Angela Davis speaks at Nassau college http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassau/ny-lidavi1912560431mar19,0,6460520.story
BY KEITH HERBERT | [email protected] March 19, 2009 Angela Davis, 1960s civil rights activist, Communist, feminist and prison-reform advocate, moved one Nassau Community College student to tears Wednesday during her Women's History Month speech. Catherine La, 32, a student from Queens, cried after hugging Davis. La, who said she spent time in prison for a drug conviction, said she found Davis inspirational. "As a woman coming back to society, they want you to be a law-abiding citizen, yet it's very hard for you to find a job," La said. Davis' speech was titled "Transformative Strategies for Women." Born in Birmingham, Ala., Davis, 65, attended Brandeis University and studied overseas. She became active in the civil rights movement while teaching at the University of California at Los Angeles and later became a member of the Black Panthers and the Communist Party. Davis spent a year in prison awaiting trial after guns registered to her were used in a courtroom rescue attempt that left a judge dead in 1970. She was acquitted at trial. Her speech Wednesday was part of the college's celebration of Women's History Month. During the question-and-answer portion of Davis' talk, one female student disclosed that she had been raped. The student asked Davis, who identifies herself as a prison abolitionist, what should happen to a rapist if there are no prisons. When the female student told her story of rape, Davis thanked her for bravely telling her personal story. The activist said her own ideas about prison reform don't mean that people would not be held responsible. "It's not about extricating people from their accountability," Davis said. "It's about imagining and building new forms of justice." Davis suggested organizations that develop alternatives to the criminal justice system, such as "restorative justice" in which the justice system focuses on repairing the damage done to crime victims and offender accountability is measured in terms of repairing harm. Davis said that the nation's current criminal justice system, with 2 million people behind bars, needs to change. A report released earlier this month by the Pew Center for the States put the population in jails and prisons across the United States at 2.3 million. According to figures from the U.S. Department of Justice, the United States has the highest incarceration rate and the largest prison population of any country in the world. Davis said that prison as punishment, particularly in cases of domestic violence against women and children, doesn't solve the root causes that spark violence. "The underlying problems are never dealt with," said Davis, who also has written a book, "Are Prisons Obsolete?" After her speech, Davis said it isn't often that students admit to being rape victims during one of her talks, but it was not without precedent. Women's fight for equal rights began with women sharing deeply personal stories, she said, adding, "I thought it is a good example of that." . --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sixties-L" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
