Angela Davis: An Autobiography Of The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement was a pivotal time in black history. From the kidnapping of black people from Africa, to slavery, followed by sharecropping, leading into segregation and discrimination, black people have been the epitome of oppression in America. America has a way of keeping black people locked in and in chains. Chains were shown physically in slavery to restrain black people. However, even when the chains are removed and African Americans received “freedom” under the constitution the chains were there figuratively. The restraints from leaving ones social and economic class, discrimination, and segregation were all strategic strategies that the government used to limit black people. The most blatant form of oppression is the prison

Angela Davis’s autobiography, Angela Davis An Autobiography shares the experience of a black women, especially one that has gone through the prison system. The story within shows that women in all minority groups are not respected by the United States government. State power and race were means used by white people in power to oppress minorities. The autobiography shines the light on the need for Angela Davis to take a stand because the oppression that black women faced allowed for no room of self- growth. The Civil Rights Movement had many accomplishments however, during this movement was also the persecution of blacks and minorities. In fact, the need and push for many of the advancements of black women is because of the mistreatment of them. This paper will take a look through a feminist approach on how mistreatment impacted the black women’s role in the Civil Rights Movement. The autobiography will aid my argument in the black women’s role in the movement. Discomfort and struggle breeds change. When women are being misrepresented, disrespected, and demonized there is a need for

The article, “African-American Women in the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965: Gender, Leadership”, gives a general overview of women leaders in the civil rights movement. Which is important in understanding, black women are always given an ultimatum, sit back and do nothing, or go out in the world and create change. This is an important point that this article presses on, it essentially states that “we are left with a view that there are certain roles in social movements that individuals may fill, but we do not gain an understanding of how they are constructed by the hierarchies and power differentials that already exist in society” (7). Black women are so misrepresented that there are roles that one may know about but because of higher authorities and different power dynamics, the need to rise above can be