All language subtitles for Free.Angela.And.All.Political.Prisoners.2012.DVDRip.x264-IGUANA

In San Rafael, California,
north of San Francisco...

...a judge and three other
persons were shot to death today.

...in an attempt by a
group of convicts to escape.

There are still a great many loose ends.

...and a great deal of speculation
about what happened here.

Investigators will now try to determine
if there was a conspiracy of some kind.

...that involved, perhaps, more persons.

...than those who actually
participated in the bloody event.

Today, it turned out that two of
the guns used in the courtroom.

were bought by Angela Davis.

She was the teacher fired from the
University of California at Los Angeles...

...after she said, yes,
she was a communist.

I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama.

I think we all realized that this was
not the way things were supposed to be.

And my mother used to say that.

My father had guns in the house.

And we all knew that
when they came out...

...generally, it was in
response to some threat.

As much as I wanted
to see change happen...

I left the South
precisely at the moment.

when radical change
was about to take place.

I discovered a new program.

...to bring black students from
the segregated South to the North.

So, I didn't get to
directly experience...

...you know, all of the
protests in Birmingham.

I attended Elisabeth Irwin
High School in New York.

...and went to Brandeis. There
were very few black students there.

And then, of course, I
ended up studying in Germany.

when these new developments in
the black movement happened...

...the emergence of
the Black Panther Party.

And my feeling was
that, "I wanna be there.

"This is earth-shaking. This is
change. I wanna be a part of that. "

Revolution is about thinking about
things in a radically different way.

And, I think, given the
history of America...

...the idea that black people
should be equal, and really equal...

was a revolutionary thing.

In America, black people are treated
very much as the Vietnamese people.

And the police, they are not to...

In our community, are not
to promote our welfare...

...or our security and our safety.

But they are there to contain
us, to brutalize us and murder us.

Do you know what Black Power means?

Black Power means dignity.

The fact is that some of our fellow
citizens have turned against our society.

...and turned against our government.

People, perhaps, that you do not see...

...people that, perhaps, you
do not come in contact with...

...and the fact you can't get a job. Only
40% of the men that live in the ghetto.

...have jobs that pay
more than $60 a week.

How can you support a family? How
can you bring up children in dignity?

The Panthers, if you look
at their 10-point program...

...it's about jobs, it's about
education, it's about equality.

And the point that everyone
remembers is the self-defense.

The Panthers, they not only had guns,
they wanted you to know they had guns.

Exhibit A was when they burst into
a session of the state legislature.

The Black Panther
Party for Self Defense.

...calls upon the American
people in general...

...and the black people in particular...

...to take careful note of the
racist California legislature.

which is now considering legislation.

...aimed at keeping the black
people disarmed and powerless.

...at the very same time racist
police agencies throughout the country.

...are intensifying the terror, brutality,
murder and repression of black people.

All of these police were
summoned, and what they found.

was, indeed, the Panthers
were not breaking any law.

I saw the photograph of the Black
Panther Party in some newspaper.

when I was studying in Germany.

And again, I had this sense,
"The world is changing.

"My world is changing, and I
do want to be a part of this. "

And I decided that I would go back.

I would go back and I
decided to go to San Diego...

which was where Marcuse was.

Herbert Marcuse was
an amazing philosopher.

The important message I got from him.

was that knowledge can
help to transform the world.

That knowledge does not exist
in a dimension of its own...

...but rather it can be
active, it can be practical.

Angela Davis is possibly.

...the most intelligent person
that I have ever been around...

when it comes to studying
classical German philosophy.

She had been a very, very
good student at Brandeis...

...and she had gone to Germany
to the Frankfurt School.

She became, you know, part of an
international intellectual community.

Her intellectual engagement, as the
most important thing in her life...

was clearly mapped out at that point.

She smoked Gauloises, chain-smoked
them, was very European.

And she came out of that heavy
intellectual atmosphere rise in San Diego.

...that was just the beginnings
of the Black Panthers...

...the wake of the riots, and so on.

So, she wasn't really wired into that.

...and hadn't had a lot of personal
experience, I think, with it.

When I had attempted
to become involved in.

...political organizations
in San Diego...

I had not had very much success.

Some people thought I was an agent.

You know, who was this black
woman who's coming from Europe.

...and wanting to know what's
going on in the community?

But I realized that
I needed a collective.

I needed people to engage with.

I needed to...

I didn't see myself accomplishing
anything important as an individual.

Said I wanted freedom Freedom!

Black is beautiful.

Angela Davis wanted to be a
part of the Black Power movement.

I was the section leader
of the Black Panther Party.

And I asked Angela.

...to participate in the educational.

...that I was conducting
on Marxism to my cadre.

That was the extent of her involvement.

I had gotten involved, very briefly,
with the Black Panther Party...

Black Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee...

...the black student
organization on my campus...

...but I did not like the nationalism,
I did not like the male supremacy...

I did not like the fact that women
were expected to take a back seat.

...and, literally, to sit
at the feet of the men.

So it was really refreshing to meet
someone like Franklin Alexander.

...and Franklin's wife, Kendra.

I think, basically, what we're doing is.

we're saying that this system
is rotten at its core...

while we fight for the immediate needs
of the people, constantly and continually.

Better housing, you know,
the end of police brutality.

Stopping the depression level of
unemployment in the black community.

And while we continue to
do those kinds of things...

we do know, in fact, that this system
itself creates those conditions.

The changing of those conditions.

...basically means establishing
a socialist society.

The Che Lumumba Club was an
open Communist Party club.

And the purpose of it was
to allow the Communist Party.

...to openly operate inside
the Black Power movement.

I don't know whether I would've joined
the Communist Party at that time...

...had not the Che Lumumba Club existed.

You know, Che Guevara,
Patrice Lumumba...

...sort of symbolic of
the global revolution.

...you know, very specifically
Third World people, people of color.

And that was what really
drew me into the party.

We have to talk about being radical.

And radical means, etymologically,
you know, to get things at their root.

It's very interesting. The white people
have been called radicals for a long time.

And black people have been
called militants, you know?

As if black people
can't be radicals, too.

But if we don't fight now...

we'll never be able to put
into practice that slogan.

which, I think, crystallizes
what we've been talking about...

...and that is all the
power to the people.

I was invited to apply
for this position at UCLA.

They needed someone who was
trained in continental philosophy.

...and who could teach Marxism.

I decided to accept the job.

There had been an article.

written by a man who had
joined the Communist Party...

...but, actually, he was an FBI agent.

And then after that, a
well-known reactionary reporter.

...in Northern California wrote
a scathing article about me.

And that's when all hell broke loose.

Yesterday was the first day
of the fall term at UCLA...

...and philosophy
professor, Angela Davis...

was on her way to teach her
first class amid controversy...

...for Miss Davis admitted that she
is a member of the Communist Party.

And the regents who run the
university decided, because of that...

...she should not be allowed to teach.

For UCLA, it has become
the crisis of the year.

I had known Angela as a child.

I went down there, and I
hadn't seen her in years...

...as we went different
ways. And I went down there.

...and I asked her, you know, if
I could be of help and so forth.

Her first lecture drew 2,000 students.

...and was on the philosophy
of Frederick Douglass.

What was your reaction to the lecture?

