Fro Girl - 2018

Fro Girl is a portrait of the iconic Angela Davis. The title is in reference to the Afro she wore with pride and a play on the phrase "You go girl!" in approval and appreciation of her life long commitment to advocating for causes such as the Civil Rights Movement and Prison Reform. To this day Angela is admired and respected for her strong presence, intellect and actions.

“I was so glad that that part of my life was over. At the same time all of this energy that had been generated. And we sat down to talk about how we could keep that structure in place and how we could go on in order to bring more victories to more people. That became the theme of my life and here I am today”.

-Angela Davis

Angela Davis

Angela Davis was born January 26, 1944 in Birmingham Alabama. As much as she wanted to see change happen, she left the south precisely at the moment when racial change was about to take place as she discovered a program to bring black students from the segregated south to the north.

 In 1959 Angela attended Elizabeth Irwin High School in New York and then went to Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1961. There were very few black students there. She went on to study in Germany when new developments in the black movement began to happen. She saw the Black Panther Party in the newspaper whilst she was studying which motivated her to go back to the States.

 Angela went to San Diego, California. She didn’t see herself accomplishing anything important as an individual so attempted to become involved in political associations. She got involved briefly with various black political parties though did not agree with the structure of every party. She didn’t like that women were expected to take a back seat.

 Eventually she discovered and joined the Che Lumumba Club, an all-black section of the Communist Party in Los Angeles. She was attracted by the global revolution for third world people and people of colour.

 In 1969 Angela was invited to apply for a position at UCLA to teach Continental Philosophy and Marxism and decided to accept the job. Her first lecture attracted over 2000 students and was on the philosophy of Fredrick Douglas.

 However, after an undercover FBI agent wrote an article about Angela Davis being a communist, people started saying she should not be allowed to teach because of her affiliation. Angela received various threats. She bought her first gun because she really feared she may be in a situation where either the police or agents would take her life.

After being fired Angela devoted her time into the cases of political prisoners. In 1970 it was claimed that she provided a weapon to a man who held up a courtroom during the trial of a prisoner. He, the judge and 2 prisoners were killed during the incident.

Angela decided to go underground and was placed on FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted. She travelled throughout the States and was pretty scared and always in fear of being caught. She was found and arrested October 13th 1970 in New York.

 She was charged with 3 crimes that carried the death penalty. A defence committee was set up for Angela called “The National United Committee to Free Angela Davis and all Political Prisoners”. Millions campaigned heavily worldwide to Free Angela and on June 4 1972 Angela was found not guilty on all charges.

 Angela Davis went on to teach at various universities and is a distinguished professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz.