On February 23, 2009, I attended a lecture by Angela Y. Davis at my alma mater, Wright State University. The last event I attended at WSU was a lecture by Cornel West back in January 2006 and it was a tremendous experience. As wonderful as that event was, I must say that the opportunity to see Angela Davis speak was more than just a little exciting for me. I was literally jumping up and down when I first learned about the lecture several months ago and I anticipated the date with a great deal of enthusiasm.At this point, I must note unequivocally that Angela Davis is a hero to me. For decades, she has remained at the forefront of struggles for oppressed and exploited people around the world. Her public victories and her personal sacrifices are well documented and her body of work is a significant contribution to the study and improvement of important issues including those of class consciousness as well as race and gender equality.
Some years ago, I purchased a vintage poster of Angela Davis from an estate liquidation sale on eBay. It was already framed and under glass and as I recall, the price for the poster — including shipping on the big, bulky item (from Texas, I think) — was relatively steep. But I was lucky to acquire it and I still remember the day that I put it up on the wall in our home library room. It’s pretty big and Angela’s portrait dominates the poster, accompanied by the bold title: “Victims of the World’s Greatest Conspiracy!” There are some other images and text around her picture, including portraits of Huey P. Newton and George Jackson as well as some verses from Claude McKay’s poem “If We Must Die.” I think the poster was printed by a San Francisco Bay area book store while Angela was in jail awaiting trial on a series of bogus charges (She was eventually acquitted of all charges in 1972). The poster is original (as opposed to a reproduction) and some nail holes, small tears and a few notes in pencil are visible to the attentive observer. To be honest, I really find the “wear and tear” to add quite a bit of historical and sentimental value to the poster.
I realize it might seem a little odd to embark on a tangent about a simple poster what is supposed to be an account of a speaking engagement, but there is something very important about this poster in the context of my experience in seeing Angela speak at WSU: This piece has been hanging on the wall in our library room ever since our older daughter K. was a toddler. Both K. and our younger daughter Z. have looked upon Angela’s portrait for years. They know her face and they know her name. Sure, it’s true that they are too young to really understand that much about Angela and what she stands for, but they know that she is important. And I don’t mean that they just know she is important to me. They know she is an important woman and some day, they will know her story. This is what made so significant that baby Z. accompanied me to the lecture at WSU. It was truly a remarkable opportunity for me as a father to share this experience with one of my daughters.Thomai had hoped to attend the lecture with me, but she was scheduled to teach a Greek school class that night. Since K. is one of her star pupils, she was not able to attend the event either. Later that night (after Z. and I got home from the lecture), Thomai told me that K. had expressed some disappointment that she was not able to go to the lecture with us. I was, of course, glad that she did not skip Greek school, but it was also good to know that she would have attended the lecture with some enthusiasm had things worked out. T. offered to take Z. to school with her a number of times, but I was very happy at the prospect of having her accompany me to the event, so we packed a backpack full of coloring books, paper, stuffed animals and Goldfish crackers and we headed up the road to WSU.
We arrived at WSU pretty early for the event, getting there at around 6:00 PM even though it wasn’t scheduled to begin until 7:30 PM. Z. wasn’t really sure about where we were for a while because she kept referring to the WSU campus as “the mall.” She had taken a short nap on the way to WSU, so she was a little disoriented when we got out of the car. I eventually told her that we were at the same place that we go to for the annual comic book show and that seemed to register. I also told her we were there to hear Angela Davis speak and that seemed to bring about some faint realization that we were going to see someone important. I met up with a friends from work while we were waiting to for the lecture hall to open its doors. While we stood there talking, we heard that Angela was already in the building and that she was a guest lecturer for a class across the hall. Shortly after we learned this, I looked up to see Angela standing in the hallway just a couple of yards from us. It was a breathtaking moment to be in her presence for the first time. She had just stepped out of the classroom to chat with some people and I heard someone say that she would be running late for the lecture portion of the evening because she had to go back to her hotel to prepare for the evening. I was a little worried for Z.’s sake, because although she is a patient child, her attention span has some understandable limitations. After a short time, Angela left the area and we filed into the lecture. We snagged some third-row seats, which was pretty good considering that the first two rows were reserved for WSU students and faculty.
