Episode Recording -- "The Political Prisoner: Angela Davis, the Cold War, and the Struggle for Racial Justice"

The Cold War: The US, a capitalist nation, and the Soviet Union, a communist nation,

had a “silent” battle over world power, manifested in the absence of military conflict yet used

different modes of “competition” such as arms races.

Mccarthyism: Mccarthyism, or the beginning of what is now known as the second Red

Scare, was an era of persecution for left-wing persons within the US that led to many people’s

imprisonment.Angela Davis’ Imprisonment: As a result of her political affiliations and activism, Davis

was already under close surveillance by the U.S. government. In 1970, Jonathan Jackson—the

younger brother of one of the Soledad Brothers—attempted to orchestrate a prison escape by

taking hostages in a California courtroom. The weapons he used in the attempt had been

purchased by Davis, which led to her being implicated in the incident. A warrant was issued for

her arrest, and she was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. Davis was subsequently

charged with murder, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy.

Racism Within Incarceral Systems in the US: The prison industrial complex is intricately

linked with racism, focused on the notion that people of color are inherently “dangerous”,

leading to bias in the justice system.

The Long Civil Rights Movement: The Long Civil right movement, which is known as

the continued movement for civil rights, continuing after the 1964 civil rights act and persisting

even to this day.

Welcome to Students Podcasting History. I’m your host Ellie Graham and I ,too, am a

history student. This podcast is for students of any age, and aimed at lifelong learners. Our theme

this week is incredibly relevant to the year 2025. I’m bringing the Cold War out of the archives

for this episode in light of recent world events such as ICE arrests, especially for students

involved in activism that is deemed as “Anti-American.” On social media platforms such as X,

formerly twitter, some are even calling this era of politics a new Mccarthyism. Mccarthyism was

an era of prosecution-persecution- for left-wing persons within the US that led to many people’s

imprisonment. Yet, the idea of a political prisoner is absolutely not new, and really only

continued in this era. So let’s take it back to 1972. Your parents will probably tell you about how

America is in space, American Pie by Don McLean is topping the charts, The Godfather is in

theaters, and things seem to be looking up. It was, of course, “The Age of Change,” …except for

the continuation of the Red Scare, or a period of widespread fear against communism originally

occurring in the 1910s, and an era of political persecution against people of color that were

speaking out against the American Institution of racism. One of these people was Angela Davis,

a well-known Marxist author, activist and leader of prison abolition, also known as the large

reorganization or elimination of the political prison system.(Angela Davis and Tony Platt.

“Interview with Angela Davis.” Social Justice vol.40, NO. 1/2 (131-132) (2013): 37–53.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/24361660, 37). We’ll be discussing all of this and more in episode

one.[0:00-0:15] Intro Music

[0:15-0:1:00] Hello and welcome to the podcast! This week we’ll be diving into the Cold

War and its relation to Angela Davis’ prison abolition work. The Cold War erupted

anti-communist policies within the US government, leading to a movement which incited Davis’

prison abolition leadership. We’ll be covering background on the Cold War itself, including its

key players and origins, as well as Davis’ experience in jail, and finishing off with connecting

the two. Additionally, we’ll be connecting Davis’ prison abolition work to the larger Long Civil

Rights movement, and display how America’s attempt to sway the world against communism

directly connects with her arrest. Together, we will connect the past with the present.

[1:00-2:30] Before we begin, I will define some terms used in this episode that will be

useful in understanding the full context. A political prisoner is, in Angela Davis’ terms, someone

who breaks the law for the greater good of an oppressed people whose livelihood is put at stake

in that law, and therefore is imprisoned because of breaking such a law. Next, Prison Abolition as

a concept is also defined by Angela Davis as an alternative to the traditional prison system,

focusing on restorative justice rather than imprisonment, in the word’s of Davis, abolition

possesses “the ultimate aim of removing the prison from the social and ideological landscapes of

our society,” (Angela, Davis, 2003, Are Prisons Obsolete? New York, NY: Seven Stories Press,

107). The Long Civil right movement will also be mentioned, which is known as the continued

movement for civil rights, continuing after the 1964 civil rights act and persisting even to this

day, (Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the

Past”, The Journal of American History, Vol. 91, No. 4 (March 2005), pp. 1233–1263,Oxford

University Press on behalf of Organization of American Historians. pg 1235.) Finally, I will

mention the Vietnam War, which in this context is often thought to link imperialism abroad withracism at home, as many who fought in this war were men of color or lower class men

(Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past”,

The Journal of American History, Vol. 91, No. 4 (March 2005), pp. 1233–1263,Oxford

University Press on behalf of Organization of American Historians. pg 1234.)

