Angela Davis

A graduate student of political philosopher Herbert Marcuse at Brandeis University, Davis became a member of the Communist Party and a controversial activist. In 1971, she was charged with the Soledad Brothers murders in Marin County. The trial sparked an international campaign in support of her innocence and she was acquitted. A distinguished teacher and writer, she is the author of Women, Race and Class (1980) and other books on race and gender. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.