Topic > Analyzing the Autobiography of Angela Davis

In Angela Davis: An Autobiography . He eloquently wrote his story and intelligently named each chapter: nets, rocks, waters, flames, walls and brides, each name symbolizing a step in his life. His autobiography details how his goal of helping oppressed individuals found expression in the political ideals of communism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayIn the chapter Nets and Rocks she lays the foundation of her life and describes her upbringing and way of life as a child. Angela Yvonne Davis was born on January 26, 1944 to B. Frank, a teacher and businessman, and Sally E. Davis, also a teacher. Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, at a time of great political unrest and racism in the United States. Davis experienced exposure to multiple socioeconomic systems throughout his youth. He attended civil rights demonstrations and helped form interracial study groups while a teenager in Birmingham, Alabama. As a child, Davis' parents had many communist friends, and she later joined a communist youth group while an American Friends Service Committee scholarship student at Elizabeth Irwin High School in New York. Of his first introduction to communism, he states in his autobiography that the Communist Manifesto (the declaration of principles and objectives of the Communist League, a secret organization of German émigré artisans and intellectuals, published in London in 1848, shortly before the February Revolution in Paris written by Karl Marx) struck her like lightning. She read it with enthusiasm, finding in it the answers to many of the seemingly unanswerable dilemmas that had tormented her. He began to see black problems in the context of a greater labor movement. His ideas about black liberation were inaccurate and he couldn't find the right concepts to articulate them; however, he was gaining some understanding of how capitalism could be abolished. She continues, explaining the connection between communism and minority liberation, saying that what struck her so strongly was the idea that once the emancipation of the proletariat became a reality, the foundations would be laid for the emancipation of all oppressed groups in society.Davis traveled to Germany in 1960, where he spent two years studying at the Frankfurt School under the guidance of acclaimed teacher Theodor Adorno. From 1963 to 1964, Davis attended the University of Paris. Davis then returned to the United States and attended Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts. After earning his undergraduate and graduate degrees magna cum laude in 1965, Davis flew to Germany, where he conducted undergraduate research. Upon returning to the United States, Davis enrolled at the University of California at San Diego, where she began pursuing her master's degree, which she earned in 1968. . Additionally, while in college, she studied under the political philosopher Herbert Marcuse, who considered her the best student he had ever taught. At the University of California, San Diego, he participated in several activist organizations, including the San Diego Black Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; he also helped found the Black Student Council. Davis became a member of the Communist Party, as well as a member of the Black Panthers. It was her involvement in these radical groups that caused Davis to be watched very closely by the US government. After teaching for just one year, it was these radical associations that caused her to be fired from her position as assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California at Los Angeles. In the chapters Water, flames andMuri talks about what troubles his crusade for black liberation. Davis allied herself primarily with the Che-Lumumba Club, a black faction of Los Angeles Party members. The black communists of the Che-Lumumba club had already declared their goal as the liberation of black peoples in the Los Angeles area through the application of Marxist-Leninist philosophies when Davis officially joined the party in July 1968. Her pursuit of a revolutionary community to engage with did not end with her membership in the Communist Party. He also actively initiated militant demonstrations and protests designed to focus public attention on the plight of minorities. Her radical views also eventually interfered with her career as an educator. In 1969, the University of California Board of Regents dismissed her from the faculty; a court order reinstated her later. However, the University of California, Los Angeles did not renew her contract in 1970, even after the administration rated her as an "excellent" and reasonably impartial teacher. The American Association of University Professors censured the institution for its decision, and a final attempt by the philosophy department to reinstate her in 1972 failed. At the same time, with his professional difficulties, Davis' radical beliefs led to his involvement in a prison break in 1970. Political prisoner George Jackson and others attempted to escape from the courthouse in Marin County, California. The situation escalated into a shootout. In Jackson's attempt to free several prisoners from the Marin County Courthouse, it is alleged that the weapons with which the young revolutionary armed the prisoners were registered to Angela. In connection with the incident, Angela Davis was charged with kidnapping, conspiracy and murder. His imprisonment and subsequent trial sparked international concern and interest; she was ultimately acquitted of all charges. During her imprisonment, Angela sparked a public protest the next morning, approximately 300 people gathered again outside the federal courthouse for the arraignment of Angela and David Poindexter who were arrested with her and charged with harboring a fugitive. . A caravan of seven unmarked cars took them to the heavily guarded courthouse along a route apprehensively mapped out by the FBI. Inside the building, federal agents announced to the crowd that had been waiting for hours that only 14 people plus the press would be allowed to attend the preliminary hearing before the US commissioner. Pigs in plain clothes searched everyone who entered. The hearing was solely to set bail on charges of "unlawful flight to avoid prosecution" for Angela and "harboring a fugitive" for David Poindexter. But the senior commissioner made it clear that he based his decision on the California case. When the US Attorney requested bail of $250,000 for Angela and $100,000 for Poindexter, the commissioner immediately granted it. The defense lawyers underlined that here Angela is accused only of having violated the fugitive statute, which provides for a maximum sentence of 500 dollars and 5 years, and added that Angela had not participated in the events in California, but at most she could have purchased the weapons. As Angela left the room under heavy guard, people crowded around her and one sister shouted, "Angela, we love you. Everyone loves you from coast to coast. We will set you free." Angela smiled. "ANGELA, SISTER, YOU ARE WELCOME TO THIS HOME" - signs in windows across the United States in support of Miss Davis. In Bridges, the last chapter, Davis' controversial behavior.