Angela Davis - Part 2
58:28 Share

It's summertime and it is officially self-care season. How are you taking care of yourself? Are you working out? Are you eating healthy using that sunscreen that you're supposed to use? Well, whether you're off to the pool, hiking, or traveling this summer, you can bring your microbiomes with you too. That's right.

Seeds DS01 Daily Symbiotic benefits your gut, skin, and heart health with just two capsules a day. I've been really trying to figure out my health journey. I've been telling you guys about this, especially since I'm 30. And one thing I've noticed is that my gut...

I have to make sure that this is all the way together. And Seeds DS01 Daily Symbiotic has been so great for me. Your body is an entire ecosystem and your gut is the central hub for various pathways through your body. And a healthy gut microbiome means benefits for digestion, skin health, heart health and immune system and so much more. And trust me, this is backed by science. A lot of science.

So support your gut this summer with Seeds DS01 Daily Symbiotic. Go to seed.com slash sisters and use code 25 sisters to get 25% off your first month. That's 25% off your first month of Seeds DS01 Daily Symbiotic at seed.com slash sisters code 25.

25 sisters. I love being outside. And when I mean being outside, I mean going to events.

concerts, baseball games, basketball games, anything that you can think of. I love being just in the mix. My family has a tradition of going to the Braves game every single year and I haven't missed a year yet. And this year buying tickets is going to be easier than ever with the Game Time app. I'm using the Game Time app to buy Father's Day Braves tickets for my cousin and for the rest of my family and we'll all get together. And the deals that I see for these seats are a

So much cheaper than they would have been going through any other app or the team website. I can customize my spot. They've got flash deals. And I am so excited about all the MLB games that I will be able to see this year because finally there's something in my budget. You can save up to 60% off when buying last minute tickets for sports, concerts,

comedy theaters, anything that you can get a ticket for. And trust me, it is the lowest price guaranteed. And you know that means a lot to me. And if you find a price that's lower, don't you worry your pretty little head. Game Time will credit you 110% of the difference. Now that is a guarantee that I can work for.

So take the guesswork of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the code SISTAS to get $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem with the code SISTAS to get $20 off.

Download the Game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. What's going on, everybody? I'm Marah. And I'm Tess. And welcome back to Sisters Who Kill.

Last week on Sisters Who Kill, we learned about young Angela Davis and her journey as a young communist political activist in the late 60s and early 70s. Angela started taking a special interest in the injustice faced by the Soledad brothers due to their revolutionary ways inside of prison. A brother to one of the Soledad brothers entered a courtroom with another member of the Black Panther Party, kidnapped a judge,

DA, and three female jurors. In the process of this kidnapping, the judge was killed. It was later discovered that the guns used to commit the kidnapping were registered to Angela Davis. Although Angela was not present during the crime, the police still wanted to charge her with murder and kidnapping as well as conspiracy, which led Angela to go

She was on the run from the FBI. On the top 10 FBI most wanted list, she was on the run for two months before she was chased down and finally found and arrested in New York. Though she obviously suffered horrible prison conditions upon the arrest, she was comforted by the mass support she received from the Black community and allies. ♪♪

If you're listening to this, you probably already know what I'm about to say. That today is the day for you to start your podcast. You have everything that you need. Your computer, a little microphone, and Spotify for podcasters. It is the all-in-one platform where you can host, edit, and record your podcast and distribute it everywhere. Where you're listening right now, you can have your podcast there. I promise, for real. And it's free. And you can make some money off of your podcast for free. For free.

free money free money is out there just go get it by starting your podcast today so our player this episode is angela davis angela's in the new york jail and she's fighting at this moment to not get extradited to california she's petitioning she doesn't want to go but on december 22nd 1970 she was woken up at 2 a.m around 3 a.m by guards saying that her attorneys wanted to talk to her they

They handcuff her, they put her hands behind her back, and next thing you know, she's in a car getting driven through the streets of New York.

She gets out the car and she is met by a National Guard plane. And she says it was just officers with guns lined up on both sides. She said it was so terrifying. She said, I know I better be very careful and not so much as trip because I was looking for a reason to shoot me down. When she got on the plane...

she was headed for a 12-hour trip to California. So she got on this 12-hour trip to California and they brought her to the same San Diego courthouse where the kidnapping had occurred. The

the Marion County Courthouse. During the arraignment, the attorney general wanted three death penalties against Angela Davis. And she says, at this point, I knew this was no longer about me. She was like, this was not about punishing me because you can't kill me three times. How are you going to give me three life, three death penalties? I can't die three times. This was about sending a message. This was about making an example out of me. And she was like, I,

At that moment, I realized how serious this was. At that moment, like, I realized I was fighting for my life. Like, fuck just being in jail in bad conditions. I'm fighting for my life. On January 5th, 1971, she was formally charged and was put in the women's section of the Marion County Jail.

Angela declared her innocence before the court and the nation, saying, I now publicly declare before the court, before the people of this country, that I am innocent of all charges which have been leveled against me by the state of California. While she was in jail, she developed a jailhouse fungus.