[2:30-3:30] Let’s begin with covering the Cold War and its origins. After the end of

World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union gained tensions on the world stage. The

US, a capitalist nation, and the Soviet Union, a communist nation, had a “silent” battle over

essentially world power. Placing this in a larger context, many nations at the time were in the

process of decolonizing from Western rule. This truly put the chips on the table; would these

nations like to be aligned with capitalism or communism? (David E. Shi, America: A Narrative

History, W.V Norton, December 2021, 1215.)

Thus, mass rhetoric spread in the US opposing communism and equating work against

the grain of US law as communist activity. A main actor that utilized this rhetoric was a Senator

from Wisconsin, Joseph Mccarthy. Mccarthy argued that anti-communism was going to be the

downfall of American democracy, stating “Can there be anyone who fails to realize that the

communist world has said, “The time is now” — that this is the time for the showdown between

the democratic Christian world and the communist atheistic world?” (Joseph McCarthy

Congressional Record, 81st, 2nd, pt 2, 1954-56 / U.S. Senate, State Department Loyalty

Investigation Committee on Foreign Relations, 81st Congress, Available online via History

Matters (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6456)

He asserts here that there is a war between communism and capitalism. Too, the

language Mccarthy used ultimately upheld equating communism with violence within the US

imagination. This will be of importance later when understanding why so many civil rightsleaders were labeled as communist, and why leaders who were explicitly communist faced such

scrutiny. Though Mcarthy was scorned by US politics, as in 1954 “the Senate voted 67 to 22 to

“condemn” McCarthy for his reckless tactics,” (David E. Shi, America: A Narrative History,

W.V Norton, December 2021, 1272), his ideals nonetheless prevailed, with a red scare. In 1954,

a Minnesota senator sponsored the Communist Control Act, completely making communism

illegal within the United States. This allowed for books to be banned in local libraries, leftist

teachers and professors to be fired, and those with suspected communist connections to be

“blacklisted” from corporations. (David E. Shi, America: A Narrative History, W.V Norton,

December 2021, 1273.) Sound familiar?

[4:18-4:59] Too, in 1959, Richard Nixon worked to utilize rhetoric uplifting capitalism

and americanism, or allegiance to American ideals- equated together- even in the face of racism.

He says that despite injustices, capitalism has created America as the most prosperous nation,

stating "We have other problems in our society but we are confident that for us our system of

government provides the best means for solving them,” (United States Dep. of State, “The

Official Monthly Record of United States Foreign Policy,” vol. 26, Apr- Jun 1952, Boston Public

Library Government Documents Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA,

https://archive.org/details/departmentofstatx2652unit/page/n3/mode/2up. Page 229)

Tensions surrounding communism were high, and individuals were now at risk of

imprisonment for connections with the communist party.

[5:00-7:29]To provide context for Davis’ work and the way Black activists were

portrayed negatively by the media and government, I will reference one of the most well-known

examples of a civil rights leader being incarcerated: Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King

Jr. was frequently suspected of having communist sympathies and was identified as a target bythe FBI. These suspicions largely stemmed from his involvement with the Southern Christian

Leadership Conference or (SCLC), which had connections to activist groups like the Highlander

Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. The Highlander Folk School, both then and now, is a

community-based education center that supports farmers and laborers in their efforts toward

economic justice and other social struggles. Too, it was also a community meeting place for

activists working against segregation and racial injustice as a whole, (John M. Glen, “The

Establishment of Highlander 1927-1932,” In Highlander: No Ordinary School 1932--1962,

6–20,University Press of Kentucky, 1988, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt130jsvm.5, pg. 13)

In 1957, King attended the Highlander Folk School’s 25th year celebration on Labor Day

weekend, (John M. Glen, “From School Desegregation to Student Sit-Ins, 1953-1961.” In

Highlander: No Ordinary School 1932--1962, 129–54. University Press of Kentucky, 1988.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt130jsvm.11, pg. 154).

He was photographed sitting inside the school house, and in the mid 1960s, this photo

appeared in newspapers and billboards across the south with the statement “Martin Luther King

at Communist Training School,” (John M. Glen, “Highlander under Attack, 1953-1962,” In

Highlander: No Ordinary School 1932--1962, 173–209, University Press of Kentucky, 1988.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt130jsvm.14, pg. 203.)

