[334] Angela Davis To Deliver Women's History Month Keynote

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 1, 2011
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

ANGELA DAVIS TO DELIVER WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH KEYNOTE
Catalyst for Racial, Gender Equality Mobilization, Prison Reform to Speak at MTSU

(MURFREESBORO) – Angela Davis, the social justice activist whose dynamic speeches and embrace of controversial issues catapulted her into national prominence in the 1960s and 1970s, will deliver the keynote address for MTSU’s National Women’s History Month celebration at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 22, in the Tennessee Room of the James Union Building.
Davis recently retired with the title of Distinguished Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department and professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, after 15 years there. She was a Visiting Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Women’s and Gender Studies and African-American Studies at Syracuse University last year.
In 1969, the Board of Regents of the University of California, acting at the behest of then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan, removed her from her position as an assistant professor of philosophy at UCLA because of her outspoken political views and her membership in the Communist Party, which she later departed. Eventually, she was rehired following legal action.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation placed Davis on its “Ten Most Wanted List” in 1970 after it was revealed she had purchased guns used by others in the murder of a California Superior Court judge. Davis went underground but was arrested and charged with accomplice to conspiracy, kidnapping and homicide. She was acquitted by an all-white jury in 1972 after 18 months in prison.
Davis’ experience behind bars informed her commitment to prison reform, including attention to issues of racism, sexism and class discrimination in the criminal justice system. She speaks of a “prison industrial complex” in which more resources are devoted to incarceration than to education.
Over the last 25 years, Davis has lectured all over the world. She is the author of eight books, including Abolition Democracy; Are Prisons Obsolete?; Blues Legacies: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday; Women, Culture and Politics; and Women, Race and Class.
Davis is a member of the executive board of the Women of Color Resource Center, a San Francisco-based organization. She also assists Justice Now, an American group that provides legal help for women in prison, and Sisters Inside, a similar organization in Australia.

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Following her presentation, Davis will sign books at a reception in her honor. The entire event is free and open to the public. However, seating will be limited and early arrival is advised.
Davis’ appearance at MTSU is sponsored by the National Women’s History Month Committee, the June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students, the Distinguished Lecture Fund, the Black History Month Committee, Women in Action, the American Democracy Project and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. For more information, contact Terri Johnson at 615-898-5989 or trjohnso@mtsu.edu.


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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For a color jpeg photo of Angela Davis, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.


Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree—the only one in Tennessee—as a model program. Recently, MTSU unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.