Angela Davis If They Come In The Morning Essay

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Angela Davis once wrote “the prison serves as an institution that consolidates the state’s inability and refusal to address the most pressing social problems of this era.” Angela Yvonne Davis also compiled the book If They Come in the Morning: Voices of the Resistance in 1971, which was a powerful recount of her infamous trial. The main two topics she presented was the idea of the political prisoner, and the repressive nature of the prison system. The book is not only an account of Ms. Davis experience throughout her legendary political trial, but it is also an analysis of the concept of a political prisoner.
The book presents the story of two main characters: primarily Angela Davis, and also Ruchell Magee. Somehow, both are charged with crimes …show more content…

According to one of the book’s contributors, Bettina Aptheker, there are four categories of the specific types of prisoners who are not imprisoned solely on the basis of a crime, but rather on account of their political perspectives and actions or “on the basis of class, racial, or national oppression” (Aptheker, 1971: pg.766). The first category would be the individuals that become politically involved in combating the oppressive forces against their community. Therefore, these activists become an enemy of the oppressive political forces in power and are targeted using strategies such as frame-ups. According to Angela Davis (2017), “...the frame-up becomes a powerful weapon within the spectrum of prison repression, particularly because of the availability of informers, the broken prisoners who will do anything for a price”. This peculiar type of conspired imprisonment make those political leaders more than just a “criminal”, if even a criminal at all, but rather a political prisoner; one imprisoned for their beliefs and ideology. One who would fall into this category, would be Angela Davis herself, who was singled out as an enemy on account of her political ideals and affiliations. The second category is slightly similar to the first. It is composed of the people who have decided to partake in acts of civil disobedience or did things such as

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