Born in 1944, Angela Davis is a political activist, philosopher, author, and a professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Best known for her Marxist and Feminist ideologies, Davis has been active in far-left politics since a young age, beginning in earnest with her studies under the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, an adherent of the Frankfurt School and the so-called “Father of the New Left”. She is a longtime member of the Communist Party and has been active in numerous causes including the second-wave feminist movement, the campaign against the Vietnam War, and the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, which she helped to found.
A proponent of prison abolition, Davis extended her support in 1970 to the Soledad Brothers, a group of three men accused and charged with the killing of prison guard John Vincent Mills at California's Soledad Prison. The homicide occurred after another guard, Officer Opie G. Miller, fired shots without warning into a fistfight that had opened in the prison’s recreation yard, killing three black inmates. The subsequent trial, which barred the testimony of any black prisoner, ultimately exonerated Officer Miller, ruling the shootings “justifiable homicide”. Soledad’s inmates heard the ruling read out over the prison’s radio and thirty minutes later, the body of John Vincent Mills was found beaten and thrown from the third floor of Soledad’s Y Wing. An investigation found George Lester Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo and John Wesley Clutchette indicted for first-degree murder.
The Soledad Defense Committee was quickly established to publicize the case and raise defense funds for the three men. The committee was supported by numerous celebrities, writers, and left-wing political activists including Jane Fonda, Noam Chomsky, Allen Ginsberg, and Marlon Brando but it was Angela Davis who ultimately led the effort.
On August 7, 1970, George Jackson’s younger brother, Jonathan, attempted to secure the freedom of the Soledad brothers by staging an armed takeover of a courtroom in Marin County, California, taking four members of the court hostage. Jackson and three accomplices were killed as they tried to flee the scene but it soon came to light that the guns used in the event had been purchased by Angela Davis. She was prosecuted for three capital felonies including conspiracy to murder, aggravated kidnapping, and first-degree murder. A warrant was issued for Davis’ arrest on August 14th and she was eventually taken into custody on October 13th after living as a fugitive for two months.
Thousands of people began petitioning for Davis’ release and in New York City, black writers formed a committee called the Black People in Defense of Angela Davis. By February of 1971, the movement included over 200 local committees in the United States and 67 in foreign countries. After 16 months, Davis was released on bail. Her trial on June 4, 1972, ultimately found Davis not guilty, citing that her ownership of the guns used in the crime was insufficient to establish her role in the incident.
Davis has remained a leader in the movement to abolish the “prison-industrial complex”, co-founding Critical Resistance in 1997, a grassroots organization focused on that mission. While she has been accused of supporting political violence as well as the Soviet Union and its satellites, she has also received numerous awards including the Lenin Peace Prize. Time magazine named her “Woman of the Year” in 1971 and in 2020, included her again in their list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Davis is the author of multiple books on class, gender, race, and the U.S. prison system and while she has retired from academia, she remains active in organizations and causes concerning human rights, racism, and feminism.
