Today the iconic Angela Davis celebrates her 73rd birthday. Davis is a political activist, a former member of the Black Panther Party, a leading advocate of criminal justice reform, and one of the most influential scholars and activists in the United States. Throughout her life, she has used her platform to fight for Black liberation and protest against all forms of oppression. If we had to describe Davis in one word, it would revolutionary. Here are 10 empowering Angela Davis quotes that inspire us all to continue to fight for a better future.
1. “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”
2. “I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever but to be a part of an ongoing historical movement.”
3. “I am no longer accepting the things I can not change. I am changing the things I can not accept.”
4. “Black women have had to develop a larger vision of our society than perhaps any other group. They have had to understand white men, white women, and Black men. And they have had to understand themselves. When Black women win victories, it is a boost for virtually every segment of society.”
5. “Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime.”
6. “I believe profoundly in the possibilities of democracy, but democracy needs to be emancipated from capitalism. As long as we inhabit a capitalist democracy, a future of racial equality, gender equality, economic equality will elude us.”
7. “Justice is indivisible. You can’t decide who gets civil rights and who doesn’t.”
8. “We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.”
9. “No march, movement, or agenda that defines manhood in the narrowest terms and seeks to make women lesser partners in this quest for equality can be considered a positive step.”
10. “We are never assured of justice without a fight.”