Hundreds of students gathered in-person on Thursday at the Student Union Ballroom to listen to feminist, professor, and activist Angela Davis speak.
Davis is the latest guest invited to talk at San José State as a part of the Division of Student Affairs’ Spartan Speaker Series.
The series is a regular semester program that invites influential figures in activism and education to talk about issues that concern students, according to the SJSU Student Involvement page.
The former Black Panther Party affiliate’s appearance was hosted in collaboration with the César E. Chávez Community Action Center’s “Legacy Month.”
This is an event series in October celebrating the history of activism on campus, according to the center’s Instagram post.
“I just want to say thank you to everyone who’s here and tell you I’m very happy to be on this campus at this time, I have a long history with San José,” Davis said.
The conversation was facilitated with questions by Shonda Goward, the associate vice provost for Undergraduate Advising and Success, with dedicated time for student questions at the end of the event.
Davis became a spotlighted figure advocating for Black civil rights during the ‘60s and ‘70s as an educator, anti-segregationist, prison abolitionist and Marxist, according to the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
In 1970, she was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for her involvement and advocacy for the freedom of the Soledad Brothers, who were on trial for the murder of a Soledad Correctional Training Facility guard in California, according to the Biography section of New York Public Library’s Davis (Angela) Legal Defense Collection
Davis was acquitted in San José for charges of murder, conspiracy and kidnapping, The New York Times reported in 1972.
She was accused of assisting in the takeover and shooting of a Marin County courthouse by Jonathan Jackson, the actual brother of one of the convicted Soledad Brothers, according to the same article.
"A fair trial would have been no trial at all,” Davis said after her acquittal to The New York Times.
During her return to SJSU Davis talked about the right of students to protest and said she stood with Palestine.
“It's not simply about what is happening within the borders of that struggle. It's about what it means for the world,” Davis said.
One of the questions asked during the talk was about how to go about protesting at educational institutions.
Davis said that administrators may not help out with the cause and that students have to take initiative with protesting on campus.
Ada Ochuru, childhood and adolescent development and Black women’s studies fourth year, said it was important for Davis to express this sentiment in a room full of administrators and encouraging for student activists.
Ochuru said she is involved in several student organizations such as the SJSU Black Honor Society and the African Diaspora Association which gave her spaces to advertise the event to fellow students.
The African Diaspora Association is an organization centered around providing a community unifying individuals with African descent.
Additionally, Ochuru had dinner with Davis and talked with her about Davis’ history with the Black Panther Party in Oakland and how the area has changed since.
Davis said she was fired from her position as an assistant professor of philosophy at University of California, Los Angeles for her involvement in the Communist Party USA and her “inflammatory language” when speaking out about racial inequality.
Katera Perry, a fifth-year psychology student, said as a student activist for Palestine and other liberation movements, hearing Davis’ words inspired her.
“She said what needed to be said. She didn't cut any edges … she went straight to the point,” Perry said. “It was deep and it was what people needed to hear, especially for student activists on campus, just to keep being inspired.”
When reflecting on her journey in higher education, Davis also highlighted advocacy work with students and said that bureaucracy should not be the end goal in the United States and globally.
Davis practiced that advocacy back in Feb. 2021 when she spoke for the SJSU Human Rights Lecture Series in celebration of Black History Month and discussed Black feminism and socialism, according to the SJSU website.
“I think education is really about assisting students to discover their passion…if you find something that you're really passionate about, something that you can stick with…it can last a lifetime,” Davis said.
As someone with an extensive history being a feminist and activist, Davis touched on historical blindness, the dualities of feminism and the fostering of revolutionary thought.
Nailah Smith, a first-year human factors ergonomics graduate student, said many of Davis’ statements resonated with her as a Black woman trying to bring diversity to the tech industry.
“I think it's important to have a real-life historical figure here in front of us, because it forces us to remember that history and if you don't learn your history, you're bound to repeat it … And she (Davis) said this generation has historical amnesia. That word, that little sentence, I wrote it down because that was, for me, the most incredible thing,” Smith said.
