I just finished Angela Davis’s Freedom is a Constant Struggle, and honestly it hits hard in all the right ways. It’s a mix of speeches, essays, and convos that somehow manage to feel super immediate and timeless at the same time. Davis speaks from deep experience, and every page feels like it’s been lived through, not just thought up. Whether she’s talking about Ferguson, Palestine, prisons, or the long arc of Black resistance, she’s always connecting the dots, showing how these fights aren’t seperate, but part of something bigger.
What I really loved is how she moves between the personal and the global so smoothly. One minute she’s talking about political prisoners, the next she’s laying out how international solidarity can reshape the world. She lifts up the voices of people that are usually left out of the spotlight, and makes it clear that they’re not just part of the struggle, they are the struggle. There’s a kind of grounded hope in the way she talks about organizing, like she knows it’s hard and messy, but believes in people figuring it out together.
The future she’s pushing us toward isn’t just about tearing stuff down, but about building new things, schools that care instead of punish, communities that don’t rely on cops to feel safe, movements that cross borders without being co-opted. She makes a big deal about political education and staying reflective, and it shows. She’s not just calling for action, she’s showing how action needs a whole structure of understanding and trust underneath it.
If I had to say anything bad about it, it’s that some parts get a bit repetitive. Since it’s pulled from different talks and interviews, a few ideas come up again and again in the same words. That’s not a huge deal though, if anything, it kind of makes the message stick more. Still, for someone looking for fresh content every chapter, it might get a little old. But overall, this book is powerful as hell. Clear-eyed, full of heart, and honestly kind of nessasary reading right now.