I think she is a superb
lecturer. You can learn so much.

As I infer from just what she
said today, it was terrific.

Well, I think she's trying to
overthrow our system of government...

...and she admits that.

And while I think it is bad to limit
freedom of speech of any group...

...because it limits democracy...

I think it is better to
have a limited democracy.

...that will last for
a long, long time...

...than complete democracy,
complete freedom...

...that lasts only for a brief period.

If I were able to deliver
that coherent, that beautiful.

...and that intellectual a
lecture on my first time...

...to how many thousands of
people there were in that place...

I'd feel like a superstar.

The woman is an admitted
member of the Communist Party.

She also, in her letter
to Chancellor Young...

...indicated that she felt.

...that the only way we could bring about
the social change that's necessary today.

...is through violence and militancy.

I don't think we need that on campus,
and so I'm for getting rid of her.

The regents seem intent
on meting out punishments.

which concur with the fascist
tendencies of the times.

The sole reason they give for
their intention to fire me.

...is my membership
in the Communist Party.

I became chancellor of UCLA in 1968.

The main issue at stake was...

I'll use a catchphrase,
"academic freedom. "

I think that was my main concern...

...that while it was appropriate.

...to make sure that a person
was not misusing or abusing.

...his or her appointment
as a member of the faculty...

...that a person's political views.

...should not be of concern.

with regard to his or her appointment.

But my own personal opinion,
and that's all it can be...

I have no evidence otherwise...

...my own personal opinion is.

...that this entire incident, starting
with the hiring of Miss Davis...

was a deliberate provocation.

It's probably true, Reagan
believed that she was dangerous.

That she would use her
bully-pulpit in the faculty.

...to indoctrinate students, to try
to win students over to communism...

...to try to engage in activities which
would be harmful to the university.

Part of the policy of Governor Reagan.

was really to do everything possible.

...to repress the radical political
movement as they saw it developing.

The Anti-War Movement, Students
for a Democratic Society...

...the emergence of
the Black Panther Party.

And Angela becomes a symbol of all
of those movements at the same time.

There was no precedent in my life.

...for this kind of public exposure.

And then, of course, there
were all of the threats.

You know, I was told
to go back to Africa...

...then I was told to go back to Russia.

And often times, I received.

...letters saying that I
was gonna be dead by sundown.

And so, my life completely changed.

I bought my first gun.

...because I really feared that.

I might be in a situation where
either the police, or agents.

...or other people would take my life.

What they're doing to her
is an exaggerated form.

...of what happens every day
to black people in this country.

And they're saying to those
communities through her.

...that, you know, people have
to straighten up and fly right.

...and be good niggers, you know?

I think the first thing we have to do.

...is certainly make sure that we do
have some unity in the black community...

...so that when a sister
like that stands up...

...that they don't wipe
her out as one person...

...that they have to wipe
out more than one person.

Being a revolutionary, some
of it was just being young.

...and being romantic and...

I don't know that we had a real idea.

...of, you know, how bloody
a revolution could really be.

I was involved in hundreds
of peace marches...

...and, I mean, peace marches
against the war in Vietnam.

...that ended up with the
police beating people up.

...and tear gassing people.

Malcolm X gets assassinated...

...you might expect that 'cause he was
talking about the ballot or the bullet.

But Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy.

There was the beginnings
of, on both sides...

...a sense that this isn't gonna be
settled at the ballot box or in debates.

This is gonna be war.

Los Angeles, four and a half years
after the rebellion in Watts...

300 Los Angeles policemen.

...are involved in a raging gun
battle for nearly five hours.

They are assaulting an office
of the Black Panther Party...

...the most powerful militant
black organization in the country.

It is apparent that the undeclared war
between the police and the Panthers.

...has reached alarming proportions.

Party members at 30
chapters across the country.

...have stockpiled arsenals of
automatic weapons, shotguns, pistols.

...and homemade bombs.

Vice President Agnew has
called the Panthers...

"A completely irresponsible,
anarchistic group of criminals. "

FBI director Hoover has called them...

"The greatest danger to the
internal security of the country. "

Did you know that this was gonna happen?

How was I to know the police were going.

...to break into the Panther
office at 4:30 in the morning?

They obviously didn't broadcast it.

How did you hear about it?

We got a call from
someone who was inside...

who said that the police had come
and had attacked their office.

And what do you plan to do? Do
you plan to act as an intermediary.

...or in any capacity like that?

- I'll do anything I can.
- Thank you.

It was as if we were
living in a state of war.

In a state of siege.

For us, during that period, the
revolution was right around the corner...

...and we had to do everything
we could to usher it in.

I'm representing the Che Lumumba
Club of the Communist Party.

There is a conspiracy in the land.

It's a conspiracy to
wipe out, to murder.

...every single Black
Panther in America.

...and to wipe out the
black community as a whole.

Brothers and sisters, this is genocide.
We have to call it by its name.

This is genocide.

Right on.

This conspiracy to commit
murder and genocide.

...on our people forces us to
exercise our constitutional right.

...to bear arms and to
use those arms to defend.

...our community, our
families and ourselves.

Power to the people!

The overwhelming majority
of the faculty at UCLA

would have supported the position,
and did support the position I took.

But the majority of the
general population...

who don't understand what
academic freedom really is...

...had concerns about Angela
Davis as a communist...

Angela Davis as a black,
Angela Davis as a woman...

Angela Davis as an activist.

You couldn't have put
things together with anyone.

...that would've been more
problem-creating than with Angela Davis.

Today, in a rare action, the
Board of Regents voted 15-6

...to overrule the
university and fire her.

Governor Reagan voted with the majority.

He said it wasn't because
she's a communist...

...but rather because
she is unprofessional.

While the regents were voting, Miss
Davis was a few blocks away in a rally.

...protesting the treatment of black
prisoners in Soledad State Prison.

She sees her dismissal as a
case of political repression.

which she may or may not challenge.

I'm gonna keep on struggling
to free the Soledad Brothers.

...and all political prisoners...

...because I think that
what has happened to me.

...is only a very tiny, minute
example of what is happening to them.

I suppose I just lost that job at UCLA

...as a result of my political
opinions and activities.

Some UCLA professors plan to
raise money to pay her salary.

...so she can continue to teach.

The controversy is not over.

I was still at UCLA
defending my right to teach...

...and this case emerged.

...involving three, then young,
black men at Soledad Prison.

All I could think about was
the image of three black men.

walking into a silent courtroom
in the city of Salinas.

with chains around their waists...

...chains under their
crotch, their hands chained...

while their only crime
was having attempted.

...to organize the human beings
inside the Soledad Prison.

They were the ones who were singled out.

...to serve as examples to any
and everyone in this country.

who dares stands up for the truth.

So, what connected these three men...

...and what gave rise to the Soledad
Brothers' case, is that a white guard.

was killed in Soledad by being
thrown from an upper tier.

George Jackson, John
Clutchette and Fleeta Drumgo.

were very prominent in
the prison reform movement.

...and were basically singled out and
accused of killing this prison guard.

These individuals, while they
may have been incarcerated.

...for crimes...

...now they have become persecuted
because of their political belief.

I hope the people on
this campus realize...

What Angela Davis does is
become a primary spokesman.

...for a quest to free
political prisoners.

