The wall that Angela does not want to talk about.
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) rescinded the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award, due to her controversial past. Following board resignations, and protests the Alabama Civil Rights Center decided to honor her after all citing their "commitment to learning from its mistakes and in order to stay true to the BCRI’s mission."
Fred L. Shuttlesworth was a civil rights icon who worked with Martin Luther King Jr., and courageously risked his life numerous times while maintaining a commitment to nonviolence to combat racism and segregation.
According to BCRI recipients of the Shuttlesworth award must embody the principles that guided the American Civil Rights Movement and characterized the life of Fred L. Shuttlesworth:
Angela Davis paid two visits to East Germany (in 1965 and 1972). During her 1972 visit she was received by Erich Honecker. She celebrated the East German communist regime and refused to criticize, or recognize their short comings on human rights. She refuses to make references to the Berlin Wall in her autobiography.
Angela Davis visited Cuba in 1972 and Fidel Castro made her an honorary member of the infamous Committee in the Defense of the Revolution (CDR). Neighborhood committees that spied on Cubans to ensure their loyalty to the dictatorship.
Angela Davis never reconsidered her admiration for Fidel Castro despite his terrible human rights record and racism. Fidel Castro also visited the Berlin Wall. During Castro's first visit to Berlin on June 13, 1972 the Cuban dictator addressed the border guards that policed the Berlin Wall. At Brandenburg gate on June 14 he addressed the men charged with shooting East Germans fleeing to West Germany as "the courageous and self-denying border guards of the GDR People's Army who stand guard in the front line of the entire-socialist community." Later in the evening Fidel Castro addressed the Nikolay Bezarin Barracks in East Berlin:
Angela Davis's host Eric Honecker and four other co-defendants were put on trial in a Berlin regional court on November 12, 1992. They were charged with 68 counts of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter at the inner-German border [Berlin Wall], which Honecker had fashioned as an impassable armed and guarded 'death strip.'" The court ended the trial without a verdict because it said that Honecker was too ill to stand trial and that to force him to do so would be a human rights violation. Honecker fled to Chile and died in exile.
It is important to also recall that Martin Luther King Jr. paid a visit to East Berlin in 1964. However their visits were world's apart. King's message of nonviolent resistance to injustice, God's plan and the struggle for freedom rattled East German authorities. Reverend King upon seeing the Berlin Wall criticized it and called it "very depressing." Davis just had praise for the East German regime.
Whereas the Soviet Union engaged in active measures to destroy Martin Luther King Jr. the Russians spent considerable resources to assist Professor Davis. It was not surprising considering her communist background that she sided with the oppressors and not the oppressed when she traveled in the East Bloc. Nor did it go unnoticed. When the Russian writer and dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn visited the United States and on July 9, 1975 addressed the AFL-CIO and spoke of her.
Cathy Young has written a thoughtful analysis that is required reading to place in greater context the controversy surrounding Angela Davis receiving a civil rights award. If one wanted to give her an award for being a "revolutionary icon" then that would fit what she has done, but "civil rights" icon does not.
BCRI's mistake was not rescinding the award, but announcing that they were giving the award to Angela Davis in the first place.
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| Angela Davis hosted by Erich Honecker in East Germany in 1972 |
Fred L. Shuttlesworth was a civil rights icon who worked with Martin Luther King Jr., and courageously risked his life numerous times while maintaining a commitment to nonviolence to combat racism and segregation.
According to BCRI recipients of the Shuttlesworth award must embody the principles that guided the American Civil Rights Movement and characterized the life of Fred L. Shuttlesworth:
- A philosophy of non-violence and reconciliation
- Courage, both moral and physical, in the face of great odds
- Humility
- Leadership by example
- An established commitment to human-rights activities
Angela Davis paid two visits to East Germany (in 1965 and 1972). During her 1972 visit she was received by Erich Honecker. She celebrated the East German communist regime and refused to criticize, or recognize their short comings on human rights. She refuses to make references to the Berlin Wall in her autobiography.
