Davis, Angela Y. (Angela Yvonne), 1944-
Variant namesAngela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, academic, and author. She is a professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Ideologically a Marxist, Davis was a member of the Communist Party USA until 1991, after which she joined the breakaway Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. She is the author of over ten books on class, feminism, and the U.S. prison system.
Born to an African American family in Birmingham, Alabama, Davis studied French at Brandeis University and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt in West Germany. Studying under the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, a prominent figure in the Frankfurt School of Marxism, Davis became increasingly interested in far-left politics. Returning to the U.S., she studied at the University of California, San Diego before moving to East Germany, where she gained a doctorate at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Back in the U.S., she joined the Communist Party and involved herself in a range of leftist causes, including the second-wave feminist movement, the Black Panther Party, and the movement in opposition to the Vietnam War. In 1969 she was hired as an acting assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). UCLA's governing Board of Regents soon fired her due to her Communist Party membership; after a court ruled this illegal, the university fired her again, this time for her use of inflammatory language.
In 1970, Davis purchased firearms for people who used them in an armed takeover of a courtroom in Marin County, California, in which four people were killed. She was prosecuted for three capital felonies, including conspiracy to murder. After over a year in jail, she was acquitted of the charges in 1972. She continued both her academic work and her domestic activism. In the 1980s she was professor of ethnic studies at San Francisco State University. Much of her work focused on the abolition of prisons and in 1997 she co-founded Critical Resistance, an organization working to abolish the prison–industrial complex. During the 1970s she visited Marxist-Leninist-governed countries and during the 1980s was twice the Communist Party's candidate for Vice President. In 1991, amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union, she left the party and joined the breakaway Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. Also in 1991, she joined the feminist studies department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she became department director before retiring in 2008. Since then she has continued to write and remained active in movements such as Occupy and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.
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referencedIn | Kate Millett papers, 1912-2002 and undated, bulk 1951-2001 | David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library | |
referencedIn | Arnold S. Kaufman papers, 1954-1971 | Bentley Historical Library | |
referencedIn | Douglas Menuez photography collection, 1986-2006 | Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives | |
referencedIn | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Black Women in the Academy: Defending Our Name, 1894-1994 conference records | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries | |
referencedIn | Records of, Sojourner, (inclusive), (bulk), 1920-2004, 1975-2002 | Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America | |
referencedIn | Bobbye S. Ortiz Papers, (bulk, 1919-1993 and undated, 1950-1990) | David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library | |
referencedIn | Africa Project Videotape collection, 1985-1989 | Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America | |
referencedIn | Wellek Library Lectures Bibliographic Database entry for Angela Davis | University of California, Irvine. Library. Department of Special Collections | |
referencedIn | Antioch Review mss., 1940-2007 | Lilly Library (Indiana University, Bloomington) | |
referencedIn | Guide to the Daily Worker and Daily World Negatives Collection, 1930-2001 | Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives | |
referencedIn | Guide to the James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson Photographs Collection, 1910-1995 | Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives | |
referencedIn | Bettina Aptheker Papers, 1944-2006, (Bulk 1965-1990) | University of California, Santa Cruz. . University Library Special Collections and Archives | |
referencedIn | Black Panther printed ephemera, ca., 1966-2006. | Houghton Library | |
referencedIn | Communist Party of the United States of America Audio Collection, Bulk, 1965-1989, 1920s - 1999 | Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives | |
referencedIn | Rosalie Ritz courtroom drawings, 1968-1982 | Bancroft Library | |
referencedIn | Political Newspapers Collection, 1953-1994, bulk 1969-1992 | California State University, Dominguez Hills Archives and Special Collections | |
creatorOf | Angela Davis Legal defense collection, 1970-1972 | Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Archives Section | |
referencedIn | Leonard Weinglass Papers, 1960s-2011 | Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives | |
referencedIn | J. B. Matthews Papers, 1862-1986 and undated | David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library | |
referencedIn | Guide to the Daily Worker and Daily World Photographs Collection, 1920-2001 | Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives | |
referencedIn | Angela Davis Academic Freedom Case & Trial and Defense Movement, 1969-1972 | Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. | |
referencedIn | Donald T. Carlson papers, 1952-1995 | Cecil H. Green Library. Department of Special Collections and University Archives | |
creatorOf | Inventory of The Angela Davis Collection: Area Studies/Africana MSS 00238., 1971, n.d. (Bulk: January, 1971) | Cushing Memorial Library, | |
referencedIn | Biography Collection MS 393., 1771-1995, 1920-1970 | Sophia Smith Collection | |
referencedIn | Andreĭ Sakharov papers, 1852-2002 (inclusive), 1960-1990 (bulk). | Houghton Library | |
referencedIn | Marlon Riggs Collection, 1957-1994 | Cecil H. Green Library. Department of Special Collections and University Archives | |
referencedIn | Sound Recordings of Meetings and Telephone Conversations (Nixon Administration). 2/16/1971 - 7/18/1973. Sound Recordings of Meetings and Telephone Conversations. 2/16/1971 - 7/18/1973. Oval Office tape number 728 | Richard Nixon Library | |
referencedIn | Eugene Gordon papers, 1927-1972 | Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Archives Section | |
referencedIn | Jordan, June, 1936-2002. Audio collection of June Jordan [sound recording]. | Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America | |
referencedIn | Guide to the Communist Party of the United States of America Records, 1892-2009 | Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives | |
referencedIn | Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State. 1788 - 1991. Unclassified Central Subject Files | National Archives at College Park | |
referencedIn | Doing Time collection, 1972-1980 | The University of New Mexico, University Libraries, Center for SouthwestResearch | |
creatorOf | Davis, Angela Y. (Angela Yvonne), 1944-. Angela Davis collection, 1962-1975. | University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign | |
referencedIn | National Lawyers Guild Records, 1936-1999 | Bancroft Library | |
referencedIn | Guide to the James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson Papers, 1917-2018 | Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives | |
referencedIn | Luther Russell Herman Jr. Papers, 1966-1978 | North Carolina State University. Special Collections Research Center | |
referencedIn | Guide to the Reference Center for Marxist Studies Pamphlet Collection, 1900-2004 | Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives | |
referencedIn | Guide to the Marilyn Albert Communist Party of the United States of America Papers, 1947-1992 | Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives |
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African American communists |
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African American women political activists |
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Feminism |
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Marxism |
Political activists |
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Birth 1944-01-26
Americans
English