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Angela Davis

Angela Davis Quotes

Political Activist

Angela Davis is a renowned political activist, scholar, and author. Born on January 26, 1944, she is known for her radical stance on racial, gender, and class struggles. She was a key figure in the American civil rights movement and anti-war movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Famous Angela Davis Quotes

“When children attend schools that place a greater value in discipline and security than on knowledge and intellectual development, they are attending prep schools for prisons.”

Children School Prison Angela Davis

Author:Angela Davis

“The de industrialization of the US. economy based on the migration of corporations into third world areas where labor is very cheap and thus more profitable for these companies creates on the one hand conditions in those countries that encourage people to emigrate to the US. in search of a better life. On the other hand, it creates conditions here that send more black people into the alternative economies, the drug economies, women into economies in sexual services, and sends them into the prison industrial complex.”

“The prison is not the only institution that has posed complex challenges to the people who have lived with it and have become so inured to its presence that they could not conceive of society without it. Within the history of the United States the system of slavery immediately comes to mind.”

People Mind States Challenges United United States Institutions Slavery Prison Complexes

Author:Angela Davis

“Because it would be too agonizing to cope with the possibility that anyone, including our selves, could become a prisoner, we tend to think of the prison as disconnected from our own lives. This is even true for some of us, women as well as men, who have already experienced imprisonment.”

Thinking Men Wells Self Would Be Possibility Prison Including Prisoner Imprisonment Disconnected Agonizing

Author:Angela Davis

“Imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of our social problems.”

Firsts Problem Social Prison Response Resorts Imprisonment Social Problems

Author:Angela Davis

“One of the reasons that so many people of color and poor people are in prison is that the deindustrialization of the economy has led to the creation of new economies and the expansion of some old ones – I have already mentioned the drug trade and the market for sexual services. At the same time, though, there are any number of communities that more than welcome prisons as a source of employment. Communities even compete with one another to be the site where new prisons will be constructed because prisons create a significant number of relatively good jobs for their residents”

People Reason Jobs Community Poor Numbers Economy Creation Color Source Drug Trade Prison Significant Welcome Employment Site Expansion Good Job Poor People Residents Significant Numbers

Author:Angela Davis

“Jails and prisons are designed to break human beings, to convert the population into specimens in a zoo - obedient to our keepers, but dangerous to each other.”

Humans Human Beings Break Dangerous Prison Population Jail Obedient Keepers Zoos Imprisonment Converting Dehumanization Prison Population

Author:Angela Davis

“Poor people, people of color - especially are much more likely to be found in prison than in institutions of higher education.”

People Found Poor Color Higher Institutions Prison Poor People Higher Education

Author:Angela Davis

“I'm suggesting that we abolish the social function of prisons.”

Social Function Prison Abolish Suggesting

Author:Angela Davis

“First of all, I didn't suggest that we should simply get rid of all prisons.”

Should Firsts Prison

Author:Angela Davis

“Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages.”

“When children attend schools that place a greater value on discipline and security than on knowledge and intellectual development, they are attending prep schools for prison.”

Children School Values Greater Security Development Discipline Intellectual Prison Attending Preps Intellectual Development

Author:Angela Davis

“Prisons do not disappear problems, they disappear human beings.”

Humans Problem Human Beings Prison Disappear

Book:Keeping Good Time: Reflections on Knowledge, Power and People

Source: Keeping Good Time: Reflections on Knowledge, Power and People

“I'm involved in the work around prison rights in general.”

Rights Involved Prison

Author:Angela Davis

About the Author

Born: January 26, 1944
Known for: Political Activist
Quotes: 116

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Thinking Black People Prison Community Movement Political Black People Class Mean Certain Important Justice Middle Wells World Country Humans Ifs Kind

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Women, Culture & PoliticsRelated source material

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a MovementRelated source material

Keeping Good Time: Reflections on Knowledge, Power and PeopleRelated source material

Women, Race, & ClassRelated source material

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