Angela Davis: An Autobiography

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1974

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Index of Terms

Black Panther Party (BPP)

Content Warning: This section references systemic racism, including the police murders of Black Americans.

Davis’s activism with the Che-Lumumba Club intersected with the work of the Black Panthers. The Black Panther Party originated in Oakland, California, in the 1960s. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, both college students at the time, founded the group, which established chapters around the country and called for Black liberation. They embraced communist ideology and were active in establishing Black community services, such as a children’s free breakfast program, ambulance service, and food banks. Members of the Black Panthers, like Davis, were targets of state oppression, as when the police raided the Panthers’ Los Angeles office, causing a shoot-out that led to the arrest of members of the group. Davis was active in organizing protests calling for the release of the Panthers.

Che-Lumumba Club

The Che-Lumumba Club was a Black Communist collective based in Los Angeles. Angela Davis joined in 1968 and organized many demonstrations in support of Black liberation in conjunction with club members, including a campaign to free the Soledad Brothers. Members of the group, including leaders Franklin and Kendra Alexander, acted as some of Davis’s most ardent supporters when she was arrested and tried on charges of involvement in the Marin County courthouse uprising. The gun Jonathan Jackson used that was registered to her had been stored at the club’s headquarters.

Communism

Communism is an ideology inspired by but distinct from Marxism, the political and economic theory formulated by Karl Marx in various works including The Communist Manifesto, which Davis read in high school. Communism advocates the elimination of socioeconomic classes and argues the means of production should be controlled by the state. Davis joined the Che-Lumumba Club, a Black Communist Party cell based in Los Angeles that advocated the use of communist thinking for Black liberation. Her politics cost Davis her job at UCLA and contributed to her arrest on charges of conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder. Davis is no longer an official member of the Communist Party but still embraces its ideas in her thinking about systemic racism, the carceral system, and Black liberation.

Prison Abolitionism

Prison abolitionism is the movement to dismantle the carceral system. Prison abolitionists like Angela Davis believe that the carceral system is inherently unjust and profit oriented, disproportionately targeting non-white people and making it difficult for incarcerated individuals to improve their circumstances and thereby escape the cycle of imprisonment. Prison abolitionists support programs of rehabilitation as a replacement for the carceral system, which in their view focuses unhelpfully on punishment, isolation, and deprivation. Prison abolitionism experienced a resurgence in the early 21st century in response to the police murders of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, and others. Its influence can also be seen in movements to defund or abolish the police.