3:
This historical narrative outlines the development of not only Critical Resistance as a political movement, but also of Angela Davis as a scholarly activist who became an architect of contemporary abolition. This chapter offers a critique of Davis – noting the relative success of her campaigning and academic endeavours in the university and beyond, while not ignoring shortcomings and omissions embedded in contemporary abolition often led by academics and non-profits. This chapter charts a period which, as well as making enormous advances in progressivism, also created divisions and promoted well-funded narratives without publicly addressing contradictions that curtailed radical and diverse visions of abolition. The ideological diversity of the abolitionist movement reminds us of the necessity to work to address issues of class, ideology, funders’ influence, and political alignments that can divide or undermine and marginalize the critiques, analyses and narratives of non-elites and radicals who lack high profiles and popularity supported by liberal concepts. Participating in the wider fight for freedom from oppression remains a zone of contradictions as well as conflict and antagonism.
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Barker, Joanne et al (2015) ‘Open letter from Indigenous women scholars regarding discussions of Andrea Smith’, Indian Country Today (ICT), original 7 July 2015, updated 18 September 2018, Available from: https://ictnews.org/archive/open-letter-from-indigenous-women-scholars-regarding-discussions-of-andrea-smith [Accessed 15 September 2024].
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Bukhari, S. (2010) The War Before: The True-Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison, and Fighting for Those Left Behind, Laura Whitehorn (ed.), New York: Feminist Press.
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Coleman, K. (2011) ‘Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt: the untold story of the Black Panther leader, dead at 63’. Available from: https://newrepublic.com/article/90735/black-panther-geronimo-pratt-murder-conviction-prison-huey-newton [Accessed 18 October 2024].
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Critical Resistance (nda) ‘History’. Available from: http://criticalresistance.org/about/history/ [Accessed 15 September 2024].
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Critical Resistance (ndb) ‘Honoring Rose Braz: CR co-founder and abolitionist leader’. Available from: https://criticalresistance.org/6125-2/ [Accessed 15 September 2024].
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Critical Resistance (2022) ‘Rest in power, Mike Davis!’. Available from: https://criticalresistance.org/updates/rest-in-power-mike-davis/ [Accessed 18 October 2024].
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Davis, A. (1974) The Autobiography of Angela Davis, New York: Random House.
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Davis, A. (1998) ‘Racialized punishment and prison abolition’, in J. James (ed.) The Angela Y. Davis Reader, Chichester: Blackwell.
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Davis, A. (2003) Are Prisons Obsolete?, New York: Seven Stories Press.
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Davis, A., Dent, G., Meiners, E. and Richie, B. (2023) Abolition. Feminism. Now, Chicago: Haymarket Books.
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Davis, M. (1990) City of Quartz. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
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Herzing, R. and Burch, M. (2003) ‘Critical Resistance South: challenging the prison industrial complex’, USA Today Magazine, The November Coalition.
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Jackson, G. (1970) Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson. Brooklyn, NY: Lawrence Hill.
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Jericho Movement (2015) ‘The Jericho Movement: amnesty and freedom for all political prisoners’. Available from: http://www.thejerichomovement.com/sites/default/files/resource_file/jericho_3-fold_2015.pdf [Accessed 15 September 2024].
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James, J. (1996) Resisting State Violence, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
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James, J. (ed.) (1998) The Angela Y. Davis Reader, New York: Wiley Blackwell.
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James, J. (ed.) (2000) States of Confinement: Policing, Detention, and Prisons, New York: St Martin’s Press.
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James, J. (ed.) (2003) Imprisoned Intellectuals, Lexington: Rowman & Littlefield.
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James, J. (ed.) (2005) The New Abolitionists, Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
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James, J. (ed.) (2008) Warfare in the American Homeland, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
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James, J. (2024) Contextualizing Angela Davis: The Agency and Identity of an Icon, London: Bloomsbury Press.
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James, J. and Changa, K. (2023) ‘Slave rebel or citizen?’, Inquest, Harvard Law School, 2 May.
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Lew Lee, L. (1996) All Power to the People! The Black Panther Party and Beyond (documentary). Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKvE6_s0jy0 [Accessed 18 October 2024].
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Muntaqim, J. (2003) We Are Our Own Liberators, Binghamton, NY: PM Press.
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Newton, H. (1972) To Die for the People: The Writings of Huey P. Newton. New York: Random House Press.
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Quinn, R. (2023) ‘Professor leaving university after being dubbed “pretendian” for years’, Inside Higher Education, 18August. Available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/diversity-equity/2023/08/18/professor-leaving-after-being-dubbed-pretendian [Accessed 15 September 2024].
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Shakur, A. (1988) Assata: An Autobiography, London: Zed Press.
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Smith, A. (2015) Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
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US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, James J. (ed.) (2000) States of Confinement, Policing, Detention, and Prisons, New York: St Martin’s Press. Available from: https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/states-confinement-policing-detention-and-prisons, NCJ Number 18321 [Accessed 15 September 2024].
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Viren, S. (2021) ‘The native scholar who wasn’t’, New York Times, 25 May.
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West, C. (1993) Race Matters, Boston: Beacon Press.
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