And she had to fight and petition to get a Black Liberation Movement doctor to come and look at her. And when they came to visit, the CO was hiding and taking notes about everything that she said. But Angela was smart and you couldn't catch her slipping. And she was fully prepared to fight.

On her first day of trial and every day after, when she entered the courtroom, Angela always gave the Black Power salute to everyone in the courthouse just to show that she was still fighting for her freedom. It was interesting. In that podcast, I was listening to Angela Davis. She was like, you know, when you become a part of the Black Panthers, you got to learn how to talk like them.

And she's like, she was like, like when you say right on. And it's funny because I was listening to a podcast. She was like, you say right on. You don't just say right on. You say right on. And I was like, I can hear her fist going up when she says it. Like...

Yeah, so she would write on the courtroom every time she got in there, Black Power Salute. She had people working for her outside of the jail. They called it the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis, and Angela was absolutely

adamant that it wasn't just about freeing her, but all political prisoners. So she was like, when y'all chant free Angela, y'all need to be chanting free Angela and all political prisoners. She's like, it's bigger than me. Like, these three death penalties are bigger than me. It's no longer about me. It's about us. I'm fighting for everybody. Henry Winston, he was the national chairman of the Communist Party, and he had an idea to campaign for bail, which...

They thought was kind of interesting. The idea behind it was like they didn't think anybody was going to give Angela Bell. And it was like a lot of people think she's guilty. A lot of white people think she's guilty. But what they discovered was there were those who felt that she was guilty, but would still want her to have a fair trial. Right.

Right. I mean, it shouldn't be a, oh, we want her to have a fair trial. It should automatically be. Be your God-given American right. Right, right. You get a fair trial. So they began to campaign for bail. But the issue that they were facing was that if you are being charged with a death penalty, it's automatically no bail. Yeah. And she was charged with a capital crime at that point. Right.

Mm-hmm. So Angela and George Jackson, remember George Jackson from the Soledad brothers, they became closer and closer during this time because, you know, they could really relate to each other. They had the same type of ideals. They were both in very similar circumstances, and they were writing letters back and forth, and they fell in love with each other. They fell in love with each other deep, deep.

OK, they weren't allowed to technically write each other, but they exchanged letters through their lawyers. It was like contraband. They were sneaking the letter back and forth. And some of the letters that they wrote, like this letter from George to Angela, he said, quote, I think a great deal of you.

This is one slave that knows how to love. It comes natural and runs deep. Accepting it will never hurt you. Free, open, honest love. That's me. Should you run to Yvonne? Tell her I love her also and equally. Tell her I want to see her up close. Tell her I'm not a possessive cat. Never demanding, always cool. Never get upset until my, our,

face and get freedom involved, but make her understand that I want her chains and all and run my tongue in that little gap between her front teeth. Should that make her smile? Y'all nasty. And like the, the metaphors in how he's able to, because right now they are prisoner, basically prisoners of war. Another letter that George sent to Angela in January,

It said, quote, don't you sense how drunk this photograph has made me? You've got it all, African woman. I am very pleased. If you don't ask me for my left arm, my right eye, both eyes, I'll be disappointed. You're the most powerful stimulus I could have. Ooh.

You know I like to be talked to like that. So they were getting a mighty, mighty close. Also, like, did you notice that he called her by her middle name? Yeah.

So very like they were really close with each other. When Angela went on trial, she was sure to choose a black defense attorney. When picking her defense attorney, she was like, it's a black movement while we're in here.

it needs to be had and showed and and and tried by a black man to show that we are capable to fight for our rights and it's just it had to be a black man on her team and she went with Howard Moore and Leo Branton Jr. um she thought it was very important to the movement you know to show that there were black capable lawyers who could fight on her behalf and represent them um and and

At this point, Angela was a co-defendant with Rochelle McGee, who was the only surviving prisoner during the Marion Civic Center rebellion where Jonathan Jackson died. So if y'all remember, he ran into a preceding trial and there were two black men on trial at that point. But when they ran and busted up, the two black men were like,

All right, we with it. We'll help you. And so one of these prisoners survived and he's on trial with Angela for the murder, kidnapping and conspiracy. Right. As well as some of the people that they freed that people that they freed from the holding cells. Mm hmm.

So since they were being charged with the same thing, they was like, okay, we're going to put you, try you together. And Angela was very adamant about trying to keep the trials together. Her lawyers were like,

listen you ain't never met this man you've never conspired with this man there's no reason for you to go on trial with him it's going to be harder to prove your case with you being associated with him when you've never had any association with him it's like you're kind of digging yourself into a hole and Angela's like it's not just about me it's freeing me and all political prisoners and I don't want to separate myself from the others you know

Her lawyers are trying to get the trial going and...

They tried—the first issue that they struggled with was finding a judge that wasn't biased. And the reason why this was challenging was because the victim in this case was a judge. So this is their colleague, their friend. So how are you not going to be, you know, in the same courthouse or being tried in the same courthouse? Y'all knew this, man. So how are you going to sit here and give me an unbiased opinion? Right. So they went through six judges, and finally—

They came across Richard Arneson. He was a white man, but the defense attorney was like, I think he's going to be fair. The defense attorney said that they felt that he would make it his mission to be fair and in charge. So after finally picking a judge, they faced a lot of appeals against who was going to be the DA over the case and prosecute this case.

