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Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Angela Y. Davis, studied philosophy at Brandeis University, one of only three black students in her freshman class. She went on to live in France and Germany where she became involved in radical movements, eventually returning to the United States. Back in the US Angela Davis joined the Communist Party and in 1969 became an acting assistant professor in the philosophy department at UCLA here in Southern California. Then Governor Ronald Reagan urged the UC Board of Regents to fire her from her job because of her membership in the Communist Party. She was later rehired after legal action.

Angela Davis has been intimately involved in the prison abolition movement since her own experience in prison, which we’ll hear about later. She recently gave an address at an event for a local organization here in LA called A New Way of Life. Today we present excerpts of that address and offer it as our thank you gift to you on DVD for a pledge of $75, and on CD for a pledge of $50.

From Wikipedia: “On August 7, 1970, Superior Court Judge Harold Haley was abducted from his Marin County, California, courtroom and murdered during an effort to free a convict. The firearms used in the attack were purchased in [Angela] Davis’s name, including the shotgun used to kill Haley, which had been purchased only two days prior and sawed-off. President Richard Nixon branded [Davis] a “terrorist”. The California warrant issued for Davis charged her as an accomplice to conspiracy, kidnapping, and homicide. On August 18, 1970, [she] became the third woman and the 309th person to appear on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. Davis fled California and evaded the police for more than two months before being captured in New York City… In 1972, an all-white jury found her not-guilty.

“Angela Davis is the author of numerous books and has lectured throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America. In recent years a persistent theme of her work has been the range of social problems associated with incarceration and the generalized criminalization of those communities that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination.”

Thank You Gifts:

Angela Davis – DREAMING OF JUSTICE, STILL IN STRUGGLE TALK – DVD – $75.00
Angela Davis – DREAMING OF JUSTICE, STILL IN STRUGGLE TALK – CD – $50.00
Angela Davis – NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS – BOOK – $75.00
Angela Davis – Pacifica Radio Archives MP3 CD – $35.00