African American Hero of the Day

Angela Davis (1944-)

Author, Scholar, Activist

Angela Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on January 26, 1944, to middle-class parents who stressed both academic excellence and political awareness and activism. Her mother, Sally E. Davis, had been politically active since her college days, and Angela participated in demonstrations with her mother from the time she was in elementary school. To insure a better education than she could receive in the segregated schools of the South, her parents sent her to Elizabeth Irwin High School, a private progressive school in New York. The school had many radical teachers and students, and Angela soon joined a Marxist study group there.

After graduation, Davis continued to seek high-quality education. She majored in French at Brandeis College, studying at the Sorbonne in Paris her junior year. She then pursued graduate studies in philosophy at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, and in 1967 she returned to the United States to study with the well-known philosopher Herbert Marcuse at the University of California at San Diego. When she was almost done with her degree, she took a teaching job at the University of California at Los Angeles.

In 1969 Davis joined the Communist Party; the regents of UCLA tried to fire her, but she fought them in court. The following year she became involved with the Black Panther Party. Guns she had bought for self-defense were used by a member of the Black Panthers in a courtroom shooting. Believing she was involved, the FBI sought her arrest, so she went underground to avoid them. She was put on the FBI's most-wanted list and later arrested. In 1972 she was acquitted of all charges, but was not hired back by the university. California Governor Ronald Reagan and the Regents of the University decreed that she would never teach in California again.

Since her trial, Davis has served as co-chair of the National Alliance against Racism and Political Repression, a legal group providing defense of minority prisoners. A writer and philosopher, she has written several books, including If They Come in the Morning (1971), Women, Race and Class (1983), Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1988), and Women, Culture and Politics (1989). She continues to write and lecture and remains politically active. In 1995 Davis was appointed presidential chair for the development of new ethnic courses for the University of California--Santa Cruz. In spite of opposition from Republican legislature, regarding her Communist affiliations, Davis has taken this position and continues to be in the forefront regarding women's rights, health care, and nuclear disarmament.

From African American Almanac: 400 Years of Triumph, Courage and Excellence by Lean'tin Bracks, (c) 2012 Visible Ink Press(R). A wealth of milestones, inspiration, and challenges met . . .