Discussing her offer to pay—”whether it’s $100,000, or $250,000″—to free the University of California, Los Angeles philosophy instructor and “admitted communist” Davis, Franklin explains that she was going against the advice of her own father, a Baptist minister and close associate of Dr. King, in making the offer. Her argument for why she did so is a poignant, pithy defense of the fight for freedom and racial equality:

My daddy (Detroit’s Rev. C.L.Franklin) says I don’t know what I’m doing. Well, I respect him, of course, but I’m going to stick by my beliefs. Angela Davis must go free. Black people will be free. I’ve been locked up (for disturbing the peace in Detroit) and I know you got to disturb the peace when you can’t get no peace. Jail is hell to be in. I’m going to see her free if there is any justice in our courts, not because I believe in communism, but because she’s a Black woman and she wants freedom for Black people. I have the money; I got it from Black people—they’ve made me financially able to have it—and I want to use it in ways that will help our people.”

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