Rebel Girls From Bay Area HistoryRebel Girls From Bay Area History
Rebel Girls From Bay Area History celebrates the amazing, mostly forgotten women whose lives, actions and sacrifices helped shape today’s Bay Area. They are educators, organizers, fighters, adventurers, and so much more. Founded in 2018 by its author Rae Alexandra, this KQED Arts & Culture series brings you inspiring life stories of brave women.
The Indian American Essayist Who Championed Social Justice and Feminism
The Jewish ‘Red Angel’ Who Withstood Incarceration for Workers’ Rights
The Palestinian Therapist, Teacher and Music Lover Who Built Cultural Bridges
The ‘Rolling Warrior’ Who Demanded Equality for People With Disabilities
The Filipina Activist So Unstoppable, Her Nickname Was ‘Bullet’
The Transgender Topless Dancer Who Went to War with Prison Authorities
The San Francisco Couple Whose Lifelong Love Changed America
The Dancer Who Helped Start the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast Program
The Pregnant Teen Who Captained a Clipper Ship in 1856
The Eccentric Saloon Owner Beloved and Defended by 19th-Century Sailors
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"content": "\u003cp>After Kartar Dhillon gave birth to her first child in a Fresno hospital, a perplexed nurse asked why Dhillon was still using her maiden name. “Why don’t you use your husband’s name?” the nurse asked. Dhillon — who also refused to wear a wedding ring — shot back without hesitation: “Why doesn’t he use mine?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the early 1930s, and though Dhillon was still in her teens, she was not a person constrained by the expectations of her era. The rest of her life would stand as solid evidence of that. She would go on to be a dedicated union member, a social justice organizer, a Black Panthers volunteer, a prolific essayist and a passionate campaigner for India’s independence. She also just happened to be the kind of live-wire who was always first on the dance floor at parties — especially if James Brown was playing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13977502']Dhillon learned resilience young. Born the fourth of eight siblings to Indian immigrants in Simi Valley in 1915, she spent her early childhood in Astoria, Oregon. (Dhillon’s essays about this period were later adapted into a film by her granddaughter Erika Surat Andersen, titled \u003ca href=\"https://caamedia.org/films/turbans/\">\u003cem>Turbans\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.) The rest of Dhillon’s adolescence was spent moving around California to communities that were not always welcoming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We definitely were not accepted,” Dhillon said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sikhnet.com/people/interview-with-iron-lady\">2001 interview\u003c/a> with Punjabi American Heritage Society co-founder, Dr. Jasbir Singh Kang. “They looked upon Sikhs and Indians generally as freaks as [if] we had come out of a circus of something. There was a great cruelty against our people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Dhillon’s father, who left Punjab and settled in San Francisco in 1910, needed to chase work wherever he could find it. 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Dhillon’s own brother Hari was killed in action in Okinawa at the age of 18.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the war, while based in Hunters Point, Dhillon was determined that she and her children gain access to education and the arts wherever they could find it. She studied art and literature to fulfill her own personal passions, and shorthand and bookkeeping to support her family. She scraped together money to take her kids to museums, lectures, plays and operas. She found donated tickets for symphony performances. She sent the children for music lessons, taught them how to play chess and rented bicycles with them in Golden Gate Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believed that life was meant to be enjoyed, not suffered,” Dhillon later wrote. “We may have lived in the slums at times, but our apartments were sunny with life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dhillon’s training enabled her to quickly pivot into administrative work. She spent some time working as a typist in an architects’ office. She was a secretary for the Teamsters and a variety of other unions. She wrote for \u003cem>People’s World\u003c/em>, a workers’ paper. When her own union — the Office and Professional Employees International Union — went on strike in the 1950s, she joined the picket lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13979948\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13979948\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/KD-On-strike.png\" alt=\"Two women in 1970s-era clothing stand side by side, smiling and holding placards during a protest.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1552\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/KD-On-strike.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/KD-On-strike-160x124.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/KD-On-strike-768x596.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/KD-On-strike-1536x1192.