Which Black Woman Was on The FBI's Most Wanted List?
The day an icon was born
Hey sis,
Who was at one point in time America’s most wanted Black woman? At the time of me writing this ( 26th of January) it’s Angela. Y. Davis’ birthday she turned eighty one. Angela was at one point on the FBI’s most wanted list due to her activism for Black people. Her birthdate makes her a radical Aquarius woman 😝, a bit like yours truly.
I’m about one third of the way through reading her autobiography (which apparently Toni Morrison edited for her), I’m really enjoying it.
She has done so much to help advance the Black race from an American perspective, she’s a very interesting woman, and definitely has a place in the encyclopaedia of Black women’s biographies I’m placing together for Notes on Black Women, while I wish her happy birthday.
Background:
Born in 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA in a racially segregated area in the south, within a neighbourhood nicknamed "Dynamite Hill" because of frequent Ku Klux Klan bombings targeting Black families. Just like Paulette Nardal ( a French Caribbean revolutionary woman I’ve featured before in the encyclopaedia of Black women’s biographies), Angela comes from an upper-middle classed background. It’s interesting that even with this affluence she was still very conscious to the ills of society, and how this impacted the less affluent, educated, or stable Black people during her coming of age years that she may not have directly always encountered, due to her background.
She attended racially integrated schools and even was lucky enough to spend time in Europe studying at a German academic establishment, which highlights how affluent her family were at the time, to be able to send her abroad to study.
The Making of the Black Woman Activist:
Affiliation with the Black Panthers: This is probably what we know Angela best for, during Angela’s coming of age years, she was closely associated with the Black Panther Party, she was an active member of the Communist Party (USA), and worked with organisations like the Che-Lumumba Club, a Black Marxist group.
Focus on Prison Reform: Angela seemed and still does seem to be very passionate about the prison system, a lot of her activism has been focused on the abolition of the prison system, or a reform of it. She co-founded Critical Resistance, an organisation dedicated to dismantling systems of incarceration.
America’s Most Wanted Black Woman— Her Arrest
Public Enemy Number One: I really enjoyed reading about this event in Angela’s life in her autobiography, in 1970, she was accused of aiding the Soledad Brothers' prison escape attempt, which resulted in a courtroom shootout. She was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. She seemed to have developed a love for one of these brothers which I personally could not get my head around why!? But hey, who am I to judge. It does appear though that her love, desire for this man, and affiliation with him is what led to this event in her life.
Arrest and Trial: Angela’s autobiography clearly shows what extent she went to in order to not be captured by the police. From wigs, make-up, and taking on a physical appearance that was so different from herself ( straightening her afro for example or wearing straight haired wigs), she did all this but eventually she was arrested and spent sixteen months in jail. Her trial gained international attention, and she was acquitted in 1972 after a massive global campaign for her release. I really do recommend her autobiography as a read to gain insight into her time in jail. I do feel that it was largely this experience and what she saw as a female prisoner that sparked her activism in this particular area.
Angela, The Academic
One of the things I really love about Dr. Angela Y. Davis is her mind, she is an academic to the core. Being an ex- schoolteacher this resonates with me a lot, I love academic study. It’s hard to pinpoint what essay or part of her work I’ve enjoyed the best , but one that I’ll never and I mean never forget that she penned is this book: Women, Race, Class (1981)
It’s a must read for any woman interested in the conditions of Black women and to a certain extent the lower classed white women from a historical perspective, but it’s narrow in it’s view as it focuses only on the American Black woman. This is not a problem at all for me, reading this book that’s very scholarly but so easy to understand and digest, will leave you instantly wiser with a deep love for being who you are if you identify as a Black woman, no matter what part of the African diaspora you’re actually from.
Eventually, as she left prison Angela became a professor and scholar, teaching at institutions such as the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her work focuses on feminism, Marxism, critical race theory, and prison abolition.
Angela—The Icon
Feminist icon, Black power icon, pop culture icon with her signature afro and fist in the air, LGBTQ icon as a self-identified gay woman, international advocate for suffrage worldwide,
I love it all! What is not to love about this Black woman.
Forever an iconic legend in all these areas.
Happy birthday Dr. Angela. Y. Davis, and thank you for all you’ve done, and all you’ve personally taught me from reading your work and autobiography.
If you do want to learn or understand a bit about a woman who worked just as tirelessly as Angela across the Caribbean, I recommend you check out my essay from a few weeks back on Paulette Nardal, the French Caribbean woman who carried out her life’s work in the name of Black women in the 19th and 20th century.
Much Love
The Black Woman Essayist
Ps. I always love to share this, if you love Black history as much as I do check out Urban Intellectuals’ range of Black history flash cards here, they even have a deck especially for Black women. They also have a range of clothing, cups, bags and other fun stuff that’s all Black history focused you can check out here.