Angela Yvonne Davis, born January 26, 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama, is an American activist, philosopher, scholar and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and was a longtime member of the Communist Party USA. An outspoken voice on the persecution of the black community, women, and the LGBTQ+ community, she played a large role in shaping the intersectional feminist movement.
Davis grew up in the “Dynamite Hill” neighborhood, which is nicknamed due to the frequent bombings that the Ku Klux Klan used to scare Black residents away. She attributes much of her political involvement to her participation in the Girl Scouts, where she heavily protested racial segregation. Davis attended Brandeis University on a scholarship, where she was one of the three black students in her class. There, she studied under the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, who introduced her to Marxist literature, building the basis of her political beliefs.
Davis is most famous for her involvement with the Soledad brothers, who were accused of killing a prison guard in the early 1970s. She spent roughly 18 months in jail before she was acquitted of charges related to George Jackson’s attempted escape.
Davis is the author of over ten books on gender, class, race, and the prison system, including Women, Race and Class (1981), Women, Culture & Politics (1990), and Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003). These books have encouraged readers to be more aware of Black feminism and abolitionist feminism, helping them realize the different struggles that those with multiple oppressed identities face. She also founded the organisation Critical Resistance in 1997, which aims to dismantle the prison-industrial complex.
Nowadays, Davis continues to spread the message of intersectional feminism. In 2018, she gave a speech at the University of Costa Rica, emphasising that “not all women are white, that all blacks are not men.” Though past feminist topics have focused on white people, neglecting other oppressed groups such as black women, Davis firmly believes that feminism should be applicable to all women, including women of different colour and trans women. Her numerous lectures and books have inspired Black women and others to move away from mainstream feminism into an intersectional and abolitionist feminism. Her achievements have been recognised by TIME magazine, which named her the 1971 Woman of the Year and included her in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020.
Davis once said, "Black feminism emerged as a theoretical and practical effort demonstrating that race, gender, and class are inseparable in the social worlds we inhabit”. Her efforts in promoting intersectional feminism and her willingness to fight for the rights of all who are oppressed have inspired countless activists, furthering our society’s progress towards equality.
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Writer: Cherry Leung
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