Because, again, bias, all these lawyers, they weren't able to. And so they ended up appointing the attorney general to preside over the trial because this is not his area. And it kind of like leveled the playing field because whereas Angela has her team of trial lawyers, right?

The attorney general doesn't find himself in the courtroom too often. Like that's not his realm. So he's not used to trying a case in front of a trial. So I think they had that type of advantage. But still, McGee and his lawyers, they were appealing, appealing, appealing, saying this was not going to be just this was not going to be just this was not going to be just. And although Angela wanted to stay the trials together, she was like,

This movement behind me is at its peak. I've got all the support I could ask for. And what I don't need is for this trial to be delayed for years. Nor do I. I don't want to sit in prison for years. I want to have this trial and get it over with. So reluctantly, she made the decision to agree with her lawyers and try and get the trial severed, which the judge agreed. So now they're having their separate trials and it is only Angela left.

Communist parties all over the world began protesting for her freedom. Her sisters were in Moscow, Kiev, Poland, Czech, Italy, East and West Germany. Her sister Fania was on the front lines protesting for her freedom and thanking the world on behalf of sticking by Angela and continuing to chant, free Angela and all political prisoners in all different languages. It was a worldwide movement behind Angela.

Yeah, it really was like everywhere. There were plays. There were songs. John Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote a song called Angela and the Rolling Stones wrote a song called Sweet Black Angel.

The world was advocating on her behalf. No one wanted to see her locked up, convicted, or executed. Nina Simone came to the prison and spent some time with Angela. She brought her a balloon and the COs didn't want to have it, but it's Nina Simone. Like...

You know she was like, y'all are going to give her this balloon and you won't take it. There were children in East Germany writing millions of letters to Angela. And they all just were wishing her free and drawing her pictures of what she would look like to be free and happy. And I think that really helped Angela. Like she's in solitary confinement. She's alone, but like...

She can feel the support pouring in. She's getting hundreds of letters every day, hundreds of pictures, everybody just wishing her free. I'm sure it was very encouraging in that tough situation, knowing that the whole world is behind you. It just has to...

Has to be pretty encouraging. She was a worldwide name. And like the letters that they were sending in, they weren't addressing them to the prison. They were just addressing them like Angela Davis, USA. And you knew exactly where she was, where those letters needed to go. It's like saying Santa Claus, North Pole. Right. Like, and you know where them letters supposed to go, you know? So on July 8th, 1971, George A.

So Jackson and Angela Davis have the opportunity to meet and sit down for a moment because they sit down with Howard Moore. Now, Howard Moore, of course, you know, is Angela's lawyer, but he's also George's lawyer. So he's sitting with both of them. They're discussing the trial. You know, they're saying he's saying that he's hopeful that they're going to beat the case. And then Howard leaves them for a little moment. And so George and Angela are finally alone for the first time ever.

Ever. And that letter with him wanting to put his tongue in her gap is from the summer of 70. This is July of 71. So she been waiting on her man, right? And burning. Howard said, listen, after all they've been through, they get to do a little touching and a little kissing. I say right on. I just turn my head on. I don't know. I'm just being a lawyer. I stepped out for a second.

Right. They were just like, finally, like they were together for just a moment. They were, they hugged, they kissed, you know, boo. And I'm sure that like that time of corresponding with each other, finally, you're up into this moment where you're with somebody like, you know, and then afterwards, after all of that happened, a memorandum was written, right?

And in that memorandum that was written and distributed, in that memorandum that was submitted by a correctional lieutenant, they noted that George and Angela were involved in lascivious behavior together. That they were kissing, touching, fondling,

Petting of the buttocks. And, quote, immoral, uncouth, unethical, and obscene. Is it immoral? Right. You denied me human touch. Before the riot even happened on the rec room floor, you guys had not even let him to see sun. But it's uncouth and unethical for me to desire somebody else. Okay. Okay.

So on August 21st, 1971, Howard Moore, the lawyer, was visiting Angela. And a prison guard comes in and tells him that he needed to leave and that everything was on lockdown. And he told Angela that they would be back. They would, of course, be back as soon as the lockdown is over. But, you know, shut it down. On his way home, Howard Moore heard in his radio on the car that there had been a riot at San Quentin. San Quentin was where George and the Soledad brothers had been transferred to while this whole debacle was happening.

And George Jackson was believed to have escaped or had to attempt to escape. They said that they thought that he was trying to escape. And as a result, he was shot in the back. Well, shit, if I had been on air,

Robbery charges. I'm in jail for 11 years. I might have tried to escape, too. When they say the average person on these trials or with these cases does two and a half years and I'm in here for 11. If y'all ain't letting me go, I'm gonna let myself go. There's absolutely no way because he was in the position to start trial for his own for this new case.

