and legal memorandum, have been preserved in the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Library in Berkeley, California.

[edit] See also

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Biography portal African American portal Communism portal

List of African American philosophers

[edit] References
1.
^ "Angela Davis, Sweetheart of the Far Left, Finds Her Mr. Right". People. July 21, 1980. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20077018,00.html. Retrieved October 20, 2011. 2. ^ a b c d e "Interview with Angela Davis". BookTV. 2004-10-03. 3. ^ Histcon.ucsc.edu[dead link] 4. ^ Davis, Angela Yvonne (March 1989). "Rocks". Angela Davis: An Autobiography. New York City: International Publishers. ISBN 0717-80667-7.

5.

^ Aptheker, Bettina (1999). The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis (2nd ed.). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. http://books.google.com/books? id=yA9vwr6g8cMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false. 6. ^ Kum-Kum Bhavnani, Bhavnani; Davis,Angela (Spring 1989). "Complexity, Activism, Optimism: An Interview with Angela Y. Davis". Feminist Review (31): 6681. JSTOR 1395091. 7. ^ Horowitz, David (Friday, November 10, 2006). "The Political Is Personal". Front Page Magazine. http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=1608. Retrieved February 11, 2011. 8. ^ "Sandiegoreader.com". Sandiegoreader.com. 2007-08-23. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2007/aug/23/bourgeois-marxist/. Retrieved 2010-10-21. 9. ^ a b c d e Davis, Angela Yvonne (March 1989). "Waters". Angela Davis: An Autobiography. New York City: International Publishers. ISBN 0717-80667-7. 10. ^ Davis, Angela Yvonne (March 1989). "Flames". Angela Davis: An Autobiography. New York City: International Publishers. ISBN 0717-80667-7. 11. ^ ""Women Outlaws: Politics of Gender and Resistance in the US Criminal Justice System", SUNY Cortland, Mechthild Nagel". Web.cortland.edu. 2005-05-02. http://web.cortland.edu/nagelm/papers_for_web/davis_assata06.htm. Retrieved 2010-10-21. 12. ^ "WGS.syr.edu". WGS.syr.edu. http://wgs.syr.edu/FacultyStaff.htm. Retrieved 2010-10-21. 13. ^ Google Books. Books.google.com. 1972-05-25. http://books.google.com/books? id=rrEDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2010-10-21. 14. ^ Davies, Lwrence (April 28, 2011). "U.C.L.A Teacher is Ousted as Red". The New York Times. 15. ^ Turner, Wallace (April 28, 2011). "California Regents Drop Communist From Faculty". The New York Times. 16. ^ "UCLA Barred from Pressing Red's Ouster". The New York Times. April 28, 2011. 17. ^ a b c d e Aptheker, Bettina (1997). The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis. Cornell University Press. 18. ^ a b Associated Press (August 17, 1970). "Search broadens for Angela Davis". Eugene RegisterGuard. http://news.google.com/newspapers? id=4BkRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NuEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6482%2C3554926. Retrieved September 14, 2009. 19. ^ __BookTextView/135;pt=125 "Biography". Davis (Angela) Legal Defense Collection, 1970-1972. http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/ead/scm/scmdavisa/@Generic __BookTextView/135;pt=125. Retrieved 200706-21.[dead link] 20. ^ Charleton, Linda (April 28, 2011). "F.B.I Seizes Angela Davisin Motel Here". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-fbi.html?-r=1. Retrieved April 26, 2011. 21. ^ Abt, John; Myerson, Michael (1993). Advocate and Activist: Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252020308, 9780252020308. http://books.google.com/books? id=9REaIPPh4k4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false. 22. ^ Davis, Angela Yvonne (March 1989). "Nets". Angela Davis: An Autobiography. New York City: International Publishers. ISBN 0717-80667-7. 23. ^ Sol Stern (June 27, 1971). "The Campaign to Free Angela Davis and Ruchell Magee". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-campaign.html. 24. ^ Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations (February 8, 2005). ""Two Artists of the Courtroom" on exhibit" (Press release). University of California, Berkeley. http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/02/08_courtroomartist.shtml. 25. ^ Caldwell, Earl. "Angela Davis Acquitted on All Charges" The New York Times. June 5, 1972. Retrieved on 2008-07-02. 26. ^ Gott, Richard (2004). Cuba: A New History. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 230. ISBN 0-300-10411-1. 27. ^ Sawyer, Mark (2006). Racial politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba. Los Angeles: University of California. pp. 9597. 28. ^ Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr (October 1976). Warning to the West. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 6061. ISBN 0374513341. http://www.angeladavis.org. 29. ^ Angela Davis, Q&A after a speech, "Engaging Diversity on Campus: The Curriculum and the Faculty," East Stroudsburg University, Pennsylvania, 15 October 2006.

30.

