Free Angela and All Political Prisoners Page #3

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amid controversy,

for Miss Davis admitted that she is

a member of the Communist Party.

And the regents who run the university

decided, because of that,

she should not be allowed to teach.

For UCLA, it has

become the crisis of the year.

I had known Angela as a child.

I went down there,

and I hadn't seen her in years,

as we went different ways.

And I went down there

and I asked her, you know,

if I could be of help and so forth.

Her first lecture drew 2,000 students

and was on the philosophy

of Frederick Douglass.

What was your reaction to the lecture?

I think she is a superb lecturer.

You can learn so much.

As I infer from just what she said today,

it was terrific.

Well, I think she's trying to overthrow

our system of government,

and she admits that.

And while I think it is bad to limit

freedom of speech of any group,

because it limits democracy,

I think it is better

to have a limited democracy

that will last for a long, long time,

than complete democracy,

complete freedom,

that lasts only for a brief period.

If I were able to deliver that coherent,

that beautiful

and that intellectual a lecture

on my first time,

to how many thousands of people

there were in that place,

I'd feel like a superstar.

The woman is an admitted member

of the Communist Party.

She also, in her letter to Chancellor Young,

indicated that she felt

that the only way we could bring about

the social change that's necessary today

is through violence and militancy.

I don't think we need that on campus,

and so I'm for getting rid of her.

The regents seem intent

on meting out punishments

which concur with the fascist tendencies

of the times.

The sole reason they give

for their intention to fire me

is my membership in the Communist Party.

I became chancellor of UCLA in 1968.

The main issue at stake was,

I'll use a catchphrase, "academic freedom."

I think that was my main concern,

that while it was appropriate

to make sure that a person was not

misusing or abusing

his or her appointment

as a member of the faculty,

that a person's political views

should not be of concern

with regard to his or her appointment.

But my own personal opinion,

and that's all it can be,

I have no evidence otherwise,

my own personal opinion is

that this entire incident,

starting with the hiring of Miss Davis,

was a deliberate provocation.

It's probably true,

Reagan believed that she was dangerous.

That she would use her bully-pulpit

in the faculty

to indoctrinate students, to try to

win students over to communism,

to try to engage in activities

which would be harmful to the university.

Part of the policy of Governor Reagan

was really to do everything possible

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