No, there's no way. I just don't believe it. I think that they shot him and they killed him and they use it as an excuse because also they were mad at him because he was spreading what they would have considered propaganda, but he was spreading the message of violence.

and equality, and especially prison reform. And they didn't like that. So, and even in his letters to Angela, he was like, they didn't kill me yet. But he was also kind of like prophesizing over his own life. He was like, I know that it's going to happen. I know that they're going to kill me. You know what I'm saying? Like, and sometimes you're like, they didn't- I'm going to die for this movement and I already see it. Right. And, but he would write to her, you know, they didn't kill me yet. I'm still here. I'm still alive. Right.

If you're preparing that much for trial, like, it's not like he was tried again, found guilty, and then he tried to escape. You know what I'm saying? Like, he was... Ready to fight the right way. Correct. Right. Right.

So Howard Moore, of course, he had been their lawyer and he knew both of them pretty well. He knew that the love that they had for each other and he had to be the one to break the news to Angela about George. And of course, she was devastated. Like her man has been murdered. I just...

I would have loved to see the power couple that they could have been on the outside. Oh, my gosh. Like, really? They really could have. And it's just so sad. So apparently, so allegedly, a nine millimeter pistol was snuck into the prison and killed.

George instructed 24 other prisoners to help him with his attempt to escape. And during the attempt, three COs and two inmates were killed, one of them being 30-year-old revolutionary George Jackson. He was shot in the head and died on the cement floor of the San Quentin prison. Also, like, if it's a shootout, you trying to get me, then why are you—you wouldn't shoot me in the head? That's how I know they murdered him.

He was 30 years old, and he had been in prison since he was 18. The two living Soledad brothers stood trial on March 27, 1972, for murder, and both of them were found not guilty. I was actually shocked by that, too. I was as well, but I was so happy. So now Angela's trial is really about to begin. She's got the judge in place.

They've got an attorney in general in place. They've severed the trial. She's ready to get started. They've done their research. I think they took, what, seven, seven and a half months to prepare. They're in San Jose, California, which is one of the whitest cities back then. The courtroom has 60 seats and you know that they were awful. The defense motioned for a change of venue and it was granted and the trial was moved to Santa Clara County.

As we said, Angela wasn't able to receive bail because she was facing the death penalty. And anybody facing the death penalty, it was automatic, no bail.

February 18, 1972, the state of California outlawed the death penalty, saying that it was cruel and unusual punishment. So now that she's no longer facing the death penalty, bail is now an option. As soon as her lawyers hear this, they're like, we're up there that day. Like, hey, hey, hey, we want to appeal for bail. And it was crazy because the judge, when he was asked, he was like, if Angela appealed for jail, I'd probably approve it. Because, I mean...

In his mind, as a fair judge, he's like, I'm not seeing anything that's making her a super threat. Like, you know, that she couldn't be released on jail. So, you know, if she applied for it, I'd probably do. So they go up there and they're like, hey, hey, hey, can we get bail for her? He grants bail for Angela. So now they just got to get the money. Well, like we said, everybody was standing for her. Everybody was behind her. And Aretha Franklin, the Aretha Franklin, had said,

If Angela Davis gets bail, she will personally put the money up for her. So they're like, we got to figure out how to get in touch with Aretha Franklin. We got to find Aretha Franklin. So they're calling, calling, calling. But Aretha Franklin was in the West Indies and wire transfers and cash app and all that shit wasn't a thing. Not cash app. No, no. They didn't have that instant money transfer. So they weren't able to get the bail money from Aretha Franklin.

So they had to come up with the next option. So they're like, who can we get the bail? The bail was like $102,000. It was pricey. So $102,500. So they're like, we need somebody who's going to be able to put up this bail. So they come across this white man in Fresno, California, whose name was Roger McAfee, and he owned a farm. And...

This was a very, very conservative town. But he was like, I'll put a bell for Angela. And there was an interview. They were interviewing him. And he was like, what I've seen Angela Davis is she always promoted freedom of people to speak out and talk.

It's our American way of life. He said, I ain't never seen nothing wrong with what she said. Like, we should all be able to speak freely. Ain't that America? He's like, so, I mean, yeah, I put up bail. But it was also crazy because he was like, now every day to work, I bring my rifle out with me because it's been threats on my whole family because I put up bail for Angela Davis. Right.

And he also... I keep a rifle. I keep a gun on me. He was also known for going up against the Department of Agriculture for, you know, the shady shit that they were doing. Like, so much, so much. But when you live that life of trying to do right, you'd be surprised by how much negative is brought your way. They went and they were, like, trying to get his... They was like, we want Angela out today. So they go to the bail bondsman and...

And the office closes at 5. They're there at like 4.50. They're like, hey, we got the money. It's 4.55, 4.56. And the bell's bombing. It's like, do I want to take your money? And they're like, come on. We need Angela out of jail. Let's go, let's go, let's go.

And finally, he's like, fine, I'll take it. Let's release her out on bail. They secure a bond and they go to prison and they get her. And she she puts on a black shawl that she came in with. She has her afro. She got her glasses and she's.

She smiles, she comes out, she gives her Black Power salute to the supportive crowd who was, of course, standing outside a jailhouse waiting for her to be released because we've been screaming free Angela. Streaming October 6th on Paramount+. First place I learned about death was the Pat Cemetery. Dead things buried in that land would come back. There's something else. Something's wrong with Timmy. He needs time to adjust. That's not Timmy.

