A teacher, writer, scholar, and activist, Angela Y. Davis first received national attention in 1969, after being removed from her teaching position at UCLA for her social activism and membership to the Communist Party. In 1970, she was placed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted List” on false charges, which culminated in one of the most famous trials in recent U.S. history. During her sixteen-month incarceration, a massive international “Free Angela Davis” campaign was organized, leading to her acquittal in 1972. Davis is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to dismantling the prison-industrial complex, and the author of books including Freedom is a Constant Struggle and Women, Race & Class.
Ibram X. Kendi is a historian and the Founding Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. His books include The Black Campus Movement and Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, in which Kendi chronicles how racist ideas were developed, disseminated and enshrined in American society, leading us to a present state of racism that is more sophisticated and insidious than ever. Kendi’s next book, How to Be An Antiracist, will be published in 2019.
Jeff Chang is a journalist, music critic, and the author of Who We Be, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, and We Gon’ Be Alright. He is the former Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University and currently serves as Vice President of Narrative, Arts, and Culture at Race Forward.