Me, Angela Davis and my two BFF’s!
Last fall I had the pleasure and distinct opportunity to meet and hear Ms. Angela Davis speak about her quest for social justice and the prison industrial complex. I left the lecture series with a renewed way of thinking; now I have always thought that the justice system was biased against black and brown people particularly, but at times I had the notion if you do something wrong you have to pay for it. But the question poised at this particular event made me truly question, was the prison system truly reverse slavery? With more black men imprisoned today than were enslaved in the 1800’s it certainly makes sense. Will the system continually make prison beds to be filled with our young boys and girls? Our cause of the day is the prison industrial complex so only fitting we highlight Ms. Angela Davis and how she gives back to this cause. Join us in offering our support and kudos to this activist who has for decades lead the fight on the quest for social justice!
Through her activism and her scholarship over the last decades, Angela Davis has been deeply involved in our nation’s quest for social justice. Her work as an educator – both at the university level and in the larger public sphere – has always emphasized the importance of building communities of struggle for economic, racial, and gender equality.
Angela Davis works with Justice Now, which provides legal assistance to women in prison and engages in advocacy for the abolition of imprisonment as the dominant strategy for addressing social problems. Internationally, she is affiliated with Sisters Inside, a similar organization based in Queensland, Australia.
Angela Davis at the 2011 Black Girls Rock Awards
Davis is especially concerned with the general tendency to devote more resources and attention to the prison system than to educational institutions. Having helped to popularize the notion of a “prison industrial complex,” she now urges her audiences to think seriously about the future possibility of a world without prisons and to help forge a 21st century abolitionist movement.
In October Davis received a well deserved Icon award from BET and the Black Girls Rock Foundation. Angela Davis is truly an icon, activist and leader, I encourage you to look further into the Prison Industrial Complex and share your thoughts with us on this cause topic.