Something's talking to him.

Sometimes dead is better. Pet Cemetery. Bloodlines. Rated R. Streaming only on Paramount+. Now her being out on bail was very important because as we've learned through a lot of these cases, your image and how you're perceived in here is very important. And her coming from the jail cell, coming from the courthouse, is her looking like a prisoner, her looking guilty. And so she was able to present

a better image of her walking in and out as a free woman. You know what I mean? Right. So it was very crucial and important to her trial that she was out on bail because it presented...

image of an innocent woman, of a free woman, as opposed to a criminal. A prosecutor, the prosecution, Albert Harris, he began opening statements by telling the jury about the conspiracy that he was going to show. He said that this was a plan to take hostages from the Marion Civic Center and use them to free the Soledad brothers that are now in the San Quentin prison.

He wanted the jury to know that she was a Black Panther, a communist, a member of the Che LaMuma Club, and needed the Soledad brothers to be free. She was...

a revolutionary. Like, I would be proud to be called a revolutionary, but I'm pretty sure she was like, uh, thank you. Then, on top of that, he said that Angela Davis aided and abetted the escape attempt because she was in love with George Jackson. But my thing was like, George Jackson wasn't in that courtroom or

Or freed. You know what I'm saying? He was trying to paint this picture that she was just this damsel in distress and that her woman-ness made her give the guns to commit this horrible crime and that her motive was to free the Soledad brothers. Now, the defense had a very interesting idea.

They decided that they were going to let Angela Davis make her own opening statement. I mean, this was unheard of. She really set a precedent with this one. She wanted the jury to know that her love for

For George Jackson, yes, she may have loved him, but that is not going to drive her to commit a crime. I didn't see a recording, but a lady read the transcript, or at least part of it. And the opening statement was, they said the first thing Angela Davis does is scoff.

She said, y'all say that I did this because I was in love with a man. It was like y'all are so chauvinistic that the only reason y'all can come up that I did this because I was enamored and in love with a man. That's like, first of all, I know multiple languages. I am well-read, well-educated, well-degreed.

I have enough emotional intelligence to know the difference between right and wrong. And just because I love somebody or I was in love with somebody does not mean that I'm going to just do a crime willy-nilly. During the trial, the prosecution is bringing in several eyewitnesses, right? They're like, we're going to show you. Everybody saw this happening. Everybody saw this bad thing. There were pictures taken.

They had they was like, we are going to overwhelm the jury. Well, I witnessed testimony so that nobody can dispute it. During the noon recess in court, news traveled that the Soledad brothers were found not guilty. Yes, they were acquitted, found not guilty for the murder of the guard at the Soledad prison. And that really shocked me. Like, I definitely thought they was going to put them down for that sentence.

I definitely did think that they were going to do that as well. But I mean, the lawyers were saying pretty positive and Flita and John, it's really great. But Angela, of course, she is extremely happy about this. That is something that she has been protesting for quite a while at this time. But it still, you know, it really hurts because George is not there to see

see this acquittal. George is not there to see Angela's future, to see how Angela's future is going to come out in trial. Like, there's still...

She lost her man. You know what I'm saying? During the trial, the prosecution brought in like a hundred witnesses to testify. They were like, we're going to overwhelm them with so much eyewitness testimony that there's going to be no way that they can deny this crime. We've got a photographer who took pictures of the people at the scene. Remember, this is a scene that Angela Davis was not at. Okay. Not present. Yeah.

He's like, we just have all this stuff, all these accounts. They're going to hear about how horrible that day was and how scared people was and what they had to face. And they're definitely going to put Angela behind bars for, you know. I mean, we've seen that. We've seen that happen so many times where the prosecution really doesn't have anything to stand on. So they just pull at the heartstrings. They go for the human, you know, what is it called? Um.

the prosecution tries to pull on that ethos of human beings because they don't have anything to stand on. They don't have real evidence. They don't have real anything. They're just telling the story of the same day over and over. And each time she's like, but I wasn't there. Yeah.

I wasn't there. Right. So, and then they're just saying, like, of course she wasn't there, but she provided the gun so that this could happen. It started with the conspiracy. And if you're part of the conspiracy, then you're therefore responsible for the crime and kidnapping that happened with it. Right. And she's like, no, it's not the case. That's not the case. Right. So, yeah.

The defense was arguing Angela's not that dumb. I mean, she's not done. She's a well-educated woman. Why would she do that? Why would she plan to kill a judge? Right. So they're like, we're just going to overwhelm them, show them how horrible this day was or whatever, right? So they had a mobile gas station employee testify, and he remembered that Jonathan was accompanied by a colored girl who he identified as Angela Davis.

Lewis White, a former San Quentin prisoner, testified that he saw Jonathan and Angela leaving San Quentin parking lot in a yellow van. But Jonathan was actually alone and he was at San Quentin to visit his brother. He also testified that on August 5th, he saw this van and the van hadn't been rented out until August 6th. Right. And then based on a telephone number found in Jonathan's wallet,

And a claim from an airline ticket agent. They said that they said that Angela Davis was in San Francisco airport around 2 p.m. on August 7th. So the prosecutor had a theory that Angela Davis had been waiting at a phone booth by the airport to call Jackson. Right. And so the defense was like eyewitness testimony is some of the most unreliable testimony that you can put in front of us.

