An Autobiography

Davis, Angela. An Autobiography. New York: International Publishers, 2000. (first Published in 1974).

The autobiography is about a black activist's struggle against the american state. Angela Davis begins her autobiography with a crisis in her life. She is a fugitive running away from the FBI who has charged her against murder. She is finally caught by the police and is taken to the New York jail to await trial. The first chapter describes her trials in this jail and is titled "Nets." The text becomes a document of a black Marxist woman's interpretation of the state punitive system. In the beginning, she is placed in a room full of mentally deranged women, who have been deliberately given tranquilizers. It is a dead house and they are always spaced out on different drugs. Angela is placed there with the excuse that she might be attacked by the other inmates. But, the truth is that she is loved by them and they look upto her as an activist. Later when she is moved into solitary and then along with the other inmates, she developes a close relationship with the jailed women. There is a full fledged social life in the jail with homosexuality (including formalizing of relationships, sexual and otherwise) happening within its confines. Angela makes friends not only with the inmates but also some of the jail authorities. But, in between, she is handed over to California by New York state and has to shift her residence to another jail.