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kartar Dhillon (R) happily on the picket lines for the asbestos workers’ union. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Erika Surat Andersen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a 2001 interview, Dhillon asserted:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>If we’re born human, then we should have the same right to our two square feet on earth as anybody else — especially if we’re workers. We don’t have to worry about what would happen to the rich because they don’t worry about us … They belong to their clubs which rule the world together and working people should have one big union … We have to fight back in any way we can because [the] world should belong to those who work and who can produce something, and not to those who just live off of it.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Unsurprisingly, Dhillon’s dedication to working people also found its way into her writing. The plight of immigrant workers was something she documented extensively — sometimes to devastating effect. Speaking once at Stanford University, she recounted the 1933 death of a baby who was refused care at a hospital simply because its mother had been in the county for less than 90 days — the requirement to receive medical aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the 1970s, Dhillon was living in Nob Hill with a beautiful view and rent she could only afford because her apartment had no kitchen. (She cooked over the fireplace and did the dishes in the bathtub.) Dhillon was such a respected figure in the Bay Area by that point that in one 1972 newspaper ad urging the public to vote for McGovern instead of Nixon, Dhillon’s name appeared among scores of other trusted “working people.” The “moral” of the ad: “Don’t be a Noodnik for Nixon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13950520']Dhillon was also respected in the community for her volunteer work with the Black Panthers — she typed up the party’s newsletter on weekends. After Dhillon’s 2008 death at the age of 93, her granddaughter Erika Surat Andersen found a copy of Eldridge Cleaver’s \u003cem>Soul on Ice\u003c/em> that was inscribed by the author. His page-long note expressed warm admiration for Dhillon and for India’s struggle against British imperialism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dhillon’s life began thoroughly rooted in the ideas of the Gadar Party. In one unpublished autobiographical essay, she wrote, “‘Freedom for India’ was much more than a slogan: it was a battle cry of a disenfranchised people who were determined to reclaim that which was rightfully theirs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her sense of fairness propelled her towards every equality movement that crossed her path, throughout her entire life. Dhillon’s quest for justice for all working and disadvantaged people literally knew no bounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Dhillon herself noted in a 1994 grant application: “My sympathy remains forever with the underdogs of society, because I have never lost my place among them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Special thanks to \u003ca href=\"https://www.erikasurat.com/\">Erika Surat Andersen\u003c/a> for sharing her research with the author for this essay.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After Kartar Dhillon gave birth to her first child in a Fresno hospital, a perplexed nurse asked why Dhillon was still using her maiden name. “Why don’t you use your husband’s name?” the nurse asked. Dhillon — who also refused to wear a wedding ring — shot back without hesitation: “Why doesn’t he use mine?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the early 1930s, and though Dhillon was still in her teens, she was not a person constrained by the expectations of her era. The rest of her life would stand as solid evidence of that. She would go on to be a dedicated union member, a social justice organizer, a Black Panthers volunteer, a prolific essayist and a passionate campaigner for India’s independence. She also just happened to be the kind of live-wire who was always first on the dance floor at parties — especially if James Brown was playing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Dhillon learned resilience young. Born the fourth of eight siblings to Indian immigrants in Simi Valley in 1915, she spent her early childhood in Astoria, Oregon. (Dhillon’s essays about this period were later adapted into a film by her granddaughter Erika Surat Andersen, titled \u003ca href=\"https://caamedia.org/films/turbans/\">\u003cem>Turbans\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.) The rest of Dhillon’s adolescence was spent moving around California to communities that were not always welcoming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We definitely were not accepted,” Dhillon said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sikhnet.com/people/interview-with-iron-lady\">2001 interview\u003c/a> with Punjabi American Heritage Society co-founder, Dr. Jasbir Singh Kang. “They looked upon Sikhs and Indians generally as freaks as [if] we had come out of a circus of something. There was a great cruelty against our people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Dhillon’s father, who left Punjab and settled in San Francisco in 1910, needed to chase