^ Brooke, James (July 29, 1984). "Other Women Seeking Number 2 Spot Speak Out". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-vp.html?_r=2. Retrieved April 26, 2011. 31. ^ Davis, Angela (10 September 1998). "Masked racism: reflections on the prison industrial complex". Color Lines. http://www.colorlines.com/archives/1998/09/masked_racism_reflections_on_the_prison_industrial_complex.ht ml. 32. ^ Davis, Angela (2003). Are prisons Obsolete?. Canada: Open Media Series. 33. ^ "Angela Davis". Notable name database. http://www.nndb.com/people/185/000024113/. Retrieved 2007-07-21. 34. ^ Davis, Angela. "Speech by Angela Davis at a Black Panther Rally in Bobby Hutton Park". Speech. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/15/18589458.php. Retrieved April 26, 2011. 35. ^ "YouTube - Angela Davis (public speech) - LIVE". Speech. http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=2JKENb33U4E. 36. ^ E. Frances White (2001). Dark continent of our bodies: black feminism and the politics of respectability. Temple University Press. ISBN 9781566398800. http://books.google.com/books? id=MLz7jo09yiAC&pg=PA78&dq=angela+davis+African+American+Agenda+2000,#v=onepage&q=angela %20davis%20African%20American%20Agenda%202000%2C&f=false. 37. ^ "(title unknown)". Corresponder (Committees of Correspondence). 1992. 38. ^ "Advisory board". Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism website. Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. 2007-07-20. http://www.ccds.org/advisory_bd.html. Retrieved 2007-07-20. 39. ^ "ASC Spotlight - Africana Studies". Agnesscott.edu. http://www.agnesscott.edu/spotlightDetails.aspx?Channel=%2FChannels%2FAdmissions %2FAdmissions+Content&WorkflowItemID=91360c59-8fdf-4a2c-871e-2a520121de7d. Retrieved October 20, 2011. 40. ^ ""Angela Davis: "The State of California May Have Extinguished the Life of Stanley Tookie Williams, But They Have Not Managed to Extinguish the Hope for a Better World"", Democracy Now, December 13, 2005". Democracynow.org. 2005-12-13. http://www.democracynow.org/2005/12/13/angela_davis_the_state_of_california. Retrieved 2010-10-21. 41. ^ Bybee, Crystal (2009-11-11). "Indybay.org". Indybay.org. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/11/18628372.php. Retrieved 2010-10-21. 42. ^ "NOW on the News with Maria Hinojosa: Angela Davis on Race in America". NOW. Public Broadcasting System. February 23, 2007. http://www.pbs.org/now/news/308.html. Retrieved February 12, 2011. 43. ^ Santa Cruz Indymedia coverage of the 5th annual Practical Activism Conference at UC Santa Cruz. 44. ^ Foley, Melissa. "LSU to Hold Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Events." LSU Highlights. Jan. 2009. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. [1] 45. ^ Bromley, Anne. "Angela Davis to Headline the Woodson Institutes Spring Symposium." The Woodson Institute Newsletter. 2 Apr. 2009. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. [2] 46. ^ "2011 Graduation Guest Speaker at Evergreen". Evergreen.edu. May 24, 2011. http://www.evergreen.edu/graduation/guest-speaker.htm. Retrieved October 20, 2011. 47. ^ Nation of Change Washington Square assembly. 48. ^ YouTube of Occupy Philly address

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Angela Davis

Film clip, Davis speaking at Florida A&M Universitys Black History Month convocation, 1979 Davis quotations gathered by Black History Daily A PBS interview Davis on "Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex." 1998 Round table discussion on "Resisting the Prison Industrial Complex, with Davis as a guest

New York Times archive of Davis-related articles "The Facts Behind the Angela Davis Case" by Lawrence V. Cotj Time chat-room users interview with Davis on "Attacking the 'Prison Industrial Complex." 1998 Harvard Gazette article, March 13, 2003 Davis timeline at UCLA Audio recording of Davis at a Practical Activism Conference in Santa Cruz in 2007 Guardian interview with Davis, November 8, 2007 Davis entry in the Encyclopedia of Alabama Angela Davis at the Internet Movie Database Angela Davis at AllRovi Angela Davis on the 40th Anniversary of Her Arrest and President Obamas First Two Years - video interview by Democracy Now! Angela Davis Biography, The Civil Rights Struggle, African American GIs, and Germany

Party political offices Preceded by Jarvis Tyner Communist Party USA Vice Presidential candidate 1980 (lost), 1984 (lost) Succeeded by

Angela Davis
Un article de Wikipdia, l'encyclopdie libre. Aller : Navigation, rechercher Angela Davis

Angela Davis l'universit d'Alberta en 2006

26 janvier 1944 Birmingham Nationalit amricaine Profession professeur d'universit Naissance Angela Yvonne Davis, ne le 26 janvier 1944 Birmingham dans l'tat de l'Alabama, est une militante amricaine communiste1 des droits de l'homme et un professeur de philosophie. Militante des droits civiques, proche du Black Panther Party, elle fut poursuivie par la justice la suite de la tentative dvasion de trois prisonniers, surnomms les Frres de Soledad, qui se solda par la mort dun juge californien en aot 1970. Emprisonne seize mois New York puis en Californie, elle fut finalement acquitte et poursuivit une carrire universitaire qui la mena au poste de directrice du dpartement dtudes

fministes de luniversit de Californie. Ses centres dintrt sont la philosophie fministe, et notamment le Black Feminism, les tudes afro-amricaines, la thorie critique, le marxisme ou encore le systme carcral. En 1997, elle fait son coming out auprs du magazine Out. Elle fut deux reprises, en 1980 et 1984, candidate la vice-prsidence des tats-Unis pour le parti communiste amricain.

