Asking the public to help “rebuild trust” in the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the chairman of the Alabama museum’s board said on Friday it had reversed course after a public outcry and would give the activist Angela Davis an award that was offered then rescinded.
Davis was formerly an active member of the Black Panther party, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the US communist party. The institute announced in October that she would receive the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights award.
But Davis is also an outspoken supporter of a movement criticizing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Earlier this month, after a local Holocaust education group asked it to reconsider, the BCRI board withdrew the award.
In a statement issued amid widespread outcry, Davis said she had “devoted much of [her] own activism to international solidarity and, specifically, to linking struggles in other parts of the world to US grass roots campaigns against police violence, the prison industrial complex, and racism more broadly.
“The rescinding of this invitation and the cancellation of the event where I was scheduled to speak was thus not primarily an attack against me but rather against the very spirit of the indivisibility of justice.”
The board issued a public apology and said there should have been more conversation before making the decision to revoke the award.
In a statement issued on Friday, the BCRI said: “Immediately after that public apology, in keeping with its commitment to learning from its mistakes and in order to stay true to the BCRI’s founding mission, the Board voted to reaffirm Dr Davis as the recipient.
“Dr Davis was immediately thereafter personally invited to reaccept the award. The BCRI respects her privacy and timing in whatever her response may ultimately be.”
The BCRI president and chief executive, Andrea Taylor, praised Davis as “a daughter of Birmingham … highly regarded throughout the world as a human rights activist”.
“Her credentials in championing human rights are noteworthy,” she said.
Rev Thomas L Wilder, interim chair of the BCRI board, said: “At the end of the day, we stand for open and honest dialogue on issues. It is only through our ability to talk openly and honestly with one another that we can achieve true understanding and appreciation for one another’s perspectives.”
After outlining the museum’s “Vision 2020” strategic plan, he added: “We ask everyone to partner with us to rebuild trust in the institute and its important work.”
Davis did not immediately comment.
