January 26, 1944
Angela Yvonne Davis is born in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Angela Yvonne Davis is born in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Davis family moves from an all-Black Birmingham housing project, becoming the first Black family to integrate their new neighborhood. Davis attends segregated elementary and middle schools.
Angela Davis, Girl Scout, 1959
Accessed at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Angela_Davis_10-year-old_Girl_Scouts.tif
Davis joins an all-Black Girl Scout troop. She later credits her membership in the Girl Scouts with the beginnings of her political involvement.
Davis wins a scholarship to attend Elisabeth Irwin, a progressive high school in Greenwich Village in New York City where she first studies socialism and reads The Communist Manifesto.
Davis, one of three Black students in her class, majors in French at Brandeis University near Boston. She visits Paris on her way to attend the eighth World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki and attends a pro-Algerian rally, where she witnesses French racism.
George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, proclaims, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”
Victims of the Baptist Church Bombing in Birmingham, 1963
Accessed at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ob%C4%
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In Birmingham, Alabama, a bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church kills four young girls: Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. Two of the victims are known by the Davis family. Angela, just starting her junior year abroad, hears the news and phones home from Biarritz.
Angela Davis’s Brandeis junior year yearbook photo, 1965-67.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
In her senior year at Brandeis, Davis takes a class with Herbert Marcuse, a Marxist philosopher, who will become a mentor and intellectual influence.
Davis graduates from Brandeis University with a BA in French literature, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, then studies at Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Universität in Frankfurt, West Germany. From Germany, she follows the Black liberation movement developing back home.
Burning buildings during Watts Riots, 1965
Accessed at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wattsriots-burningbuildings-loc.jpg
The Watts Rebellion takes place in South Los Angeles.
Activist Stokely Carmichael declares, “Black Power!”
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale standing on a street, armed with shotguns,
Accessed at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Black-Panther-Party-armed-guards-in-street-shotguns.jpg
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale form the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California.
Davis returns to the US to study with Marcuse at UCSD. On campus, she helps organize the first Black Student Council, becomes active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Los Angeles, and helps create the People’s Tribunal Committee to deal with police brutality. She joins, and later leaves, the LA chapter of the Black Panther Party.
Demonstrators with signs, one reading "Let not his death be in vain", in front of the White House, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, 1968.
Accessed at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
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_not_his_death_be_in_vain.jpg
Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated.
Davis formally joins the Communist Party and the Che-Lumumba Club, an all-Black communist collective named for Che Guevara and Patrice Lumumba.
Angela Davis on horseback in Cuba in 1969, Offset lithograph, 1971.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
Davis is offered a teaching contract as an acting assistant professor in the Philosophy Department of UCLA. In June, she spends a month in Cuba with other members of the Che-Lumumba Club.
The San Francisco Examiner outs Davis as a communist. The UCLA chancellor’s office notifies her of the policy against hiring Communist Party members and asks her to confirm or deny the accusation.
“Angela Davis: Black, Beautiful—and Red.” Soul, December 15, 1969.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
Davis publicly confirms that she is a communist.
An excerpt from Angela Davis's correspondence with the UCLA board, 1969.
Accessed at https://leonletwin.wordpress.com/1969/07/16/1969-07-16-1970-08-19-angela-y-davis-academic-freedom-case-at-ucla-leon-letwin-file/
The University of California Regents vote to fire Davis. She appeals the decision and is assigned to teach a Black literature course.
"Lectures On Liberation" publication, 1969.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
More than 2,000 students and faculty pack UCLA’s Royce Hall for Davis’s first lecture: “Recurring Philosophical Themes in Black Literature.”
A Superior Court Judge rules Davis’s firing unconstitutional and orders her fully reinstated. Davis becomes the target of death threats and harassment, making it necessary for her to travel with bodyguards. She purchases guns to protect herself.
"Angela: Portrait of a Revolutionary" flyer, 1969.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
Yolande du Luart’s documentary, later called Angela Davis: Portrait of a Revolutionary, is filmed.
The UCLA faculty Academic Senate votes to condemn the Regents’ ruling and rescinds the 1950 resolution against hiring communists.
At Soledad State Prison, a guard shoots and kills three Black inmates whose deaths are ruled justifiable homicide. On January 16, a white Soledad guard is killed.
A grand jury indicts three Black prisoners, John W. Cluchette, Fleeta Drumgo, and George L. Jackson, known as the Soledad Brothers, for first-degree murder in the guard’s death.
As co-chair of the Soledad Brothers Defense Committee, Davis uses her higher profile to focus attention on the Soledad Brothers’ case, arguing that they have been indicted because of their political beliefs.
Jonathan Jackson, George’s younger brother, works closely with Davis, serving as her unofficial bodyguard. Davis and George Jackson begin to correspond.
The Board of Regents votes not to renew Davis’s contract, citing her political work on behalf of the Soledad Brothers and Black Panthers.
The UCLA faculty again voices their support and offers to pay Davis out of their own salaries.
Angela Davis Fired photograph, 1970.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
The Board of Regents fires Davis.
Marin Co. Hostages photograph, 1971
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
Jonathan Jackson enters a courtroom where a Black San Quentin prisoner is on trial. He gives guns to the defendant and two inmate witnesses; they take five hostages, including the judge, and attempt to escape. A San Quentin guard opens fire and Jackson, the judge, and two others are killed.
WANTED: Faith Beauty Integrity,
Mohamed K, Offset lithograph poster, 1970
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
The police announce that the four guns brought into the courtroom by Jackson are registered to Davis. A warrant is issued for her arrest as an accomplice to kidnapping and murder – capital offenses. She goes into hiding.
