Angela Yvonne Davis is a well-known social and political activist in the United States of America. She has made a significant contribution to the advancement of black people’s political and social conditions in American society. She was born and raised in Alabama by upper middle-class parents who were also active in the political scene during their era. Davis attended college in New York, Frankfurt, and Massachusetts, where she honed her already-formed communist ideas. She began as an associate professor of philosophy at the University of California and simultaneously became involved in the Communist Party of the United States of America and the Black Panther Party. Davis ran afoul of the law in the 1970s when one of her subjects, a young imprisoned black boy, attempted to escape and was discovered with a weapon Davis claimed to have given him. She attempted to evade the law but was apprehended and imprisoned until all charges against her were dropped. Davis has been a keynote speaker on feminism, prison conditions in the United States, and gay and lesbian liberation at a number of prestigious universities and institutions since that incident.
Childhood & Adolescence
Angela Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama on 26 January 1944 to Frank and Sallye Davis. She was a member of a prosperous black family. Her father was the proprietor of a service station, and her mother taught elementary school.
She is the older sister of two brothers and graduated from Parker High School in Birmingham, Alabama. Her mother was politically active when she was a child, and as a result, she was constantly surrounded by thinkers and activists.
Career of Angela
Davis moved to New York in 1959 to broaden her educational horizons and enrolled at Greenwich Village’s Elizabeth Irwin High School. Here, she was introduced to communism and made aware of racism and poverty.
She enrolled at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1961. She was one of the few black students on campus and felt psychologically isolated. She developed a growing interest in philosophy during this time.
In 1962, she traveled to Europe to participate in Finland’s Eighth World Festival for Youth and Students. She seized the opportunity to network with other revolutionary scholars at the festival.
Davis worked as an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1969 after studying for a few years at the University of Frankfurt. She joined the Communist Party of the United States of America and the Black Panther Party.
At UCLA, the Board of Regents repeatedly attempted to have Davis removed from her position due to her affiliation with the Communist Party of the United States of America. They succeeded in 1970, when Davis was dismissed from UCLA for using inflammatory language.
Davis was alleged to have provided a weapon to a seventeen-year-old black prisoner named George Jackson in 1971, who was killed in an encounter while attempting to escape from the San Quentin prison.
Following this incident and the subsequent charges against her, Davis fled and was placed on the FBI’s most wanted criminals list. She was arrested in New York, but all charges against her were dropped following her trial.
Davis resumed teaching at San Francisco State University in 1972, despite being barred from teaching at large universities following her arrest.
Davis taught African-American studies at Claremont College from 1975 to 1977 and later taught women and ethnic studies at San Francisco University.
Davis was awarded the Soviet Union’s Lenin Peace Prize in 1979 and appointed honorary professor at Moscow State University.
She was elected vice-president of the Communist Party in 1980. She urged the American people to revolutionize realistically and attempted to persuade radicals to support the Democratic Party.
In 1984, she was re-elected vice-president of the Communist Party and authored numerous books on activism. Her primary area of social work was the state of American prisoners.
Davis founded the African American Agenda 2000 in 1995 to unite Black Feminists in opposition to the Million Man March’s omission of women.
In 2003, she delivered a lecture at Agnes Scott College on the unfairness of the death penalty, the importance of prison reform, issues affecting minorities in society, and the history of the criminal justice system in the United States.
She began teaching a course on ‘History of Consciousness’ at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2007. Additionally, she served as the commencement speaker at Grinnell College.
Davis delivered a lecture at Howard University in 2008 and served as the keynote speaker for the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference. She also spoke at the College of Charleston about gender studies.
In 2009, she delivered the keynote address at Louisiana State University’s Martin Luther King Commemorative Celebration. Additionally, she delivered a speech at the University of Virginia’s Carter G. Woodson.
Davis delivered a speech at Trinity University in Texas in 2010 on the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. At the conference, she expressed her desire to abolish prisons entirely.
Davis delivered a commencement address at Pitzer College, Claremont, in 2012 and was also honored with the Blue Planet Award for her work in the fields of humanity and environmental protection that year.
In 2013, she delivered a speech on prison issues in the United States at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota, and also spoke at the 18th Annual Building Bridges Conference.
Personal History and Legacies
Davis came out as a lesbian in the late 1960s in Out magazine. She has advocated for gays, lesbians, and transgender people’s rights and acceptance in society.
Estimated Net Worth
Angela Davis net worth: Angela Davis is a political activist, author, and academic scholar from the United States of America. She has an estimated net worth of $800,000.
Angela Davis was born in January 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama. She graduated from Brandeis University and earned an MA and a PhD from the University of California, San Diego.
Trivia
Davis wrote a song titled ‘Angela’, which was performed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1972 and included on Lennon’s album ‘Some Time in New York City’.
Todd Cochran also recorded a song titled ‘Free Angela (Thoughts… and all I have to say)’ on Davis. The Rolling Stones dedicated their song ‘Sweet Black Angel’ to her.
Davis spent several months in prison in 1971. She regards Cuba as a country devoid of racism.