
Cut paper
30 x 20 in.
In 1971, Faith Ringgold produced the cut paper collages, Women Free Angela and America Free Angela.
The titles of the collages refer to the imprisonment of activist, scholar and author Angela Davis (*1944) who had been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on October 13, 1970 on charges of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder and imprisoned in the Women’s House of Detention then located in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Davis had been accused of supplying weapons to Jonathan Jackson who had entered a courtroom with guns registered to Angela Davis and taken hostages to force the release of his brother George Jackson, who was convicted of murder of a prison guard in connection with a prison fight. Davis was imprisoned in the New York’s Women’s House of Detention, located in downtown Manhattan, for nine weeks but was later acquitted of all charges.
Faith Ringgold produced the work America Free Angela as her contribution to international protests against the well-known activist’s imprisonment. By early 1971, more than 200 organizations nationally and 67 organizations nationally had formed to protest Angela Davis’ arrest.
Ringgold made this work by placing lettering of cut paper in blue and gray on a red paper background pasted on a thick paper board to give it stability. On the upper left hand there is a small area of paper that was colored with a blue marker. On the lower left hand of the work is Ringgold’s signature in capital block script as well as the date of its creation, June 1971 (“6/71”).