Interesting...

Social activist Angela Davis' visit 

prompts overflow into venue's lobby

Hourlong lecture includes discussion on mass incarceration in U.S.

Posted: February 12, 2015 - 10:13pm  |  Updated: February 13, 2015 - 12:46am

Justin Hart arrived early to watch social activist Angela Davis discuss mass incarceration in the U.S. during Texas Tech’s African-American History Month Lecture Series.

And, it’s a good thing he did.

Hart joined hundreds of residents who filled the Helen DeVitt Jones Auditorium at least 20 minutes before Davis began speaking Thursday evening. Several hundred more people resorted to sitting and standing in the building’s lobby as they watched her speak via a video projection.

“Anytime a historically significant figure comes to Lubbock, you want to take advantage of that opportunity,” said Hart, an associate professor of history at Tech. “Mass incarceration is the civil rights issue of our time, and so I wanted to hear her talk about mass incarceration. She’s one of the people who was instrumental in raising consciousness about that and it’s now become a subject that gets discussed more widely.”

Davis, who said she was honored to speak at Tech, is currently a distinguished professor emerita at the University of California-Santa Cruz, where she teaches history of consciousness and feminist studies.

She spent 18 months in jail and on trial after being placed on the FBI’s “10 Most Wanted List” during the 1970s. Ultimately, she was acquitted on charges in connection with the fatal shooting of a California judge.

Before taking questions from the audience, she discussed for about an hour mass incarceration in the U.S. and the processes of criminalization that affect African-American communities.

“One can argue that the persistence of the capital punishment prides itself on (lynching),” Davis said. “If we fail to take into account the general purpose of lynching ... we will never understand the way racism worked its way into the criminal justice system as a primary structural element of that system.”

Davis also advocated for an end to capital punishment and suggested getting rid of prisons and weapons altogether.

“One of the first things that South Africa did after emerging from its apartheid history was to abolish the death penalty,” she said. “That was an indication of the road toward democracy.”

Karlos Hill, assistant professor of history at Texas Tech and coordinator of the lecture series, said the objective of the series was to “bring distinguished African-American writers, artists and intellectuals to Texas Tech as well as the broader Lubbock community in order to highlight and raise awareness of African-Americans’ historic as well as contemporary contributions to American society as well as world civilization.”

The series kicked off Feb. 5 with a visit from PBS host Tavis Smiley and concluded Thursday with Davis’ visit.

As she finished her lecture, Davis urged residents to think hard and deeply about social justice struggles.

“Just as we look back on the era of Selma today, imagine what our world will look like to people 50 years from now who look back at this period,” she said. “Please find ways to contribute your knowledge, your creativity, your power to social justice efforts so that we seize this time and make of this moment a truly transformative era of history.”

Davis’ visit had previously been met with some animosity, including from the Texas Tech College Republicans, who garnered 512 supporters who signed a petition titled “Do not pay Angela Davis $12,000 to speak at Texas Tech.”

“This week, this event has become bigger than it originally would have been and so now it’s kind of a spectacle as well,” Hart said. “The university doesn’t exist to only hear opinions you already agree with.”

sarah.rafique@lubbockonline.com