We have to start fighting back.

Those three brothers in Soledad
Prison are fighting back.

They'd all been convicted of
relatively minor property crimes.

One of them had been accused
of stealing a television set.

George had been accused of stealing $70.

He had been in solitary
confinement for seven years.

He'd been in prison for 11...

...and seven of those years had
been in solitary confinement.

Once he got into prison...

...he was a strong-willed,
rebellious personality.

who continued to defy authorities.

And then he also found
his voice as a writer.

And he studied and
he became radicalized.

And, I think, once he emerged.

...as someone who could
articulate revolutionary ideas...

...people gravitated to
that kind of leadership.

Look...

One of the most important elements of
guerrilla warfare is to maintain secrecy.

I've killed nobody until,
you know, it's been proven.

And they'll never be able
to prove anything like that.

Most people I knew thought
George Jackson was a hero.

The fact that he may have also
been a criminal was glossed over.

I first saw him.

...at a hearing.

We may have mouthed some words...

...but it was, of course, illegal to
communicate with prisoners in the court.

I was, you know, drawn
by a kind of tenderness.

...that I did not expect
to find in prisoners.

He was a beautiful writer, a
powerful writer, passionate writer.

And I eventually felt
very much seduced by that.

Brother George Jackson, one
of the Soledad Brothers...

...has been in prison for 10 years.

...since he was 18 years old on
a second degree robbery charge.

One of the things that we really have
to talk about and come to grips with.

...is this whole question of crime.

What does it mean to be a
criminal in this society?

George had a younger
brother, Jonathan...

who was about 16, I think,
when I first met him.

He was an incredible writer, and
wrote for his school newspaper...

...and wrote articles about his
brother and the Soledad Brothers' case.

I think he was totally devastated.

...that his brother had been
behind bars for 10 years.

I came to realize that the
Soledad Brothers Defense Committee.

was really a lifeline for him.

He needed to have some hope.

...that the person he most
identified with in life.

was one day going to be free.

In San Rafael, California,
north of San Francisco...

...a judge and three other
persons were shot to death today.

...in an attempt by a
group of convicts to escape.

Judge Harold Haley was hearing
the case of a San Quentin inmate.

when an unidentified man armed with
dynamite and an automatic weapon.

...entered the courtroom.

The defendant, along with two
other inmates testifying for him...

...reportedly joined
with the unidentified man.

...in rounding up the judge, a deputy
district attorney and three women jurors.

When it was over,
Judge Haley was dead...

...the deputy district attorney had
been critically wounded in the back...

...one woman juror was
wounded in the arm...

...two of the inmates were dead,
as was the unidentified man.

I could not deal with the
fact that this young man...

who was 17 at the time...

...that he ends up lying on the
cold cement in a parking lot.

...in one of the most wealthy
counties in the country.

The funeral for Superior Judge
Harold Haley was a major civic event.

The cortege escorted by a
detail of 60 police officers.

...from cities all over
the San Francisco Bay.

Judge Haley, after all,
was a prominent man.

And his death deeply shocked
and angered his peers.

His kidnappers, they
described as hoodlums...

who called themselves revolutionaries.

Across the Bay in Oakland, there was
another funeral for Jonathan Jackson...

...the young Panther who was supposed
to have staged the bloody kidnap attempt.

I, and my husband, we
went to Jonathan's funeral.

Everybody in their Sunday
best, many people weeping.

When they brought the casket
out, and Mrs. Jackson followed...

...people holding her up and
a handkerchief to her face.

And it said to me, what he
had done represented something.

'Cause that was thousands
and thousands of people.

...out there in the street.

Nobody organized that. People just came.

While we were standing there,
Franklin comes up, Franklin Alexander.

We were standing in such a
way that he was next to us...

...but looking straight, as
though he wasn't talking to us.

And he said, "Angela's been implicated.
" And he said, "She's gone underground. "

And he said, "I'm just, you
know, letting you know. Okay?"

We said, "Okay. " And then
he disappeared into the crowd.

Today, it turned out that two of
the guns used in the courtroom.

were bought some time
ago by Angela Davis.

It was clear.

...that that was not the time to make
myself available to the police for arrest.

Mr. Alexander, you say
that you are the chairman.

...of the Che Lumumba Club
of the Communist Party?

Miss Davis has identified
herself as a member of that group.

She is a member of that group.

Is it the doctrine of that club.

...to use guns for black liberation?

It is the doctrine of
the Communist Party.

...that black people, that all people.

...have the right to defend
themselves and their homes.

When asked by a reporter...

"What would you tell Angela Davis if
you could speak with her today?"...

...he smiled and said
simply, "I love you, baby. "

"You wouldn't tell her to
give herself up," he was asked.

And he repeated, "I would tell her,
'I love you, baby. ' Nothing more. "

The FBI has put black
militant Angela Davis.

...on its list of the
10 most wanted fugitives.

She's charged with
murder in California...

where authorities say
she bought weapons.

...for that San Rafael
courtroom shootout.

Hoover put her on the top 10.

The key to the top 10,
she was a communist.

They were not his favorite people.

And if you were on the top 10...

...you're gonna get a lot of attention.

We were devastated, you know.
In our gut, we had to know

...there was something wrong here...

...that this could not possibly be
anything Angela would be involved in.

Not the Angela we knew.

It couldn't be her.

Anyone involved in planning a violent
operation like Jonathan Jackson's...

...that was on a
need-to-know basis.

So, only certain people would know.

You would think that somebody
with an advanced degree...

...particularly someone
who had a public profile...

would be the last person.

who would want to use those
weapons in an illegal act.

On a truly common sense
perspective, it doesn't make sense.

But on the other hand...

...crazy shit happens.

What is the evidence?

The evidence is that Angela
Davis purchased four guns.

There was a provision in the penal code.

...that anybody in this state could buy
as many guns as he or she wanted to buy.

And that's the law of
the state of California.

And because Governor
Reagan wanted it that way...

Angela Davis bought four guns.

And why did she buy them?

I don't know and you don't know.

But it is reasonable to suppose.

...that anybody who teaches at
this institution and who speaks up.

...for power to the people...

who speaks up for the freedom
of political prisoners...

who speaks out on any
issue receives every week...

I receive every week, letters...

...and the theme and tone
of those letters ranges from.

...violent and vicious imprecations
to outright threats of death.

And for Angela Davis...

whose prominence as a black woman.

...and a communist,
that mail came every day.

And there were threats on her life.

And she bought four guns.

The FBI and the police descended
on the black communities.

...all over the country
and began pulling in.

...any young, tall, black woman
with a space between her teeth.

'Cause they just had
this general description.

We had her fingerprints
and a photograph.

...of a girl with a big afro.

And every office gets a
box full of those things.

There were unmarked cars
parked across the street.

I knew then, this was the FBI and
that we were under surveillance.

So many hundreds of black
women with big afros.

were stopped on suspicion
of being Angela Davis.

I decided that I did not
want to flee the country.

Because, certainly, if I had
decided to travel to Cuba.

...or some other country that
would have given me asylum...

...and I probably could have gotten
asylum from any number of countries...

I would have been there
for the rest of my life.

I flew from Las Vegas to Chicago...

where I managed to hook
up with David Poindexter.

