Their Story
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Angela Davis studied at Brandeis University, the University of Frankfurt, and the University of California, San Diego, where she earned a master's degree; she later earned a doctorate from Humboldt University. She taught philosophy at UCLA and later taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she is Distinguished Professor Emerita. In 1970, after a warrant was issued in connection with the Marin County courthouse events involving George Jackson, Davis was arrested and charged; after sixteen months in custody, she was acquitted by a jury on June 4, 1972. Davis co-founded Critical Resistance, an organization working to dismantle the prison-industrial complex, and has authored books including Women, Race, and Class and Angela Davis: An Autobiography.