Scholar and activist Angela Davis is coming to mid-Missouri! She will be hosted by the University of Missouri at the Missouri Theater on Tuesday, January 24 as part of their Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. The free tickets went fast — I think I got mine as soon as they were available! Whether you got a ticket and want to prepare for her visit, or you simply want to know more about her work for social justice, the library has you covered.
Angela Davis came of age during the civil rights battles of the ’60s. She knew all four victims of the Birmingham Baptist Church bombing. When she was an acting assistant professor at UCLA, Davis was targeted by the FBI and placed on their ‘Ten Most Wanted” list by J. Edgar Hoover. She was eventually captured, tried and found not guilty by an all white jury for her connection to the Soledad brothers and the Black Panther Party.
Davis has been very active not just in the fight for racial equality, but also gender equality and economic equality. In recent years she has fought for prisoner rights and to abolish the prison-industrial complex. This month’s Center Aisle Cinema on January 11 features a screening of the film “The Return,” which highlights some of this work for prisoner rights, and will be followed by a discussion.
The library also has DVDs and books featuring Davis’ activism and writing. In order to get ready for her visit, I checked out two DVDs from our collection: “Black Power Mixtape” and “The Two Nations of Black America.” I found Davis to be so eloquent. In an interview in 1972, when asked if she was in favor of the black community engaging in violence, she turned the question around by answering, “When someone asks me about violence, I just find it incredible, because what it means is that the person who’s asking that question has absolutely no idea what black people have gone through, what black people have experienced in this country, since the time the first black person was kidnapped from the shores of Africa.”
I also just finished reading Davis’ newest book, “Freedom Is A Constant Struggle.” The following quote is one of my favorites from the book because I found it so comforting and hopeful: “but there’s a message there for everyone and it is that people can unite, that democracy from below can challenge oligarchy, that imprisoned migrants can be freed, that fascism can be overcome, and that equality is emancipator.”
I have many more of her books on my to read list. I don’t know if I will get to them before she arrives, but I’m so excited that she’s coming here!
Photo credit: Penn State Special Collections, Libertad Para Angela Davis, via Flickr (license)