This is just one example of King’s association with community organizations that

contributed to the narrative of his alleged communist sympathies, which in turn heightened the

U.S. government's suspicion of him. The same pattern of scrutiny and suspicion was applied to

many other Black activists of the time.In his 1963 Letter From Birmingham Jail, King addresses the white moderate directly in

regards to incarceration stating “I don't believe you would so quickly commend the policemen if

you would observe their ugly and inhuman treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you

would watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you would see

them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys, if you would observe them, as they did on

two occasions, refusing to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together,” (Martin

Luther King JR., “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” In God’ s New Israel: Religious Interpretations

of American Destiny, edited by CONRAD CHERRY, 343–555, University of North Carolina

Press, 1998. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9780807866580_cherry.39 , pg. 354).

King portrays jail as a tool of oppression—a place used to confine those who dared to

speak out against the actions of the U.S. government, and one that upheld systems of violent

racism. Because of his explicit condemnation of the police and the prison system, he was often

labeled 'Anti-American' and came to represent one of the most prominent faces of political

imprisonment.

[7:30-9:22] The Cold War, of course, persisted until 1991, and the 1970s were still so

marked by intense political tension. As the Civil Rights Movement continued, many of those

involved—particularly members of more militant groups like the Black Panther Party and their

affiliates—were frequently accused of being Communists. This is where Angela Davis enters the

conversation. Davis, who was active in militant organizations, began focusing her efforts on

exposing and challenging political imprisonment. A major component of this work was her

involvement in the defense of the Soledad Brothers—three Black men in California facing what

many described as a legal lynching after being charged with the murder of a white prison guard.

Davis joined their defense campaign at a time when she was already under FBI surveillance dueto her affiliation with the Communist Party. Her open involvement with the Party was used to

portray her as inherently violent and dangerous. In the eyes of the U.S. government, simply

being a Communist was enough to criminalize her. (Angela Davis and Tony Platt. “Interview

with Angela Davis.” Social Justice vol.40, NO. 1/2 (131-132) (2013): 37–53.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/24361660, pg. 40. )

As a result of her political affiliations and activism, Davis was already under close

surveillance by the U.S. government. In 1970, Jonathan Jackson—the younger brother of one of

the Soledad Brothers—attempted to orchestrate a prison escape by taking hostages in a

California courtroom. The weapons he used in the attempt had been purchased by Davis, which

led to her to being implicated in the incident. A warrant was issued for her arrest, and she was

placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. Davis was subsequently charged with murder,

kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy, (Roman, Meredith L. “‘Armed and Dangerous’: The

Criminalization of Angela Davis and the Cold War Myth of America’s Innocence,” Women,

Gender, and Families of Color 8, no. 1 (2020): 87–111.

https://doi.org/10.5406/womgenfamcol.8.1.0087, pg. 88.)

During her time in jail, Davis confronted firsthand the realities of the prison-industrial

complex.

[9:23-10:46] Davis’s arrest catalyzed a broader conversation that became internationally

recognized as the “Free Angela Davis” movement. This movement sought to expose and

challenge the persistence of systemic racism in the United States, despite the nation’s

advancements in technology and economic development. Supporters of the campaign to free

Davis viewed her arrest as a deliberate act of political repression—a framing rooted in racial and

ideological bias. The firearms she had legally purchased for self-protection, in response tocredible threats against her life, were ultimately used in a crime, and subsequently weaponized

against her in court to construct a narrative of guilt. (Meredith L. Roman, “‘Armed and

Dangerous’: The Criminalization of Angela Davis and the Cold War Myth of America’s

Innocence.” Women, Gender, and Families of Color 8, no. 1 (2020): 87–111.

https://doi.org/10.5406/womgenfamcol.8.1.0087, pg. 95) As history professor Meredith L.

Roman writes in her examination of this topic titled “‘Armed and Dangerous’: The

Criminalization of Angela Davis and the Cold War Myth of America's Innocence,” “Mainstream

journalists’ criminalization of Davis was fueled by the Cold War competition between the United

States and Soviet Union over claims of moral superiority and democracy in the face of growing

domestic dissent on both sides of the Atlantic,” (Roman, 88) and that the mainstream media them

used racist depictions of Black women projected onto Davis “in order to criminalize Davis and in

the process reaffirm America’s self-righteous status as the leader of the Free World—a space

where political prisoners did not exist,” (Roman, 89/90).