Angela Davis visited Cuba in 1972 and Fidel Castro made her an honorary member of the infamous Committee in the Defense of the Revolution (CDR). Neighborhood committees that spied on Cubans to ensure their loyalty to the dictatorship.
Angela Davis never reconsidered her admiration for Fidel Castro despite his terrible human rights record and racism. Fidel Castro also visited the Berlin Wall. During Castro's first visit to Berlin on June 13, 1972 the Cuban dictator addressed the border guards that policed the Berlin Wall. At Brandenburg gate on June 14 he addressed the men charged with shooting East Germans fleeing to West Germany as "the courageous and self-denying border guards of the GDR People's Army who stand guard in the front line of the entire-socialist community." Later in the evening Fidel Castro addressed the Nikolay Bezarin Barracks in East Berlin:
"It is very important to know that the people of the GDR have great confidence in you, that they are truly proud of you. The comrades of the party and the citizens of socialist Berlin have told us with great satisfaction about the activity of the border troops, speaking with great admiration for you and for your services."The criminal nature of the East German regime was revealed in a "seven-page order, dated October 1, 1973 and found [in 2007] in the regional archive office in the eastern city of Magdeburg, shows that the Ministry for State Security, known as the Stasi, had told guards: "Do not hesitate to use your firearm, not even when the border is breached in the company of women and children, which is a tactic the traitors have often used."
Angela Davis's host Eric Honecker and four other co-defendants were put on trial in a Berlin regional court on November 12, 1992. They were charged with 68 counts of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter at the inner-German border [Berlin Wall], which Honecker had fashioned as an impassable armed and guarded 'death strip.'" The court ended the trial without a verdict because it said that Honecker was too ill to stand trial and that to force him to do so would be a human rights violation. Honecker fled to Chile and died in exile.
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| Erich Honecker and Angela Davis in 1972 |
It is important to also recall that Martin Luther King Jr. paid a visit to East Berlin in 1964. However their visits were world's apart. King's message of nonviolent resistance to injustice, God's plan and the struggle for freedom rattled East German authorities. Reverend King upon seeing the Berlin Wall criticized it and called it "very depressing." Davis just had praise for the East German regime.
Whereas the Soviet Union engaged in active measures to destroy Martin Luther King Jr. the Russians spent considerable resources to assist Professor Davis. It was not surprising considering her communist background that she sided with the oppressors and not the oppressed when she traveled in the East Bloc. Nor did it go unnoticed. When the Russian writer and dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn visited the United States and on July 9, 1975 addressed the AFL-CIO and spoke of her.
“There’s a certain woman here named Angela Davis. I don’t know if you are familiar with her in this country, but in our country, literally, for an entire year, we heard of nothing at all except Angela Davis. There was only Angela Davis in the whole world and she was suffering. We had our ears stuffed with Angela Davis. Little children in school were told to sign petitions in defense of Angela Davis. Little boys and girls, eight and nine years old, were asked to do this. She was set free, as you know. Although she didn’t have too difficult a time in this country’s jails, she came to recuperate in Soviet resorts. Some Soviet dissidents–but more important, a group of Czech dissidents–addressed an appeal to her: `Comrade Davis, you were in prison. You know how unpleasant it is to sit in prison, especially when you consider yourself innocent. You have such great authority now. Could you help our Czech prisoners? Could you stand up for those people in Czechoslovakia who are being persecuted by the state?’ Angela Davis answered: `They deserve what they get. Let them remain in prison.’ That is the face of Communism. That is the heart of Communism for you.On August 5, 1979 she received the Lenin Prize in Moscow from the Soviet Union. A dictatorship that was an enemy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Shuttlesworth because they both advocated nonviolent resistance and reconciliation.
Cathy Young has written a thoughtful analysis that is required reading to place in greater context the controversy surrounding Angela Davis receiving a civil rights award. If one wanted to give her an award for being a "revolutionary icon" then that would fit what she has done, but "civil rights" icon does not.
BCRI's mistake was not rescinding the award, but announcing that they were giving the award to Angela Davis in the first place.
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| Angela Davis in East Germany |
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