Sommaire
[masquer]

1 Biographie o 1.1 Enfance o 1.2 Les annes new-yorkaises o 1.3 tudes suprieures o 1.4 Positionnement politique o 1.5 Le procs 2 Hommages 3 Ouvrages 4 Bibliographie 5 Filmographie 6 Notes et rfrences 7 Voir aussi o 7.1 Articles connexes
o

7.2 Liens externes

Biographie[modifier]
Enfance[modifier]
Angela Davis est ne dans une famille afro-amricaine habitant l'Alabama des annes 1944, alors que les lois Jim Crow imposaient toujours la sgrgation raciale dans le Sud des tats-Unis. Son pre tait diplm de St Augustines College, une institution rserve aux Noirs Amricains situe Raleigh en Caroline du Nord. Il fut brivement professeur dhistoire dans lenseignement secondaire mais, estimant son salaire insuffisant, il quitta son emploi de professeur pour acqurir une station service dans le quartier noir de Birmingham. Sa mre, qui mena aussi ses tudes jusquau suprieur, tait professeur dans le primaire. La famille Davis occupe dans un premier temps les logements sociaux de Birmingham. En 1948, elle quitte les petites maisons uniformes en briques rouges qui composent le logement social de la ville pour une vaste maison en bois2, dans un quartier quelle est la premire famille noire occuper3. Rapidement aprs son arrive, elle est suivie par de nombreuses autres familles noires. Cette mixit nouvelle exacerbe les tensions raciales. En 1949 a lieu le premier attentat contre une des maisons nouvellement construites par des Noirs. Il est le premier dune longue srie qui donne au quartier son surnom de Dynamite Hill 4. Durant sa jeunesse, Davis est profondment marque par son exprience du racisme, des humiliations de la sgrgation raciale et du climat de violence qui rgne dans son environnement quotidien5. Cette exprience saccompagne des premiers lments de socialisation politique. La famille dAngela y joue un rle important. Ses deux parents possdent une exprience militante : au lyce, sa mre a particip des mouvements antiracistes, militant notamment pour la libration des Scottsboro Boys4. Ses deux parents sont par ailleurs membres de la National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Sa grand-mre maternelle, ne quelques annes aprs la Proclamation d'mancipation, lui parle de lesclavage quavait

connu ses propres parents6. Ses premires vacances New York, o elle gote aux joies dune vie non sgrgue dans la famille de son amie Margaret Burnham, sa future avocate, avive encore sa conscience des humiliations quotidiennes quimpose la sgrgation7. Plusieurs nouveaux pisodes viendront lors de ses visites ultrieures- entre six et dix ans, elle passe la plus grande partie de ses ts New York-, rviser son jugement sur la situation idale des Noirs dans le Nord8. Elle frquente lcole primaire de Birmingham rserve aux Noirs. Abrite dans des btiments vtustes, elle est moins bien dote financirement que lcole rserve aux Blancs9. Davis note toutefois que la sgrgation avait aussi pour effet de laisser aux enseignants noirs une marge de libert qui leur permettait dorienter le contenu de leur enseignement dans un sens qui favorisait lmergence dune identit spcifiquement noire. Outre The Star Spangled Banner, lhymne national amricain, les enfants apprenaient et chantaient en classe lHymne national noir de James Weldon Johnson. Ils se voyaient enseigner la vie des personnages historiques noirs qui avaient marqu la vie du pays comme Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth ou Harriet Tubman10. Le modle de russite qui tait propos aux enfants noirs par les enseignants sappuyait nanmoins selon elle sur une morale de la russite individuelle qui masquait la dimension collective de la lutte quelle pensait devoir tre mise en uvre pour renverser le systme raciste et librer les Noirs de leur oppression11. quatorze ans, alors quelle se dit ennuye par le provincialisme de Birmingham 12, elle doit choisir son orientation pour le lyce. Deux opportunits soffrent elle : elle est accepte dans lcole prparatoire de l'Universit Fisk de Nashville, une des institutions rserves aux Noirs les plus prestigieuses du pays, et au sein dun programme exprimental de lorganisation quaker American Friends Service Committee qui place des tudiants noirs du Sud dans des coles mixtes du Nord12. Intgrer lUniversit Fisk lui ouvrirait la voie des tudes mdicales auxquelles elle se destine alors pour devenir pdiatre. La seconde option lui permettrait de rejoindre le lyce Elisabeth-Irwin, une cole prive de Greenwich Village (New York) dfendant les principes de lducation nouvelle. Aprs de longues hsitations, elle finit par choisir New York.

