Angela Davis: An Autobiography

Davis matriculates at Brandeis University in fall of 1961. She is one of only a few Black female students, which causes her to feel isolated.

The Cuban Missile Crisis happens during Davis’s first year, while Black writer James Baldwin is visiting the campus. Students and faculty organize a campus rally at which Baldwin speaks. Davis is heartened to participate in activism again. She befriends a student from India. This friendship helps Davis begin to comprehend the connections between global movements for liberation. Davis and a friend from Elizabeth Irwin also plan a trip to Helsinki to attend the Eighth World Festival for Youth and Students.

Before getting to Helsinki, however, Davis spends some time in Paris, where she observes the blatant bigotry and violence directed at Algerian immigrants: “Bombs were exploding in cafés frequented by North Africans, bloody bodies were discovered in dark side streets, and anti-Algerian graffiti marred the sides of buildings” (105). The Parisian police, arriving to break up a demonstration in support of Algerians, behave no differently from the white supremacist police Davis saw in Birmingham.

The festival in Helsinki fosters Davis’s global perspective on liberation, and she is particularly impressed with the Cuban delegation. The FBI, which has agents at the festival, questions Davis upon her return to the United States, insinuating that her communist leanings could put her in danger.