David was the person who helped
me for the remaining period.

The search for Angela Davis.

...has spread from Los Angeles,
through the Bay Area, through Canada...

...to a series of raids in
her hometown of Birmingham.

...after a US district court
judge issued the fugitive warrants.

...and set bail at $100,000.

The attitude in the Bureau was...

...the only way you're gonna solve
anything is to have an informant.

And we used to think most of the
Communist Party members are FBI.

It was thoroughly,
thoroughly infiltrated.

A file was opened up in every office.

Everybody had a file on her.

I stayed at David's apartment...

...and then had to leave
because he had gotten into.

...an argument with one of his
friends who lived in the building.

And we were afraid that
this person might reveal.

...that I was with him if
the FBI ever questioned him.

So we traveled to Miami...

...and I was holed up in Miami
for what seemed like an eternity.

I was pretty scared.

At any moment, I felt I was
on the verge of being caught.

I had this fear with me all the time.

I thought a lot about the
people I had left behind...

...my family, of course.
I worried about my mother.

I worried about my siblings...

I worried about my friends, my comrades.

And every strange noise I heard.

I interpreted as, "The cops are coming.

"The FBI is knocking on the door. "

And then the Alexander girl's name
comes into it, and they talked to her.

She wasn't helpful, but
nor was she antagonistic.

It was determined that
she had been in Chicago.

with David Poindexter.

And there is some stuff in
there about David's woman...

...she was jealous.

And she told us some
things, that they were.

...there and they headed to Florida.

Once we identified the
car, and Chicago did that...

...now we knew what we were looking for.

Sooner or later, we're
gonna find that car.

And they located one place
where the guy thought.

...that they might have been here.

But the girl didn't look like her.

They questioned his mother
who lived in Florida...

which meant we had to leave Florida.

They had vacated the apartment...

...and the agents went in there
and they looked all around.

And in the cushions of the couch...

...they found an exposed
roll of 35mm film...

which becomes a big thing in this case.

Now, they were all pictures of Angela...

...but she doesn't have an afro.

She's got a little pixie cut.

They had vacated the apartment...

...and they were traveling north.

The best place to hide in this
world is right over there...

New York City.

We were actually, very
rapidly, running out of money.

So we were staying at
the Howard Johnson...

...because that was the
only thing we could afford.

And I actually had a palpable
sense of the FBI closing in.

So we, in New York, started a
detailed search of everything.

We did LaGuardia and JFK

...and all the commercial
parking lots in Manhattan.

Lo and behold, we got a call one morning
and they said, "We found the car. "

"Come on. Stop this nonsense now. "

"No, it's in the Howard
Johnson's parking lot. "

We head out for Howard Johnson's...

we talked to the guy behind the
counter and we showed him the picture.

He said, "Yeah, I checked them in. "

This is like something
Hollywood would write.

Everything was falling into place.

A couple of minutes later, we
hear the elevator door open.

And you could hear them
walking down the hallway.

I handcuffed her before
she even turned around.

She didn't react to it at all.

She was a little.

...taken back when I said, "I
got to lift your upper lip. "

And I said, "I'm looking for that gap. "

They snatched the wig off of my head.

They kept repeating,
over and over again...

"Are you Angela Davis?
Are you Angela Davis?"

I did not say, "Yes,
" I did not say, "No, "

I didn't say anything at all.

I only requested my telephone calls.

Black revolutionary, Angela Davis...

...appeared without her
distinctive afro hairdo...

...as she was arraigned in New York
City today as a fugitive from justice.

Secretary General, Secretary
Kennedy and ladies and gentlemen...

...the purpose of my coming to
the Department of Justice today.

...in this great hall, is to
sign the Organized Crime Bill.

I think that the actions of the
FBI in apprehending Angela Davis...

...a rather remarkable story again.

...in the long history of remarkable
stories of apprehensions by the FBI...

...is an indication that
once the federal government...

...through the FBI,
moves into an area...

we shall see to it that those.

who engage in such terroristic
acts are brought to justice.

Free Angela Davis! No extradition!

Free Angela Davis! No extradition!

Free Angela Davis!

And therefore, the whole question...

People say, "Why didn't
Angela Davis give herself up?"

The question of getting a fair trial
is a real difficult and serious.

...problem for black Americans.

And therefore, I think she has
certainly the right to try and pick.

...the moment when she can
get closest to a fair trial.

The most important point
that should be remembered.

...is that Angela Davis has been
publicly indicted by the FBI.

She's been put on the
10 Most Wanted list.

Her picture has been placed
in all post offices...

...and this has given
a license to racists...

Ma'am, when she knew she was wanted,
why didn't she turn herself in?

Well, I don't know. Would you turn
yourself over to a pack of wolves?

I went to New York almost immediately.

She was arrested on October 13th,
and I think I flew out the next day.

She was in the Women's
House of Detention.

She was exhausted and
gaunt and very pale.

But she was already
focused on her defense.

...and on what needed to be done.

I was in solitary confinement.

...after they had placed me in the ward
for people with psychological disorders.

I had been doing all of
this work on prisons...

I had been doing all this work
to free political prisoners...

...but I hadn't really thought about
what it meant to be a woman behind bars.

Fania, when did you
last see your sister?

I saw her last night
at around 8:00 or 9:00.

You had a pretty bourgeois
and comfortable childhood...

...and so did she, in Birmingham.

Can you trace the development of
someone from that kind of background.

...into a revolutionary
and Marxist person?

I see in her life the
makings of a revolutionary.

I don't see in her life the
makings of a personal tragedy...

...of a good girl gone wrong.

Her life in the South...

...her experience with
white people in the North...

...all that to me would go into
the makings of what she is now.

And that is a revolutionary.

And Angela's education is
now being put into practice.

And that's a raison
d'etre for her education.

We challenged extradition.

We took this all the way
up to the US Supreme Court.

And so, when at about 2:00
or 3:00 in the morning...

...guards came to my cell
informing me that my attorney.

wanted to speak to me about
extradition, it made sense.

But they had other plans.

I ended up being pushed
down on the floor...

...they got my hands
handcuffed behind my back.

And then took me outside
and placed me in a car.

I kept asking, "Where are we going?"

No one would say anything.

And this long caravan.

...began to drive through
the streets of New York.

I was totally shocked to discover,
in the middle of the night...

...this National Guard
plane surrounded by soldiers.

And I remember saying to myself.

"I had better be very careful...

"because if I so much as stumble...

"they will probably open fire
on me and that will be the end. "

Angela Davis was arraigned in
the same San Rafael civic center.

where last summer a
district judge was killed.

...in an aborted kidnap attempt.

Security precautions were extraordinary.

Each spectator carefully
searched for weapons.

There has been one bomb explosion
and innumerable bomb scares.

...here in the months
since the judge's murder.

Miss Davis entered the courtroom...

...turned and gave a Black
Power salute to the gallery.

...composed mostly of
newsmen, and sat down.

...next to her two temporary lawyers.

Judge E. Warren McGuire.

...ordered a copy of the
charge delivered to her.

...and advised her of her rights
to an attorney and to a jury trial.

When the Attorney General arraigned me
in California after the extradition...

...he indicated that he
wanted the death penalty.

...on each of the three charges.

