Black Journal; 67; Interview with Angela Davis

i know fb pics boobs the pay to play the piano thank you this is the first national television interview for angela davis said she was acquitted of kidnapping murder and conspiracy in connection with the marine county courthouse shootout took place two years ago this will be a firsthand account for mantle of the events of the last twenty two months and her plans for the

future says a day visit me welcomed by journal let me speak for literally millions of people were very please unhappy with your safety tell me the events that the additional reading in the newspapers do they cooperate with the actual accounting bit of events that you know best well there's been a great deal of distortion in the vast majority of newspaper accounts television accounts press in general and i think that the kind of publicity that the establishment press is willing to give me they simply based on the fact that they think that i'm good copy and fact that so one of the reasons why i didn't rush to her answer all the requests that uncommon for in tv interviews and radio interviews and newspaper interviews i felt that however that appearing on that china was something that was extremely important

because i know that you were interested in saving the need some interest of black people and therefore i decided to do this one because i feel that this isn't a chance for me to express my gratitude appreciation to all my sisters' and others who work so hard and so long the struggle to feed and in terms of the sisters and brothers who have worked for your freedom could you put in context how the activities of those people actually ended up in your being vindicated those charges well given all kinds of activities over the last twenty two months but perhaps i can i give one very concrete example of the way in which the involvement of large masses of people and particularly black people have a direct impact on the case itself on a couple of months ago there was a decision from the california supreme court abolishing the death penalty that man at that time that we were able to make a motion

for bail they were a felony defendants on the state of california who also made motions veil but as it turned out i was the only one who was immediately release i suppose you know that after with the supreme court modified its original decision and stated that on the cases that have been the capital offenses that were capital offenses before the abolition of the death penalty will continue to remain on bail but right after the decision came down letters and telegrams in telephone calls and petitions and all kinds of things came in from all over the country and all over the world and in fact during the bail the presentation of the bail motion itself the judge acknowledged the fact that he was receiving so many layers and levels that he didn't have time and i know that that had an effect on that decision what it meant

was that the year that the judge good released me on bail knowing that though exist in a climate of public opinion which would agree with that and he wouldn't feel isolated so i think of that and a very important name for an important impact on the outcome of the trial because how would the joys of felt that they saw me coming in from a holding cell underneath the court room flanked by guards and agents they would tend to look at me is already guilty is already convicted know that's what really happens to most black become a courtroom that are chained i've seen pictures of the some of the soledad brothers as it were changing it into the courtroom how do you feel inside about being freely to have a mixed feeling about being a little bitter a little sweet it mostly and how hard are you accepting this one though his ordeal which had been put through and secondly now you are you know free

world certainly in the months i spent in jail the majority of which was been in solitary confinement learn to a very happy experience at all but i wouldn't really say that i feel a bit about my own personal ordeal because i know that so many of my sisters and brothers are right now suffering and the conditions are far worse than those that i had while i was in prison my overall feeling about the acquittal is that the victory around my kitchen's means that they can be more victims and all the people all of the sisters' and others who came together in an organized fashion in order to demand our freedom than seeing now that it's possible to feed more political prisoners and to do something about

the oppression which has enslaved black people in this country for someone anyone you say political prisoner and what do you mean there are a number ways in which i would describe what a political prisoners of course we all recognize that the united states does not recognize the existence of political prison and in fact in general when you talk about a person who is arrested for political reasons you talking about the use of criminal charges in order to stifle leadership in order to isolate and leaders and an activist from the community there was that on a political prisoner we know about bobby seale and economic and sinewy nathan and lee otis johnson and i can go on and on and on the list is endless and so that guns well we

know that they were arrested on criminal charges as an excuse for removing them from the community and removing them from the revolutionary war connectivity among people but over the last few years there has come into being and not become a political prisoner and i'm talking about all of the sisters' and others who are victims of the system were easy targets of the police who get railroaded through the courts and the prison often for no reason it on and where they only because the atlantic and i think of the drain the attic rebellion sort of express this whole thing when it was asked by important what he was charged with any city was charged with being black that's why it was they did

a couple weeks coupled with the old fashioned that means black people and brown people people of color into the jails and prisons in this country there's been a new kind of political awareness that has spread all over the jails and prisons throughout the country and george jackson pleaded can go into on cliche and michelle mckinney i've been gone on and on to name he and sisters and others who have achieved a political awareness in a political political commitment behind the wall but you see once they do this then there is subjected to all the terror that the prison system and so they end up spending years in using news in prison under the worst of circumstances and he would tell me how old i've been prickly as this we received letters fans of angela davis in some rosy sisters don't understand your concept of communism they don't understand

