This year was obviously lacking ‘fros on their cover, but I won’t hold that against Jet, as they had pretty decent topics to make up for it all.  Jean Knight was the first person to wear an afro on the cover for this year.  As you see, both Jessie Jackson and Angela Davis has yet another cover and this isn’t the last time that you will see them on covers for this decade.

To remind everyone of the caption on Angela Davis’ cover is referring to, it was about getting Davis out of prison. At one point, she was associated with The Black Panther party and was on the FBI’s most wanted list for a crime that she didn’t commit. She was eventually caught and arrested. Here is a snippet of why she was sought after (from Wikipedia.com):

During the summer of 1970, Davis had become involved in Black Panther efforts to garner support for the imprisoned George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Clutchette, known as the “Soledad brothers” (after Soledad Prison, where they were incarcerated). On August 7, George’s brother, 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson, along with two others, disrupted trial proceedings in an attempt to assist the escape of friend James McClain from the Marin County Hall of Justice. McClain was on trial for an alleged attempt to stab an officer. In the courthouse, Jonathan Jackson and his accomplices rose from their seats, drew guns, and ordered everyone to freeze. They then led the judge, the prosecuting attorney, and several jurors into a van parked outside. As the hostages entered the van, Jackson and the others were reported to have shouted, “We want the Soledad Brothers freed by 12:30 today!” During the escape attempt, Jackson and accomplice William Christmas were killed in a shootout with police. Judge Harold Haley was killed by his captors with a shotgun taped to his throat inside the van. Prosecutor Gary Thomas was paralyzed by a police bullet during the incident.

The shotgun used by the escapees to kill Judge Haley was registered in Davis’s name, implicating her in the escape attempt. The California warrant issued for Davis charged her as an accomplice to conspiracy, kidnapping, and homicide.

Here’s a snippet of an article published by the NY Times on October 14, 1970, announcing her arrest (I highlighted the part that made me give the side-eye in bold):

Angela Davis, the young black militant who has been hunted for nearly two months on murder and kidnapping charges, was arrested yesterday at a motel in midtown Manhattan by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The charges against the 26-year-old Miss Davis, a former acting assistant professor of philosophy at he University of California at Los Angeles grew out of a kidnap-escape drama in a San Rafael courtroom in early August. During the abduction and escape attempt a Superior court judge and three other persons were killed.

Miss Davis was arrested at the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge, 861 Eighth Avenue, at 51st Street about 6 P.M., according to the manager. Arrested with her was David Rudolph Poindexter Jr., a 36-year-old Negro, who was charged with harboring a fugitive.

Davis was eventually acquitted of all charges in 1972.