Angela Y. Davis

Angela Y. Davis is a revolutionary international feminist, political activist, scholar, author, and speaker. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama during the height of Jim Crow, Davis grew up surrounded by White supremacist violence and the subjugation of Black people resulting from systemic racism. Raised by activist parents with links to the Communist Party, Angela experienced a radical and engaged upbringing that established in her a need to bring about change in the world. As a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and the Communist Party, Davis advocated for change and awareness in many areas, including gender bias within the Black Panther Party, prisoners’ rights, the effects of structural racism, the release of political prisoners, and the political repression of women. These efforts along with her effectiveness at mobilizing African Americans arguably contributed to her placement on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Ten Most Wanted list, being charged with murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy, of which she was acquitted, leading to her rise as an international icon of the 1970s’ Black liberation movement. Davis’ earlier and later activism focused on various topics, including the prison industrial complex, the impact of the globalization of capital in the United States and abroad, the need for multicultural political coalition building, and the intersectionality of race, class, and gender and its impact on Black women. Davis’ scholarly publications are numerous (Davis, Angela Davis: An Autobiography. New York, NY: International Publishers, 1988). A good listing of them appears in The Nation (2014). This chapter focuses on Davis’ works on the intersectionality of race, class, and gender in the United States, and identifies opportunities for international political coalition building with women in Africa to contribute to the building of a new Africa.