The Urban Issues Breakfast Forum presented Dr. Angel Yvonne Davis to an early morning crowd of over 500 this past Friday, April 19 at the African American Museum. The early morning hours of 7:30-9:30 with breakfast did not seem to slow the crowd down and the lines were wrapped around the corner.
The African American community along with outlying multicultural supporters all came out to hear Dr. Davis spit pearls of wisdom, as she is known to do. Esowon bookstore located in Inglewood, California collaborated with the Museum and Urban issues by offering the event free and priority seating with a copy of the author, scholar, political activist, and feminist newly authored book, “The Meaning of Freedom & Other Difficult Dialogues.” www.esowonbookstore.com. Born January 26, 1944, Dr. Davis was born under the sign of Aquarius, the sign of genius and futuristic thinkers. Those seemingly waves that we see pouring out of the beautiful vase, according to astrological teachings are not water but alpha, beta, delta and theta brainwaves.
Whether one understands, Astrology or not we might have to agree with those findings based on the fact that Dr. Angela Davis is recorded and considered one of the most intelligent people, women, in the world. The sun-filled venue was full of clapping, hmm, hum and amen to that my sister. With standing room only multi-colors, some from the other side of the world blended into a well-defined circle of support. As she shouted, “does anyone know what day this is”? It is the day marking the 150th anniversary of the “Emancipation Proclamation’.
I saw the movie, “Lincoln” and Spielberg did a fine job however, Lincoln did not free the slaves. I can truthfully say that all people in attendance and regardless of race and shade were held seductively in suspension by the words that came out of this golden honeyed, full-lipped woman’s mouth. Everyone felt ignited, inspired even, as she lay down in three-dimensional quotes applied knowledge, and some very deep wisdom.
By the time, Dr. Davis talked about what happened to intelligence and social media let down using hands that moved as fast as the wings of a wasp the firmly planted furniture swayed side to side, while the group lulled by accuracy was held magically in place by commanding tone of voice. She spoke of her issues that plagued her during the 60’s lighting the way for more discussion on women, gays and prisoner rights, and the rights of prisoners. She stated that Democracy is a work in progress and today there are no historical closures.
The woman intellectually stood firmly as she broke down some necessary and not taught in your local high school history class, Rosa Parks is credited historically for refusing to ride at the back of a bus, and did you know that Rosa Parks and her husband were involved in the NAACP, twenty years, before the bus incident. Ms. Davis quoted text from William Faulkner’s, Requiem for a Nun”; “the past is never dead.” Her excerpts were riddled with vivid memories gave attention to other recommended readings like Danielle McGuire’s, “At the Dark End of The Street, Black Women, Race and Resistance.” Davis emerged as a nationally prominent activist for radical change in the 1960’s as a leader of the Communist Party USA and as she formed ties with the Oakland California based Black Panthers through her involvement with the Civil Rights Movement although never a member of the party. Some of the issues that were addressed by Dr. Davis in the forum were social passions like, African American studies, critical theory, social media and the new democracy.
The history and theory of American prisons and the prison system. Her membership in the Communist Party in 1969 and at Ronald Reagan’s request stripped her of all teaching credentials preventing her from teaching at any University in the State of California. However, Davis was tried and acquitted of suspected involvement in the Soledad Brothers, August 1970 abduction, and murder of Judge Harold Haley in Marin County, California. Her father Frank Davis was a graduate of St. Augustine’s College a historically black college in Raleigh, North Carolina and briefly taught high school. Mother Sallye Davis graduated from Miles College in Birmingham and taught elementary school.
The family lived in a racially conflicted area known as, “Dynamite Hill.” Communist organizers surrounded Davis and her mother was the lead organizer of the Southern Negro Congress, and organization heavily influenced by the Communist Party. This party would have heavy influence on Davis’ intellectual development. She chose to go to school in New York’s Greenwich Village in New York City where she was introduced to socialism and recruited by a Communist Youth Group. Angela went onto attend school at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts where she was one of three black students in her class.
Becoming disillusioned with the campus she desired to attend Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre and while making friends with foreign students, encountered the Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse at a rally during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and then became his student. Marcuse taught Angela that she could be a scholar, activist and revolutionary.
Working part time, she was able to travel to France and Switzerland before she went to attend the eighth World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki, Finland. Davis returned to the United States in 1963 after following Marcuse to the University of California in San Diego after her two years in Frankfurt and earned her master’s degree from the San Diego campus and her doctorate in philosophy from Humboldt University in East Berlin.
Dr. Angela Yvonne Davis continues to use her political influence for prisoner rights and is the founder of Critical Resistance, an organization working to abolish prison-industrial complexes. Davis is actively involved with and appears in Director, Stephen Vittoria’s documentary “Long Distance Revolutionary, A Journey With Mumia Abu-Jamal a popular Philadelphia journalist, and radio talk show host. Abu-Jamal was convicted over years ago of killing a Philadelphia police officer.
Davis is now retired as a professor with the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is the former director of the Feminist Studies department there. Her is currently and has been a member of Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism since 1991. Dr. Angela Davis’ book, “The Meaning of Freedom and Other Difficult Dialogues” can be purchased at Esowon Bookstore, online and in bookstores nationally. www.esowonbookstore.com.