[10:46-13:32] Angela Davis’s commitment to prison abolition and her involvement with

communism were deeply shaped by the broader political context of the United States. While

incarcerated, she came to fully recognize the extent to which racism was embedded within the

prison-industrial complex. In a speech given directly after her release, she states that “The

condition of all of us who are brown and black and working women and men– bears a very

striking similarity to the condition of the prisoner,”(Angela, Davis, "Speech Delivered by Angela

Davis at Embassy Auditorium, Los Angeles (1972)," as seen in Oxford African American Studies

Center, 29 Feb. 2012.) In one of her first appearances after incarceration, she discusses the

racialization of the experience behind bars, understanding that often being black in America will

be criminalized. She contextualizes the common idea of a political prisoner, and that of the“everyday” political prisoner. Here is that clip: (7:01-8:38)- “Angela Y . Davis Oral History

Interview conducted by Tony Brown, June 20th, 1972, “Black Journal;67;Interview With

Angela Davis, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the

Library of Congress), [7:01-8:38], http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-1v5bc3tn06

Her firsthand experiences revealed how incarceration was not just a tool of punishment,

but also a means of maintaining racial and political oppression.

[13:32-15:03] Davis comes to understand that the prison system is not merely a site of

punishment, but a continuation of the institution of slavery—restructured through capitalism.

Reflecting on this, Davis contends that “In many ways, the penitentiary was a vast improvement

over the many forms of capital and corporal punishment inherited from the English. However,

the contention that prisoners would refashion themselves if only given the opportunity to reflect

and labor in solitude and silence disregarded the impact of authoritarian regimes of living and

work. Indeed, there were significant similarities between slavery and the penitentiary prison,

(From Are Prisons Obsolete?) (Angela, Davis, 2003, Are Prisons Obsolete? New York, NY:

Seven Stories Press, 27.) Davis also begins to question the legitimacy of the U.S. government—a

government that claims moral superiority over communism while championing capitalist

progress, yet simultaneously engages in violent and imperialist actions, such as the Vietnam War.

Davis argues, “For when we see the rockets taking off towards the moon, and the B-52's raining

destruction and death on the people of Vietnam, we know that something is wrong,”. ( Angela,

Davis, "Speech Delivered by Angela Davis at Embassy Auditorium, Los Angeles (1972)."

Oxford African American Studies Center. 29 Feb. 2012; Accessed 4 Apr. 2025.

https://oxfordaasc.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-3

3982.)This hypocrisy further solidifies her critique of American capitalism. She again asserts

that the US is placing all of its resources into imperialism so that American capitalism appears to

be worthwhile, yet does not truly look out for its citizens that are struggling.

[15:03-17:38] Finally, Davis concludes that the prison system is not an isolated

institution, but a direct reflection of society at large. This perspective is framed through an

intersectional lens, recognizing how race, class, and gender intersect to shape the experiences of

those incarcerated. Davis's views align with those of other influential figures of the time, such as

Huey P. Newton, who also critiqued the binary modes in which activism was often conducted.

Newton, the co-founder of the Black Panther Party, states in a 1970 speech that “When we have

revolutionary conferences, rallies, and demonstrations, there should be full participation of the

gay liberation movement and the women’s liberation movement,” (Huey P. Newton, The

Women’ s Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements (Oakland, CA: Black Panther Party, 1970).

Yet, he also confesses that he and other black men may hold prejudice against gay men simply

because of societal upbringings, saying “Because of the long conditioning process that builds

insecurity in the American male, homosexuality might produce certain hang ups in us. I have

hang ups myself about male homosexuality,” (Huey P. Newton, The Women’ s Liberation and Gay

Liberation Movements (Oakland, CA: Black Panther Party, 1970)

Therefore, though a collaborator with many movements, Davis says that she refrains from

joining specific movements such as SNCC, the NAACP, and the BPP because of their perceived

exclusivity at times, stating “from the late 1960s, I had been involved in a number of

organizations, including the Los Angeles Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

and the Black Panther Party (BPP). It's very complicated. But for reasons you can research if you

want, there were major problems within SNCC, especially around the role of women. The samething happened with the BPP. It was in that context that I joined the communist party,” (Angela

Davis and Tony Platt. “Interview with Angela Davis.” Social Justice vol.40, NO. 1/2 (131-132)

(2013): 37–53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24361660, pg. 41). Davis truly paved her own

relationship with activism that was separate from bigger movements, especially in order to

integrate her own identity as a Queer Black woman. For example, Simon Hall writes that “Much

has been written about Black Power’s complicated relationship with gender equality. In

particular, the emphasis on masculinity and (re)assertion of black manhood is seen to have

marginalized female activists and damaged gender relations within the freedom movement,”

(Hall 76). Additionally, the NAACP distanced itself from radical groups such as CORE, and

attempted to move away from communism to appeal to popular opinion. (Simon Hall, “The

NAACP, Black Power, and the African American Freedom Struggle, 1966-1969,” The Historian,

Spring 2007, V ol. 69, No. 1; 49-82 ,pg. 57). This likely made Davis seem even more subversive

in the eyes of the media.

