Communism

Childhood Influences

After winning a scholarship due to her superior academic achievement, Davis was able to attend the Elizabeth Irwin High School in Greenwich, New York. Nicknamed the Little Red School House, the private school was a favorite among members of the radical community. Davis was exposed to the children of many prominent members of the Communist Party and was thoroughly introduced to socialist and communist philosophy. During this time in high school, she was active with communist youth groups.

A Radical Undergraduate

During college at Brandeis University, Davis first encountered her eventual academic mentor, Herbert Marcuse[1], a prominent Marxist, at a rally during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Because she was one of only three black students on the college’s campus, Davis felt isolated and drifted towards the school’s international student body. Davis attended the Festival for Youth and Students in Helsinki, where she and many other students were intrigued by the enthusiasm and vigor of the Cuban delegation. Upon return to the United States, Davis was contacted and interviewed by the FBI who alleged the conference in Helsinki was sponsored by Communists. During her junior year in college, Davis traveled to France to pursue French studies. At the time of the traditional Vietnamese New Years Festivals, two celebrations were conducted in Paris. Was was sponsored by supporters of the US back South while the other was sponsored by supporters of the largely Communist influenced North. Davis attended the Northern sponsored event, a celebration that openly mocked American soldiers and the American presence in Vietnam.

Joining the Radical Movement

During graduate school in Frankfurt, Davis Communist ties grew dramatically. She felt that Communist East Germany was dealing with growth and development better than its West German counterpart. Many of her roommates in Germany were members of the German Socialist Student League. She also became active in the organization, but felt the need to return to American landscape ripe with burgeoning social movements. Before returning to the States, however, at a conference in London, Davis, although impressed by his passion and rhetoric, Davis was disappointed by Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture and other black militants’ dismissal of Communism as a “white man’s thing.” She believed that strict notions of nationalism could prove to be a barrier to dealing with the underlying, systemic influences of capitalist structures that oppress working class people of all races throughout the world.

Communist Party USA

While she lectured at the University of California, Los Angeles, Davis stayed busy as an radical feminist and activist. She was a member of the Communist Party [2] and the Black Panther Party. Her eventual faculty appointment was challenged due to her membership in the Communist Party. California regulations did not allow Communists to teach in California state universities. The university’s governing body, the Board of Regents, and the governor, Ronald Reagan, attempted to fire her. Davis contested her dismissal in court and won. In 1980 and 1984 she ran on the Communist Party ticket for vice president of the United States with Gus Hall. Davis is no longer a member of the Communist Party but continues to describe Cuba as an ideal example of a country that has been able to balance social and economic concerns.

Davis' View on Communism and Liberation

Davis has frequently discussed communism and its relationship to liberation. In her autobiography, she discusses how communist ideas have influenced her philosophy of liberation, as she writes "what struck me so emphatically was the idea that once the emancipation of the proletariat became a reality, the foundation was laid fro the emancipation of all oppressed groups in society" (Angela Davis: an Autobiography, p. 110). Davis sees the connection between poverty, race, gender, and oppression, and feels that all of these issues must be addressed in order to liberate African-Americans. Although Davis is often labeled as a communist, particularly due to her vice-presidential candidacy for the Communist Party and her past speeches and writings, it would be overly simplistic to label Davis' philosophy of liberation as simply being Marxist. Davis often argues that capitalism and democracy are not as compatible as democracy would be with another economic system. Davis' more recent academic writing often discusses socialism as being a system compatable with liberation, rahter than communism. Thus, describing Davis or her view of liberation as simply "communist" would be short-sighted. Instead, Davis' view of liberation must be viewed as multi-faceted, as it aims to address issues of oppression in the arenas of race, gender, and class.