Editing Angela Davis (section)

==Other activities in the 1970s==
 [[File:Angela Davis in a half-length portrait by Bernard Gotfryd - crop.jpg|thumb|1974 portrait of Davis by Bernard Gotfryd]]

===Cuba===
After her acquittal, Davis went on an international speaking tour in 1972 and the tour included a trip to [[Cuba]], where she had previously been received by [[Fidel Castro]] as a member of a Communist Party delegation in 1969.<ref name="Seidman">{{cite web|last1=Seidman|first1=Sarah|title=Feminism and Revolution: Angela Davis in Cuba|url=https://aha.confex.com/aha/2015/webprogram/Paper16621.html|website=American Historical Association|date=January 3, 2015|access-date=March 9, 2017|archive-date=July 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713084711/https://aha.confex.com/aha/2015/webprogram/Paper16621.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Robert F. Williams]], [[Huey Newton]] and Stokely Carmichael had also visited Cuba, and [[Assata Shakur]] later moved there after she escaped from a U.S. prison. At a mass rally held by [[Afro-Cubans]], she was reportedly barely able to speak because her reception was so enthusiastic.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gott|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Gott|title=Cuba: A New History|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2004|location=New Haven, Connecticut|page=[https://archive.org/details/cubanewhistory0000gott/page/230 230]|isbn=0-300-10411-1|url=https://archive.org/details/cubanewhistory0000gott/page/230}}</ref> Davis perceived that Cuba was a [[racism in Cuba|racism]]-free country, which led her to believe that "only under socialism could the fight against racism be successfully executed." When she returned to the U.S., her socialist leanings increasingly influenced her understanding of racial struggles.<ref name=Cuba>{{cite book|last=Sawyer|first=Mark|title=Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba|year=2006|publisher=University of California|location=Los Angeles|pages=95–97}}</ref> In 1974, she attended the Second Congress of the [[Federation of Cuban Women]].<ref name="Seidman"/>

===Soviet Union===
[[File:RIAN archive 717718 Valentina Tereshkova and Angela Davis.jpg|thumb|Davis and Soviet cosmonaut [[Valentina Tereshkova]], 1972]]
In 1971, the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] estimated that five percent of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] propaganda efforts were directed towards the Angela Davis campaign.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hannah|first=Jim|date=August 24, 2017|title=Revolutionary research|url=https://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/newsroom/2017/08/24/revolutionary-research/|access-date=October 21, 2020|website=Wright State Newsroom|archive-date=October 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023110535/https://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/newsroom/2017/08/24/revolutionary-research/|url-status=live}}</ref> In August 1972, Davis visited the Soviet Union at the invitation of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]], and received an honorary doctorate from [[Moscow State University]].<ref name="Routledge"/> She also received an honorary degree from the [[Tashkent State University|University of Tashkent]] during that same visit.<ref name="Uzbeks Honor Angela Davis"/>

On May 1, 1979, she was awarded the [[Lenin Peace Prize]] from the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite news|title=Angela Davis Given Russian Peace Prize|access-date=May 4, 2014|newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard|date=May 1, 1979|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SQtWAAAAIBAJ&pg=5908%2C189855|page=120|archive-date=April 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210401220527/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SQtWAAAAIBAJ&pg=5908%2C189855|url-status=live}}</ref> She visited Moscow later that month to accept the prize, where she praised "the glorious name" of [[Vladimir Lenin]] and the "great [[October Revolution]]".<ref>{{cite news|title=Russia Davis Prize {{!}} AP Archive|url=http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/45045389d6759defac6845a2f3bdfcea|work=aparchive.com|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=March 5, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190305200838/http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/45045389d6759defac6845a2f3bdfcea|url-status=live}}</ref> 

