Activist Angela Davis serves up a dose of reality
By: Anastasia Semien
Issue date: 4/7/09 Section: News
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There was standing room only in the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church as Davis, presented by the Emory University Department of Women's Studies, delivered the Women's History Month keynote address. This event was the culmination of the Atlanta Consortium of Colleges and Universities series, "Motherhood at the Intersection of Race and Class: Resilience in the Face of Adversity."
People were even lined up outside and peering through front windows to see if they could get a glimpse of the heroine.
Before she approached the podium that Martin Luther King, Jr. once stood behind, famed Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall told the audience, "I especially want to release Professor Davis from the iconic image of her in the 60's as the angry black woman with an afro running from the F.B.I."
Davis said that this year's Women's History Month was dedicated to "all of the women who have no names… ordinary women who had a vision." She also said that usually only notable women come to mind of those who ponder about civil and women's rights.
"We rarely think about the anonymous people who made it possible," Davis said.
She talked about her favorite female activists like Jo Ann Robinson and Fannie Lou Hamer; she also went on to say how women of this nation have many unsung heroes who they are forever indebted to.
"Massive numbers of women, especially women of color, whose names will be forever lost in history, are far more important to the movements we celebrate than those whose names we speak of," Davis said.
Davis informed the audience of some startling statistics about the American prison system. She noted that the U.S. has the largest prison rate in the world and called this country "The Great Incarcerator."
"States are spending three times more for prisoner than pupil," Davis said.
She went on to say how a new study, released by the Pew Center on the States, showed that in America one in 31 adults are under some type of correctional control, meaning in prison or jail or on probation or parole. The rates jumped drastically from white to black; one in 45 whites are under correctional control compared to one in 11 blacks.