the candidates eight reconcile blackness and communism what is your philosophy in that respect love festival i think that that people particularly back you and grab you we're beginning to see through the laws and distortions of the government and are beginning to say that much of what has been set up that communism in this country is simply not true the reason i'm a communist because i feel that only through the total revolution which is going to overthrow the capitalist control of the economy which will see that the well from all of the giant corporations that exploit and control the lives of all working people particularly black people

and say i feel that the reason why racism is so blatant than that and has been a part of the history of black people from the time with those kidnapped from the show's of africa is because it has helped the us capitalist gain more and more profit and if you look at any factory in the plan does the worst jobs who gets a place to gets paid the us small salaries its black people so racism serves as a hazard bachus says in a justification for super exploitation and i feel that we're going to talk about tal the total obliteration of black people we first have to liberate ourselves from the material conditions of our nation and the material conditions of oppression and no jobs at their jobs unemployment bad housing bad medical care and all the kinds of things that will be of eradicating under socialism

i think however that there's been a lot of confusion even in the movement even among our sisters and brothers who are fighting for liberation about what communism is all the people talked about black people being used by companies and i think that that really under estimates our ability as black people to be leaders and the elite elite ourselves but to lead white people also and as a as a communist in this country i see that the great is an evolutionary potential exist among black and brown people and let me ask the classic question so just this one thing i'd like to make the point that when i talk about a communist revolution i'm wrong about a revolution which encompasses image i think the vast majority of people in this country are working people but a revolution which is led by people of color working people of color would you

see this as as a means of one eradicating racism as world class isn't the two are inextricably linked as i said before racism in terms of its material base means sexual exploitation economically it means that the detailed black people get the worst of the anti a lot economically it also means that the calculus abbas is able to divide black workers from white with his wife because he tells he tells the white workers that his problem is not those who control this lives those who would take his labor and turn it into profit for themselves and have problems is the black man who's trying to get his job and so racism has operated as a divisive force to prevent the

emergence of a real on revolution in this country look i think that you did you tried to do and you do see that as being in any way in conflict with black nationalism was sick it depends on what you mean by black nationalism of course i would never eat equate the oppression of black people in this country with the exploitation of white people i think that that there is an essential difference and there is a national aspect of us traveler's black people and we have to maintain that cohesiveness and the unity among ourselves an order to be effective and in a broad revolution i would say also that for white people for white water is the most important thing they have to do now is combat racism so that racism in the fight against racism

becomes the key to oh oh oh a broad revolution embracing all people in this country are working people and he would use a revolution you say overthrow the government and one what you mean by revolution you mean armed confrontation he needed change in the values of the system when you say overthrow the government again and speaking in terms of a violent confrontation or you speak in terms of political process what is it that you kevin lyman well i mean that depends really on those who will come if it were possible to have a peaceful revolution was a revolution and coming that a complete and total change in the entire fabric of a society a change in the distribution of wealth we have to seize all the wealth fund the general motors and ford and all the giant corporations that control the destiny of this country today but we also have to re vamp of the educational

system we have to revamp all the political institutions no if those who are in power now would simply accept the demands of the revolution then they would be no necessity for lions other if if there is violence in the process of waging a revolution that will be determined by the ruling class that will be determined by those will as he says it's a small sign of a microcosmic example of what i'm saying how the people get together and go out an end and demonstrate in order to dramatize their demands of a particular is that's fine if they are able to do this

in the way in which they want to but what happens in many cases you have police forces unleashed on them because they are peacefully illustrated and my position is that we do not to stand there and allow cells to be shot down an unbeaten we have the right wing of the union right to defend ourselves and to defend our principles and defend what we want to do and so i would say that and the event of violence and revolution you always have to see that in the context of defending gains of the people we have a right to different skins and to know many people by commissions organizations no other organizations black people are talking about using the political process some blacks and community have now gotten behind mcgovern some behind humphrey and some behind shirley chisholm you see politics as a viable force and our struggle you plan to become involved in the political process of getting people elected to effect change mainly an

electoral process because in many different levels of political strength well i think that the electoral process is something that should be utilized it's not something that should be seen as a solution because i don't think that simply by changing the faces and changing the figures and the government is going to be any kind of fundamental change when we talk about a revolution we talking about a fundamental changes in the system a complete and total overthrowing and transformation of the system on i feel that the electoral process a significant in the sense that it serves as it serves to measure dame level of consciousness which led people and people of color and white people it's well have actually take someone like ron dellums the fact that ron dellums was

elected to congress said something about the color the mood of the people in his area and precisely because it said something about their collective will janie can not forget that he has a responsibility to make known tv than these images an end and whatever is such a contingency and feels of the important issues of get and you look to draw an analogy in another direction the many people are saying that many people some institutions to clean white press at the fact that you've been vindicated of the charges proves that the system of justice will work for black people the fact that you were found innocent by an all white jury in only thirteen hours of deliberation and only thirteen weeks of the trial proves that the system can work and i suppose that must feel that we're totally unsophisticated

