Angela Davis (born 1944) is a philosopher, political activist, and public intellectual whose work connects race, gender, class, capitalism, and incarceration into a single, uncompromising critique of modern power. She is one of the most recognisable figures in contemporary radical thought, not just because of her ideas, but because she has consistently lived them.
Davis emerged from the civil rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s and 70s, becoming an international symbol of resistance after her arrest and trial in 1970. Acquitted in 1972, she went on to build a long academic career while remaining deeply engaged in grassroots activism. For Davis, philosophy is not abstract speculation; it is a tool for liberation.
Core Ideas
Angela Davis’s philosophy is best understood as interconnected struggles rather than isolated causes.
1. Abolition, Not Reform
Davis is one of the most influential voices in prison abolition. She argues that prisons do not solve social problems but instead hide them, disproportionately targeting Black, poor, and marginalised communities. Rather than improving prisons, Davis calls for dismantling the systems that make them seem necessary in the first place.
This includes addressing poverty, racism, lack of education, and inadequate healthcare. Abolition, for Davis, is about imagining a society that no longer relies on punishment as its primary response to harm.
2. Intersectionality in Practice
Although she did not coin the term “intersectionality,” Davis’s work exemplifies it. She consistently shows how systems of oppression overlap: racism cannot be understood without capitalism, sexism cannot be separated from class, and liberation movements fail when they focus on only one axis of injustice.
Her work helped shape Black feminist thought, challenging movements that prioritised either race or gender while neglecting the other.
3. Feminism Beyond Individual Success
Davis is sharply critical of forms of feminism that focus on individual empowerment or elite success. She argues that feminism must be collective, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist, or it risks reinforcing the very hierarchies it claims to oppose.
This places her in direct contrast with corporate or celebrity feminism, which she sees as disconnected from the realities faced by most women worldwide.
4. Solidarity and Global Struggle
Davis has always framed liberation as international. Influenced by Marxism and anti-colonial movements, she argues that struggles against racism, patriarchy, and economic exploitation are global in nature. Solidarity, rather than isolated national victories, is the engine of lasting change.
Activism and Lived Philosophy
Unlike many philosophers, Angela Davis’s ideas were tested under extreme personal pressure. Her imprisonment and trial were not academic case studies but lived experiences that shaped her thinking about justice, punishment, and state power.
This fusion of theory and activism is central to her influence. Davis does not ask whether radical change is “realistic” within existing systems; she asks whether existing systems are morally defensible at all.
Why She Matters
Angela Davis matters because she refuses simplification. At a time when political debate often fragments into competing grievances, she insists on connection. Her work helps explain why reforms that ignore structural inequality repeatedly fail, and why justice cannot be achieved without reimagining the foundations of society itself.
For students, activists, and thinkers alike, Davis offers both a moral challenge and an intellectual framework: freedom is not granted by systems of power, it is built collectively by those willing to question them.
Key Works
- Women, Race & Class (1981)
- Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003)
- Abolition Democracy (2005)
- Freedom Is a Constant Struggle (2016)
- Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974)
Further information
- Wikipedia – Angela Davis
- Women and the American Story – Angela Davis
Image Attribution:
Philippe Halsman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