The speech started a little later than scheduled, but we took advantage of the opportunity to get to know some people sitting around us. Z. read some books with my friend from work while I chatted with another friend who sat in back of us. I also talked with a lady who is on the Board of Directors for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati and a gentleman who is a professor of African-American studies at WSU.
Angela entered the room quietly, but everyone who noticed her perked up as we knew things were about to get moving. After some brief comments by staff from the Women’s Center and an introduction from WSU President David R. Hopkins, Angela took the stage and began her lecture.
The main portain of Angela’s lecture was around 45 minutes or so. She started by discussing the history of International Women’s Day, making note of the fact that the original purpose of the occasion was to honor the militant strikes of women garment workers in New York. It was especially noteworthy that Angela stressed the point that socialists were among the early champions of the women's movement, as this is a fact that many mainstream academics and authors might typically avoid for political reasons. She then discussed the history of Black History Month, sharing some of the lesser known facts and anniversaries associated with the civil rights movement in America. Tying the two aforementioned topics together, Angela spoke in some detail regarding the collective role of women of color in the struggle for civil rights, placing particular emphasis on the “anonymous” women of the movement throughout its most pivotal points. She recommended the book The Montgomery Boycott and the Women Who Started It by Jo Ann Robinson as further reading on the subject.
Some of the more intriguing comments of the evening came during Angela’s discussion on the election of Barack Obama. Angela touched upon the importance of race as both a “third rail” and a decisive factor in the ultimate outcome of the election. She expressed cautious optimism for the enormous potential of Obama as both a political leader and as a catalyst for geopolitical change, associating Obama’s vision with the spirit of 60’s radicalism. But she also was very candid in the need for continued scrutiny and dissent, noting that Obama is now the leader of the greatest imperial power on Earth. She declared in no uncertain terms that Barack Obama is not a “messiah” and that we should expect to disagree with his ideas and decisions throughout his time in office. These concepts were very well received by the audience, who focused intently upon Angela’s every word.
Z. was an incredible sport about everything as the night went on. There was a tense moment early on in which she quietly confessed to being “a little bored” and she got a little tearful when she started missing Thomai and K. But after a minute or so flipping through the pictures on our digital camera, she was in good shape again. She played quietly with some figurines and her favorite Madball, “Dust Brain.” At one point, she started digging through her backpack and flipping through her coloring books. I asked what she was looking for and she said she wanted paper to draw, so I got several blank sheets and a ball-point pen out for her. She doodled a bit on a few pages and I went back to listening to the lecture. After a few minutes, I looked down at the page she was working on and I noticed she had drawn what appeared to be a woman standing near a large rectangle. I looked up at the stage and saw Angela standing behind a podium and I looked back down at Z.’s picture. I tapped at the drawing and said, “Is that Angela Davis on the stage?” and she said, “Yes.” I watched a bit as she added in the stage, the lighting rig above it, and the plant that was next to the podium. She drew intently for a while and then she got some crayons and started coloring in the scenery. When she was finished, she showed me the picture and I said, “Do you want to give that to Angela?” She said that she did and then — because she was obviously pretty tired by that point — added, “Maybe we can just mail it to her.” I laughed and told her that was something to consider, but that we might try and give it to her personally before the end of the evening.
Later in the lecture, Angela talked about the problems of American prisons and the movement to abolish the current prison system. Her work in this particular area actually predates her involvement with the Soledad Brothers, although the Soledad case ultimately proved to be a pivotal moment in her development as an activist. Her recent work on the abolition of prisons includes the 1997 lecture entitled The Prison Industrial Complex and Angela noted during the WSU presentation that she is also at work on a forthcoming volume regarding the American penal system.