at first i really felt incredible that they can do this again they did it after the acquittal of that the new yorker twenty one they didn't have to buy me an erich and now they're doing it again but so it seems to me that the very fact that they're so quick to jump up onstage here's another acquittal and now demonstrates conclusively that there's nothing wrong with the american system of justice but they were unaware of all of the problems and in the judicial system of the way in which it has been historically used and continues to be used as a weapon of oppression against black people i would be so defensive about the whole thing ah how can you say that this demonstrates agree that there is is that just as in the american courts when we know that the jails and prisons across the country are failed to the brand with plaque and brown people we know i've been done death row right now the vast majority of the prisoners

who are going to be executed are people of color and we know that when a black person is from the community brought to jail he's going to have to depend on public defender because more than likely you won't be able to hire a good lawyer and his public defender what is he going to do is going to tell him to copley even though he knows and many cases that his client is is just as an associates and that just doesn't make any sense and are just just as one would think i am not convinced that if there had not been the kind of struggle that occurred around my case that i probably wouldn't be out you know in the village why is as intimate it is one of nine angela davis running of the well known that well it's it's a bit and say this whole factory it's not magic to it

it's called victory it's a victory of all those who struggle about me not because i happen to be a special kind of a person because i and also like all of her sisters and others in the jails and prisons a victim of the government's repression and so what i'm going to try to do now is to build the very same kind of movement that was built around me and the kind of movement that that to a liberated me from prison and wanted to free one of those instances because that's that's the real significance of this week speaking of your clients an entirely sure like some quick questions speaking of your point one do you plan to go to tanzania and teach at a university there well i have to know that such an invitation is forthcoming and you didn't have to take it i really haven't made any a definite plans about that however i would say that

no matter how attempted i might feel as a as an individual to go to another country where life is beautiful in the country which doesn't have all of the oppression and on the misery that we see here i feel a very special kind of responsibility to stay here and help to build a movement that's going to bring about some change for my people in this country speaking of other countries it's also written in the white press that you are now going to bulgaria into russia for vacation on all kinds of rumors that its show that i did receive an invitation to visit the soviet union i don't know where the rumor that i was going to bulgaria stemmed from what as i said before ah i'm planning for the time made to remain in this country and help to do some of the work to build up the kind of moment that we've talking

about of course cite end sometime in the future i probably will spend some time abroad because i feel that i have to also express my appreciation and gratitude to all the millions of people in africa and in europe and the socialist countries all of the law was in jail in both in marin county in palo alto i get each day huge should mail their heads full of letters from the socialist countries and they waged a really tremendous campaign to that they have a committee there and did and he just went all out in my defense and also i feel that i did in expressing my gratitude to the people in countries of prod i also have the responsibility to help and maintain the momentum of the movement that

was sell forged around me so that we can also make some more chicken scented and civil war angela your philosophy professor and a philosophy i think sometimes philosophers used terms to assume that lay people understand one of the terrible things become confusing is the statement that you were in love with george jackson what do you mean that was how did you mean that well of course as i love all my people i also learned to which jackson but then i had a special kind of relationship with george as a result of and working on his defense on the outside and getting to know him as a person and then once i was interested in becoming closer to him because of the similarity about conditions the prosecution's theory of the case of course

was that i was moved by emotions passionate love vigilance and my response to that it was very simple and i think a lot of it had to do with a hand and males apprentices notions and ideas he felt that because i was a woman who was going to be able to pull this off i mean i was just completely fluid when i heard that because what he was really saying was a to love someone is a crime and that secondly falling a third of the one that if you did you would be out of control the notion of that i would have absolutely no ability to be a rational and to make decisions of my own time sure like to get a very important question and it's i'm sure you'd like the public to know how you feel what about your parents your mother knew from during this last two years of

course the last season and very difficult for my parents particularly because they live in the south and because of all of the pressures that they've had to withstand but they've really been beautiful extremely beautiful because instead of we're succumbing to all of these questions they became stronger and my entire family was involved in the defense and my mother spent a great deal of time speaking across the country these devices determine whether it who is a football player and got a lot of pressures from that in and i think that out of this sound this will unveil their has developed an even greater solidarity among us submits a solidarity which has developed a struggle at some point and i have to say this on behalf of our viewers that once again you look well and we're

happy to have you out in minimum and i'm very pleased that you're back with us and as your plans unfold and would be kept abreast of them think it's a very much for the pittsburgh thanks thanks who you know man no

man named