The Meaning of Freedom is a collection of 12 speeches Angela Davis delivered between 1994 and 2009. Davis views freedom in a unique fashion, one that is not bound by the rules of law; rather, it the possibility to express oneself in a society that does not limit the way any person can pursue their life with opportunities that is not just limited to the privileged white. She defines the term “prison industrial complex”, a place that is created not as a penitentiary, but as a business proposition to incarcerate black people and profit from it. She calls out how the laws written by white people for the wellbeing of their own kind in this capitalistic society serves as a feeder mechanism to keep the prisons filled and profitable. She highlights how incarceration deprives people of their voting rights. How 600,000 people in Florida were disenfranchised that altered the 2000 election of George Bush which he won by a mere 537 votes. She calls out the flaws of neoliberalism, discusses abolition democracy, intersectionality of race and gender when talking about justice for gay, lesbian and trans people.

The forward by Robin D. G. Kelley is equally powerful and offers a clear intro to anyone who is not familiar with Davis’ work and her firm belief in abolition democracy.