"Sister You Are Welcome Here" centerfold poster, Leviathan Publications, 1970.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
Davis is placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list – the third woman ever
to appear. While she is underground, signs announcing “Sister: You Are Welcome Here” appear in communities across the country.
Davis and a companion, David Poindexter, are arrested in Manhattan. She is held without bail at the Women’s House of Detention in New York City. Days later, the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis (NUCFAD) is founded.
On national television, President Richard Nixon congratulates the FBI on capturing “the dangerous terrorist, Angela Davis.”
Transferred to solitary confinement, she begins a hunger strike in protest.
"Attorneys Confer" photograph, 1972.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
A federal judge rules there is no justification for solitary confinement. Davis’s legal team begins to assemble, among them Howard Moore, Jr., Leo Branton, Jr., Doris Brinn Walker, and members of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the ACLU, and the National Lawyers Guild. Black People in Defense of Angela Davis, a committee of Black writersfrom New York, issues a statement on Angela’s behalf.
New York Review of Books publishes a letter by James Baldwin titled “An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis.”
Under military guard, Davis is extradited to California to stand trial.
Arraigned at the Marin County Courthouse in San Rafael, she is charged with murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy. Cards and letters of support from around the world flood the Marin County Jail.
National United Committee to Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners, Greeting Card (with reproduction of Charles White’s Love Letter 1, 1971), Bifold card, 1971.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
The National United Committee to Free Angela Davis includes over two hundred committees in the US and sixty-seven from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union becomes the first union to announce support for Davis.
Superior Court Judge Richard E. Arnason presides over the trial.
Judge Arnason denies bail, ruling Davis is not entitled to bail since she is being tried for a capital offense.
“In Defense of Angela Davis” by Academics in Support of Angela Davis is published in the New York Review of Books.
George Jackson is assassinated by San Quentin prison guards.
If They Come in the Morning book by Angela Y. Davis, 1971.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
400,000 Parisians march in support of Davis with her sister, Fania. Third Press publishes If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance, an anthology edited by Davis from jail and Bettina Aptheker.
A California State Supreme Court ruling overturns the death penalty, removing the obstacle cited by Judge Arnason in denying Davis bail. On February 23, with the $102,500 bail posted by Rodger McAfee, a white farmer from Fresno, California, Davis is free on bail.
Angela Davis On Way to Trial, 1972.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
Davis’s trial begins.
Trial Sketch "Angela & Mother Rejoicing." 1972.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
After deliberating for thirteen hours, the jury declares Davis not guilty on all counts.
15,000 people gather at New York’s Madison Square Garden to celebrate.
Angela Davis in Moscow, 1972.
Accessed at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Angela_Davis_Moscow_1972_cropped_2.jpg
Davis receives the Lenin Jubilee Medal in Moscow.
Davis announces the formation of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) in Chicago and serves as co-chair.
Random House publishes Angela Davis: An Autobiography, edited by Toni Morrison.
Davis is hired by the Claremont Colleges in California as a lecturer in their Black Studies Center.
Davis is hired to teach at San Francisco State University.
Awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. With Gus Hall as presidential candidate, she runs for vice president on the Communist Party ticket in 1980. Their campaign slogan is “People Before Profits.”
Becoming Visible: The First Black Lesbian Conference poster, 1980.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
Serves as keynote speaker for the First Black Lesbian Conference, “Becoming Visible,” held at the San Francisco Women’s Building.
Random House publishes Davis’s third book, Women, Race & Class.
Vote for Peace, Jobs & Equality,
offset lithograph poster 15.5 x 11 in, 1984.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
Davis runs again with Gus Hall in the 1984 presidential election.
Attends United Nations Decade for Women conference in Nairobi. Davis leads a protest against the appointment of Maureen Reagan as the head of the US delegation.
Davis leaves the Communist Party.
Davis named Professor in the History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies Departments. UC Santa Cruz.
Davis delivers the keynote speech at the annual National Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum.
Davis is appointed to the University of California Presidential Chair in African American and Feminist Studies.
OUT Magazine cover, 1998.
Accessed from Lisbet Tellefsen Archive.
Appears on the cover of Out, a leading LGBT magazine.
Davis is one of the organizers of the conference “Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison-Industrial Complex,” held at UC, Berkeley.
Seven Stories Press publishes Are Prisons Obsolete?
Davis retires from UC Santa Cruz as Distinguished Professor Emerita.
City Lights Press publishes The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues.
Trayvon Martin shooting protest, 2012.
Accessed at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
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#BlackLivesMatter begins after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. The deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City in 2014 bring Black Lives Matter protests to the streets.
Haymarket Books publishes Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement.
Davis donates her papers to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University.
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) names Davis the recipient of the 2018 Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award.
The BCRI Board of Directors rescinds the award after protests against Davis for her long-term support of Palestine. Weeks later, they reaffirm Davis is the recipient of the 2018 Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award.
Julie Dash announces she will direct a biopic on Davis.
Davis is inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.
Justice for George Mural, 2020.
Accessed at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Justice_for_George_Mural.jpg
George Floyd is killed by Minneapolis police and national and global protests erupt. The deaths of Breonna Taylor by the Louisville police and Ahmaud Arbery by three armed white men further enflame protest.
Throughout the US, crowds gather to celebrate Juneteenth, the holiday marking the emancipation of enslaved people in the US. In Oakland, Davis, Danny Glover, and other activists address the crowd calling for a continued commitment to the struggle for freedom.
Davis is photographed for the cover of Vanity Fair and interviewed by Ava DuVernay.
Black Lives Matter is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. Additional support is provided by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Endowment, Voorhees Family Endowment, Estate of Regina Heldrich, and donors to the Zimmerli’s Major Exhibitions Fund: James and Kathrin Bergin, Alvin and Joyce Glasgold, and Sundaa and Randy Jones.