There is nothing as faulty and as shitty and inaccurate as eyewitness testimony. And the prosecution is like, no, they saw it with their own eyes. You're going to tell them that they did not see that? He was like questioning a guy. He said, uh,

And so there was this witness on the stand. After all these people, there was a witness on the stand. And he was like, I know that that was Angela. I can tell you I was there. I'm sure of it. There's no doubt in my fucking mind that it was her. And he says, so you know it was Angela, right? He was like, right. And if you saw Angela, you could point her out, right? Says, right. So...

He says, "Can you point to Angela Davis right now?" So the witness points beside Angela to her friend who was helping with the case, her childhood friend, because she also wore a fro and was a Black woman. So right there in the middle of the courtroom, he proves that eyewitness testimony is unreliable because this racist-ass nigga can't tell these two women apart and identifies Margaret as Angela.

The defense right now has won out the prosecution. They have completely proven their point. But the prosecution did not just lie down that easy. They had something else up their sleeves. What they had were all the letters that Angela wrote to George during his time in prison.

um, after he was killed at San Quentin, the guards found the letter that after he was killed at San Quentin, the guards found the letters. They took possession of them. And these letters, like y'all, Ooh, these letters, they were like, they were love letters. Okay. They were passionate. They were, you know, emotional. Like these are two revolutionaries. And it was like,

A revolutionary romance novel. Like, really, really, y'all. And...

The letters actually have been made public. Now you can go and read them. And the defense was like, no, we do not want these letters read. And so the judge took the pile of letters and he had to decide what can and what can't be allowed. There are 18 pages of letters that the judge had. And when the judge decided, only three letters were able to be admissible in court. I'm telling you, they got the right judge on their side, boy. Yeah.

Right. Like can actually be impartial. It's very hard for some of you. So some of the so here's a snippet of some of the letters that they read in court, by the way, of course, they had absolutely no right to go through George's personal belongings. They should have just given them to the next of kin or something.

And of course, they did not do that. So they already seized these letters in an unethical way. But we're talking about the police here. So ethics, ha ha ha, throw them out the window, right? So in one of the letters that Angela wrote to George, she wrote...

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 the enemy with my body, but I am helpless, powerless, helpless.

I contain the rage inside. As I re-experience this now, my pulse beats faster. I begin to breathe harder and I see myself tearing down the sealed door, finding my way to you, ripping down your cell door and letting you go free. I feel you as you do so terribly is this love. Mm.

And that's a passionate love letter, if I ever heard one myself. You know they can both write, boy. Okay. So another letter that they allowed in court was from Angela to George as well. And it said, quote,

It all adds up to one thing. I love you, George Jackson, every inch on the outside and all the depths and dimensions of your awe, inspiring mind. With this, I'll close for now. Please accept the stumbling, sometimes mishappened love I'm trying so hard to surrender to you. Good night, George. Your wife sends infinite love. They get you every time.

I love a good love letter. Ew. If you could write me a love letter, I'm yours. So the defense calls up Fleeta Drumgoat, one of the Soledad brothers, to testify. And Fleeta testified that he knew nothing of an alleged plan to force the release of him and his brothers on the inside from San Quentin Prison.

He said he didn't even know about it until he heard it on the prison radio. And he said it wasn't until later when he read the newspaper that he read that he was supposed to have been in on the plot. Like, damn, how I get mixed up in this shit. After a 13-week trial, three days of deliberation, the jury took 13 hours to come back with a verdict. She felt like she had this case in the bag, but she had to convince an all-white jury, right?

So they come back from deliberations and they're waiting for it to happen. And they're all sitting outside the courthouse. Angela's like laying on the lawn or whatever. They're just really just waiting to be called back in. And they come out and they're like, they have a verdict. And Margaret, she starts to head in with Angela. And Angela's mom was like, I can't. I'm going to wait out here. I can't do it.

And Angela was like, mom, you have to come with me. And she was like, OK, I'll go if you tell me I have to. But she was just so nervous. So they go back inside the courtroom and first they read off the charge for the murder. Not guilty. Then they read off the charge for the kidnapping. Not guilty. Then they read off the charge for the conspiracy case.

And this was the one that they were most concerned about because you technically didn't have to be there to conspire. Right. Right. So they're all kind of holding their breath.

And they read out the verdict for the conspiracy and it's not guilty. And she's like, oh, my goodness, I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. So, you know, it was a party in the streets that day immediately. So she had been acquitted. Everybody in the courtroom was cheering. Angela's crying. She's so happy.

And as soon as she got out the courtroom, people are outside chanting, power of the people, say Angela Free, power to the jury. They said there was even like this little young white juror. And when he walked out the courthouse, he smiled and gave the back power salute. I bet he was real cool. He felt real important that day, didn't you? Yeah.

While all this was going on, Angela said,

but also the reaction to the war in Vietnam, the reaction to Nixon's economic policies. I think there's a lot more resistance now, and that means we have to continue to build that resistance and allow it to mature.

