Birmingham , AL – Angela Davis Lost Award Due To Local Jewish Presssure, Says Birmingham Mayor

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    FILE- In this Feb. 19, 2015, file photo Angela Davis, author, educator and iconic civil rights activist, speaks during her visit to the University of Michigan-Flint, in Flint, Mich. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama announced Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, that it has rescinded its decision to honor Davis following unspecified complaints. Davis is a Birmingham native who has spent decades fighting for civil rights. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP, File)Birmingham , AL – The mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, said that a civil rights institute withdrew an award for activist Angela Davis due to pressure from the Jewish community.

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    The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute said in a statement posted on its website over the weekend that it was no longer giving Davis the human rights award.

    The group said that “supporters and other concerned individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make requests that we reconsider our decision” after it nominated the activist in September.

    “Upon closer examination of Ms. Davis’ statements and public record, we concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based,” it continued.

    The institute did not specify to which parts of Davis’ public record it was referring.

    But a statement by Mayor Randall Woodfin condemning the institute’s choice pointed fingers at the Jewish community.

    Woodfin said the decision was made “after protests from our local Jewish community and some of its allies” adding that “my overriding feeling is one of dismay.”

    The mayor did not further explain what the alleged protests by the Jewish community had concerned.

    JTA reached out to the institute, Woodfin and the Jewish Federation of Birmingham but did not hear back in time for publication.

    Davis, a prominent civil rights activist and Birmingham native, is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, which she has called “the South Africa moment for the Palestinian people.”


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    4 Comments
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    Bezalel
    Bezalel
    5 years ago

    For those who don’t know, the City of Birmingham has a large black population and the mayor is black. The surrounding suburbs are mainly white, including Mountain Brook, where the Jewish community is located. I now worry about an attack on the Jewish community there, because of this incitement by the Antisemitic mayor.

    AmYisroel
    AmYisroel
    5 years ago

    Another Jew hating democrat

    PaulinSaudi
    PaulinSaudi
    5 years ago

    Honestly, I had no idea she was still alive.

    5 years ago

    I see that since Angela Davis was acquitted in 1970, her hair, instead of becoming gray (it was black), has become blonde!
    All kidding aside, the Mayor of Birmingham has a very short memory. A large majority of the freedom riders during the civil rights movement of the 1960’s were Jewish. They were also beaten and sent to jail, along with the Black freedom riders. I guess this is the thanks that we are now receiving from these ungrateful (expletive deleted) politicians. I remember a similar statement back in the 1980’s, when the former Mayor of Atlanta, Andrew Young met secretly with the PLO. After that fact was discovered, a number of civil rights figures, including Julian Bond, who had been allies with the Jews, turned on them, and blamed them, for the turmoil that Andrew Young found himself in, at that time.