‘Grasping things at the root’; the life and politics of Angela Davis

Titled Seize the Time, the Oakland Museum of California’s upcoming exhibit is curated around the influence of activist and scholar Angela Davis and spans over 130 pieces — from print media to courtroom sketches, as well as contemporary artwork and historic photographs — which will be organized into four sections, each one themed around a specific area of her work. 

Using the Angela Davis Archive in Oakland as the heart of the exhibition and a source, visitors will be given the opportunity to investigate how we remember, preserve, and activate radical Black history, while also allowing us to re-imagine the construction of the image of Davis, as an icon of American Black radical resistance and female empowerment. 

One Million Roses for Angela was the motto of a German Democratic Republic organized postcard campaign in socialist East Germany, in support of Angela Davis — Marxist philosopher and Black Power activist. The campaign ran from from 1971 to 1972 while Davis was being held under charges in the U.S.A. 

Hundreds of thousands participated in the campaign, which East Germany used to position itself as “the better Germany” at the height of the Cold War. The media spun Davis as the “heroine of the other America”. She was admired by ordinary East Germans and after her acquittal in the U.S, was welcomed to the German Democratic Republic as a state guest. 

Have you read Women, Race and Class by Angela Davis? From the age of slavery to contemporary injustices, this groundbreaking history of race, gender and class inequality by political activist Angela Davis offers an alternative view of female struggles for societal liberation.

Hussein Al-alak is the editor of Iraq Solidarity News (Al-Thawra). You can join @husseinalalak in conversation on Twitter.