Angela Davis on Persisting Inequality

Angela Davis is an American political activist, scholar, and professor who rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s for her activism and scholarship in the areas of race, gender, and class. She was associated with the Communist Party USA and the Black Panther Party and was an outspoken critic of the prison-industrial complex, police brutality, and systemic racism.

Source 1

...in the United States of America in 1972...the prison and the larger society...are all prisoners of a society whose...proclamations of freedom and justice for all are nothing but meaningless rhetoric...accumulated wealth, its scientific achievements are swallowed up by the avarice of a few capitalists and by insane projects of war...We are imprisoned in a society where there is so much wealth and so many sophisticated scientific and technological skills...the insanity of a continued existence of ghettos and barrios and the poverty which is there...rockets taking off towards the moon, and the B-52's raining destruction and death on the people of Vietnam...redirect that wealth and that energy and channel it into food for the hungry, and to clothes for the needy; into schools, hospitals, housing...necessary in order for human beings to lead decent, comfortable lives...devoid of all the pressures of racism, and yes, male supremacist attitudes and institutions...only then can freedom take on a truly human meaning...

Angela Davis Speech at the Embassy Auditorium (June 9, 1972)

Question 1

Short answer

What problems, besides racism, does Davis believe need to be fixed in order to attain freedom?

Question 2

Short answer

What criticism does Davis make about the U.S. efforts in the Cold War in the face of inequality at home?

Question 3

Short answer

What other social movements would support elements of Davis' speech?

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