Angela Davis: Liberating Young Minds in America

1967: Went to University of California San Diego to study philosophy with Marcuse where she earned her masters and doctorate.

Being raised with a family that was active in the Civil Rights Movement, this gave Angela an insight into what she could be apart of when she got older. At the age of 19 (1963), four of her childhood friends were killed in the 16th street Baptist Church bombing. After the bombing, she was heartbroken that her friends were killed in an act of racism. While studying in Germany in 1965, she saw news coverage and pictures of protests going on in the streets of California procreated by the Black Panther Party--she knew her people were in need of an activist and she wanted to be there to be apart of the movement. 

Angela Yvonne Davis was born on January 26, 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her grandmother was the daughter of slaves,. Angela is the daughter of two educators; Her father was a school teacher until he had to leave his job because of the low-pay for black teachers and took a job at a service station to better support his family. Her mother was an elementary school teacher who earned her Masters degree in New York by taking summer courses. Angela’s mother was an activist in her community--being a national officer of the Southern Negro Youth Conference. Angela attended many civil rights protests with her mother as a child. Growing up in Alabama, Angela was subject to much discrimination and violence. Her neighborhood, better known as Dynamite Hill, was bombed by the KKK several times in order to drive out black families living in the community.

Jarrell, Wadsworth (American, 1929). Revolutionary (Angela Davis). Brooklyn, New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1971. Print.