So he wanted the death
penalty three times.

That made me realize
how serious they were.

And again, it made me realize
that it wasn't about me.

...because, first of all, I
couldn't be killed three times.

It was about the construction
of this imaginary enemy...

...and I was the
embodiment of that enemy.

- Angela must be free!
- Now!

- Angela must be free!
- Now!

We had a nice long visit with Angela.

And she's in very high
spirits. She's feeling good.

Right on.

She's feeling good because she knows.

...that the movement to free all
political prisoners is growing every day.

That's what makes her feel good.

As long as we have people like
you fighting to free Angela...

...he'll be free. All power to the people.
- Right on.

Right on!

Free Angela!

Free Angela! Free Angela!

Free Angela! Free Angela!

Free Angela! Free Angela!

- What do we want?
- Freedom!

- For who?
- Angela!

- When?
- Now!

We know that she is innocent...

...and the entire family,
along with many other people...

will be fighting for her freedom.

We're not just sitting
by letting this happen.

We'd already formed a
defense committee for Angela.

We called ourselves, "The National
United Committee to Free Angela Davis.

"and All Political Prisoners. "

She insisted on "All
Political Prisoners. "

Free Angela and All Political Prisoners.

We had connections and people
in the Trade Union Movement.

...and the churches, we were able to go.

...and say, "Will you
support a resolution.

"for Angela Davis to
be released on bail?"

And they might say yes or no...

...but they'd say, "Persuade
us. Come in and talk to us. "

It was actually Henry Winston...

who was National Chairman
of the Communist Party...

...he said, "Campaign for bail. "

I went like, looking at
him, "What, are you nuts?

"No way we campaign for bail. "

The President of the United
States made a public statement.

...in which he congratulates
the FBI on the capture.

...of the "dangerous
terrorist," Angela Davis.

That's a quote. "Dangerous terrorist. "

He was saying, "Campaign for bail. "

We'd say, "Campaign for bail?"

President of the United States...
He says, "Campaign for bail. "

That man was a genius. He
was a tactical genius...

...because people would
sign petitions for bail.

who may have thought she was guilty...

...but believed that she
was entitled to a fair trial.

Charlene Mitchell, who was
the brain behind the whole.

National United Committee
to Free Angela Davis.

I didn't know the first thing about
organizing movements, but Charlene did.

All of our efforts and
all of our energies.

...had to be focused on
getting her out of there.

Politically, I saw this
case as a bellwether.

They are not going to kill her.

They're not going to imprison
her, we're going to free her.

We're gonna win her freedom.

I was in solitary confinement...

...some distance from where.

...the majority of women were kept.

It was lonely, very lonely.

I read a lot. I wrote a lot.

I followed the examples of
other prisoners, such as George.

I was able to create.

...a certain sphere of
freedom, you might say...

within the context of that confinement.

Well, I suppose as far
as you're concerned...

...it's no surprise that
you're in solitary confinement.

And I'm wondering what kind of shock
that has been to your sensibilities...

...to your emotions?

But see, I understood.

...very well that the reason why.

...the Marin County officials.

would not permit me to talk to
any other woman in that jail.

was because they wanted to break me.

They wanted me to respond in that way.

They wanted me to feel the
burden of the solitude...

...and I just had to make up my mind.

...that I was not going to
let it affect me that way.

I think that what George
Jackson said about.

...life in prison is
very appropriate here.

He says that prison either breaks a
person or makes the person stronger.

And I would like to think.

...that I have become stronger
during this experience.

My emotional relationship with George.

...became far more intense
when I was behind bars.

Part of that passion.

...consisted in.

...our being able to imagine
ourselves as comrades.

...helping to usher in a new world.

When she was in prison.

...and when George was in prison,
they had the opportunity to meet.

We met for a period of
time, we had discussions.

...and the type of things that you
discuss when you have a legal meeting.

And then Angela and George had met.

...separately to discuss things.

...that only the two of them
wanted to discuss with each other.

It was a meeting that was.

...really complicated and full of
all kinds of emotions and feelings.

She's been locked up.

And if she's had the opportunity to
do some hugging and kissing, right on.

That's my theory.

Those were the years
of the black revolution.

Everybody wanted to organize.

And your organization, the first
thing of it was, it was black.

Black teachers, black
doctors, black lawyers.

Black people who were professionals.

Black people who had done
everything that the system says...

...they were, now.

I thought it was
important strategically.

...for a black attorney
to be the public face.

...of a political prisoner at trial.

We wanted to present to the world.

...the picture of
African-American lawyers.

...performing at a very high
level on a worldwide stage.

And you have to understand the
workings of a racist judicial system...

...that the system is in
control of the white people.

And white people don't take any
risks when it comes to black people.

So, I don't think that
you're gonna find a jury.

who's going to have the courage
to do what's demanded of them.

I don't know of any other
cases in the last century.

...that presented that
degree of difficulty.

Where the courthouse
itself was a crime scene...

...and the judge, the prosecutor, the
jurors and witnesses were all victims.

A big issue at the beginning
of the case was whether or not.

...to sever the trials of
Angela Davis and Ruchell Magee.

So he is the surviving
prisoner from August 7th.

And he was being charged
with the same thing.

First degree murder...

...first degree kidnapping
and conspiracy to commit both.

There were those who wanted me
to be disassociated with Ruchell.

...and felt that that was the best way.

...to assert my innocence.

I didn't want to disassociate myself.

Ruchell argued it was
like a slave rebellion.

In a lot of ways, it probably was.

It was, kind of this
last ditch effort...

...some way to assert some
control over one's life.

We had a big debate because we said,
"Look, Angela wasn't even there.

"It's very prejudicial to her to
have him tried together with her.

"She never even met the man. "

On the other hand, we didn't
want to abandon Ruchell.

Miss Davis' attorneys asked the
judge to set her free on bail.

But Magee objected, saying it
would prejudice his own case.

Apparently, defendants Davis and Magee.

...are at odds on each
other's defense tactics.

The court denied bail...

...so both defendants were
sent back to their cells.

...until a new judge is appointed.

That could take several weeks.

None of the judges in Marin
County were qualified...

...because Judge Haley
was their colleague.

So, the judicial council
then had to select a judge.

...to try the case.

Will you ever find a judge who can give
you a fair trial in your estimation?

Well, we certainly have
got to search for one.

We are sort of like Diogenes,
looking for the honest man.

We're looking for an honest judge.

The next judge who was assigned
was Judge Richard Arnason.

...from Contra Costa County.

And the first day he was on the bench...

we reached the conclusion that this is
the judge that should have this case.

'Cause he had an air about him.

...that he would be fair, he
would make an effort to be fair...

...and that he would be in charge.

I think that, perhaps...

...it would be much better to
ask somebody who has seen me.

...in the years I've been on the
bench, what kind of a judge I am.

Self-analysis has never been
very productive for anybody...

...and I'm not going to
do it now at this time.

Defense attorneys today asked that
the murder and kidnap indictments.

...against Angela Davis be dismissed.

"Because she's completely
innocent of these charges.

"and she's locked into a proceeding
that never gets started. "

The judge, the sixth to
hear the pre-trial motions...

...had already been
charged with prejudice.

...by Miss Davis'
co-defendant Ruchell Magee.

