Her Story: Angela Davis

Georgia as Angela Davis, Activist, Scholar, Politician, and Educator
Georgia as Angela Davis

Angela Davis (born 1944),  is an activist, scholar, politician and educator. Born in Birmingham, Alabama in an area referred to as “Dynamite Hill” because so many African American homes in this neighborhood had been bombed over the years by the Ku Klux Klan. Davis is known around the world for her ongoing work to fight all forms of oppression in the U.S. and internationally.

Davis became politically active as a youngster in Alabama attending civil-rights activities with her mother, and continued her activism through high school and college. In 1969 that she came to national attention when she was removed from her teaching position at UCLA as a result of her social activism. She took the case to court and won her job back. In 1970 she was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List on false charges and was the center of one of the most famous trials in recent U.S. history. During her incarceration, a huge international “Free Angela Davis” campaign was organized. She was acquitted in a federal trial in 1972.

As an activist and writer, Davis promotes women’s rights, prison reform, and social justice. Over the last twenty-five years, Davis has lectured in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, the former Soviet Union and all of fifty states in America. She has authored nine books as well as numerous articles and essays that have been featured in several journals and anthologies.

Davis’s teaching career as a professor has included work at San Francisco State University, UC Berkeley and Mills College. She also has taught at UCLA, the Claremont Colleges, Vassar, and Stanford University. She spent the last decade and a half at the University of California, Santa Cruz where she is now Distinguished Professor Emerita.

Angela Davis speaking at a rally.
Angela Davis

Sources:

Angela Davis

About this Shoot:

Georgia wants you to know that the earrings are made out of paperclips because she keeps changing her mind about getting her ears pierced. Someday, when Georgia is grown and reads this, I want her to be reminded that a girl always has the right to change her mind. Again and again.

The dress is a thrift store find, while it is several sizes too big, it is now her favorite outfit. If you live locally you will likely see her skipping down the street tripping on it.



About The Author


shaunaupp

Mother, Photographer, Wisecracker.... not necessarily in that order.

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