work wherever he could find it. (Starting in 1913, California’s \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/content/qt6kh4w04h/qt6kh4w04h_noSplash_1e9f9f3923c9993914dc48cb5fbc2846.pdf\">Alien Land Law\u003c/a> prevented Asian immigrants from purchasing land or leasing it for more than three years.) For Dhillon, this meant changing schools frequently. Despite attending a total of 13 schools — three in a single year at one point — Dhillon successfully graduated high school in 1932, when she was 17. Sadly, her mother died that same year, five years after her father’s death; Dhillon was left to raise her younger siblings with the assistance of an older brother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When her brother suggested that Dhillon might be better off moving to India, she opted instead to marry Surat Singh Gill, who had a degree in political science from UC Berkeley and was a passionate public speaker for the Gadar Party. He, like Dhillon’s entire family, was an active member of the group, which campaigned to free India from British occupation. (Dhillon’s father was a Gadar Party founding member.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dhillon’s first daughter was born soon after her marriage. She later exclaimed that she was “so happy it was a girl because I wanted to prove to the world that she could be the equal of any boy ever born.” She later had another daughter; a son from Gill’s first marriage also joined the family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Life as a young mother was tough. The family lived in poverty, working as sharecroppers and sometimes day laborers. In the late 1930s, the family moved to Los Angeles, where Dhillon worked as a waitress and, sometimes, a movie extra. Dhillon and her family relocated once more in 1940, to San Francisco — the place that she would call home for much of the rest of her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1942, Dhillon’s life opened up in more ways than one. She got divorced, writing in her essay, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.saada.org/tides/article/the-parrots-beak\">A Parrot’s Beak\u003c/a>” (first published in 1989): “Freedom from marriage at the age of 27 with no job skills and three children to support is not quite the stuff of dreams, but I had finally taken my destiny into my own hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Dhillon’s earliest days of freedom were not quiet ones. As part of the World War II effort, the single mom worked as a highly skilled machinist and a truck driver who delivered servicemen to ports on their way to deployment. She developed a habit of sketching portraits of these men to send back to their families in case they never made it home — a way to utilize her skills as an artist, while also showing compassion to so many with uncertain futures. Dhillon’s own brother Hari was killed in action in Okinawa at the age of 18.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the war, while based in Hunters Point, Dhillon was determined that she and her children gain access to education and the arts wherever they could find it. She studied art and literature to fulfill her own personal passions, and shorthand and bookkeeping to support her family. She scraped together money to take her kids to museums, lectures, plays and operas. She found donated tickets for symphony performances. She sent the children for music lessons, taught them how to play chess and rented bicycles with them in Golden Gate Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believed that life was meant to be enjoyed, not suffered,” Dhillon later wrote. “We may have lived in the slums at times, but our apartments were sunny with life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dhillon’s training enabled her to quickly pivot into administrative work. She spent some time working as a typist in an architects’ office. She was a secretary for the Teamsters and a variety of other unions. She wrote for \u003cem>People’s World\u003c/em>, a workers’ paper. When her own union — the Office and Professional Employees International Union — went on strike in the 1950s, she joined the picket lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13979948\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13979948\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/KD-On-strike.png\" alt=\"Two women in 1970s-era clothing stand side by side, smiling and holding placards during a protest.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1552\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/KD-On-strike.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/KD-On-strike-160x124.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/KD-On-strike-768x596.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/KD-On-strike-1536x1192.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kartar Dhillon (R) happily on the picket lines for the asbestos workers’ union. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Erika Surat Andersen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a 2001 interview, Dhillon asserted:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>If we’re born human, then we should have the same right to our two square feet on earth as anybody else — especially if we’re workers. We don’t have to worry about what would happen to the rich because they don’t worry about us … They belong to their clubs which rule the world together and working people should have one big union … We have to fight back in any way we can because [the] world should belong to those who work and who can produce something, and not to those who just live off of it.