Internationally recognized social and political activist, Angela Y. Davis, will lecture at DePaul University on "Social Justice for a New Millenium" on Sept. 10 at noon at St. Vincent’s Church, 1010 W. Webster Ave.

Thirty years ago, Davis-the-scholar caught the nation’s attention when she was removed from her faculty position at the University of California Los Angeles allegedly for her involvement in the Communist party. She quickly became one of the most impassioned voices for political and social justice of the civil rights era.

An advocate of prison abolition, Davis remains an outspoken critic of racism in the criminal justice system. She is a member of the advisory board of the Prison Activist Resource Center in Berkley, and is currently working on a comparative study of women’s imprisonment in the United States, Cuba and the Netherlands. Her commitment to prisoners’ rights dates back to her involvement in the campaign to free the Soledad (Prison) Brothers, which led to her own arrest and imprisonment when she was suspected of complicity in an abortive escape and kidnapping attempt from the Hall of Justice in Marin County, Calif. The incident left four people dead including a trial judge and the brother of Soledad prisoner George Jackson.

Davis gained international attention in 1970 when she was placed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List and was the subject of an intense police search that culminated in one of the most closely watched trials in recent U.S. history. During her 16 months of incarceration, a massive international "Free Angela Davis" campaign was organized, leading to her acquittal in 1972.

Former California Governor Ronald Reagan once vowed that Davis would never again teach in the University of California system. Today, Davis is a professor in the history of consciousness department at the University of California Santa Cruz. In 1994, she received the distinguished appointment to the University of California Presidential Chair in African American and Feminist Studies. For the past 25 years, Davis has lectured extensively throughout the United States, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the former Soviet Union. She is the author of five books, including her latest work "Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday."

Davis’ lecture, sponsored by DePaul’s Cultural Center, is free and open to the public.

For more information about this event, contact Harvette Grey, director of the Cultural Center, at 773/325-7759.