I think there was this hype of resistance. And then, of course, as soon as there's resistance, there is backlash from the government. And everybody went back to complacency for a while. I mean, history is repeating itself. The events that happened in the 60s are murders by the police that are happening in the 60s are paralleling to the murders that we see today.

And that resistance is starting up again. So I think now it's just like, what have we learned? What have we gained? And how can we continue to resist from each day forward? Now, Rachel McGee, who was the only person that's the only black male that survived the incident, he was he pled guilty to the charge of aggravated kidnapping and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Angela, girl, you knew you had to sever that trial. Stop playing. I mean, I get it, but, you know, girl. Don't mess yourself up in the process. Right. There's a recording of Ronald Reagan because, oh, boy, he was pissed. And he was saying, you know damn well she's guilty as hell. Well, he was talking to somebody and he was like, then that person said it. And he said, I agree with you 100%. I was like, wow. Can't believe they let her loose. That was a mistake. Yeah.

They were pretty upset about that. Afterwards, Angela went on a worldwide tour saying thank you to everyone that had protested, petitioned, fundraised, and most importantly, fought for her freedom. They were so happy that the state's conspiracy against Angela did not prevail.

On June 29th, 1972, after being on trial for 22 months, Angela Davis, she packed out the Madison Square Garden and she did a huge speech. And this speech is pretty infamous because she was also behind bulletproof, like plexiglass, but it was, you know, the bulletproof kind. And she gave one of her speeches. It was, you know, take a lot to perform in Madison Square Garden. Yeah.

But part of her tour was also to go to Cuba. She visited Eastern Bloc countries in the 1970s and during the 1980s and was twice the Communist Party's candidate for vice president.

At the same time, she held the position of professor of ethics studies at San Francisco State University. Moving and grooving. Angela Davis is still alive. Y'all know that, right? Okay, I'm just making sure y'all know. So up until today, everybody. In September of 1972, Angela visited East Germany where she met the state's

and received an honorary degree in the Star of People's Friendship. So awards on awards and awards. Angela was a lecturer of the Claremont Black Studies Center at the Claremont College in 1975. Attendance at the course she taught was limited to 26 students out of more than 5,000 on the campus, and she was forced to teach in secret because alumni manufacturers didn't want her teaching

they didn't want to indoctrinate her into the student population. They were like, you know, she can only have a certain amount of students that are actually studying this. You know, we respect you, but we still don't want you to spread those views, you know? So in 1980, Angela Davis got married to Hilton Braithwaite. And in 1983, they divorced. I think they had a kid or two.

So in 1991, Angela Davis left the Communist Party and founded the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. Herbert broke from the Communist Party USA because the Communist Party was supporting a Soviet coup that happened after the fall of the Soviet Union and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. She was like, can't respect it. I'll just build my own.

In 1997, she came out as a lesbian and was interviewed. Hey, happy Pride Month, everybody.

And was in an interview with Out Magazine. A lot of her work focused on abolition of prisons. And in 1997, she co-founded the Critical Resistance, an organization to abolish the prison industrial complex. She has, I don't want to even say argued, because it's a fact, the U.S. prison system is new slavery. Yeah, absolutely. She always highlights slavery.

the disproportionate amount of Black people and African-American populations who are incarcerated. In 2001, she publicly spoke out against the war on terror following the 9-11 attacks and continued to criticize prison industrial complex. Like, if you don't know anything else about Angela Davis, know she is here for the prison reform.

Being here ain't going to go nowhere. Like, all here for it. Defund the police. She been saying it. She also focused on how broken the immigration system is. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she declared that this was a horrendous situation that happened in New Orleans and it was all due to the structural racism, capitalism, and imperialism. She was talking about this. She was like...

I want y'all to know that Cuba had like the same, maybe Katrina hit them just as bad or they had a hurricane just as bad as Katrina, but they weren't affected like that. She said they were able to evacuate the entire population, but not only were they able to evacuate the entire population, they were able to evacuate their livestock. They were able to like get the things that they needed. It wasn't so organized. It was organized. Basically saying if Cuba can do it,

For their whole country, why couldn't we do it for this state? Why did people have to die? Why did people have to be stranded and stuck? Why did people have to completely start over? Why weren't the infrastructures put in place to help everybody? Why is it always that we have to fend for ourselves when there's more than enough to go around? We are in the richest country in the world, celebrating billionaires and billionaires and billionaires and it's niggas.

That can't get two pennies to rub together. Like, that's crazy. In 2014, Angela returned to UCLA as a regents lecturer, and she delivered a public lecture on May 8th of that year in Royce Hall, where she had given her first lecture 45 years later.

By 2020, Angela Davis was still living openly with her partner and academic, Gina Dent, who is the associate professor of feminist studies at UC Santa Cruz in California. Today, they have advocated for the abolition of police and prisons using the concept of abolition feminism. Whoa.

