Davis becomes involved with anti-war protests, which leads to an arrest in San Diego. The police threaten to charge Davis and her friend with vagrancy since they are not employed, or even with robbery since they have money but no jobs.

She also becomes active in the establishment of a Black Student Union: “It struck me, about this time, that I was being looked upon as somewhat of a leader of the Black Liberation Movement at the university” (136). Davis likewise becomes involved with a newly formed and independent West Coast branch of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) based in Los Angeles. The group organizes a mock trial and demonstration to protest racist police brutality after a Los Angeles police officer is acquitted of murdering a Black man named Gregory Clark. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated. Davis is consumed with sadness at his death and feels guilty because SNCC was critical of some of King’s views. However, she finds an outlet for her feelings in continuing her work with SNCC.

Police raid the SNCC office amid planning for a demonstration, damaging much of the organization’s equipment and resources, including the mimeograph machines they use to print and distribute movement literature.