A review by elj_ne
Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Y. Davis

4.0

This book is incredibly well written - absurdly readable, which maybe is what happens when Toni Morrison is your editor(!). It follows the first twenty-something years of Angela Davis's life (she wrote it when she was 28), with a particular emphasis on her arrest, detainment and trial after she purchased some firearms for a friend of hers, the brother of one of the Soledad Brothers (three inmates who were convicted of killing a prison guard at Soledad Prison), who later held up a courtroom and was involved in a fatal altercation with the police. She was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and charged with first degree murder, a hefty charge that may have had something to do with the fact she was a member of the Communist Party and was involved with community organising around socialism, black liberation and feminism.

It covers her thoughts and feelings while she's imprisoned, the solidarity with other inmates and some of her political positions, her studies in philosophy, how she came to become a communist etc. I thought she maybe skipped over some less idealised parts of the communist countries she visits (East Germany, Cuba) - and I say this as someone who leans towards that politically myself. Overall, very compelling and I'd love to know what she thinks of it now, some 50 years on.