Post by Auset on Mar 15, 2004 12:33:02 GMT -5
In the fall of 1970 Angela Davis was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List when she was charged with being an accessory in the attempted escape of prisoners from the Marin County (California) Courthouse. In that escape attempt, a white judge and four blacks were killed, among them, Jonathan Jackson, a close friend of Angela Davis. She was accused of supplying him with some of the weapons used in the shoot-out.
Prior to that Miss Davis had become a cause celebre when the State of California attempted to stop her from teaching a philosophy course at the University of California in Los Angeles because of her membership in the Communist Party.
Today her determined, strong face wreathed by a high, soft Afro is familiar to practically every American. The major news media has expended many words on Miss Davis, recounting her academic career as a student of philosophy and of the noted philosopher, Herbert Marcuse, and as a student in Germany. The news media has been perplexed by Angela Davis, wondering why such a brilliant and well - educated woman would become a revolutionary. And, the news media could never answer its question because it never really talked with Miss Davis herself. Because it didn't, the public was deprived of the opportunity to know for itself what Angela Davis thinks and believes.
This recording fills a glaring deficiency in the case of Angela Davis. Interviewed here by Art Seigner, a San Francisco radio commentator, Miss Davis responds with a concise summary of her political views. And, the recording is of particular interest, recorder as it was in June of 1970, a mere two months before the Marin County episode. In the interview, she almost anticipates what was to happen to her.
Central to understanding Miss Davis is the fact that she says she cannot separate herself "as a human being" from black people or the rest of humanity. She is an intellectual; a professor of philosophy; a candidate for a Ph.D., but she refuses to be wholly defined by any of this. In other words, she cares and because she does, she does not view herself in the light of the academic world of which she was a part, but, instead, views herself and that academic world in the light of the political dynamics of contemporary America.
She sets forth her basic position by quoting from Lincoln's second inaugural address in which he stated that it was the obligation and the duty of the people to overthrow the government whenever that government ceased to be responsive to their needs. She aligns herself with what she calls, America's revolutionary tradition, commenting that Americans have forgotten that this country was founded on the violent overthrow of the existing English government.
Prior to that Miss Davis had become a cause celebre when the State of California attempted to stop her from teaching a philosophy course at the University of California in Los Angeles because of her membership in the Communist Party.
Today her determined, strong face wreathed by a high, soft Afro is familiar to practically every American. The major news media has expended many words on Miss Davis, recounting her academic career as a student of philosophy and of the noted philosopher, Herbert Marcuse, and as a student in Germany. The news media has been perplexed by Angela Davis, wondering why such a brilliant and well - educated woman would become a revolutionary. And, the news media could never answer its question because it never really talked with Miss Davis herself. Because it didn't, the public was deprived of the opportunity to know for itself what Angela Davis thinks and believes.
This recording fills a glaring deficiency in the case of Angela Davis. Interviewed here by Art Seigner, a San Francisco radio commentator, Miss Davis responds with a concise summary of her political views. And, the recording is of particular interest, recorder as it was in June of 1970, a mere two months before the Marin County episode. In the interview, she almost anticipates what was to happen to her.
Central to understanding Miss Davis is the fact that she says she cannot separate herself "as a human being" from black people or the rest of humanity. She is an intellectual; a professor of philosophy; a candidate for a Ph.D., but she refuses to be wholly defined by any of this. In other words, she cares and because she does, she does not view herself in the light of the academic world of which she was a part, but, instead, views herself and that academic world in the light of the political dynamics of contemporary America.
She sets forth her basic position by quoting from Lincoln's second inaugural address in which he stated that it was the obligation and the duty of the people to overthrow the government whenever that government ceased to be responsive to their needs. She aligns herself with what she calls, America's revolutionary tradition, commenting that Americans have forgotten that this country was founded on the violent overthrow of the existing English government.
