Princeton offers class on the history of Black Lives Matter featuring readings from Black Panther member and Communist Party leader Angela Davis who was put on the FBI's Most Wanted list in 1970 after her guns were used in deadly court standoff
Princeton University is offering a new course about the Black Lives Matter movement this fall which will feature the work of Angela Davis, a former US Communist Party leader who once made the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Titled simply #BlackLivesMatter, the fall class is described as being 'committed to resisting, unveiling, and undoing histories of state sanctioned violence against Black and Brown bodies'.
During the course students will read the 2016 book Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis, a former Black Panther and two-time US Communist Party vice-presidential candidate whose guns were used in the kidnapping and killing of a California superior court judge in 1970.
'The course seeks to document the forms of dispossession that Black Americans face, and offers a critical examination of the prison industrial complex, police brutality, urban poverty, and white supremacy in the US,' the class description states.
It is being led by an anthropology professor who loudly supports the teaching of critical race theory - a divisive academic movement that has driven a wedge in the nation's education system in recent months.
Princeton University is offering a new course about the Black Lives Matter movement this fall
The course will feature the work of Angela Davis , a former US Communist Party leader who once made the FBI 's Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list
A sample reading list released for the course includes Davis' 2016 book Freedom is a Constant Struggle
So far, 17 students have enrolled in the class out of a limit of 20.
Other works to be taught in the class include, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an assistant professor of African-American studies at Princeton, and Citizen: An American Lyric by poet Claudia Rankin.
The seminar will be taught by Professor Hanna Garth, who describes herself as a sociocultural and medical anthropologist with an interest in, 'the ways in which people struggle to overcome structural violence,' according to her website.
'My recent work is focused on the connections between food systems, structural inequalities, health, and wellbeing,' the site states.
Other courses she has taught include The Anthropology of Food, Race and Racisms, Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology and Theories of Social Justice.
How former Black Panther Angela Davis rose to the top of the US Communist Party before being placed on FBI's Most Wanted list for her alleged role in court standoff that left four people dead
Davis rose to infamy in the US when guns she purchased were used in a deadly court standoff
Angela Davis, 77, a self-avowed Marxist and former Black Panther, first became engaged in far-left politics while studying under Herbert Marcuse while she attended the University of Frankfurt in West Germany.
Upon her return to the states in 1967, she became a member of the US Communist Party, and later in 1980 and 1984 twice ran for vice president for the party.
She gained infamy in the United States in 1970 when on August 7, Jonathan Jackson, using guns Davis had purchased, took control of the California superior court in Marin.
Jackson took superior court Judge Harold Haley, along with the prosecutor and three female jurors hostage, and armed the two black defendants who were standing trial in the court.
The the melee that followed Haley, along with the three black men were killed.
Davis was considered involved in the crime, and went on the run. She was subsequently placed on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives List.
Months later Davis was captured and stood trial. In 1972 she was acquitted of her involvement in the crime by an all-white jury.
Garth's research includes a look into household food consumption in Cuba, and, most recently, food justice movements in Los Angeles.
She did not immediately return a request for comment regarding what she hopes students will take away from her Black Lives Matter class.
Her website states: 'All of my research, teaching, and mentoring is designed around my commitment to feminist methodologies and critical race theory.'
Critical Race Theory, or CRT, teaches that racism is not the result of nature or biology but that it is a social construct, an idea invented to exploit and control minorities.
It argues racism is a structural problem in the United States, particularly towards black people, embedded in its institutions, legal system and even the Constitution.
The theory has sparked a fierce nationwide debate in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests around the country over the last year and the introduction of the 1619 Project.
The 1619 Project, which was published by the New York Times in 2019 to mark 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived on American shores, reframes American history by 'placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the center of the US narrative'.
The debate surrounding critical race theory regards concerns that some children are being indoctrinated into thinking that white people are inherently racist or sexist.
Those against critical race theory have argued it reduces people to the categories of 'privileged' or 'oppressed' based on their skin color.
Supporters, however, say the theory is vital to eliminating racism because it examines the ways in which race influence American politics, culture and the law.
Black Lives Matter as an organization was founded in 2013 by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.
They describe themselves on the organization's website as 'radical Black organizers' who came together in outrage over the acquittal of the George Zimmerman, who shot dead Trayvon Martin in 2012.
In other interviews, they describe themselves as 'trained Marxists'.
In its infancy, BLM was a hashtag used to sum up feelings of frustration against systemic racism.
