Spring Break
Activist derides artificial 'unity'
Angela Davis spoke on art, philosophy, & modern diversity.
Vincent Jackson '07
Issue date: 11/11/05 Section: Sports
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Davis gained recognition as a prominent civil rights activist during the 1960s and 70s. She was a member of the Communist Party of the United States, which, along with her social activism, led to her removal from her teaching position in the Philosophy Department of UCLA in 1969. In 1970, Davis was placed on the FBI's ten most-wanted list under what were later deemed to be false charges. After spending two months in hiding and being apprehended and held by the authorities for 16 months, Davis was acquitted of all charges brought against her. Davis' time in jail and her trial made her a national figure, and she went on to continue to advocate for various progressive causes.
Davis studied under the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, and she eventually obtained her doctorate in philosophy. Today, Davis is currently a tenured professor in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of Angela Davis: An Autobiography; Women, Race & Class; and Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday.
The title of Davis' talk was "Arts, Education, and Activism: Beyond Rhetoric to Action" and in it she offered her thoughts on the function of art, the importance of education and the misrepresentation of the civil rights activists of the 1960s. Davis commented that she thought art had the potential to help train us to think about what is possible and to thereby "give us hope."
She emphasized the important role that musicians played in paving the way for the civil rights movement. Davis cited Ray Charles, a musician who refused to adhere to the conventions of a single genre and was willing to experiment with mixing radically different genres, as one of the sources of inspiration for the civil rights movement. According to Davis, musicians, by breaking the conventional rules of art, inspired ordinary people to break the conventional and unjust rules of society.
Davis also spoke of what she perceived to be the somewhat questionable legacy of Rosa Parks. Although Parks was recently given the honor of having her body laid out in the Capital Rotunda, Davis confessed that she herself was "deeply ambivalent about this honor." Davis stated that her main concern was not with Parks herself, but how Parks' story has "been narrated as a story of discrimination put to rest." The mere fact that Parks is given a hallowed place in American society, Davis said, does not discount the fact that racism continues to exist in a much more insidious form.