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Unsurprisingly, Dhillon’s dedication to working people also found its way into her writing. The plight of immigrant workers was something she documented extensively — sometimes to devastating effect. Speaking once at Stanford University, she recounted the 1933 death of a baby who was refused care at a hospital simply because its mother had been in the county for less than 90 days — the requirement to receive medical aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the 1970s, Dhillon was living in Nob Hill with a beautiful view and rent she could only afford because her apartment had no kitchen. (She cooked over the fireplace and did the dishes in the bathtub.) Dhillon was such a respected figure in the Bay Area by that point that in one 1972 newspaper ad urging the public to vote for McGovern instead of Nixon, Dhillon’s name appeared among scores of other trusted “working people.” The “moral” of the ad: “Don’t be a Noodnik for Nixon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Dhillon was also respected in the community for her volunteer work with the Black Panthers — she typed up the party’s newsletter on weekends. After Dhillon’s 2008 death at the age of 93, her granddaughter Erika Surat Andersen found a copy of Eldridge Cleaver’s \u003cem>Soul on Ice\u003c/em> that was inscribed by the author. His page-long note expressed warm admiration for Dhillon and for India’s struggle against British imperialism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dhillon’s life began thoroughly rooted in the ideas of the Gadar Party. In one unpublished autobiographical essay, she wrote, “‘Freedom for India’ was much more than a slogan: it was a battle cry of a disenfranchised people who were determined to reclaim that which was rightfully theirs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her sense of fairness propelled her towards every equality movement that crossed her path, throughout her entire life. Dhillon’s quest for justice for all working and disadvantaged people literally knew no bounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Dhillon herself noted in a 1994 grant application: “My sympathy remains forever with the underdogs of society, because I have never lost my place among them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Special thanks to \u003ca href=\"https://www.erikasurat.com/\">Erika Surat Andersen\u003c/a> for sharing her research with the author for this essay.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Jewish ‘Red Angel’ Who Withstood Incarceration for Workers’ Rights",
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"content": "\u003cp>For Elaine Black Yoneda, it wasn’t a choice. When authorities informed her that her three-year-old son Tommy would be imprisoned in a concentration camp for the crime of being half-Japanese, Yoneda — a white Jewish woman — insisted on going with him. Her Japanese American husband Karl was already being detained at Manzanar, a camp in the desert beneath the Sierra Nevada mountains. Now, just as the Yonedas had adjusted to the idea of a long period of separation, they would live as a family once more — albeit behind barbed wire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so ironic,” Yoneda later told \u003ca href=\"https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/karl-yoneda-and-elaine-black-star-crossed-lovers-in-a-class-war/\">People’s World\u003c/a> journalist Tim Wheeler. “Only a few weeks earlier, I had been delivering soapbox speeches denouncing Nazi Germany for imprisoning Jews in Dachau. Here I was, a month later, demanding that I, a Jewish woman, be placed in a concentration camp.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13964200']It was not the first time in her life that Yoneda had found herself incarcerated. Her irrepressible activities on behalf of the Communist Party and unions had landed her behind bars more than once in the 1930s — most notably for her activities during the notorious General Strike that took place in San Francisco in 1934. At the time, Yoneda was the only woman serving on the West Coast Longshoremen’s strike committee. It was a period that she would later call “a reign of terror” by “the so-called Red Squad, the Intelligence Bureau.