The judge said he would proceed
no further with the case.

...until the prejudice challenge
was ruled on by another judge.

Finally, I realized that
the case needed to be tried.

It needed to be tried soon.

And that was because the
organizing was at its peak.

And if we got involved in
all of these other motions.

...and motion for removal...

It might be five years
before the trial took place...

...and I didn't want to do that.

So I reluctantly.

...decided that...

Ruchell was intransigent
on this idea of removal.

There were Communist Parties
everywhere in the world.

And they launched campaigns,
which very quickly.

...mushroomed into much,
much larger than themselves.

There was enormous feeling for
Angela everywhere in the world.

I was traveling around the world.

I was in Moscow. I
think I was in Leningrad.

Kiev. I was in Poland.

I was in Czechoslovakia.

...and a number of
different cities in Italy.

West Germany and East Germany.

So I was on the front lines.

with all the people who were
demanding the freedom for Angela Davis.

These millions of people around
the world would not allow my sister.

...to be convicted, would
not allow her to be executed.

There were plays, and theater, music
being written about Angela Davis.

It just created this irresistible
wave, this irresistible force.

We want to tell that
pharaoh in Washington.

...to let Angela Davis go free.

Nina Simone came and
visited me for a long time.

She came in with a balloon...

which the jailers did not
want to allow me to have...

...but I fought for that balloon.

...because I love Nina Simone.

I kept that balloon as long
as it remained inflated.

Children of East Germany wrote
millions of letters to my sister.

The mailman arriving every day with.

...a huge sack of mail on his back.

Just addressed to, "Angela Davis, USA."

This letter was written by a
very, very young child, apparently.

And it says very simply...

"Dear Angela Davis...

"My name is Sarah. I
wish that you were free.

"This is a picture of
you when you will be free.

"Love, Sarah. "

And on the other side, there's
a picture that she's drawn.

She says it's a picture of me.

You see the smile on my face.

I guess that's supposed
to be symbolic of freedom.

Bettina and I were in the
jail with her in Marin.

The prison guards came up and
told us that we had to leave.

And everything was locked down.

There was no movement in the prison
at all, not on the prison ground.

As I was coming home,
I heard on the radio.

...there had been an
outbreak at San Quentin...

...and George Jackson was
believed to have escaped.

...and had been shot in the process.

And I felt that it was my responsibility
to come back and tell Angela.

And then it was Margaret and Howard.

who had told me that he had been killed.

I didn't know the details.

I had no idea what had happened,
except that he had been killed.

He had said that he expected
that he would die in that way.

He expected that he would probably.

...be killed by the state.

By guards, by police.

I remember the scene in
the cell when I came back.

She was just totally grief stricken.

And inside that grief...

...again, I think true for
Angela, but true for anybody...

...is rage, just enormous rage.

Rage at the system
that you couldn't stop.

What should we do? What should
we do? What should we do?

And George's funeral which was enormous.

And then picking ourselves up
and saying, "We have to go on. "

San Jose, California, has
changed over the last 20 years.

...from a prosperous
agricultural center.

...to an urbanized
extension of San Francisco.

Roughly 85% of the people
who live here are white.

About 10% have Spanish surnames.

And less than 2% are black.

Over her objections, it is the
site for the trial of Angela Davis.

I knew nothing about
San Jose, California...

...except the Dionne Warwick song.

I came down and I thought that
it was Birmingham, Alabama.

The only thing was I didn't
see any African Americans.

The atmosphere, which often
surrounds much publicized trials...

...is beginning to build.

More than 300 newsmen have
applied for credentials.

Three-quarters of a million dollars.

...has been spent on security
and facilities for the news media.

Fences for crowd control, reconstruction
inside and outside the court building.

The courtroom itself is small with only
60 seats for spectators and newsmen.

Closed circuit television will carry
the proceedings to another building.

with room for 150 more.

Questions from both sides
will only be answered.

...as the evidence unfolds day by
day in the California courtroom...

...and the trial, estimated
to last six to nine months.

Howard had been on the
case from the start.

I had a minimal role in the trial.

I think I questioned
one or two witnesses.

I was there representing the party
and keeping an eye on the politics.

And I told them that I
thought she would be convicted.

I thought the crucial thing was getting
a different approach to the defense.

And that's what Leo brought to the case.

Leo Branton, who was
also African American...

...very dynamic fellow, and very
well-known in the black community in LA.

He understood his client...

...he understood the situation.

I felt much more
optimistic with him there.

A trial lawyer must be
somewhat of a showman.

You are acting in front of a jury.

You cannot be all actor, though.

There must be substance
to what you're doing.

By being passionate about
your cause, being intellectual.

...and having prepared the case.

...to the point where you can make the
best possible presentation before a jury.

So the stakes are, we have to win
this case, and we have to win it now.

You either win the case now, or
you forget about it. It's over.

I was charged with.

...three crimes that
carried the death penalty.

I tried to avoid actually
thinking about that.

I tried to avoid thinking about what
was, at that time, a gas chamber.

Anyone facing the death
penalty was not allowed bail.

But the trial judge previously stated
that if it weren't for the death penalty...

...he would allow Angela
Davis to have bail on appeal.

You get pressure all the time.

They'd say, "Kill her, kill
her, kill her. You can do it. "

And I never let that bother me.
I never told anybody about it.

Today, the small green room at
San Quentin is empty, unused.

The California Supreme Court
has outlawed the death penalty.

...as "cruel" and "unusual" punishment.

Immediately upon getting this news...

I called Howard Moore
on the phone, I said...

"Call the judge and call the
prosecuting attorney, and tell them.

"that you're gonna make a motion
to free Angela Davis on bail. "

Aretha Franklin had said that she would
put up any amount of money for bail.

And so I was trying to reach her.

I was trying to call Aretha, man.

"We need money, honey. As
much as you can give us. "

Well, she was in the West Indies and it
wasn't possible to make the transfer...

...and I had one other person who said
that they would put up money for bail.

A white farmer from
Fresno, California...

which is one of the most
conservative areas in the state.

His name was Rodger McAfee.

And I said, "Will you do it?"

And he said, "Yes.

"I will put up my farm as collateral. "

When Rodger McAfee goes out.

...to feed the cows on his
dairy farm near Fresno...

...he now carries an AR-15
semiautomatic rifle...

...because he says
his life and the lives.

...of his wife and five
children have been threatened.

The threats began the day after
McAfee put up some of his farmland.

...as security for
Angela Davis' bail bonds.

Angela Davis has always promoted
the path to the freedom of peoples.

The freedom to speak out and...

...it's our American way of life.

And when you have constant threats
on your life and etcetera...

...that's not freedom. It just shows
we haven't developed far enough yet.

We're all outside the
courtroom together waiting.

And Howard comes out
loping along, you know?

Do some work, some typing.

And we yell, "What happened?"

I mean, we didn't know
where he was going.

I'm going to do some typing.

The man has said he's going to
do some typing and some work...

...and there are no more
questions, all right?

And he turned and he was crying.

In a choked voice he said,
"We got what we came for. "

After a tense day of
closed door conferences...

Judge Richard Arnason ruled Miss
Davis should be freed from jail.

It was the first legal fallout
from the death penalty ruling.

And the judge�s decision did
not please the prosecution.

