TONITE: Angela Davis Is Free

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Legendary social justice activist Angela Davis will be addressing #OccupPhilly at 9:15 PM tonight at Dilworth Plaza. All are welcome.

WIKIPEDIA: Angela Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis was most politically active during the late 1960s through the 1970s and was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party. Prisoner rights have been among her continuing interests; she is the founder of “Critical Resistance“, an organization working to abolish the “prison-industrial complex“. She is a retired professor with the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz and is the former director of the university’s Feminist Studies department.[2] Her research interests are in feminism, African American studies, critical theory, Marxism, popular music and social consciousness, and the philosophy and history of punishment and prisons.[3] Her membership in the Communist Party led to Ronald Reagan‘s request in 1969 to have her barred from teaching at any university in the State of California. She was tried and acquitted of suspected involvement in the Soledad brothers‘ August 1970 abduction and murder of Judge Harold Haley in Marin County, California. […]In 1972, she was tried and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The fact that she owned the guns used in the crime was judged not sufficient to establish her responsibility for the plot. Her experience as a prisoner in the US played a key role in convincing her to fight against the “prison industrial complex” that exists in the US.[16] John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded their song “Angela” on their 1972 album Some Time In New York City in support. The Jazz musician Todd Cochran, also known as Bayete, recorded his song “Free Angela (Thoughts…and all I’ve got to say)” that same year. The Rolling Stones recorded the song “Sweet Black Angel” on their 1972 album Exile on Main Street.[24]

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