Angela Davis on Not Endorsing Any Presidential Candidate: "I Think We Need a New Party"

In a Women’s History Month special, we speak with author, activist and scholar Angela Davis. For more than four decades, Davis has been one of most influential activists and intellectuals in the United States. An icon of the 1970s black liberation movement, Davis’ work around issues of gender, race, class and prisons has influenced critical thought and social movements across several generations. She is a leading advocate for prison abolition, a position informed by her own experience as a fugitive on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list more than 40 years ago. Davis talks about the "fascist appeal" of Donald Trump and explains why she is not officially endorsing any candidate in this election. "I believe in independent politics," she says. "I still think that we need a new party, a party that is grounded in labor, a party that can speak to all of the issues around racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, what is happening in the world. We don’t yet have that party."

TRANSCRIPT
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AMY GOODMAN: In this Women’s History Month special, we turn to the author, the activist, the scholar Angela Davis. For more than four decades, she’s been one of the most influential activists and intellectuals in the United States. An icon of the '70s black liberation movement, Angela Davis's work centers around issues of gender, race, class and prisons, and has influenced critical thought and social movements across several generations. She’s a leading advocate for prison abolition, a position informed by her own experience as a fugitive on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list more than 40 years ago.

In 1944, Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama. The city would become known as "Bombingham" as a result of so many Ku Klux Klan bombings. In 1963, the Klan blew up the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, killing four girls and injuring 22 others.

I spoke to Angela Davis this month just after Donald Tru...