Les annes new-yorkaises[modifier]

Son arrive New York marque une nouvelle tape dans sa socialisation politique. Elle est loge chez le rvrend William Howard Melish. Pasteur de la plus grande glise piscopale de Brooklyn dans les annes 1950, il avait perdu ses fonctions au terme d'un long bras de fer avec sa hirarchie cause de ses prises de position contre le maccarthisme et son affiliation la Soviet-American Friendship Organization (Organisation de lamiti amricano-sovitique)13. Le corps enseignant du lyce Elisabeth Irwin que Davis a rejoint est dans sa grande majorit interdit denseignement dans le secteur public cause de son positionnement politique marqu gauche14. Cest dans ce nouvel environnement quelle entend pour la premire fois parler du socialisme, savouant notamment fascine par les expriences utopiques, comme celle de Robert Owen5. Elle lit le Manifeste communiste qui la conduit replacer les problmes du peuple Noir dans le contexte plus large dun mouvement de la classe ouvrire 5. Elle est introduite au sein dune organisation de jeunesse marxiste-lniniste nomme Advance. Cest sa premire exprience du militantisme. Elle y ctoie des amies de longues dates comme Margaret Burnham ou Mary Lou Patterson mais rencontre aussi cette occasion Bettina Aptheker, la fille de lhistorien communiste Herbert Aptheker dont le domicile accueille la plupart des runions du groupe15. Elle participe aux manifestations de soutien au mouvement des droits civiques qui connat un nouvel lan avec la campagne de sit-in initie le 1er fvrier 1960 Greensboro (Caroline du Nord). Davis a cependant le sentiment davoir quitt le Sud au moment o le mouvement prenait vritablement de lampleur et en prouve une vive frustration. Elle se range nanmoins lavis de ses parents qui lui enjoignent de finir son anne scolaire New York15.

tudes suprieures[modifier]

En 1962, elle obtient une bourse pour tudier luniversit de Brandeis dans le Massachusetts. Elle est lune des trois tudiantes noires de premire anne16. Davis dcrit cette premire anne comme une anne disolement quelle cultive de faon quelque peu romantique 16, se plongeant notamment dans les uvres des existentialistes franais (Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus...). Son anne universitaire est marque par une srie de confrences de l'crivain James Baldwin sur la littrature qui est interrompue par la crise des missiles de Cuba ; Baldwin refuse de poursuivre son expos mais sexprime sur le conflit lors dune assemble gnrale, aux cts du philosophe Herbert Marcuse que Davis entend pour la premire fois17. Elle occupe divers emplois pour financer un voyage en Finlande o se droule le Festival mondial de la jeunesse et des tudiants18. Elle sarrte Londres et passe quelques jours Paris et Lausanne. Helsinki, elle se montre particulirement impressionne par lnergie dgage par la reprsentation que donne la dlgation cubaine19. Lors de sa deuxime anne Brandeis, elle tudie la littrature et la philosophie franaise contemporaine ; Sartre en particulier continue de susciter son intrt. Elle voit Malcolm X haranguer un amphithtre compos quasi exclusivement dtudiants blancs, en leur annonant la prochaine punition divine de leurs pchs envers les Noirs20. l'issue de son cursus, Davis obtient une prolongation de sa bourse pour suivre le programme franais de troisime anne du Hamilton College. En septembre 1963, elle passe ainsi un mois Biarritz21. Cest dans la station balnaire franaise quelle apprend lattentat qui a frapp lglise baptiste de sa ville natale de Birmingham o quatre jeunes filles sont tues. Trois taient de proches connaissances. Refusant dy voir le rsultat dun comportement extrmiste isol, elle analyse cet vnement violent et spectaculaire comme lexpression paroxystique de la routine quotidienne, souvent monotone, de loppression raciste 22. Elle passe novembre Paris, puis lt Francfort o elle assiste des confrences de Theodor W. Adorno. Sa formation intellectuelle se poursuit : elle lit Marcuse et de retour Brandeis se rapproche du philosophe aprs avoir assist sa srie de confrences sur la pense politique europenne depuis la Rvolution franaise23. Sur ses conseils, elle dcide de partir tudier la philosophie Francfort. Elle quitte les tats-Unis en 1965, au milieu des meutes de Watts. En Allemagne, elle ctoie des tudiants allemands membres de lUnion socialiste allemande des tudiants, participe des manifestations contre l'intervention militaire amricaine au Vit Nam ou contre la projection du film documentaire italien pro-colonisation Africa Addio et visite rgulirement Berlin-Est24. Pendant son sjour en Allemagne, le mouvement de libration des Noirs connat de profondes volutions et tend se radicaliser dans le sillage du slogan Black Power. Frustre de ne pouvoir participer leffervescence militante qui semble rgner dans son pays, elle dcide de rentrer aux tats-Unis lissue de sa deuxime anne en Allemagne. Marcuse, dsormais en poste lUniversit de San Diego, accepte de reprendre la direction de sa thse, initialement tenue par Adorno25.