===East Germany===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L0911-029, Berlin, Erich Honecker empfängt Angela Davis.jpg|thumb|Davis and [[Erich Honecker]] in the [[GDR]], 1972]]
The East German government organized an extensive campaign on behalf of Davis.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Slobodian|first1=Quinn|title=Comrades of Color: East Germany in the Cold War World|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=9781782387060|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6UHCAAAQBAJ|language=en|page=157|date=December 30, 2015|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412144914/https://books.google.com/books?id=g6UHCAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> In September 1972, Davis visited East Germany, where she met the state's leader [[Erich Honecker]], received an honorary degree from the [[University of Leipzig]] and the [[Star of People's Friendship]] from [[Walter Ulbricht]]. On September 11 in East Berlin she delivered a speech, "Not Only My Victory", praising the GDR and USSR and denouncing American racism.<ref name="UNC Press Books">{{cite book |last1=Farber |first1=Paul M. |title=A Wall of Our Own: An American History of the Berlin Wall |date=2020 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1-4696-5509-3 |page=97 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RvXGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 |language=en |access-date=July 15, 2020 |archive-date=April 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412144928/https://books.google.com/books?id=RvXGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="auto3"/><ref name="transcript Verlag">{{cite book|last1=Kosc|first1=Grzegorz|last2=Juncker|first2=Clara|last3=Monteith|first3=Sharon|last4=Waldschmidt-Nelson|first4=Britta|title=The Transatlantic Sixties: Europe and the United States in the Counterculture Decade|publisher=transcript Verlag|isbn=9783839422168|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5rvJBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA85|language=en|date=October 2013|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412144907/https://books.google.com/books?id=5rvJBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA85#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Campus Verlag">{{cite book|last1=Hansen|first1=Jan|last2=Helm|first2=Christian|last3=Reichherzer|first3=Frank|title=Making Sense of the Americas: How Protest Related to America in the 1980s and Beyond|publisher=Campus Verlag|isbn=9783593504803|pages=317–332|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sIboCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA317|language=en|date=December 12, 2015|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412144953/https://books.google.com/books?id=sIboCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA317#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

She visited the [[Berlin Wall]], where she laid flowers at the memorial for [[Reinhold Huhn]], an East German guard who had been killed by a man who was trying to escape with his family across the border in 1962. Davis said, "We mourn the deaths of the border guards who sacrificed their lives for the protection of their socialist homeland" and "When we return to the USA, we shall undertake to tell our people the truth about the true function of this border."<ref name="UNC Press Books"/><ref name="auto3"/><ref name="transcript Verlag"/><ref name="Campus Verlag"/> In 1973, she returned to East Berlin, leading the U.S. delegation to the 10th World Festival of Youth and Students.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rodden|first1=John|title=Repainting the Little Red Schoolhouse: A History of Eastern German Education, 1945–1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195344387|page=143|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LSzZlw2jBTIC&pg=PA143|language=en|date=January 3, 2002|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412145425/https://books.google.com/books?id=LSzZlw2jBTIC&pg=PA143#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> 

On her 1972 tour, Davis also visited [[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]], [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]], and [[Chile]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=de Guzman |first1=René |title="A Question of Memory: A Conversation with Angela Y. Davis" |url=https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/kul/art/one/22172673.html |website=Goethe Institute |access-date=5 May 2025}}</ref>

