Angela Davis Biography

Fast Facts

• Helped found Critical Resistance, a national organization seeking to dismantle the prison industrial complex
• Humboldt University awarded her an honorary doctorate in philosophy
• Was appointed to the University of California Presidential Chair in African American and Feminist Studios
• Studied French at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass․, on a scholarship, but eventually realized her true interest lay in philosophy, and she did graduate work in the subject at the University of Frankfurt
• Attended Elisabeth Irwin High School in Greenwich Village as part of the American Friends Service Committee, where she was recruited by Advance, a Communist youth group
• Quote: "Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root․'"
• Known for her work toward combatting oppression in the U․S․ and abroad as a political activist, scholar and author
• Her bibliography includes "If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance," "Angela Davis: An Autobiography" and "Women, Race, & Class․"
• Though she was acquitted of all charges in 1972, she was incarcerated for sixteen months
• Became a Distinguished Professor Emerita in the Feminist Studies Department of University of California Santa Cruz after Former California Governor Ronald Reagan vowed that she would never teach in the University of California system again