[17:38-19:26]Davis is drawn to Marxism, as well as the communist party, because of

their intersectionality. They merge gender, sexuality, class, and race into the same pool, as issues

that are all connected. This idea of intersectionality pooled into many other similar activists at

the time. So, what even is intersectionality? To Davis, it is the idea that issues of oppression are

connected. In a 2023 talk given at California State University, she clarifies her definition stating,

“when I say I want to think broadly, I want to be very inclusive, but at the same time, I want to

insist that the feminism that is most valuable is the feminism that is anti-racist. And the feminism

that is anti-capitalist. And the feminism that is internationalist,” (Davis, CSUSB News).

“American Political Activist Angela Davis Shares Thoughts and Experiences with

CSUSB Community.” CSUSB News, April 18, 2023.https://www.csusb.edu/inside/article/569552/american-political-activist-angela-davis-shares-thou

ghts-and-experiences.

This idea permeated into other people's work. Other activists, then, woke up to the idea of

intersectionality. The idea of intersectionality influenced so much collective power, even white

activists began to highlight a common enemy. For allies and revolutionaries like Carl Wittman, a

queer theorist of the same time period, in speaking to queer white people, said “we must support

their [black people’s] movement, particularly when they are under attack from the establishment;

we must show them that we mean business; and we must figure out which our common enemies

are: police, city hall, capitalism,” (Carl, Wittman, "A Gay Manifesto," 1971, April 8, 2025,

http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/ref/collection/protests/id/416. ).

Thus, many were becoming aware of the fact that the capitalist system was a large factor in

collective oppression. Davis builds upon this framework within all of her endeavors.

[19:26-22:23] This is why reflecting on the past is so important. If Davis is right, and

prisons do reflect a society’s inner workings, where does that leave our current moment in

history? When looking at the current climate of the United States, it is always important to look

back. Angela Davis’ work in the 20th century, and her continuing work, can grant insight about

where recent events may lead us. In her 2003 work Are Prisons Obsolete, Davis discusses the

historical presence of racism and the role of the prison industrial complex in the 21st century.

(Angela, Davis, 2003, Are Prisons Obsolete? New York, NY: Seven Stories Press.)

She wants to explore whether or not prisons truly are a racist institution, and she proves

this point. By inspecting the past of slavery, lynching, and convict leasing- a system that grew

out of stricter laws imposed onto black people and essentially continued slavery- she was able to

find the throughline of capitalism influencing our racist society. Davis writes, “In the immediateaftermath of slavery, the southern states hastened to develop a criminal justice system that could

legally restrict the possibilities of freedom for newly released slaves. Black people became the

prime targets of a developing convict lease system, referred to by many as a reincarnation of

slavery,”(Are Prisons Obsolete, Davis, 29). And, “The appalling treatment to which convicts

were subjected under the lease system recapitulated and further extended the regimes of slavery.

If, as Adam Tay Hirsch contends, the early incarnations of the U.S. penitentiary in the North

tended to mirror the institution of slavery in many important respects, the post-Civil War

evolution of the punishment system was in very literal ways the continuation of a slave system,

which was no longer legal in the "free" world,” (Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete, 33). When convict

leasing gained prominence, many companies that previously relied on slave labor wanted to keep

this cheap labor. Even in the 21st century, the Corrections Corporation of America has used

prison labor and is paid per prisoner, therefore, larger prison numbers means a greater profit,

(Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete, 37). This capitalism flows into exploitation, which then is

manifested in a racist prison system. In the present day, we can see how this is still very true. In a

2020 study, The Prison Policy Initiative collected data from US prisons and found that per

100,000 people, the rate of incarceration for black men was 2,272 compared to just 392 for white

men. (Wendy Sawyer, “Visualizing the Racial Disparities in Mass Incarceration.” Prison Policy

Initiative, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep27319.) Angela Davis’ beliefs are still as

important now as they were in 1972. Something is, to put it simply, just not right. Our social

order is very wrong if this is how our justice system looks.

Thanks for tuning in, and always stay curious about connecting the past with the present.[22:23-22:32] Continue checking out other podcasts on Students Podcasting History, and

make sure to check out the website! Catch you next time.

[22:32-22:36] Outro Music