===Jonestown and Peoples Temple===
In the mid-1970s, [[Jim Jones]], who developed the cult [[Peoples Temple]], initiated friendships with progressive leaders in the San Francisco area including [[Dennis Banks]] of the [[American Indian Movement]] and Davis.<ref name="Scheers">{{cite book|last=Scheers|first=Julia|author-link=Julia Scheeres|date=2011|title=A Thousand Lives: the Untold Story of Jonestown|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h1s_Ee8QDlcC&pg=PA33|location=New York|publisher=Simon and Schuster|page=33|isbn=9781451628968|access-date=September 11, 2015}}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> On September 10, 1977, 14 months before the Temple's mass murder-suicide, Davis spoke via amateur radio telephone "patch" to members of his Peoples Temple who were living in [[Jonestown]] in [[Guyana]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Reiterman|first1=Tim|last2=Jacobs|first2=John|title=Raven: The Untold Story of Rev. Jim Jones and His People|publisher=Dutton|year=1982|page=[https://archive.org/details/ravenuntoldstory00reit/page/369 369]|isbn=978-0-525-24136-2|title-link=Raven (Reiterman book)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Angela Davis & the Six Day Siege|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19021|publisher=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple|access-date=March 25, 2015|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175940/https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19021|url-status=live}}</ref> In her statement during the "[[Jonestown#Stoen custody dispute|Six Day Siege]]", she expressed support for the Peoples Temple's anti-racism efforts and she also told Temple members that there was a conspiracy against them. She said, "When you are attacked, it is because of your progressive stand, and we feel that it is directly an attack against us as well."<ref>{{cite web|title=Statement of Angela Davis (Text)|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19027|publisher=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple|access-date=September 11, 2015|archive-date=April 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401003346/https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19027|url-status=live}}</ref> On February 28, 1978, Davis wrote to President [[Jimmy Carter]], asking him not to assist in efforts to retrieve a child from Jonestown. Her letter called Jones "a humanitarian in the broadest sense of the word".<ref>{{cite web |title=Letters of Support for Peoples Temple |url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/jvs-78-7b.pdf |website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple |access-date=10 April 2023 |archive-date=April 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410145514/https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/jvs-78-7b.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Letters of Support for Peoples Temple |url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19039 |website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple |access-date=10 April 2023 |archive-date=April 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410145513/https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19039 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and political prisoners in socialist countries===
In 1975, Russian dissident and [[Nobel laureate]] [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] argued in a speech before an [[AFL–CIO]] meeting in New York City that Davis was derelict in having failed to support prisoners in various socialist countries around the world, given her strong opposition to the U.S. prison system.<ref>{{cite book|last=Solzhenitsyn|first=Aleksandr|author-link=Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn|title=Warning to the West|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|date=October 1976|location=New York|pages=60–61|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-tU6cfmTSwAC&q=warning+to+the+west+solzhenitsyn+angela+davis&pg=PA61|isbn=0-374-51334-1|access-date=January 5, 2021|archive-date=April 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412145349/https://books.google.com/books?id=-tU6cfmTSwAC&q=warning+to+the+west+solzhenitsyn+angela+davis&pg=PA61#v=snippet&q=warning%20to%20the%20west%20solzhenitsyn%20angela%20davis&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1972, [[Jiří Pelikán (politician)|Jiří Pelikán]] wrote an open letter in which he asked her to support Czechoslovakian prisoners;<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times|author=Pelikan, Jiri|title=Angela Davises of the world unite|date=July 28, 1972|page=16|issue=58538}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Pelikan|first=Jiri|date=August 31, 1972|title=An Open Letter to Angela Davis|work=The New York Review}}</ref> Davis refused, believing that the Czechoslovakian prisoners were undermining the government of [[Gustáv Husák|Husák]] and believing that Pelikán, who was living in exile in Italy, was attacking his own country.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times|title=Czech exile's plea rejected by Miss Davis|date=July 29, 1972|page=4|issue=58539|quote=Miss [Charlene] Mitchell, who said she was acting as a spokesman for Miss Davis, took the line that people in Eastern Europe got into difficulties and ended in jail only if they were undermining the government. Those who left to go into political exile were also attacking their own country. }}</ref> According to Solzhenitsyn, in response to concerns about Czechoslovak prisoners being "persecuted by the state", Davis had responded: "They deserve what they get. Let them remain in prison."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Solzhenitsyn|first=Aleksandr Isaevich 1918–2008|url=https://archive.org/details/SolzhenitsynTheVoiceOfFreedom|title=Solzhenitsyn: The Voice of Freedom|date=1975|publisher=Washington, DC: Washington : American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations|pages=32|language=en|access-date=January 10, 2019}}</ref>