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,} i/" """" ";' ,;�".,-,-,:'iIi International Publishers Photos (courtesy Mr. Mrs. B. Frank Davis); & New York Angela at fifteen months. 1. Visiting New York, July, 2. Angela left, Fania right, summer,1951. 1952 3. Junior year at Brandeis. 4. For my family, my strength For my comrades, my light. For the sisters and brothers whose fightingspirit was my Copyright © by Angela Davis liberator. 1974,1988 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American For those whose humanity is too rare to be destroyed Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by by walls, bars, and death houses. Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada especially for those who are going to struggle until by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. And racism and class injustice are forever banished from our history. Reprint, 1988 by International Publishers, New York Printed in the United States of America This printing, 1996 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS LIbrary of congress CatalogIng-In-PublIcatIon Data DavIs. Angela Yvonne. 1944- Angela Davls--an autobIography. p. c •• ReprInt. wIth new Introd. OrIgInally publIshed: New York : Random House. [19741. ISBN 0-7178-0667-7 (pbk.) DavIs. Angela Yvonne. 1944-: $12.95 2. Afro-Amerlcans--Blography. 1.TItle. E185.97.D23A3I. 1988 322,4'2'0924--dcI9 [BJ 88-8232 CIP • Introduction This new edition of my autobiography appears nearly fifteen years after its first publication. I now appreciate the prodding of those who persuaded me to write about my experiences at what I thought was far too young an age to produce a comprehensive autobiographical work of significant value to its audience. Were I to contemplate today the preceding forty-four years of my life, the book I would write would be entirely different in both form and content. But I am glad that I wrote this book at age twenty-eight because it is, I think, an important piece of historical description and analysis of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is also my own personal history up to that time, comprehended and delineated from that particular vantage point. During that period of my life when, like many others, every moment of the day was devoted to the quest for activist solutions to the immediate practical problems posed by the Black liberation movement and for appropriate responses to the repressions emanat ing from the adversarial forces in that drama, I did realize how important it was to preserve the history of those struggles for the benefit of our posterity. Nevertheless, for the participants in those movements, the frantic pace of events seemed to preclude the kind • • Vll chronicle and interpret were so extensively publicized, the contest that unfolded during of contemplative attitude necessary to of history. my incarceration and trial from 1970 to 1972 was one in which a those struggles from the standpoint . begm workmg on an single Black woman successfully fended off the repressive might of When I expressed my initial hesitancy to wish to write about the the state. Those of us with a history of active struggle against autobiography, it was not because I did not but rather because political repression understood, of course, that while one of the events of that time and generally in my lifetime, widespread tendency to protagonists in this battle was indeed the state, the other was not a I did not want to contribute to the already to be perfectly candid, single individual, but rather the collective power of the thousands personalize and individualize history. And rather embarrassed to be and thousands of people opposed to racism and political repression. my own instinctive reserve made me feel abo�t myself . That As a matter of fact, the underlying reasons for the extensive writing about myself. So I did not really write . own hfe accordm� to publicity accorded my trial had less to do with the sensationalist is to say, I did not measure the events of my . I attempted to ut1hze coverage of the prisoner uprising at the Marin County Courthouse their possible personal importance. Rather life in accordance with than with the work of untold numbers of anonymous individuals the autobiographical genre to evaluate my of my experiences. who were moved to action, not so much by my particular predica what I considered to be the political significance from my work as ment as by the cumulative work of the progressive movements of The political manner of measurement emanated of the Commu that period. Certainly the victory we won when I was acquitted of an activist in the Black movement and as a member all charges can still be claimed today as a milestone in the work of nist Party. opposed to grassroots movements. When I was writing this book, I was vehemently liberation mo e The polittcal threads in my life have remained essentially the notion, developed within the young women's : things person l w1th continuous since the early 1970s. In 1988, I remain a member of ment, which naively and uncritically equated � to render eqUlvalent the National Committee of the Communist Party and I continue things political. In my mind, this idea tended murders of Black to work with the National Alliance Against Racist and Political .such vastly disparate phenomena as racist police of white women by Repression. I have also become an active member of the executive people and the sexist-inspired verbal abuse violence on a board of the National Black Women's Health Project. their husbands. Since I personally witnessed police response to This is a ttme when increasing numbers of people find them number of occasions during that period, my negative was quite under selves attracted to progressive causes. During the past eight years the feminist slogan, "the personal is political," attempts to of the Reagan Administration, even as conservative forces in power standable. While I continue to disagree with all easy understand that have brought about the erosion of some of our previous victories, define these two dimensions as equivalent, I do lines of we have also witnessed a powerful surge of mass activism within there is a sense in which all efforts to draw definitive miscon the labor movement, on the campuses, and in the communities. demarcation between the personal and political inevitably less an Extensive and influential movements against apartheid in South strue social reality. For example, domestic violence is no Africa, against domestic racism, against intervention in Central expression of the prevailing politics of gender because it occurs America and against plant closings at home have compelled the within the private sphere of a personal relationship. I therefore political establishment to seriously address these issues. As more express my regrets that I was not able to also apply a measuring give leadership to stick which manifested a more complex understanding of the labor activists and women of color have begun to dialectics of the personal and the political. the women's movement, the campaign for women's equality has The real that time resides, I think, acquired a much-needed breadth and has accordingly matured. As . strength of my approach at In 1ts honest emphasis on grassroots contributions and achievements, a direct result of grassroots activism, there are more progressive so . to Black elected officials than ever before. And even though he did as demystify the usual notion that history is the product of umque individuals possessing inherent qualities of greatness. Many not win the Democratic Party presidential nomination, JesseJackson people unfortunately assumed that because my name and my case conducted a truly triumphant campaign, one that confirmed and • ... Vlll IX further nurtured progressive thought patterns among the people of our country. I write this introduction, I join many friends and comrades As in mourning the untimely death of Aaron Boye. Aaron was the nephew of Charlene Mitchell, of Franklin and Kendra Alexander, and the cousin of Steven Mitchell-all of whom are frequently mentioned in the pages of this autobiography. When Aaron gradu ated from UCLA two years ago, he invited me to speak at the Black students' graduation ceremonies. In my remarks, I urged the students to remain cognizant of the struggles which had carved out a place for them at that institution and to be willing, in turn, to add their own contributions to the ongoing quest for justice and equality. Surrounded in his childhood by relatives and friends who had dedicated their lives to these causes, Aaron was keenly aware that he had reaped the fruit of their contributions. And he had Angela Davis / An Autobiography begun long ago to sow the seed for future struggles. this autobiography was originally dedicated to comrades As who gave their lives during an earlier period, I add Aaron Boye's name to the roster of those who, were they still among us, would be on the frontlines today. " Unfortunately, it is not possible to include here the names of all those who helped in some way with the preparation of this book. However, there are some people who deserve special • mentIon. The writing of this book allowed me to work with and get to know a person who is a magnificent writer and inspiring Black woman. As my editor, Toni Morrison not only gave me invaluable assistance, but she was patient and understanding when the work on the book had to be continually interrupted by my responsibility in the movement to free political prisoners. I am deeply grateful to the Cuban Communist Party and its First Secretary Fidel Castro for having invited me to spend several months in Cuba to work full time on the manuscript. Charlene Mitchell, Franklin Alexander, Victoria Mercado, Bettina Aptheker, Michael Meyerson, Curtis Stewart, and my attorney, Leo Branton, read the manuscript at various stages.

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