RUTHFULLY YOURS

In the Atrium Gallery, the Regimes Museum displays uniforms, flags, posters and other paraphernalia from East Germany. Not only soldiers, sailors and police wore military-style uniforms. So did postmen, bus and streetcar operators, volunteer firefighters and members of the Red Cross. Children and teenagers wore less-formal uniforms from the Young Pioneers and Free German Youth, the state-run youth organizations.

A pinstriped shirt for prisoners, a blazer from the Ministry of State Security (or Stasi), and a card showing border police how to search a van for escapees represent East German tyranny. Other items depict the rebellion against communism: scenes of protesters demanding freedom and of a nascent punk movement, an East German flag with the coat of arms cut out, a drab green civil-defense tunic with a pink butterfly carefully painted on the back.

Across the hall, a glass cabinet in front of the Academic Senate showcases left-wing activist Angela Davis, who delivered a speech on campus in 1972 and was the Communist Party USA’s vice-presidential candidate in 1980 and 1984.

A student assistant created the exhibit for Black History Month after watching a library video of Ms. Davis’s speech, said special collections librarian Patrisia Prestinary. “It’s to draw attention to the collections that we have,” Ms. Prestinary said. “I try to encourage my students to be creative when it strikes them, when there’s an issue they want to write about.”

The exhibit features items from the library’s archives. It includes articles, an FBI “Wanted” poster, and a Life magazine cover with the caption, “The Making of a Fugitive.”

In August 1970, Ms. Davis was charged with aggravated kidnapping and first-degree murder of Judge Harold Haley, who was presiding over the trial of three men accused of killing a prison guard. The 17-year-old brother of one of the defendants—using shotguns Ms. Davis had purchased—entered the Marin County, Calif., courtroom, armed two of the defendants, abducted Haley and four others, and left in a van. Haley was shot and killed during the ensuing police pursuit.

Ms. Davis fled and hid for three months before being arrested. Marxist groups led a 16-month international campaign to free her. She was released on bail in February 1972 and acquitted four months later.

One of her strongest international supporters was the East German regime. State media issued constant reports. Members of the youth organizations sent her letters, postcards and pictures of sunflowers. Adults sent demands to President Richard Nixon and Gov. Ronald Reagan for her release.

Once acquitted, Ms. Davis went to speak in East Germany, where she received an honorary degree from the University of Leipzig, a personal introduction from General Secretary Erich Honecker, and the Star of People’s Friendship from Walter Ulbricht, Honecker’s predecessor. In 1973 she led the U.S. delegation to East Berlin for the Communist World Festival of Youth and Students.

“I did not know that,” Ms. Prestinary said. The exhibit omits Ms. Davis’s connection with East Germany. Nor does it mention her refusal to support imprisoned dissidents in Communist countries. “They deserve what they get,” Ms. Davis said of Czech political prisoners in 1972. “Let them remain in prison.”

Mr. D’Hippolito is a Fullerton-based freelance writer.