Angela Davis is a name just about everyone who was around in the '60s knows better than to equate with a question of "who?"

Love or hate her, support her positions or want to crucify her, we knew who Angela Davis was. If you didn't, once someone said "the militant woman professor with the foot high natural hairdo," it clicked.

I hadn't heard her name in years. And then my friend Barbara Chamberlain Lewis sent me a flier about how this woman, who had once been on the FBI's most-wanted list, was speaking in Watts. So I dug up the 20 bucks to pay for tickets for Brandi and me and then searched high and low for my tattered Angela Davis T-shirt.

What might Angela have to say these days? Brandi, I suspect, was expecting an historical perspective of the turbulent `60s, about how Davis made it onto the same list that John Dillinger, Al Capone and other notorious gunslingers and gangsters once occupied.

No such treat.

From the size of the crowd of at least 1,500 people, it was clear that many came to pay homage to a brilliant woman who fought the fight and campaigns for social justice. There were grandparents, parents, college students, former hippies now wearing business suits and former hippies who were still being hippies.

Brandi wasn't the only post-Angela Davis era person in Phoenix Hall - there were toddlers, babies in arms, and young teenagers.

There were no sags, too-short skirts or too-tight tops. There was no big media on site to report on this orderly assembly of folks who gave a standing ovation when Professor Davis, now teaching at the University of California, Santa Cruz was introduced and who received many more standing ovations during her 90-minute presentation.

What did Angela Davis talk about? Being an activist, educator and philosopher, she sought to educate her audience on the brutality of the American prison system, particularly in respect to women.

She discussed her travels throughout the world in a quest for prison reform. She had a lot to say about a capitalist society being a system that breeds inequality.

Angela Davis is a part of our history and was a perfect experience for my household to close out this month of celebration. While we talk about honoring our history all year long, funny how we generally can know we'll find speakers like Angela Davis on the circuit during February.

Brandi? Ecstatic that she got to witness some of what she's heard about all of her growing years.

My T-shirt? Well, I got to purchase a new one for only five bucks. And you probably can't buy an Angela T-shirt on the corner during July. Well, you can never buy one on the corner in Pasadena - maybe they have `em in Watts all the time.