Marxist feminist philosopher who theorised the prison-industrial complex, co-founder of Critical Resistance
"I now declare publicly before the court, before the people of this country that I am innocent of all charges which have been leveled against me by the state of California." — courtroom declaration, 5 January 1971
American Marxist-feminist philosopher and foundational theorist of prison abolition. Joining CPUSA in 1968, she ran for Vice President in 1980 and 1984. Her 1970 arrest and sixteen-month imprisonment, ending in full acquittal, sparked a global solidarity campaign. Her landmark Women, Race & Class (1981) established intersectional analysis of race, gender and class; she went on to theorise the prison-industrial complex. In 1997 she co-founded Critical Resistance to advance abolition democracy. Distinguished Professor Emerita at UC Santa Cruz, she has stood at the crossroads of radical thought and practice for over five decades.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1944Born in Birmingham, Alabama; raised in the 'Dynamite Hill' Black middle-class neighbourhood
- 1965Graduates Brandeis magna cum laude; studies under Herbert Marcuse
- 1968Joins CPUSA; directs political education for Black Panther Party's LA chapter
- 1969Appointed assistant professor of philosophy at UCLA; fired for CPUSA membership, reinstated by court order
- 1970–1972Arrested, placed on FBI Ten Most Wanted list; acquitted of all charges after 16 months' imprisonment
- 1979Awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union
- 1980, 1984CPUSA vice-presidential candidate, running mate of Gus Hall
- 1981Publishes Women, Race & Class, a classic of intersectional analysis
- 1991Leaves CPUSA; co-founds Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism
- 1991–2008Professor of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz; retires as Distinguished Professor Emerita in 2008
- 1997Co-founds Critical Resistance, institutional anchor of the prison abolition movement
- 2003Publishes Are Prisons Obsolete?, a popular manifesto for abolition democracy
The academic freedom struggle at UCLA
In summer 1969, Donald Kalish, chair of UCLA’s philosophy department, hired Davis to teach. A 1949 University of California Board of Regents rule barred Communist Party members from teaching at the university. After Davis’s party membership became public, Vice Chancellor Saxon asked her to confirm whether she was a member; she told an investigating committee that she belonged to the Che Lumumba Club, affiliated with the CPUSA. Faculty members and scholars criticized the inquiry as a political test and a threat to academic freedom. The Regents tried to withhold her pay and prevent her from teaching, but Kalish allowed her to continue. Whether students would receive credit for her courses became contentious, and her lectures were monitored. The archival account reports that she did not use her classes to indoctrinate students in Communism, and identifies her public speeches defending the Black Panther Party and the Soledad Brothers as a factor that endangered her post. Even after a court decision blocked her dismissal, the Regents cited those speeches and decided not to reappoint her for a second year. The surviving case materials document responses by the Regents, UCLA administrators and faculty, as well as the organizing and publicity of the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis and other defense groups, alongside press coverage from differing viewpoints.