Angela Davis (b. January 26, 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama) is an American socialist, philosopher, political activist and retired professor with the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was the director of the universitys Feminist Studies department. Davis was a vibrant activist during the Civil Rights Movement and was associated with the Black Panthers (Black Panther Party). Her research interests are in feminism, African American studies, critical theory, Marxism, popular music and social consciousness, and the philosophy and history of punishment and prisons.

In the 1970s, she was a target of COINTELPRO, tried and acquitted of suspected involvement in the Soledad brothers August 1970 abduction and murder of Judge Harold Haley in Marin County, California. She was twice a candidate for Vice President (U.S. Vice President) on the Communist Party USA ticket during the Reagan era (Reagan administration).

Since moving in the early 1990s from party communism to other forms of political commitment, she has identified herself as a democratic socialist. Davis is the founder of Critical Resistance, an organization working to abolish the prison-industrial complex.