Idaho activists shared a round table discussion with civil rights icon Angela Davis this week. Boise State University initially planned it as part of their Martin Luther King Day celebrations, but had withdrawn its support, citing safety concerns.
This virtual event was organized by a group of Black, Indigenous, and gender rights activists. Davis earned her fame by becoming a leader of the Black Panther movement in the 1960s. Today, she is a professor at University of California, Santa Cruz, and offers moral support and guidance to young activists across the country.
“I've always been impressed by activists in Idaho,” Davis said, “and I think that in many ways you are more courageous than people elsewhere.”
Ryann Banks is a Boise State student who helped organize the panel discussion after the university pulled the plug. She’s an anti-imperialism, anti-racism activist, and she hopes to keep continuing the work that Davis has invested her life into.
“We have to keep going,” Banks said during the panel. “We need to move into transformative justice and we need to continue to cultivate movement.”
Banks and other organizers of the event plan to continue raising money for marginalized groups and victims of police violence.
