'We can change things': iconic civil rights activists share 7 decades of fighting injustice
Angela Davis, Fania Davis & Margaret Burnham grew up together and dedicated their lives to rebuilding society
In the 1940s, three remarkable young girls grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, in the Black neighbourhood nicknamed Dynamite Hill.
All three became central voices in the civil rights movement: Angela Davis; her sister, Fania Davis; and Margaret Burnham.
The nickname for their neighbourhood stems from the repeated bombing of homes and buildings in the area by the Klu Klux Klan. There were said to be more than 40 bombings in Birmingham between the late 1940s and mid-1960s.
One of the more infamous bombings happened in 1963. The KKK bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church — killing four young Black girls. Two of them were close friends of Angela, Fania and Margaret.
Birmingham — under Jim Crow Laws — was also the most racially segregated city in America. Crossing over into a white neighbourhood could lead to an arrest, or worse.
"The segregation of the city of Birmingham was thorough and complete to the extent that neighbourhoods were zoned in an apartheid way. Black neighbourhoods, white neighbourhoods, and where they met there was always a border," Angela Davis told the audience at a recent event in Halifax.
"We lived on the border of the Black neighbourhood. We lived in a recently zoned Black area. As a matter of fact, there were still some white people living on our side of the street. Eventually, of course, they all left. But on the other side, Black people were not even allowed to walk on the sidewalk unless they were there for purposes of working for white people engaging in some economic activity being, you know, a servant."
'A landscape of resistance'
Despite the constant threats, Angela Davis says she wouldn't have wanted to grow up anywhere else. In part because of the joy they found as children in performing simple acts of resistance to injustices faced by the Black community.
Her sister, Fania Davis, who would eventually become a noted civil rights lawyer, remembers how intense the racism was at that time.
"Every day of our lives, every moment of our lives, we were impacted by the pervasive social messaging that you're inferior because of the colour of your skin. You're subhuman. You don't deserve well-resourced schools, you don't deserve good jobs. You don't deserve to live in nice neighbourhoods and nice homes.
"So we were impacted by the coloured and white signs that were ubiquitous and that were the first words we learned to read," Fania Davis said.
"And I add, we moved through a landscape of resistance, above all in our homes and in our communities. Our father banded with other fathers in the neighbourhood and armed self-defence. My mother embodied resistance so powerfully that she helped us imagine new worlds, new ways of living. She always said, 'It doesn't have to be this way, children. We can change things.'"
Margaret Burnham was born in New York City. But moved as a child to Birmingham with her siblings and activist parents.
"They made a… decision, which was to leave New York City and build the Southern Negro Youth Congress. And they had to decide where they were going to put it or where they were going to go. And Birmingham was the choice they made because Birmingham was in movement at that time. In the thirties, there had been a strong labour movement in Birmingham," Burnham said.
"There was activity in those mines on the hill surrounding Birmingham. It was an industrial city in the Deep South, deeply scarred by Jim Crow, and that's where they went. And that's how our lasting and beautiful friendship among the three of us really started."
Margaret Burnham also became a civil rights lawyer, and judge. Recently, President Biden nominated her to be a member of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board.
A vision and a fight
All three women, now in their mid to late 70s, gathered on a Halifax stage for a rare glimpse into their remarkable lives.
The onstage conversation with Angela Davis, Fania Davis and Margaret Burnham, was organized by the Restorative Lab at Dalhousie University's Schulich School of Law and The Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia.
In the first part of our series, Transforming Justice, the iconic civil rights leaders talked about their childhood and early resistance work — including freeing Angela Davis from jail.
"If we hadn't fought as hard as we did, and if Angela herself had not had the vision, the perspective, and also just the trust in the movement, and had not been able to fight for herself, you know, this could have ended up differently. She could be continuing to give us her voice, but it would today be behind a wall of a jail," said Margaret Burnham.
The power of restorative justice
In part two of our series Transforming Justice, all three women explore their current work, especially on restorative justice.
"To understand that a true justice system has to place the victim, perpetrator in a larger structure to fully understand what that relationship is all about — and what the relationship means to a broader and more complicated society," said Margaret Burnham.
"I can remember going to Harvard [to give] a talk — Henry Louis Gates invited me. The theme of the talk was prison abolition. And he said something to me like: "Girl, are you out of your mind?" Angela Davis said.
"And then later on, when he was arrested, going into his own house, he said he completely reconsidered the arguments that I was making. But, yeah, I'll just say it's been a really interesting journey."
For Fania Davis, restorative has an incredible power that's based on one constant: love.
"A justice that seeks not to punish, but to heal. Justice that is not about getting even, but about getting well, a justice that is a healing ground, not a battleground. A justice that creates social peace instead of deepening social conflicts," said Fania Davis.
"It wasn't lost upon me that Dr. Martin Luther King saw justice in very similar ways when he said power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice.
"Justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love."
Watch the full conversation including other civil rights leaders:
*Quotes have been edited for length and clarity. This episode was produced by Mary Lynk.
