Angela Davis is a famous author, scholar, and academic professor who speaks for the oppressed.Angela Davis is a 77-year-old master scholar. She works for the poor and oppressed for their equal rights and a better place in society.Born to Frank Davis and Sallye Davis, in the beautiful city of Birmingham, Alabama, the birth name of Angela Davis is Angela Yvonne Davis. She teaches as a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is known for her Marxist ideologies and joined the Communist Party of the United States of America. She promotes gender equality (specifically black feminism), alliances across the different color lines, and prison reform. Let’s dive deeper into Angela Davis’ achievements and facts!Angela Davis’ EducationOn January 26, 1944, in Birmingham, an activist was born. Growing up in a middle-class neighborhood, ideologies of black feminism and race equality became deeply rooted in her mind. Let’s look at some interesting facts related to Angela Davis’ Education.Davis grew up in Alabama and studied at LREI high school.Davis later moved to Massachusetts to attend Brandeis University on a scholarship. She studied philosophy with the famous German-American philosopher and political activist Herbert Marcuse as his student.Davis was one of only three black students at Brandeis University.While she was a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego, she became associated with groups that played an important role in the civil rights movement, such as the Black Panthers, in the late 1960s.Davis was known to spend most of her time with an all-Black branch of the Communist Party known as the Che-Lumumba Club.She got her Doctorate in Philosophy from Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, and returned to the US as a professor.During her early education, Davis worked part-time to cover the costs of visiting France and Switzerland to attend the 8th World Festival of Youth and Students held in Helinski.She did an intensive study on the famous writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.Davis got accepted to the France Program of Hamilton College.The classes of the France Program were held in Biarritz, to begin with, and later took place in Sorbonne.While studying in Biarritz in 1963, Angela Davis learned about the Birmingham Church Bombing in which four black girls, whom she knew personally, were killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan.She graduated Magna cum laude, as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, in 1965.It was when she was completing her degree in French that she realized her inclination lay towards philosophy.She has also been a student of the Humboldt University of Berlin, Carrie A Tuggle Elementary, and Elisabeth Irwin High School. Awards And HonoursAs an activist, Davis has been through a lot of criticism and was accused of crimes she did not commit. But along with that, she continued to speak for those whose voices were oppressed by the people in power. Frank Davis’ daughter, Angela Davis, received the Soviet Union’s Lenin Peace Prize in 1979. This was when she took an international speaking tour that consisted of places like Cuba, the USSR, and East Germany.She was heavily criticized for supporting political violence. She was also blamed for supporting the Soviet Union.Davis was added to the National Hall of Fame.Angela Yvonne Davis was also named as the 1971 ‘Woman of the Year.’ This was included in the ‘100 Women of the Year’ edition of Times Magazine.She was selected as one of the most iconic women since women’s suffrage in the US in 1920.In the year 2020, Davis was also enlisted as one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the Times’ list.Davis was selected as an honorary co-chair and as a featured speaker at the Women’s March that took place in Washington. This happened after the inauguration of Donald Trump. What did she do as an American political activist? Thousands of people began to organize her release while she was jailed. Over 67 foreign country committees and 200 local committees worked to ensure she was released. Let’s look at some of her works as an American political activist.Davis spoke against the Vietnam War and stated that it was cruel.She also made people focus on the social injustice and racism that was occurring in 1969.She also spoke against the terror of the 9/11 attacks.In 2004, as a political activist, she was a keynote speaker at Vanderbilt University.She also spoke at the University of Virginia, at the Carter G Woodson Institute for African-American and African studies.She wrote inspirational books such as ‘Blues Legacies and Black Feminism’, ‘Are Prisons Obsolete’, and ‘Abolition Democracy’. All of which make us think and create a desire to act against injustice.Davis returned after traveling and lecturing around the world and began teaching as an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This is when she taught courses to her students on the history of consciousness. She later retired in the year 2008.She made it her life goal to educate people on and discuss issues regarding racial discrimination, women’s rights, and the criminal justice system.She was a strong supporter of the three inmates who killed the prison guard in Soledad Prison. The inmates committed this act because a prison guard had killed several African-American inmates in a fire.In August 1970, during one of the trials of the Soledad prison killing, the inmate’s brother tried to attempt an escape using many of Angela’s firearms, and hence a warrant was issued in her name.The FBI director also listed her on the ten most wanted FBI list on August 18, 1970.She fled California and was found in a motor lodge in New York City in October of the same year by FBI agents.What is Angela Davis most famous for?Davis is widely known for a lot of her social work. Her ex-husband is Hilton Braithwaite. Her work is recognized by people from different parts of the world. Let’s see what she is most famous for.Angela Davis is mostly famous for her works on social injustice and activism, and as a scholar.Angela Davis is known to have turned down offers from prestigious universities like Princeton and Swarthmore and went on to teach at UCLA, where she became an affiliate of the Black Panther Party’s Los Angeles chapter.She faced a lot of hatred and injustice from the authorities of the UCLA administration because of her association with people who had communist ideologies.She was fired for her beliefs and activism, but she did not give up and fought the administration to get her job back, but she left in 1970 when her contract expired.She was a known member of the Communist Party USA and was known as an activist and a radical feminist.She was also famous as a radical African-American educator who spoke for the civil rights of the oppressed and several other social issues.She was also known for organizing interracial study groups. These were unfortunately broken up most of the time by police.In Out magazine’s 1997 edition, Angela Davis came out as a lesbian. Angela Davis’ ChildhoodWe all know that your childhood plays a big part in shaping you as a person. So was the case with Angela Davis. Let’s see what her childhood was like and some facts related to her childhood.Davis was born in a middle-class household in a neighborhood that was also known as Dynamite Hill due to several bombings committed by the Ku Klux Klan on African-American homes.Sallye Bell Davis, her mother, was an elementary school teacher, and Frank Davis, her father, was a service station owner.She had a sister named Fania and two brothers named Ben and Reginald.In the ’60s and ’70s, Davis’ brother Ben played as the defensive back for the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns.Davis’ mother was an active member of the NAACP.As a teenager, Davis used to accompany her mother to NYU while her mother pursued her master’s degree.When she was a child, Davis’ mother was also the leading organizer and the national officer of the Southern Negro Youth Congress. This was an organization that was influenced by the communist party.Angela Davis was a regular attendee at Sunday Church and was also an active member of the Church Youth Group.Davis accredits most of her political inclination and involvement to her active participation in the girl scouts.She participated as a girl scouts member in the national round-up that took place in Colorado.As a member of the girl scouts as a child, Davis marched to protest racial segregation in Birmingham.She grew up among communist thinkers who shaped her intellect towards similar ideologies and were the reason why she later went on to join the Communist Party.
Angela Davis is a famous author, scholar, and academic professor who speaks for the oppressed.
