If anyone epitomized the sixties it might well be Angela Davis.
A radical and a Vietnam War opponent, she was persecuted by Ronald Reagan for being a communist. Hunted by the FBI on conspiracy murder charges, arrested and jailed, she was ultimately found innocent by a jury one might reasonably assert were not "of her peers." One or another of the famous pictures of her as a young woman would certainly make a top ten list of iconic images from the sixties.
In the recent decades, while her fame is more subdued, she is no less of an activist. Angela Davis was one of the founders of Critical Resistance in 1998, an organization dedicated to fighting against the prison-industrial complex in the United State. She has been vigorous in opposing police repression and the death penalty and she keeps up an active speaking schedule in which she encourages people to consider the possibility of world without prisons and with economic justice -- she has spoken at multiple Occupy events, including at Occupy Wall Street on October 31st, 2011 and at Occupy Oakland's General Strike days later on November 2nd, 2011.
This coming Tuesday she will lend her voice once more to the fight against police violence and racial profiling.
Angela Davis will be keynoting a benefit sponsored by the Justice 4 Alan Blueford Coalition at Laney College Auditorium, Laney College, 900 Fallon St, in downtown Oakland on Tuesday, December 18th, 2012, at 7:00 PM.
Tickets can be purchased online (various pricing, pay what you can afford -- use the discount code: "nooneturnedaway" to request a "free / pay what you can" ticket, or make an expanded donation by purchasing tickets for more than the suggested price). Tickets can also be purchased at the door until seating capacity is reached. Can't come? You can still donate to help continue the fight against the systemic murder of young men of color so poignantly diaried by our own Shanikka just days ago in Hey America! Can you please stop killing our (usually) innocent Black male children now?
Join Angela Davis and family members of victims of police brutality from Oakland, the Bay Area, Anaheim and New York City. We are suffering an epidemic of racist police murders across the country. Come find out how families are standing up to demand justic for their loved ones and what you can to do help end what Michelle Alexander has called "the New Jim Crow."
This event coincides with what would have been Alan Blueford's 19th birthday. Alan, an African-American student, was murdered by OPD officer Miguel Masso just weeks before he was set to graduate from Skyline High School.
Featured Speakers Include:
Keynote: Angela Davis.
Jeralynn & Adam Blueford, parents of Alan Blueford.
Constance & Frank Graham, parents of Ramarley Graham murdered by NYPD.
Damien Ramirez, friend of Michael Nida murdered by police in Downey, CA near Los Angeles.
Baltimore activist C.D. Witherspoon.
Chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee Fred Hampton Jr.
Information on Alan Blueford:
Justice 4 Alan Blueford Coalition website.
Documents relating to the Blueford Case.
Essays:
Another Young Black Man Gunned Down by Police on the Streets of Oakland.
I Am The Mother of Murder Victim Alan Blueford.
No Justice, No Peace.
End Racing Profiling. End Stop & Frisk. The Movement is Building. The Movement is Now.
And the Children Shall Lead Them.
Are the Oakland Police Going Down At Last? At Long Last?
Wouldn't 136 Bullets Have Been Enough?