Was Angela Davis A Panther?
Was Angela Davis a member of the Black Panther Party? No. Elaine Brown explains Davis’s ties to the LA Branch of the Party in her book A Taste of Power, which I highly recommend simply because it is an excellent history of the rise and fall of the Party. Brown explains that while Davis was a prospective member of the Los Angeles Black Panther Party branch under the leadership of Bunchy Carter, the male chauvinism and fragile egos of a lot of the membership towards a woman with a PhD was a major part of driving her away from the Party organization and into the arms of the revisionist CPUSA. This is why comrades should realize that we need people from all walks of life and skill in our movement and avoid being exclusionary — revisionists are waiting to swallow them up and turn their skills in the service of prolonging capitalism.
Did the Black Panther Party denounce or attack Angela Davis? No. There was no real reason to do so. She was a high profile Black organizer who faced extreme state repression, including a railroad attempt in the courts alleging that she provided weapons to the unsuccessful escape attempt waged by Johnathan Jackson at the Marin County Courthouse and her firing by the University of California for being “a Communist”, under the advisement of Ronald Reagan. Throughout this period the BPP considered Davis a comrade and fellow traveler. We should also note the worldwide solidarity campaigns led on Davis’ behalf — much can be learned from this today. Campaigns like this require tabling non-antagonistic ideological differences and realizing that quarreling is in the interests of the ruling class particularly when a high-profile activist is under attack from that class. Of course, as a Maoist, I recognize that Davis’s politics have been rightist for decades, but at the same time there are dual aspects to every contradiction — her progressive credentials and work along with her serving as a rallying point for the masses of progressive people the world over outweigh the fact that she for whatever reason is a member of the CPUSA. Her theoretical work on prisons is also essential reading, in the same category as Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, along with Kevin Rashid Johnson’s work.
I haven’t seen any evidence that she has caused revolutionary activists any harm or made any go to prison. Revisionists in India and the Philippines have attacked and redtagged Maoist activists, leading to death and imprisonment. The revisionist CPI-M (Communist Party of India — Marxist) holds state power in the Kerala area and has taken an antagonistic position towards the Maoist movement, leading to dozens of activists being murdered and incarcerated and being driven out of the area. If a people’s war situation were extant in the United States, I see no reason why Davis would turn against it or provide information to the State regarding its activists. We should remember her support for the Soledad Brothers and the Black Panther Party, along with groups such as the Black Liberation Army. Angela Davis is not an enemy of the people, Panther or not, and calling her such is usually the behavior of phony toy Maoists who see every contradiction as antagonistic and attempt to insinuate their petty-bourgeois sectarianism into the Black Liberation Movement. As oppressed people in the imperialist metropole, we know better, and who our real friends are. Davis has faced state repression and harassment yet still promotes progressive ideas such as prison abolition and critique of Yankee imperialism. Considering such a person an enemy is a juvenile fool’s errand.
