ACTIVISM
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Melba Beals Civil rights activist One of the "Little Rock Nine" who integrated an all-white high school in Arkansas in 1957, this journalism grad, pictured left, is now chair of Dominican University's Communications Department. Her awards include the Congressional Gold Medal and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Excellence in Writing. Photo courtesy of the Central High Museum Historical Collections/UALR Archives. More... |
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Randy Hayes Environmental pioneer His masters thesis in environmental planning, a 16 mm film about the desert, won Best Student Film from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and led to Hayes founding the Rainforest Action Network. More... |
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Norma Hotaling Crusader for survivors of abuse, prostitution and trauma She developed Standing Against Global Exploitation, an organization which helps prostitutes find safer ways of life, as part of her health education coursework at SF State. More... |
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Ralf Hotchkiss Disability activist He used his $260,000 McArthur Foundation "genius" grant to start an SF State group that would become Whirlwind Wheelchair International, which helps people in developing countries build their own wheelchairs. More... |
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Cleve
Jones AIDS activist The founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt was an SF State student when he stitched the first panel of what would become the world's largest, ongoing community arts project. More... |
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Wilma Mankiller American Indian activist Long before her selection as first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1985, she was an SF State student who participated in the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island. |
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Joseph Marshall Jr. Youth crusader People Magazine called the founder of San Francisco's Omega Boys Club the "Repo Man" for his remarkable ability to turn around the lives of teens in trouble with drugs and gangs. More... |
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Jerry Nims Religious activist Jerry Falwell's successor as head of the Moral Majority turned toward conservatism after reading Marx and Lenin as an SF State student in the '60s. |
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Mario Savio Free speech activist Though most closely associated with the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley, his alma mater is SF State, from which he graduated with highest honors in 1984. |
