Angela Davis Speech

Paige Hussey

ENG 110

Angela Davis Speech

UNE had the honor of having Angela Davis speak at our school, and it was a privilege to hear her speak. The speech was supposed to start at 12:30pm but due to the large amount of people that made an appearance, they had to delay the speech to bring out more chairs and have people upstairs in a separate room, to watch the speech live. I heard a woman who was staffed to help with the event say “We had no idea there was going to be this many people here”. I am sure for Angela, it was moving to see that many people come out and listen to her speech. She also received a standing ovation which I do not always see. We first heard from the president of UNE who addressed how excited we are to have her come here to talk to us all, then we heard Lift Every Voice and Sing, which is the african american national anthem. I have never heard of this before but it was beautiful and I am glad they added it to the speech. Then Angela Davis was introduced to the stage and again she received a standing ovation. Angela first said that she was happy to be here “in Maine…in the Winter”, we never realize how weird and annoying snow is to people that dont see it every year. Angela went on to say that she was here to commemorate the visit that Martin Luther King made to our campus in 1964. She said that Martin Luther King day was not just for Martin Luther King but for everyone that fought to end racial segregation during the “freedom movement”. She next said that it wasn’t until 2000 that every state celebrate Martin Luther King day as a holiday, which falls on the third Monday of January. I did not know that but am happy that it is official in every state because it deserves to be a day that we can reflect on what happened in the past, and how we have changed and have grown as a country to end racial discrimination. The first bill to make a holiday official was submitted the same year that Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968.

We are also seeing an uprising, as Angela stated, of woman and a lot of organizations are lead by woman. Congress has more women than ever before. She goes on to talk about racist violence and gender violence, her earliest memory were racist bombings, one of which was across the street from her. In 1963, was when the 16th street baptist church was bombed which killed four african american woman. With anything that needs to change, it has to have a starting point, an event or person the get that movement started. Angela talked about Rosa Parks and how she was involved in a movement to end racial and sexual violence, she should not be just know for “not wanting to move to the back of the bus”. Angela talked about many things such as how violence and racism are linked and how gender violence in prisons happen because there are womens and mens prisons, but what about individuals who were born a man or woman but do not identify as that. Or people in general that go to prison can become more violent. Angela ended with questions. This speech overall was beyond moving, she talks so much about change and that has never been more needed. We are definitely so much more understanding then we previously, but there is still so much hate and negativity in the world and it needs to be expunged for good.