After the police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown Jr. in 2014, it gained more traction online and was often seen with the hashtags '#HandsUpDontShoot' and '#ICantBreathe.'
Over the last year and a half, however, troubling truths about the organization have emerged including its ties to convicted domestic terrorist Susan Lisa Rosenberg, who was part of the May 19th Communist Organization that wanted to overthrow the government in the 1970s and 1980s.
A Black Lives Matter protest in Austin, Texas, on July 26, 2020. It wad one of thousands of events, marches and protests where the movement's activists appeared over the last year as a cultural shift swept America
There are also questions over the organization's opaque financials.
Cullors, tearfully defended owning multiple homes worth a combined total of $3million after questions arose over how she paid for them.
She insists she's never been paid by the charity branch of the organization, but has received $120,000 from the movement between 2013 and 2019.
BLM founders Alica Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors on the cover of TIME last year. They started the organization in 2013 in outrage over the acquittal of George Zimmermann, who killed Trayvon Martin
Now, there are more than 40 chapters around the world and the organization has three parts to it - The BLM Global Network Foundation, BLM PAC, and BLM Grassroots.
Between them, they raided $90million in donations in 2020 and spent $8.1million.
Nowhere on the organization's website do they offer a detailed breakdown of expenses.
In their 2020 Impact Report, the organization says the number 'represents dollars spent on staffing, operating and administrative expenses, civic engagement, programs and field expenses, rapid response, and crisis intervention'.
'After our expenses and grant disbursements, we are left with an approximate balance of $60 million.
'Returning to fiscal sustainability, it is important that an organization not end its year at a balance of $0.
'Few foundations will disburse more than 8% of their total assets; for BLMGNF to have committed 23% of its assets is groundbreaking,' organizers say, justifying their spending and financials in the impact report,' they say.
They go on: 'We are no longer a small, scrappy movement. We are an institution. We are mature.
BLM gained more followers in 2014 after the killing of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri. That killing led to nights of rioting
'We are a growing entity developing its stake in the philanthropic world. We are entering spaces previously unimaginable. We want to show folks that we have a voice here, and that our voice carries weight.'
They point to a single campaign that cost $2million as one of their justified expenses.
Questions of spending arose last year after tens of millions of dollars were raised following Floyd's death.
Patrissee Cullors, one of the founders, describing herself as a 'trained Marxist' in a 2015 interview. She also has $3million worth of property which she says she bought with money that has nothing to do with the charity
The BLM LA Chapter sought to answer some of those questions on GoFundMe in June 2020.
'Some questions have recently come around how funds are being spent. To be honest, until the last month, we had received relatively little in donation support, and had to significantly augment our work with funds from the pockets of volunteers.
'To be clear, to date, BLMLA has been powered by volunteers. No one earns a salary. We do this work because we see it as our "sacred duty."
'With the murder of #GeorgeFloyd, people have been extremely generous and we have received more donations in the last month than we had in the entire seven years of our existence.
'So what have we done with the recent donations? This movement-moment has been intense,' chapter organizer Melina Abdullah wrote.
A Black Lives Matter painting is seen on 16th street near the White House as protests against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, continue in Washington, U.S., June 5, 2020
BLM has over 40 chapters. It made $90million in donations last year and spent $8.1million but it won't give a detailed breakdown on where exactly the money went
The donations, she said, were spent on; modest support to the families of those killed by police, materials for protests, rallies, demonstrations, and events, tech support/upgrades, security and food for gatherings and mutual aid.
But she also said it was spent on interns and 'transportation for families and volunteers.' Both she and the main organization say that the vast majority of funds have not been spent yet.
There have also been questions over some of the figures attached to it. Susan Rosenberg, for example, who is on the board of one Thousand Currents.
Rosenberg was a member of the M19CO - the May 19 Communist Organization. She spent 16 years in prison on weapons and explosives charges before receiving a pardon from Bill Clinton in January 2001.
She was due to serve 58 years.
Thousand Currents has a tax exemption where BLM doesn't. For that reason, among others, they teamed up and Thousand Currents acted as a sponsor for the organization.
When Rosenberg's affiliation to it was made public last year, critics - including Rudy Giuliani - were up in arms.
'Black Lives Matter is an organization run by three Marxists and financed by a convicted terrorist – who I happened to have convicted, who got 58 years in jail and got a corrupt pardon from Bill Clinton.
'This is not a benign organization. I can’t say yet that we can prove it’s a terrorist organization. It's certainly a violent organization and I believe in the course of time it will be shown to be a terrorist organization,' he said.