ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses life history of Angela Davis, a feminist thinker, who is a leading figure in movements for prison abolition, racial and economic justice, intersectional feminism, queer and trans liberation, and food justice. From a very young age, Davis felt the impact of racial terrorism in the United States. In 1968, Davis became involved in the Che Lumumba Club, the Black collective of the Communist Party, as well as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Her first academic appointment was a two-year position in the philosophy department at UCLA, but when her involvement in the Communist Party was publicized, then-Governor Ronald Reagan convinced the Board of Regents to fire her. Davis' political autobiography is the contingent story of a person caught in the dangerous intersection of race, class, and gender at a particular historical moment, and also the collective history of a movement to analyze and dismantle the intersectional forms of domination.
