An Evening with Angela Davis: Recap

On Wednesday, March 31st, the School community gathered on Zoom to hear the influential civil rights activist and scholar Angela Davis speak. Titled “An Evening with Angela Davis,” the event consisted of a conversation between Johara Tucker, the School’s Director of Equity and Inclusion, and Davis herself, followed by some questions from students representing the Lower, Middle, and Upper School. 

In preparation for the event, students watched a video created by fellow classmates about Davis’ background and impact on the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Students and families were also given the opportunity to submit questions for Davis that would potentially be asked over the course of the Zoom event. 

The conversation between Tucker and Davis began with a discussion on Davis’ transition from her segregated schools, which were Carrie A. Tuggle School and later Parker Annex in Birmingham, to the integrated Elisabeth Irwin High School in New York City. Davis discussed that she was grateful to have had the opportunity to attend a more progressive school where she read about communism and was surrounded by activism, although she still experienced racism that she initially felt unable to vocalize. 

Davis and Tucker then went on to discuss the possibility of a private institution being anti-racist, during which Davis delivered a particularly notable commentary on what the term means. According to Davis, being anti-racist is not an identity nor state of being, as the term has been used many times in the last year, but rather a “notion that urges us to get involved in struggles… a call to action.” To identify as “anti-racist” is not enough; rather, one must work and take action in order to create a reality in which racism is not a present factor. 

However, such a reality is not simply achieved by following the same step-by-step formula, Davis noted. In order to become better activists, she says, young people need to work on self-reflection in order to understand their passions and talents, and then look outward into the community around them and see where they can apply themselves in order to create change. Such a sentiment certainly struck a chord within the School community, particularly among the School’s seniors, who, at the cusp of adulthood, are beginning to understand what role they are going to play as contributing members of their community. 

Towards the close of the meeting, student representatives Lucy Bouvet ‘29, Andrea Walker ‘26 , and Zoe Gibbs ‘21 were all invited to join into the conversation and ask Davis a question. Throughout this segment, Davis elaborated further on her upbringing as an activist, explained how she found motivation to continue her work from her community, and emphasized the importance of having difficult conversations in order to prioritize the most marginalized and oppressed communities. 

Though we were online, Davis’ eloquence, thoughtfulness, and passion penetrated through the screen, making it almost feel as if you were having a one-on-one conversation with her. Despite being in her late seventies, Davis has the same exuberance that she did as a young radical, and shows no signs of slowing down or losing faith. “Freedom is an eternal struggle,” she said at the end of the meeting. “The more victories we win, the more we recognize that there’s more work to do.” After hearing Davis speak, it’s hard to not want to get to work to fight injustice right away.