Positionnement politique[modifier]

Erich Honecker avec Angela Davis en 1972 son arrive San Diego, elle est prive de tout contact au sein du mouvement noir californien et adhre en dsespoir de cause lorganisation radicale des tudiants du campus dont laction se tourne principalement

vers la lutte contre la guerre du Vit Nam26. Elle subit cette occasion sa premire arrestation suite une distribution de tracts27. Souhaitant simpliquer dans une action spcifique destination des Noirs, elle travaille organiser un conseil des tudiants noirs de luniversit de San Diego, jusqualors inexistant. Sa premire action est de participer un comit de soutien Ed Lynn, un soldat qui avait lanc une ptition contre la discrimination raciale dans larme28. Son implication militante lui rvle la profonde dsunion du mouvement de libration des Noirs et les trs fortes rivalits qui le traversent. Elle-mme occupe une position trs minoritaire au sein du mouvement. Sur le plan des objectifs, elle soppose au sparatisme de certaines des organisations du Black Nationalism qui pensent que la libration du peuple noir doit passer par une sparation de la socit blanche et la fondation dune Nation Noire sur le sol amricain ou africain. Sur le plan des moyens, elle refuse la mthode consistant exacerber les antagonismes entre Noirs et Blancs dans le but de provoquer des soulvements spontans similaires ceux de Watts ou de Dtroit dans lesquels certaines organisations voyaient les prmices dun soulvement gnralis du peuple afro-amricain29. Elle nen refuse pas moins lintgrationnisme qui fut la position de Martin Luther King. Le marxisme constitue un des lments centraux de son positionnement : elle pense que la lutte de libration des Noirs doit sinsrer dans le mouvement rvolutionnaire dont le socialisme constitue lhorizon30. Or le marxisme est rejet par une grande partie des organisations nationalistes qui le dsigne, limage de Stokely Carmichael, le leader du Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), comme tant la chose de lhomme blanc 31. Les Blancs ont dailleurs t carts des leviers de commande du SNCC partir du printemps 1966. Pour les nationalistes, les Noirs ne doivent compter que sur leurs propres valeurs, leurs propres analyses et leurs propres forces pour se librer. Si Davis affiche son marxisme, elle hsite plus longuement avant de saffilier au mouvement communiste. Elle met cette rticence initiale sur le compte de son parcours militant. En Allemagne notamment, elle sest imprgne dun discours libertaire trs critique lgard du communisme sovitique. Elle finit par adhrer en 1968 au Che-Lumumba Club, une section du parti communiste amricain rserve aux Noirs. Elle rejoindra aussi le Black Panther Party dont la position rvolutionnaire se caractrise par un gal refus de lintgrationnisme et du sparatisme. Une autre composante de son identit militante est son fminisme. Ce dernier est en partie nourri par son parcours militant au cours duquel elle se heurte au sexisme dune partie du mouvement nationaliste noir voire dune partie des organisations auxquelles elle appartient. On lui reproche notamment le rle de leader quelle est amene assumer au sein du mouvement. Pour lorganisation United Slaves de Ron Karenga ou le pote Amiri Baraka (alors nomm Leroi Jones), le leadership masculin est un moyen pour les hommes noirs de regagner leur dignit face aux Blancs. La place des femmes au sein du mouvement ne peut tre par consquent que subordonne celle des hommes : les tches domestiques et linspiration des leaders masculins sont les rles qui leur sont dvolus. Davis estime au contraire quun authentique mouvement de libration doit lutter contre toutes les formes de domination : lhomme noir ne peut se librer sil continue dasservir sa femme et sa mre32.

Le procs[modifier]
Son adhsion au parti communiste amricain et au mouvement des Black Panthers lui vaut d'tre surveille par le FBI. Elle enseigne en 1969 l'UCLA - l'universit de Californie Los Angeles - mais en est renvoye cause de son activisme politique. Elle s'investit dans le comit de soutien aux Frres de Soledad, trois prisonniers noirs amricains accuss d'avoir assassin un gardien en reprsailles de l'assassinat d'un de leur codtenu. Elle est accuse d'avoir organis une prise d'otages dans un tribunal dont l'issue a t meurtrire : Jonathan Jackson, le jeune frre de George Jackson, le juge et deux autres prisonniers sont tus aprs que la police a ouvert le feu sur leur vhicule. Commence alors une cavale travers les tats-Unis : elle apparat sur la liste des femmes les plus recherches par le FBI. Ce dernier, dirig par J. Edgar Hoover, lutte dans le cadre

