Bringing Black Power to the School: Angela Davis Speaks at Head-Royce

On March 31st, the School will be hosting a virtual conversation between revered activist and scholar Angela Davis and Director of Equity and Inclusion Johára Tucker as a part of the CommunityEd Speaker Series. 

Davis is best known for her advocacy and activism for gender equity, prison reform, and racial equality. During the 1960s, Davis was associated with several organizations including the Black Panther Party and the Communist Party. Since then, Davis has continued her activism for issues regarding race, women’s rights, and criminal justice reform. 

In Tucker’s conversation with Davis, the two will discuss a variety of topics ranging from Davis’ activism to her own experiences at an independent school. “The focus of the talk is about her activism and her work in Oakland,” Tucker says. “I [also] want to talk about the fact that she did go to an independent school, and I would love to know what her experiences are like. Did that form the way she viewed things? How would she respond to [the] Black@ [movement] if she were a student? I want to talk about the work that she’s done in Oakland, how she sustains herself as an activist, how she takes care of herself, [and] how she works with opposing viewpoints.” Ultimately, the questions Tucker poses to Davis will be shaped by themes collected from student questions: “I am also deeply vested in what student questions come up because that will also form the questions that I ask her.” 

A forceful figure, known for unique and complex perspectives, her legendary work as an activist is in large part the reason for her invitation to speak, especially given the recent climate regarding race both in the School and the country. “Thinking about this summer, what we’ve been through as a community, [and] what we’ve been through as a nation,” explains Tucker, “thinking about the surge in student activism, thinking about the Black@ movement, thinking about our own BSU, and advocating to be heard, advocating for an experience that’s been different from what many have had. Who might students be able to listen and hear from that’s done that work too, and still does that work? Who might be able to give some words of [wisdom] and acknowledgment?” 

This March, that person is Angela Davis.

A local legend and a relic of the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party, essential parts of Oakland’s history, this is an event in which members of the School’s community (and beyond) are given the opportunity “to talk with her, to learn from her, [and] to be inspired by her.”