Angela Davis: An Autobiography

Content Warning: This section references systemic racism, including the police murders of Black Americans, mass incarceration, Jim Crow laws, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist terrorist organizations, and the history of enslavement in the US.

“Thousands of my ancestors had waited, as I had done, for nightfall to cover their steps, had leaned on one true friend to help them, had felt, as I did, the very teeth of the dogs at their heels.”

Davis insists that her experience of racist political persecution cannot be understood in isolation. Rather, her ordeal must be considered alongside broader historical events and in the context of Systemic Racism and State Violence. Davis alludes to the plight of Black Americans fleeing enslavement to highlight the continuity of racist oppression, but the reference also provides grounds for hope; just as fugitives from slavery had help from one another and from outside sources, Davis is not alone in her struggle.

“And nothing could detract from the thought that they wanted to isolate me because they feared the impact that the mere presence of a political prisoner would have on the other women.”

Davis’s arrest and imprisonment are politically motivated. For this reason, the New York jail where she is held before her extradition to California refuses to allow her to mix with the general population. Instead, Davis is placed in the ward for inmates with mental health conditions. Her jailers argue that this arrangement protects Davis from other prisoners, who might attack her for being a communist. Their true motive, however, is to prevent Davis from interacting with and teaching the other women about communism and Black Liberation and Freedom. Once Davis’s attorneys succeed in having her moved to the general population, the other inmates are not hostile toward her and indeed show significant interest in these ideas, something that dismays the authorities.