How a philosophy professor became the FBI's third most wanted woman in 1970
In short: Angela Davis was a rising academic whose radical politics and Communist Party membership made her a lightning rod for state power. After guns she purchased were used in a deadly 1970 courtroom takeover, she became a fugitive, sparking a massive international campaign that eventually led to her acquittal.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1944, Angela Davis was shaped by the racial tensions of the 'Dynamite Hill' neighborhood and the influence of communist organizers. Her intellectual trajectory took her from Brandeis University, where she studied under Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse, to graduate work in West Germany. By the late 1960s, she had joined the Communist Party USA and the Black Panther Party, eventually securing an assistant professorship at UCLA. Her tenure was short-lived; the Board of Regents fired her in 1969 for her political affiliations, a move spurred by then-Governor Ronald Reagan.
The turning point arrived in 1970 when Jonathan Jackson, a teenager whose brother was a member of the Soledad Brothers, used firearms purchased by Davis in an armed courtroom takeover in Marin County. The incident left four people dead, including Judge Harold Haley. Davis was charged with conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder. After a nationwide manhunt, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover placed her on the Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List. She was captured in New York City in October 1970, with President Richard Nixon publicly labeling her a terrorist.
Her 16-month incarceration triggered a global movement, with over 200 local committees and international figures like John Lennon and Yoko Ono rallying for her release. In 1972, an all-white jury acquitted her of all charges, concluding that her ownership of the weapons was insufficient to prove her involvement in the plot. Following her acquittal, Davis embarked on international tours, receiving the Lenin Peace Prize in 1979 and maintaining a complex relationship with socialist states. Despite her academic career at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her work with organizations like Critical Resistance, her legacy remains a subject of intense debate due to her past support for the Soviet Union and controversial political alliances.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Angela Davis
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