The struggle would be difficult, but there was already a hint of victory. In the heavy silence of the jail, I discovered that if I concentrated hard enough, I could hear echoes of slogans being chanted on the other side of the walls. ‘Free Angela Davis.’ ‘Free All Political Prisoners.’ -Angela Davis: An Autobiography, 1974
April 5 is the debut of the documentary film Free Angela and All Political Prisoners.
I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited that the world can once again be inspired by Angela Davis’s courageous story.
Those who were alive in the 70’s may have forgotten. Those of us who weren’t alive at the time may have have never known.
Indeed, we’ve done a poor job of retelling Angela’s story in our ongoing distribution of American history.
She rarely gets more than a blip in a montage, as if merely showing her face, fro, and fist is enough to convey the gist of her legendary life.
Too many of us, however, aren’t clear about the story beyond these images.
For me, of course, the most resonant theme in her story is courage.
Outside in the open, entangled in my grief and anger was also fear. A plain and simple fear so overwhelming, and so elemental that the only thing I could compare it to was that sense of engulfment I used to feel as a child when I was left alone in the dark. . . . Images of attack kept flashing into my mind, but they were not abstract–they were clear pictures of machine guns breaking out of the darkness, surrounding Helen and me, unleashing fire . . . -AD
Though most of us will never be one of America’s most wanted, Angela’s story can teach us all how to be courageous.
In fact, there’d be no documentary, no story to tell, had Angela not lived courageously in her everyday life, long before the criminal charges or the ensuing manhunt and trial.
One thing I hope Free Angela reveals is that while Angela Davis’s imprisonment and trial is perhaps the more sensational and infamous part of her story, all along, every day of her life, then and now, Angela is a role model for having the courage to think, speak, act, and be revolutionary.
The Courage to Think
I’ve seen the fear in my students . . . the fear of pursuing an education, the fear that it’s not meant for them, not part of their inheritance.
Then there’s the fear of the responsibility that comes with learning.
The fear of what truths may be uncovered if we allow ourselves to follow a thought process through its entire cycle.
As a student and professor of philosophy, Angela Davis embraced the power of thinking . . . of not only learning the thoughts of others, but in having new and original thoughts of one’s own.
She not only had the courage to hold and mold deep thoughts in her mind, she also had the courage to spread them.
The Courage to Speak
We keep silent for fear of exposing our true thoughts.
We keep silent because others have told us we should, told us to keep our thoughts to ourselves.
We’re wordless because we think our words are worthless.
Angela’s example shows us that our words are sometimes the greatest gift we can give to the world, and that we should say what needs to be said even as others try to silence us.
She shows us that words can save souls, save lives, and stoke revolutionary fires.
The Courage to Act
Nothing in the world made me angrier than inaction, than silence. The refusal or inability to do something, say something when a thing needed doing or saying, was unbearable. The watchers, the head shakers, the back turners made my skin prickle. -AD
Organizing, voting, rallying, marching, visiting, feeding, housing, leading . . .
Some of the greatest words are action verbs.
The beautiful thing about Angela is that she lived among the people, not segregated within her words or intellectual world.
She was a physical presence in the struggle for freedom and justice for all.
She gave her life:
For me revolution was never an interim ‘thing to do’ before settling down; it was no fashionable club with newly minted jargon, or new kind of social life–made thrilling by risk and confrontation, made glamorous by costume. Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime. -AD
The Courage to Be
Angela thought, spoke, and acted while being a black women in a world that says blacks can’t think, that women shouldn’t speak, and that any actions by either group to take control of their lives is an automatic threat to society.
She was proud to be black, and she was empowered in her womanhood even in a society that overtly tried to suppress black pride and women’s empowerment.
That’s revolutionary.
By merely being herself, Angela Davis shows us how to be courageous.