After concluding her lecture, Angela opened a question and answer session, discussing a broad range of issues regarding Marxism and socialism, feminism, and gender issues. One particularly interesting segment involved a University of Louisville student who asked Angela to speak a bit on the late Anne Braden. Angela obliged, sharing some stories about Braden’s fight against segregation Louisville during the 1950’s. Angela also talked a bit about her relationship with Braden and she encouraged the audience to read more about Braden and her husband, Carl Braden. Angela engaged the crowd as a consummate public speaker, yet spoke in very plain terms and enjoyed the opportunity to interact directly with admirers and students of varied backgrounds and interests.
Around 9:40 PM, Thomai called to see how Z. and I were doing. Both Thomai and I were a little concerned about keeping Z. out so late but I also struggled with the idea of leaving without getting a chance to meet Angela at the book signing following the lecture. I decided that Z. and I should go ahead and get a spot in the book signing line ahead of time, so Z. and I packed up and moved back out to the hall. The line was not too long, but I was worried that things might drag if Angela decided to take a long break after wrapping things up in the lecture hall. Fortunately, just a few minutes after we secured our spot in line, Angela came out and went right to work signing books and posing for pictures.
Z. still had the picture she drew and she still had a lot of energy at this point, although I was not sure if she was more excited about giving Angela the picture or about the fact that I agreed to get her some chicken nuggets for the ride home. I talked with a few folks in line while we waited and a young lady in back of us agreed to take our picture with Angela once we made it to the front of the line.
After a brief wait, it was finally our chance to meet Angela. I was almost too nervous to talk as I approached her. We shook hands and I introduced Z. to her. I told her that Z. had drawn a picture for her and that Z. wanted to give it to her. I also noted that Z. had done this on her own because I didn’t want to seem like some kind of strange, overzealous parent. Z. opened the picture (she had folded it into quarters) and Angela stooped down, placing her hands on her knees to get a closer look. I told Angela, “It’s a picture of you speaking on stage.” and she softly replied, “It sure is.” She talked briefly with Z., noting the details of the picture, including the plant next to the podium and a piece of a projection camera that Z. described as “that digital thing.” Angela accepted the gift from Z. and put it down on the table as I presented a book that I asked her to sign. The book was a 1984 International Publishers volume of work by Clara Zetkin that includes a foreword by Angela. Although I have several of books by Angela, this volume has been a favorite of mine for many years. She kind of chuckled when she saw the book, asking, “How long have you had this?” We talked for just a few seconds about some common interests and acquaintances, but my nervousness persisted and I didn’t get the chance to articulate some of the things I wanted share. I wanted to tell her some funny things, like how I read aloud to the girls from Marcuse’s One Dimensional Man when they are slow to finish their dinner. I wanted to tell her how I recommend her book Women, Race and Class to people whenever I get the chance. I had hoped to share a bit about my own activism and work in a variety of forums and media. But I knew time was fleeting and I couldn’t really gather the wherewithal to come across as anything less than a star-struck admirer. I then asked if Z. and I could have a picture taken with her and she kindly agreed. Z. walked in front of Angela to pose for the picture and Angela looked down at her and said, “Do you want to come up here?” Then Angela Davis — legendary 60’s radical, former Black Panther, two-time candidate for Vice President on the CPUSA ticket and a worldwide icon of militant struggle — put her hands under Z.’s arms and hoisted her up to the table for the picture.
It was a simple gesture, really...But everyone around us seemed to be moved by it. The experience cast and indelible imprint on my mind as to the compassion and attention to detail which drives true revolutionaries in their efforts improve conditions for everyone regardless of the various minor differences that often divide us. The moment reminded me of one of my favorite quotes by Che Guevara in which he proclaims:
...the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.
Once the photograph was snapped, we said our goodbyes and the night came to an end. Although Z. is too young to grasp the significance of what she heard and experienced, we now have a wonderful picture to commemorate our evening with Angela Davis. Someday, when Z. is old enough to learn about Angela’s life and work, I’m sure she will appreciate the time we shared with Angela. It is my sincere hope that moments like this will encourage our children — the new generation and the future of social development and change — to make their mark on history as they work to make the world a better place.
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