Clinton, NY -- April 11, 1996 -- Angela Davis, internationally known for her ongoing work to combat forms of oppression in the U.S. and abroad, will highlight Womyn's Energy Week (April 15-20) with the keynote address on Friday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Hamilton College Chapel. Admission is free and open to the general public.

Davis has been active as a student, teacher, writer, scholar and organizer for three decades. She came to national attention in 1969 after being removed from her teaching position in the philosophy department at UCLA because of her social activism and her membership in the Communist Party. In 1970, she was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List and was the subject of an intense police search that drove her underground and culminated in one of the most famous trials in recent U.S. history. During her 16-month incarceration, a massive international "Free Angela Davis" campaign was organized, which led to her acquittal in 1972. Harnessing the momentum of that campaign, Davis and her colleagues co-founded the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression, which continues its work today.

Over the last 25 years, Davis has lectured in all 50 states, as well as in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the former Soviet Union. Her articles and essays have appeared in numerous journals, and she has written five books, including Angela Davis: An Autobiography and Women, Race & Class. Her writings represent pioneering contributions to feminist scholarship. As a recently elected member of the board of directors of the National Black Women's Health Project, she continues to be on the cutting edge as an activist and organizer.

An advocate of penal reform and a staunch opponent of racism in the criminal justice system, Davis recently conducted a series of interviews with incarcerated women for a research project that ultimately seeks to develop ideas for new, progressive legislation

around the penal system. Her next book will focus on race, criminalization and the differential treatment of women in the criminal justice system.

Currently, Davis is the first African-American to hold a full tenured professorship in the History of Consciousness program at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She also recently received the distinguished honor of an appointment to the University of California Presidential Chair in African-American and Feminist Studies.

Other events during Womyn's Energy Week will include a display of the Clothesline Project, which bears witness to sexual and domestic violence against women, a "Take Back the Night" rally and open mike session, and a panel discussion on women and work.