Contextualizing Angela Davis

Joy James is Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities at Williams College, USA. She is the editor of The Angela Y. Davis Reader (1998) and the author of several noted books and publications on feminism, critical race theory, political prisoners, and democratic politics. Her most recent books include New Bones Abolition (2023) and In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love (2023).

Excavating and connecting layers of the ideological influences on Angela Davis's familial, educational, activist and academic experiences, Joy James provides an incisive transdisciplinary analysis of paths taken by the world-renowned human rights advocate, feminist and abolitionist. Adroitly avoiding hagiography while embracing inevitable contradictions, James offers nuanced context with which to reflect not only on an iconic progressive figure of our times, but indeed the imperative of critical praxis that planetary antiblackness permanently engenders.

• Series Editor PrefacePreface: Cold War as ContextAcknowledgmentsIntroductionI. Socialization and Education1. “Sweet Home Alabama”2. Sallye Davis’s Red Diaper Babies 3. Student Assimilationists and Rebels4. From “Bombingham” to the Big Apple5. Traumatic Awakenings in Devastated Children II. University 6. Undergrad7. Marcuse’s “Most Famous Student” 8. 1967 Entry Points 9. Philosophy Professor and Communist TargetIII. Political Activism10. Not Your Mother’s CPUSA: The Che-Lumumba Club11. Doppelganger Panther Women: Roberta Alexander, Fania Davis Jordan, Angela Davis12. Queering Radicalism: On Tour with Oakland Panthers and Jean Genet13. CruciblesConclusion: Context and DemocracyNotesBibliographyIndex