I think what he's going
to do is contrary to law.

Is this appealable? Can you appeal it?

Well, I suppose we could seek some
relief from the appellate court...

...but the time factor is so short that
I don't think it would be worth the effort.

Then we got to the bail bondsman's
office. His name was Steve Sparacino.

Everything closes at 5:00, right?
We wanted to get her out that night.

And he said, "Well, I don't know.
Should I do this? Should I not do this?"

And perhaps about four minutes
to 5:00, and he said, "Okay. "

I'm so happy, boy. I just...

Kendra said to me, "Go tell Angela. "

When I'm processed through and
I'm allowed into Angela's cell...

Angela had on a black shawl.

She was getting ready to leave.

She stood absolutely still for
a moment, and her body rippled.

There was, like, this little
ripple and then she walked out.

Her release on bail
transformed the trial.

...because the presumption of
innocence had been restored.

She came into the courtroom
as a free person...

...and it transformed
everything about the trial.

After 17 months of pre-trial activity
and three weeks to pick a jury...

...the Angela Davis trial
is ready to hear evidence.

Prosecutor Albert Harris
outlined a conspiracy.

which he promised to weave
out of circumstantial evidence.

A plan to take hostages
from a California courthouse.

...and use them to free
San Quentin prisoners.

His first motive was political.

Angela Davis, a communist,
a Black Panther...

...a member of the Che Lumumba Club...

...anxious to free the Soledad Brothers
and other political prisoners...

...did this out of revolutionary fervor.

And then he changed midstream.

Harris said Miss Davis aided
and abetted that escape attempt.

...driven by a passion for
Soledad Brother George Jackson.

A passion, he said, that knew no bounds.

When he got up and made this argument...

...it was so stunning.
I'm thinking, like, "Whoa!"

It was basically an
argument that I was...

I was a person who had uncontrollable
passion because I was a woman.

In the State's case...

...the primary motive charged
was to free the Soledad Brothers.

Ironically, at the noon recess,
word reached the courthouse.

They had been found, "Not guilty. "

- Soledad Brothers got acquitted.
- They got acquitted.

Soledad Brothers were not guilty
and they've received a just verdict.

Right on.

I thought of the idea
of having Angela Davis.

...to make the opening
statement to the jury.

An opening statement in which she could
tell all about herself all of who she was.

And she got to tell the jury
that without being cross-examined.

No one has heard Angela
Davis say anything.

And so, suddenly in the courtroom...

...she had this moment.

And every eye in the
courtroom is on her.

So the beginning of the
trial was really Angela Davis.

I'm just gonna read to you. "The
trial's most dramatic development.

"was the defense's opening statement
delivered by the defendant herself.

"Miss Davis scoffed at the
prosecution of her motive.

"The suggestion that
her love for Jackson.

"had driven her to crime, she said...

"was utterly fantastic, utterly absurd.

"Clear evidence of male chauvinism. "

I mean, nobody expected that.

You know, here's the beginning of a trial
that everyone thinks is black and white.

And what is she bringing up
in her opening statement...

...but male chauvinism.
Quite interesting.

Harris, in the early days,
brought on a lot of witnesses.

...to basically make
the ground for his case.

I was working in the darkroom,
mixing fixer that day.

And I heard on the police
monitor that there was a...

They called a code 33.

Armed convicts with hostages at the
Marin County Civic Center Hall of Justice.

There was a shooting, there were
witnesses, so-and-so saw so-and-so.

I was across the archway
from where they were exiting.

And about that time somebody
said, "Here they come. "

And there were a lot of exhibits.

The stick, that gun.

And the next thing I
knew, I got a black man.

with a. 357 Magnum aimed
at my head saying...

"Stand up, motherfucker, or
I'll blow your brains out. "

Harris then continued for
days and days and weeks...

...putting on exhibit,
after exhibit, after exhibit.

And witness, after
witness, after witness.

What I saw, I saw through
the lens of a camera.

My photographs were my testimony.

I think he presented 104 witnesses.

...to overwhelm the jury with
what had happened on August 7th.

It was David and Goliath, you
know? And Angela was David.

The trial, for Harris, it was a
hugely important assignment for him.

Huge.

He was the one who had
to carry the government.

Albert Harris was not
a prosecuting attorney.

All the prosecuting attorneys
had been disqualified.

...because one of the victims of
the crime was a district attorney.

And so the Attorney General
took over as prosecutors.

So we had the advantage of having
better trial lawyers than they were.

Leo Branton made an
argument that was stunning.

That some of the most unreliable
testimony you'll ever hear.

...is eyewitness testimony.

Seated at the counsel table...

...in addition to
Angela and the lawyers...

was Kendra Alexander, who's
a close friend of Angela's...

...and the head of
the defense committee.

One day, when he had this
very hostile witness...

...the guy even called
him bald-headed...

...and he was identifying Angela
Davis as being the one and he saw her.

They just kept egging this guy on.

They said, "Can you identify her?"
"Yes, that's her, right there. "

And he chose Kendra.

It was an astounding moment.

And it revealed Leo's
brilliant lawyering.

He set the guy up, that's really
what he did. He set the guy up.

You know these things, the
cumulative effect on the jurors.

But just the very idea
of making that argument.

...saying, "Eyewitness testimony is some
of the most unreliable you'll ever get. "

That didn't strike me right.

But then when you see them
cross-examine these people...

...and there are these people saying,
"This is what I saw with my own eyes. "

It seemed to be so... Just
tear their testimony up.

Makes you really think about the
eyewitness testimony, you know.

The prosecutor, Mr. Harris,
believed he had a case.

And I think the most
powerful item that he had.

were what were referred
to as "the letters".

Angela had written letters to George
when he was still in Soledad Prison.

Those letters which were, you know,
very passionate and very emotional...

...and, you know, all about love...

...but struggle and revolution.
It was all entangled.

But he wanted to use this as
the primary evidence of my guilt.

The defense did not want
these letters in there.

And the prosecution
wanted them in there...

...because they said...

"You read these letters, you'll
understand why she did this. "

Here's a quote, it's from Harris.

"You will find, I think, from the letters,
a willingness on the part of the defendant.

"to do whatever she felt had to
be done to free George Jackson. "

It was as though the letters
were meant to, in fact, say...

"Look, I'll free you. And I'm so in love
with you, I'll do anything for you. "

You know?

Leo was incensed, okay.

He was really incensed about
putting in this diary...

...and particularly
this part of the diary.

where Angela is expressing
herself in this way.

Now, Branton, he stood on his feet,
and put his hand here, in his jacket...

...and this arm was way out in
front, and he was just saying...

"These are not admissible. "

So, we fought.

I mean, some of the heaviest fighting
in the case was over editing this letter.

The judge comes in with
his sweeping black robes...

...and he kind of steps up
the steps, and he sits down.

The courtroom is very
nervous and sitting forward...

...and no one's looking at anyone else.

Arnason takes the 18 pages,
came back with three pages.

And so he read some of
the letters in court.

"I, your wife, your comrade,
who's supposed to love you...

"fight with you, fight for you...

"I'm supposed to rip off the chains.

"I'm supposed to fight
your enemies with my body...

"but I am helpless, powerless.

"I contain a rage inside.

