BLACKSBURG — Angela Davis, world-known political and social activist, author, scholar and professor, spoke Thursday night at Virginia Tech for Black History Month 2006.

Greeted by a standing ovation, Davis gave a speech entitled “Building Communities of Resistance.”

She began by speaking about the origins of Black History Month and her memories of when it was a weeklong celebration in her segregated school in Birmingham, Ala., and how for one week, the students put aside the history books discarded from the white schools and learned about history as “something more than long ago events and memorized dates — we saw our own collective destinies in contemporary history.”

Davis went on to say that the meaning of Black History Month seems to have been lost in the commercialization of the month.

“I didn’t know what to expect — I had heard of her but didn’t know very much about her experiences,” said Elsa Mekonnen, a sophomore materials science and Engineering student at Tech. “She brought in a perspective of democracy that I’d never thought about.”

She spoke of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, stating that in the call for national mourning, the true spirit of the activism has been lost in politics.

“I fear their radical acts may not survive the remaking of memories,” she said.

If Coretta Scott King were alive, Davis said, she would protest President Bush’s recent proposed budget and policies. The new budget proposes more money for security, she said, but takes money or cuts programs for vocational education and preparation for underprivileged and black students, as well as senior food programs.

“I cannot understand why we are not all out in the streets protesting this wave of right-wing imperialism, racism, exploitation and oppression,” Davis said.

She then discussed the fact that although both the current President Bush and the former President Bush spoke at Coretta Scott King’s recent funeral, neither mentioned her strong opposition to the Iraq war.

“Federal and state employees recognized they could not ignore her, but in the process of paying tribute they tired to turn her into a signpost of what they called democracy. Her memory was forced into a space where it cohabited with Bush’s erosion of civil rights,” Davis said of King.

Davis also discussed her opposition to capital punishment, as well as the fact that King was also highly opposed to it although she lost both her husband and mother to violent crime.

Racism is at the heart of the death penalty, said Davis, going back to the days when it was used as a punishment for slaves.

It is still a racist institution whether a white person or someone of color is being executed, she said. It is seen as a sign of democracy and equal opportunity when a white person is killed, but to quote Martin Luther King, Jr., “justice is indivisible.”

Davis argued that racism is still alive today, evidenced by the recent events in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the prison system in America.

Instead of educating the poor or building homes for the homeless, said Davis, the system throws them in prison.

In New Orleans, people were pushed aside in the same way because of racism. The media, as well as many Americans, black and white, assumed there was crime in the aftermath of the hurricane because there were so many black people together in the Superdome and Convention Center.

In the beginning of the 21st century, we all have to figure out ways of building communities of resistance, Davis said.

She ended her speech by quoting Coretta Scott King, who had often told her something her husband would say: “It is time for all of us to become drum majors for justice.”

She then took questions from the audience, followed by a reception in Torgerson Hall.

“I thought it was an excellent presentation that really put a historical context on Black History Month that is oftentimes overlooked in the U.S.,” said Steven Smith, a lawyer and instructor of business law at Tech.

“She made a good point regarding the prison population — we have one of the highest percentages of people in prison and half of them are black.”

Davis began her activism while growing up in Birmingham and continued through her high school years in New York City. She gained national attention in 1969 when she was dismissed from her teaching position in the Philosophy Department at UCLA because of her membership in the Black Panther Party and Communist Party, USA.

In 1970, Davis was again brought to the national spotlight when she was the third woman ever placed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List when a gun registered in her name was used in an attempt to free activist George Jackson.

Davis was charged with conspiracy, kidnapping, and homicide and went into hiding while the national “Free Angela Davis” campaign was launched.

Davis eventually spent 16 months in prison and was acquitted of all charges in 1972.

She is now a tenured professor in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California Santa Cruz.

The event was sponsored by the Black Student Alliance, Multicultural Programs and Services, and the Direct Resistance of Privilege (DROP) Alliance.