Angela Y. Davis
Angela Y. Davis is a political activist, scholar, author, and speaker. She is the author of numerous books, including Women, Race, and Class and Are Prisons Obsolete? She is Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz.Blog
-
Acts of Dissent Through History
The Verso Book of Dissent: Revolutionary Words from Three Millennia of Rebellion and Resistance is a compendium of revolt and resistance throughout the ages, updated to include resistance to war and economic oppression from Beijing and Cairo to Moscow and New York City.
To celebrate the release of the new edition - 50% off at the moment as part of our end-of-year sale - we've present a selection of key moments of dissent from the book.
-
not asking for freedom—but free: Ericka Huggins' poems from prison
October 15th marks the 50th anniversary of the 1966 founding of the Black Panther Party. In observance of the occasion, we present below a selection of poems written by Ericka Huggins, a prominent member of the Party first in Los Angeles and then in New Haven, during her two-year imprisonment awaiting trial in New Haven, alongside Bobby Seale and others.
These poems are collected in If They Come in the Morning...: Voices of Resistance, edited by Angela Davis.
Oil pastel drawing and watercolor painting of Ericka Huggins on the witness stand, by Robert Templeton. via Wikimedia Commons.
***
tall
skinny
plain
tall
skinny
plain i am
ericka, 22,
fuzzy hair
droopy eyes
long feet -
The Correct Handling of a Revolution by Huey P. Newton
To celebrate both Black History Month and the 50th anniversary of Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale's founding of the Black Panther Party on October 15th, we present Newton’s ‘The Correct Handling of a Revolution’ from 1967. In this speech Newton compels the party to ‘show the people how to stage a revolution’. He is adamant that the function of the Party is, through demonstration, to teach an adoptable method of resistance. To spread the movement through the thirty million strong Black community in America, the Party must teach by experience. Newton puts forth both the importance of the Party’s relationship with the wider Black community, and that of internal relations, he compels for a united party against the oppressions faced, and still faced today, by the Black community. A succinct statement on the inner-workings and outward purpose of the Black Panther Party, Newton’s words still resonate today.
We present this piece in celebration of Black History Month and the launch of our Radical Thinkers set 13. These titles include seminal works of black radicalism, from WEB Du Bois to Manning Marable