du programme COINTELPRO contre les Black Panthers et les communistes dans un contexte de guerre froide et de guerre au Vit Nam . Aprs deux semaines de cavale, elle est arrte dans un htel, puis emprisonne pendant seize mois New York puis en Californie, San Marin puis San Jos, avant d'tre juge et acquitte33. New York, elle est d'abord place dans une cellule disolement amnage spcialement pour elle au sixime tage de la prison34. Elle entame une grve de la faim pour exiger son placement avec les autres dtenues35 et, au dixime jour de grve, une dcision du tribunal fdral enjoint aux autorits pnitentiaires de suspendre son isolement, jugeant injustifi un rgime exceptionnel motiv par les opinions politiques dun dtenu36. Le 5 janvier 1971, elle est officiellement inculpe par ltat de Californie de meurtre, kidnapping et conspiration. Transfre en Californie, elle comparat avec Ruchell Magee, le seul survivant de la fusillade37. Son affaire connat un retentissement international. En France, Jean-Paul Sartre, Gerty Archimde, Pierre Perret et des milliers de manifestants la soutiennent. Ds sa sortie de prison en 1972, Angela Davis se met publier. Ses essais autant que ses discours vhments en font l'une des intellectuelles radicales les plus connues de l'poque : la paix au Vietnam, l'antiracisme, le fminisme constituent son credo. En 1980 et en 1984, Angela Davis se prsente aux lections prsidentielles amricaines comme viceprsidente du candidat communiste Gus Hall.

Angela Davis : rebelle la politique de son propre pays38, enseigne aujourd'hui l'Histoire de la Prise de conscience dans une universit californienne. De nos jours, Angela Davis est professeur d'histoire de la conscience l'Universit de Californie (campus de Santa Cruz). Elle fait campagne contre la guerre en Irak. Elle a reu le Prix Thomas Merton en 2006. Angela Davis rejoint le Comit international de soutien aux victimes vietnamiennes de l'agent orange et au procs de New York (CIS) conduit par Andr Bouny. Elle lutte contre l'industrie carcrale et la peine de mort aux tats-Unis et dans le monde.

Hommages[modifier]

The Rolling Stones a publi en 1972 une chanson de soutien Angela Davis, Sweet Black Angel, sur l'album Exile on Main Street. John Lennon et Yoko Ono ont soutenu Angela Davis dans une chanson intitule Angela. Pierre Perret dans la chanson Lily en 1977 : Mais dans un meeting Memphis, Lily / Elle a vu Angela Davis, Lily / Qui lui dit viens ma petite sur / En s'unissant on a moins peur / Des loups qui guettent le trappeur . Daniel Balavoine dans la chanson Petite Angle sur l'album Sauver l'amour (1985). Juliette Noureddine la cite parmi ses modles dans sa chanson Rimes fminines (1996). Yannick Noah rend hommage Angela Davis en 2010 avec sa chanson intitule Angela. Angela Davis est le sujet d'uvres graphiques de Shepard Fairey (Obey Giant)39.

Winston Mc Anuff dans la chanson Angla Davis de l'album A Bang jou avec la Bazbaz Orchestra.

Ouvrages[modifier]

If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance (1971) Frameup: The Opening Defense Statement Made (1972) Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974) Women, Race and Class (1981) Violence Against Women and the Ongoing Challenge to Racism (1985) I Women, Culture and Politics (1989) I Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday (1999) The Angela Y. Davis Reader (1999) Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003) Les Goulags de la dmocratie (2006)

Traduits en franais

Femmes, race et classe, trad. Dominique Taffin-Jouhaud et le collectif des femmes, 2e d., Paris, Des femmes; Antoinette Fouque, DL 2007 (ISBN 978-2-7210-0552-6) Les goulags de la dmocratie: rflexions et entretiens, entretiens recueillis par Eduardo Mendieta, trad. Louis de Bellefeuille, Vauvert, Au diable vauvert, 2006, 156 p. (ISBN 2-84626-115-6) "Angela Davis, Autobiographie", trad. Cathy Bernheim, ed. Albin Michel, (1975)

Bibliographie[modifier]

Angela Davis parle, Angela Davis, Paris, ditions sociales, 1971, 95 p. Sils frappent la porte laube, Angela Davis, Aptheker Bettina, Paris, Gallimard, 1972, 322 p. Autobiographie, Angela Davis, Paris, Albin Michel, 1975, 344 p. Les Goulags de la dmocratie, Angela Davis, Rflexions et entretiens, Au Diable Vauvert, 2007

Filmographie[modifier]

Angela Davis : Portrait dune rvolutionnaire, Du Luart Yolande, France, 1971, 90 min.

Notes et rfrences[modifier]
1. C'est ainsi qu'elle se dsignait elle-mme dans un entretien avec Annette Levy-Willard, Je m'identifie l'"autre
Amrique" , dans Libration du 14/10/2006, [lire en ligne [archive]]

2. Angela Davis, Autobiographie, Albin Michel, Paris, 1975, p. 79. 3. Davis (1975), p. 80. 4. a et b Davis (1975), p. 81. 5. a, b et c Davis (1975), p. 107. 6. Davis (1975), p .83. 7. Davis (1975), p. 84 8. Davis (1975), p. 85. 9. Davis (1975), p. 90. 10. Davis (1975), p. 91. 11. Davis (1975), p. 92. 12. a et b Davis (1975), p. 102. 13. Davis (1975), p. 105. Voir aussi sur ce point les archives Melish [archive] . 14. Davis (1975), p.106.