I'm so glad we get to talk about feminism because Angela Davis writes quite a few books about feminism as well as lectures about feminism a lot, as well as the intersectionality of feminism and what it means to be Black and feminist and queer all at the same time. I was listening to a—I think it was a 2017. She was—

in England at like, I'm really pulling out a source out of my ass. I think, wow. Women of the World Conference. Wow. Good job, Mara. And she was talking about how before when this story began, if you would have asked her if she was a feminist, like, no, feminists are for damn near damsel in distress white women. You know what I'm saying? They don't care. Feminism doesn't care. The idea of feminism, especially at that time, like didn't care about black women. And

And so she would have she was saying that she would have never called herself a feminist. Then she would have called herself. I'm a revolutionary black woman. Like, you know, get it straight. But now there is this idea of intersectionality in feminism and all of the struggles that people face and how they intertwine. And if we can learn how to understand that my struggle is mine because of all of these things that I have within me, that all of these intersects.

Yeah, I think it's really interesting. In both speech lectures that I or interviews that I listened of hers, it was really interesting to me.

because there's so many out there, you guys. We can all listen to one, and we still won't overlap. And they're so good. Listen to one. Listen to one. They're so good. Any of them. And two of the ones that I listened to, she was like, I can do a whole lecture on intersectionality. And I was like, are you going to? The one that I listened to, she's like, I had all these things to talk about, but I just keep going off on tangents, because I could talk about this all day. And she kept having to stop herself, like, I have to be mindful of time.

Oh, because she can talk, baby. She can go. The amount of knowledge that she has on everything that she's talking about, she could talk for hours about a single subject. She don't need...

She don't need an interviewer. Just let me sit here and tell you what I think. Just go. In 2020, she was listed as the 1971 Woman of the Year in Times Magazine's 100 Women of the Year. And she was also included on Times' list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

We saw her at protests in 2020, 2021, up until now. She's very much still active, still fighting, still resisting, and still encouraging, still learning. My word, like she never stops learning and using what she knows to help everybody get to freedom. All right, y'all, it's time for... Well, I'm not Black. I'm OG.

I ain't do it, but if I did, this is how I would have got away with it. Only thing I can say is I ain't do it, but if I did, I would have severed my trial from the jump. Yeah, I definitely would have separated my trial. I get what she was saying and I get what she was standing for. I didn't do it, but if I did, I don't know, I probably would have tried to. She was only on the run for two months. Like there's only so much you can change your mouth in two months.

I don't think I would have taken pictures and left the evidence behind. I definitely wouldn't have taken pictures. I definitely wouldn't have been in New York. New York was way too hot at the time. Way too hot. And you know, it's crazy because in a documentary, they was like, New York was the perfect place to hide. And I was like, was it? Because that's where she got caught. Right. I mean, I get there's a lot of people, but mm-mm, mm-mm.

Yeah, I think I would have done it exactly this way. And I think a lot of the ways that she moves just shows her maturity and how smart she is. Because selfish me, selfish me that is scared at that age, I would have been like, yes, please free me. And I wouldn't have thought about all the political prisoners that are still there.

locked up to this day. Like, to this day, y'all, there are political prisoners that are dying behind bars because they resisted. She was definitely built for this. She's doing exactly what she was supposed to do. She's just very, very admirable. Yep. I wouldn't say parole it up, but girl, she got acquitted. Nailed it.

I mean, I just feel, I honestly feel like this was just America flexing their muscles because y'all knew damn well y'all had no case. Yeah. I get that the guns are registered to her, but how many times do we see cases of guns registered to other people and them not knowing? The other person don't get pulled in for nothing. Right. They was like, she got too much headway. We need to try and bring her down. Exactly. All right. Reviews? Mm-hmm.

Is that where we are? That's where we're at. Oh, awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Oh, I got it. Here we go. All right. This one comes from Instagram user 444444678853. It says, in love.

I love you guys so much. I can't get enough. You guys should think about doing a Patreon or something so we can support you guys more and get more content out at the same time. Thank you so much for your review. We love you so much. You know how you could support us?

Let the Mads play. Listen, I know it's the same ad. Let it play. Y'all can give us every time. Just let it play. You can let it play. And, you know, Taz and I, we have a couple tricks up our sleeves. Just give us a little time. We're getting there. I promise. We're getting there. We promise. We got a little tricks up our sleeve. Y'all just calm down. Calm down. What you got, friend?

Love it here. I don't even like true crime TV or podcast, but this feels like I'm in a tea spilling session with my besties. Y'all are a part of my day, whether it's cleaning, driving, relaxing. Y'all are there with me. We try and be. We love to show up for a good time. Yes. That's the end of our show. So if.

You want to leave us a voicemail saying, I didn't do it, but if I did, this is how I would have got away with it. Or just to say hi, you can do that at anchor.fm. You can email us if you have a problem with us or if you just want to say hi or suggest a case at sisterswhokillpodcast at gmail.com. You can tweet us at sisterswhokill. Follow us on TikTok at sisterswhokillpod. Follow us on Instagram at sisterswhokillpodcast and join the discussion group.

if you do write by me. Anything else, friend? Talk to us. We talk back. Bye. Why'd you laugh? I finally got it. I mean, I was muted, but I'm sitting here replaying it in my head. The Nicky, the Nicky, the Nicky, Nicky, the Nickson, the Nicky, Nickson, the Nicky Knight, the Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, Nicky