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AP Success - AP US History: Angela Davis on Persisting Inequality

Social activists in the 1960s and 1970s called out the hypocrisy of American capitalism and foreign affairs.

Source 1

...in the United States of America in 1972...the prison and the larger society...are all prisoners of a society whose...proclamations of freedom and justice for all are nothing but meaningless rhetoric...accumulated wealth, its scientific achievements are swallowed up by the avarice of a few capitalists and by insane projects of war...We are imprisoned in a society where there is so much wealth and so many sophisticated scientific and technological skills...the insanity of a continued existence of ghettos and barrios and the poverty which is there...rockets taking off towards the moon, and the B-52's raining destruction and death on the people of Vietnam...redirect that wealth and that energy and channel it into food for the hungry, and to clothes for the needy; into schools, hospitals, housing...necessary in order for human beings to lead decent, comfortable lives...devoid of all the pressures of racism, and yes, male supremacist attitudes and institutions...only then can freedom take on a truly human meaning...

Angela Davis Speech at the Embassy Auditorium (June 9, 1972)

Question 1

Short answer

Briefly describe ONE perspective about the American government's domestic policies expressed in the excerpt.

Question 2

Short answer

Briefly explain ONE specific historical development from 1945 to 1972 that influenced the arguments expressed in the excerpt.

Question 3

Short answer

Briefly explain ONE way in which followers of the arguments expressed in the excerpt influenced American foreign policy from 1972 to 1980.

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