1976
ANGELA DAVIS * JAH WALLY'S STAR BAND * NEW FLOWER * JA
Both sides of this instrumental record (produced by Al Campbell) site famous names; the next side is credited to Nelson Mandela, who, when this record was released, was far from the household name he is today. Angela Davis, who was probably more well known (at least to whites) in 1976, was a prominent activist in the struggles for justice and equality during the 1970s, having the dubious honour at the time of being one of the F. B. I. 's 'most wanted criminals'. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1944 in an area known as 'Dynamite Hill' because of the large number of African American homes bombed by the Ku Klux Klan. She studded under Herbert Marcuse at the University of California and was greatly influenced by him especially his idea that it was the duty of the individual to rebel against the system. She joined The Black Panther Party in 1967 and the Communist party the following year, it was because of her membership with the Communist party that her contract as a lecturer of philosophy at the University of California in Los Angeles was abruptly terminated. Later she was prominent in the efforts to secure justice for prisoners and improve prison conditions, which led to her special involvement with George Jackson and W. L. Nolen two prisoners who had established a Black Panther chapter in California's Soledad Prison, both of whom were later gunned down by prison guards on separate occasions. Now a lecturer in women's and ethnic studies, and writer, her books include: If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance (1971), Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974), Women, Race and Class (1981) and Women, Culture, and Politics (1989).