15. a et b Davis (1975), p. 109. 16. a et b Davis (1975), p. 114. 17. Davis (1975), p. 115. 18. Davis (1975), p. 116. 19. Davis (1975), p .118. 20. Davis (1975), p. 121. 21. Davis (1975), p. 122. 22. Davis (1975), p 124. 23. Davis (1975), p.127. 24. Davis (1975), p. 132. 25. Davis (1975), p. 135- 137. 26. Davis (1975), p. 144. 27. Davis (1975), p 146. 28. Daivs (1975), p. 148. 29. Davis (1975), p. 150. 30. Davis (1975), p. 142. 31. Davis, (1975), p. 142. 32. Davis (1975), p. 323. 33. Nicole Bacharan, Histoire des noirs amricains au XXe sicle, Paris : dition Complexe, 1994, p. 230 34. Davis (1975), p. 49. 35. Davis (1975), p. 50. 36. Davis (1975), p. 54 37. Davis (1975), p. 256. 38. elle a figur parmi la (en)liste des flons recherchs par le FBI et atteint le rang de dissidente lors de son exil
aprs sa dtention .

39. http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/index.php/Angela_Davis_Small [archive]

Voir aussi[modifier]
Sur les autres projets Wikimedia :

Angela Davis , sur Wikimedia Commons (ressources multimdia)

Articles connexes[modifier]

Black feminism Parti communiste des tats-Unis d'Amrique Oppositions la politique trangre des tats-Unis

Liens externes[modifier]

Biographie Vido: Angela Davis en 1975, elle revient sur son engagement en faveur de l'mancipation des Noirs et des femmes, une archive de la Tlvision suisse romande Annette Levy-Willard, Je m'identifie l' autre Amrique , dans Libration du 14 octobre 2006, [lire en ligne] Angela Davis, 1er extraits sonores de prises de paroles Angela Davis, 2e extraits sonores de prises de paroles
Prcd par Angela Davis Suivi par

Candidat du Parti Communiste la vice-prsidence des tatsUnis

Soledad Brothers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Soledad brothers) Jump to: navigation, search For the blues-rock trio, see Soledad Brothers (band). The Soledad Brothers were three African American inmates charged with the murder of white prison guard John V. Mills at California's Soledad Prison on January 16, 1970.[1] George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo and John Clutchette were said to have murdered Mills in retaliation for the shooting deaths of three black prisoners during a prison fight in the exercise yard three days prior by another guard, Opie G. Miller.

Contents
[hide]

1 Soledad Prison 2 Soledad Brothers Defense Committee 3 Jonathan Jackson's attempt to free the Soledad Brothers 4 San Quentin Six 5 Trial 6 Notes 7 References 8 Further reading

[edit] Soledad Prison

On January 13, 1970, 14 black inmates and 2 white inmates from the maximum security section of Soledad Prison were released into a recreation yard for the first time in several months.[2][3] The black prisoners were ordered to the far end of the yard, while the white prisoners remained near the center of the yard.[3] Officer Opie G. Miller, an expert marksman armed with a rifle, watched over the inmates from a guard tower thirteen feet above the yard.[3] A fist fight ensued and with no warning shot, Miller opened fire on the prisoners below.[3] Three black inmates were killed in the shooting: W.L. Nolen and Cleveland Edwards died in the yard, while Alvin Miller died in the prison hospital a few hours later.[3] White inmate Billy D. Harris was wounded in the groin by Miller's fourth shot, and ended up losing a testicle.[3] Following the incident, thirteen black prisoners began a hunger strike in the hopes of securing an investigation.[4] On January 16, 1970, a Monterey County grand jury convened, then exonerated Miller in the

deaths of Nolen, Edwards, and Miller with a ruling of "justifiable homicide".[3] No black inmates were permitted to testify, including those who had been in the recreation yard during the shooting.[3] In Soledad Prison, inmates heard the grand jury's ruling on the prison radio.[3] Thirty-minutes later, John V. Mills was found dying in another maximum security wing of the prison after having been beaten and thrown from a third-floor tier to the television room below.[3] On February 14, 1970, after an investigation into Mills' death by prison officials, George Lester Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo and John W. Clutchette were indicted by the Monterey County grand jury for first degree murder.[3]

[edit] Soledad Brothers Defense Committee

The Soledad Brothers Defense Committee was formed by Fay Stender to assist in publicizing the case and raising funds to defend Jackson, Drumgo, and Clutchette. Among the wide variety of celebrities, writers, and political activists that supported the SBDC and their cause were Julian Bond, Kay Boyle, Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Noam Chomsky, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsburg, Tom Hayden, William Kunstler, Jessica Mitford, Linus Pauling, Pete Seeger, Benjamin Spock, and Angela Davis.[5][6][7] In June 1970, California State Senator Mervyn Dymally and the California Legislative Black Caucus pursed an investigation of Soledad Prison and released a report that helped legitimize the Committee.[8] By the middle of that month, Davis was leading the movement.[8]

