Angela Davis, the legendary civil rights activist, scholar, and Distinguished Professor Emerita at UC Santa Cruz, delivered the commencement address at Pitzer College in 2012. She opened by reflecting on a quote from Simone de Beauvoir — that if you live long enough, every victory will turn into a defeat — then flipped it for commencement day: if you live long enough, every defeat will turn into a victory. Davis's own life was the living proof of this reversal. She had been fired twice from UCLA, placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, and faced three capital charges including murder and kidnapping. After being found not guilty, she was barred by Governor Reagan from ever teaching in the UC system again. Yet decades later, she stood before graduates as a distinguished professor emerita of that same university system, delivering a commencement address at the very campus where she had once been forced to teach in secret locations.