The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis - Softcover

Aptheker, Bettina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0717804593 ISBN 13: 9780717804597

Publisher: International Publishers, 1975

Synopsis

On August 7, 1970, a revolt by Black prisoners in a Marin County courthouse stunned the nation. In its aftermath, Angela Davis, an African American activist-scholar who had campaigned vigorously for prisoners' rights, was placed on the FBI's "ten most wanted list." Captured in New York City two months later, she was charged with murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy. Her trial, chronicled in this "compelling tale" (Publishers Weekly), brought strong public indictment. The Morning Breaks is a riveting firsthand account of Davis's ordeal and her ultimate triumph, written by an activist in the student, civil rights, and antiwar movements who was intimately involved in the struggle for her release.

First published in 1975, and praised by The Nation for its "graphic narrative of [Davis's] legal and public fight," The Morning Breaks remains relevant today as the nation contends with the political fallout of the Sixties and the grim consequences of institutional racism. For this edition, Bettina Aptheker has provided an introduction that revisits crucial events of the late 1960s and early 1970s and puts Davis's case into the context of that time and our own-from the killings at Kent State and Jackson State to the politics of the prison system today. This book gives a first-hand account of the worldwide movement for Angela Davis's freedom and of her trial. It offers a unique historical perspective on the case and its continuing significance in the contemporary political landscape.

About this title

Review

Activist-scholar Angela Y. Davis was one of the most potent radical political symbols of the '70s, her defiantly clenched fist raised high over her reddish-brown, full-blown Afro. Her "celebrity" was launched when she was put on trial in 1972 in San Jose, California, for murder and kidnapping, charges on which she was later acquitted. This second edition of Bettina Aptheker's gut-wrenching chronicle of the Davis trial is a fact-filled boon to a younger generation imbued with the era's mythologies. With a strange cast of characters, including then-governor Ronald Reagan, Aptheker reveals heroes, villains, and brilliant legal work.

"Winning the freedom of Angela Davis was a singular achievement," she writes. "Three conditions were decisive: the intervention of world opinion, the unanimity of the Black community ... and the organizational coherence of the U.S. Communist Party." But also, as the portrait in The Morning Breaks makes plain, Angela Davis's amazing resilience. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Review

"An essential read for the present generation of activists."―The Gaither Reporter

"This book, written so beautifully, is on the face of it, Bettina Aptheker's story of the movement to free Angela Davis. That is the fact. The truth is deeper. Painful. Beautiful. Cry-making. It is a story of love. Love of people for people. Adults for children. And overall, more than human desire for freedom, the unquestionable human need for it. It is that truth that brought millions of people together to set Angela Davis free. Bettina Aptheker's understanding and support of that truth, her poetry and strength, set the readers on a loving quest for their own freedom."―Maya Angelou

"I found this book totally absorbing, a slice of recent history told by a participant, that should become a classic the day it is published. More than a masterful piece of trial reporting, it is a brilliant reconstruction of events that led to the prosecution of Angela Davis, its roots in the brutally repressive, racist California prison system, and the eventual triumph of the world-wide movement for her freedom."―Jessica Mitford

"History gives us extraordinary moments and protagonists, but it is not often that we have the opportunity to examine a pivotal moment in the life of someone still giving her intelligence and courage to the landscape of these times. Such an opportunity is this new edition of Bettina Aptheker's important telling of the trial of Angela Davis, The Morning Breaks. Here we have process as well as heroism and memory. Cornell University Press has done us a great service by reissuing this important work."―Margaret Randall

"The second edition of The Morning Breaks provides valuable, new material indispensable to a thoughtful understanding of the ordeal, the trial, and the acquittal (thank God!) of Angela Davis―three historical events of continuing, major significance for all of us studying, and reaching for, freedom."―June Jordan, University of California at Berkeley

"Enlightening and fascinating, this new edition comes when the history it recovers is sorely needed. Bettina Aptheker's lens is wide and clear and through it she makes a significant contribution to the kind of understanding that can lead to positive action."―Adrienne Rich

Edition details

• Publisher: International Publishers
• Publication date: 1975
• ISBN 10: 0717804593
• ISBN 13: 9780717804597
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 284