"as I re-experience this
now, my pulse beats faster.

"I begin to breathe
harder. And I see myself.

"tearing down this steel
door, fighting my way to you...

"ripping down your cell
door and letting you go free.

"I feel as you do, so
terribly is this love. "

If I had been the prosecutor,
I would try to put that in, too.

It was very painful.

...to have my expressions of
my deepest emotional feelings.

...splashed across the newspaper as a
result of having been revealed in court.

It was very difficult,
yeah. It was very difficult.

Doris Walker and Margaret Burnham
had been in charge of our witnesses.

They had a whole slew of
people lined up to testify.

And what we ultimately decided was that.

we should not appear to be defensive.

And we should only have witnesses
for very specific points.

...that might be confusing to the jury.

Just imagine.

This judge is taken out of
the courtroom with a shotgun.

...and you have someone
that buys these weapons...

...but what makes that fall apart is...

why, if that was the plan...

why would she use her own
identification to purchase these weapons?

Basically, your defense is, and I think
Leo Branton said it just like this...

"Angela Davis is not stupid.
You know she's not stupid.

"She had to be stupid
to buy these guns...

"knowing that we were going
to know that she bought them.

"and they're going to be
the weapons in this crime. "

Carefully, without emotion...

...the prosecutor wound up
his case against Angela Davis.

"She conspired to kidnap
and murder, " he said...

"because of a passionate desire.

"to free her lover, Soledad
Brother George Jackson. "

Prosecutor Albert Harris
showed the guns she bought.

He reviewed the testimony of witnesses.

who saw her with a young man
who later used those guns.

"This case is all about death,
injury and kidnapping," Harris said.

"And Angela Davis is responsible. "

"Assistant Attorney
General Albert W. Harris.

"quietly turned from the wooden
lectern in the middle of the courtroom.

"and walked a few steps to the
prosecuting attorney's table.

"He glanced down at a pile
of papers on his desk...

"and announced, undramatically,
'The People rest their case. "'

He did a magnificent job.

...of taking all of these pieces,
and pulling them all together.

...and telling you what to think.

I said...

"I believe Angela's gone. "

Leo told me, "See, now, Howard...

"you're gonna take the
eyewitnesses. They're yours. "

So I emphasized the
presumption of innocence...

...the question of reasonable doubt...

...and I attacked each
one of the eyewitnesses.

Then we paused and
we set up the stage...

...and my brother, Leo,
rose to the occasion.

I knew that I had to prove.

...that Angela's flight
was not evidence of guilt.

I said to the jury...

"I want you to play a role with me.

"For the next several minutes,
I want you to think black.

"I want you to be black.

"Don't worry.

"I'll let you return to
being white when this is over.

"If you're black...

"you know that your fore parents were
brought to this country as slaves.

"And the United States
Supreme Court ruled...

"'There are no rights.

"'that a black person has that a
white man is bound to respect. '

"An intellectual like
Angela Davis knew this.

"She also knew that during the '60s,
every time a black person raised his voice.

"in support of liberty and the freedom
of the black man, he was assassinated.

"And so if you know
all of those things...

"if you are Angela Davis...

"or if you're black...

"you don't wonder why she fled.

"You only wonder why in the world
did she allow herself to be caught?"

Defense attorney, Leo Branton, said
he did not know who the person was.

...that the prosecution witnesses
had identified as Angela Davis.

But he said it wasn't
his job to find out.

"Angela Davis is no fool," he continued.

"Why would she buy a gun
to blow a judge's head off.

"and buy it in her own name?

"The prosecution's theory is absurd. "

The jury will begin deliberating
her guilt or innocence tomorrow.

We were sitting on the lawn.

Franklin came out and he said,
"They've reached a verdict. "

And I was standing next to
Mrs. Davis, Angela's mother.

And she said to me, "I can't go in.

"I just... I can't go in.
" She couldn't bear it.

She wanted to be with
her own thoughts...

...and she obviously didn't think
she could maintain her composure.

And it was Angela who
reached out to her and said...

"Mom, you've got to come. "

There was a way in which we were
all kind of in our own silos.

When we came into the courtroom with,
you know, obviously, solidarity...

...but we were all also
just steeling ourselves.

...for whatever that
jury was going to say.

And the jury walks in...

...and then Margaret
falls apart completely.

So, I'm in a situation where
I'm having to help Margaret...

...and she kind of
stretched her arms out.

And then Franklin started
crying. He was in the audience.

And the judge says, "Have
you reached a verdict?"

And Mrs. Timothy said,
"Yes, Your Honor, we have. "

The jury hands the jury slip to the clerk,
and the clerk then hands it to the judge...

...and the judge then looks at it...

...and you look at the judge
to see if he's happy or sad...

...or if he's giving away anything.

And no judge ever does at that moment.

The court clerk reads out the charge.

"In the case of Angela Davis on
the charge of first degree murder...

"how does the jury find?"

And she said, "Not guilty. "

And then they read the second one.

"First degree kidnapping,
how does the jury find?"

"Not guilty. "

And then the clerk read out the next
charge, which was the conspiracy...

...and that's the one we
were most nervous about.

I think I stopped breathing.
Everybody was just sobbing.

Angela reached over
to touch her mother...

who was sitting right behind her.

And she said, "Not guilty. "

And there came the yell, "Power
to the people! Power to the people!

"Power to the people!"

And then they started,
"Power to the jury.

"Power to the jury. Power to the jury. "

Today's verdict climaxed the
trial which many have viewed.

...as a testing ground for
the American judicial system.

Supporters said political and racial
bias would prevent a fair trial.

But despite these claims...

...today in San Jose, an all-white
jury acquitted Angela Davis.

The simple truth obvious
to all long ago was this...

...there never was a
legal case against Angela.

But the political necessity for such a
trial was incontrovertible for the state.

That is why it is so important.

...that this state's conspiracy
to get Angela was smashed.

Just general reaction. Could
you just take off and rap?

I think you've been able to
see from all of the celebrating.

...that has already taken
place here what my reaction is.

...and the reaction of
the members of my family.

And all of the sisters and brothers
who have been struggling for my freedom.

This is the happiest day of my life.

Throughout this country, people
are becoming increasingly aware.

...of the fact that whatever
the government does...

...is not a priori the truth.

And it's not only the struggle
around political prisoners.

...that has begun to change
the climate in this country.

...so that an acquittal
like this could occur.

But also the reaction
to the war in Vietnam.

...and the reaction to
Nixon's economic policies.

I think there's a lot
more resistance now.

And that means that we have to
continue to build that resistance.

...and allow it to mature.

This was not something
that we could set aside.

...and say, "This is over. Now
let's get on with our lives. "

This was the way in which
we were creating our lives.

This is the way we were
choosing to live our lives.

Sisters and brothers...

...this is really a
beautiful, beautiful moment.

It would have been a
little hard to imagine.

22 long months ago.

...that tonight, thousands and
thousands and thousands of people.

...are here at Madison Square Garden.

...celebrating a
magnificent people's victory!

I was so glad that that
part of my life was over.

At the same time, all of this
energy that had been generated.

We sat down to talk about.

...how we could keep
that structure in place.

...and how we could go on.

...in order to bring more
victories to more people.

That became the theme of my
life. And here I am today.