[edit] Jonathan Jackson's attempt to free the Soledad Brothers

Main article: Marin County courthouse incident On August 7, 1970, George Jackson's seventeen year old brother Jonathan Jackson held up a courtroom at the Marin County Civic Center, temporarily freed three San Quentin prisoners, and took Superior Court Judge Harold Haley, Deputy District Attorney Gary Thomas, and three female jurors hostage in a bid to secure the freedom of the "Soledad Brothers." Jackson, Haley, and prisoners William Christmas and James McClain were killed as they attempted to drive away from the courthouse. Haley died due to the discharge of a sawedoff shotgun which had been fastened to his neck with adhesive tape by the abductors. Thomas, prisoner Ruchell Magee, and one of the jurors were wounded.[9] Angela Davis, who purchased the guns used in the escape attempt, was later tried and acquitted of charges in connection with the escape.

[edit] San Quentin Six

Main article: San Quentin Six On August 21, 1971, days before his trial in the guard's killing, the 29-year-old Jackson launched an uprising at San Quentin with a 9 mm pistol. Gun in hand, he released an entire floor of prisoners from the maximumsecurity wing, crying, "This is it, gentlemen, the Dragon has come!" In the ensuing melee, three guards were killed, as were two prisoners suspected of being snitches, before George Jackson was killed by a guard.

[edit] Trial
In San Francisco, proceedings were held in the Department 21 courtroom on the third floor of the Hall of Justice, the same courtroom in which Ruchell Magee would later be tried on charges related to the murder of Judge Haley.[10][11] Spectators, including the press, were separated from the proceedings by a $15,000 floorto-ceiling barrier constructed of metal, wood, and bullet-proof glass.[10][nb 1] On March 27, 1972, the two

surviving Soldedad BrothersClutchette and Drumgowere acquitted by a San Francisco jury of the original charges of murdering a prison guard.[12]

[edit] Notes
1. ^ The barrier was also reported to be soundproof, thereby requiring a public address system so that spectators
could hear the proceedings.[10]

[edit] References
1.
^ "Prison Guard Is Beaten to Death". Beaver County Times. January 17, 1970. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8bAiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=M7MFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3630,3871188&dq. 2. ^ Hatfield, Lary (January 7, 1985). "Last vestiges of radical movement will go on trial in Bingham case". The Day (New London, Connecticut: The Day Publishing Company): pp. 1, 4. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RDlSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RzYNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4907%2C1089678. Retrieved July 15, 2011. 3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Aptheker, Bettina (1969). The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0801485975. http://books.google.com/books?id=yA9vwr6g8cMC. 4. ^ "Negro Prisoners Begin Hunger Strike in Bid for Investigation". The Bulletin. January 15, 1970. http://news.google.com/newspapers? id=zKQSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HPcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1453,3541718&dq=miller+guard&hl=en. 5. ^ Andrews, Lori (1999) [1996] Black Power, White Blood: The Life and Times of Johnny Spain Philadelphia: Temple University Press p. 130 ISBN 1566397502, 9781566397506 http://books.google.com/books? id=UKmKSuzduK8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false 6. ^ Bernstein, Lee (2010) "The Age of Jackson: George Jackson and the Radical Critique of Incarceration" America is the Prison: Arts and Politics in Prison in the 1970s Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press p. 54 ISBN 0807871176, 9780807871171 http://books.google.com/books? id=a3yRlKxxDtkC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA51#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved July 12, 2011 7. ^ Scott, Austin (October 18, 1970). "New Rebellion Brewing Inside Nation's Prisons". The Tuscaloosa News. AP (Tuscaloosa, Alabama). http://news.google.com/newspapers? id=oCgeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NbkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7115%2C3538937. Retrieved July 13, 2011. 8. ^ a b http://books.google.com/books? id=yA9vwr6g8cMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false 9. ^ "Justice: A Bad Week for the Good Guys". TIME. August 1970. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909547-1,00.html. Retrieved 2008-06-04. 10. ^ a b c Streeter, Harold V. (August 29, 1971). "'Soledad Brothers' Conflict Incites 11 Violent Deaths" (pdf). San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California). http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/White %20%20Files/San%20Quentin/San%20Quentin%20097.pdf. Retrieved July 21, 2010. 11. ^ Streeter, Harold V. (August 18, 1972). "Magee Trial - Dullsville Revisited" (pdf). San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California). http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/White%20%20Files/San%20Quentin/San %20Quentin%20748.pdf. Retrieved July 21, 2010. 12. ^ "Acquit Soledad Brothers", Pacific Stars and Stripes, March 29, 1972, p1

[edit] Further reading

Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson (1970) ISBN 1-55652-230-4 Min S Yee. The Melancholy History of Soledad Prison; In Which a Utopian Scheme Turns Bedlam (1973) ISBN 0-06-129800-X