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That year, Yoneda was arrested on charges of vagrancy and disturbing the peace at a Communist Party meeting of several hundred people at San Francisco’s Jefferson Square. At the time, she was acting as an official for the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Labor_Defense\">International Labor Defense\u003c/a> and as secretary of the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Workers_Industrial_Union\">Marine Workers’ Industrial Union\u003c/a>. Yoneda made a point to attend such meetings and demonstrations with copies of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript\">Bill of Rights\u003c/a> on her person. (“I could quote [them] verse and chapter,” she later revealed.) After the meeting was raided, she was taken into custody for refusing to obey police orders to move on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within one week of her arrest and incarceration, Yoneda was on hunger strike alongside Margaret Marshall, the lone other woman arrested that day. An image printed by the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> on Aug. 6, 1934 showed the women sitting side by side, facing each other and pointedly away from food that had been placed on a table in front of them. A caption noted that “each [woman] has [a] different view on proper methods of showing their contempt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(The newspaper also reported that rumors of “a bath-strike” had been denied. One jail attendant was quoted as saying ‘They ain’t on a bath-strike. They’re no dirtier than normal.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13887962']Yoneda’s activities in support of workers’ rights were well-established by that point. Born in New York City in 1906, Yoneda’s parents, Mollie and Nathan Buchman, were Russian Jewish immigrants who had fled Mazyr to escape anti-Jewish pogroms and conscription in the czar’s army. The Buchmans had met while working as children in a match factory. Yoneda was raised with resistance in mind, something that prompted her to move to Los Angeles and join the Communist Party in 1931.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 1933, Yoneda was in San Francisco, a city well-known for its unionization efforts. Yoneda quickly earned the nickname “The Red Angel,” for her work regularly bailing out trade unionists and Communist Party members from jail. (She met her husband Karl while getting him released after his arrest and beating at a labor demonstration in Los Angeles.) By 1939, Yoneda was campaigning to be elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors — a bid that was ultimately unsuccessful. Over the course of that decade though, Yoneda had become a powerful public speaker, “out of necessity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1977, while recording \u003ca href=\"https://californiarevealed.org/do/e746644b-7543-43fe-8b64-88132a2daf86\">an oral history of her life\u003c/a> with Lucille Kendall, she said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Perhaps I had a natural way with words. I don’t know, I can talk to this day — talk too much perhaps. … And to this day, I hate a loudspeaker. Because I’ve got this loud voice. I’d probably shatter everybody’s ears if I did talk into a loud speaker. … And usually my speaking was based around the fight for civil rights and constitutional rights and the right to organize and to preserve the Constitution and to enhance it where it needed enhancing.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>After two trials related to her high-profile 1934 arrest, the charges against Yoneda were finally dismissed. “They are not vagrants. They are Communists,” the appellate court judge ruled. Yoneda was identified as such on the first day of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Un-American Activities hearings in 1953. By then, the Yonedas were operating a farm in Cotati, but her political activities never ceased.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13931436']From the late 1950s until her retirement in 1973, Yoneda worked as a clerk for the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union Pacific Maritime Association pension fund. Yoneda remained a powerful union figurehead until her death in 1988. The week of her fatal heart attack, Yoneda had attended a union rally for then-presidential candidate \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Jackson\">Rev. Jesse Jackson\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite a life spent utterly entrenched in the often dramatic struggle for workers’ rights, Yoneda always spoke about her activism in a manner that was simple and matter-of-fact. That stoicism ultimately helped her keep a level head under any of the circumstances life threw at her, something thoroughly demonstrated in her oral history recordings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While talking about what it was like to be a prominent member of the Communist Party during a period when sexism was rampant, she explained:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The party’s principles and everything was against the domination of male chauvinism, as the terms of equality. And you found women in various posts, not only in the district offices, but in the national office and on the newspapers. … But there was male chauvinism in the ranks and even in some of the leaders because it was too new a concept for some of them. … I would point out: ‘Now, look, first of all, I am a comrade. … You know you are committing a crime against your own constitution, your own principles. You’re committing an act of male chauvinism.’\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Though Yoneda is often remembered for her bravery as one of the few non-Japanese spouses imprisoned at an American concentration camp in World War II, she later spoke about the eight-and-a-half month experience with some regret.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although I knew [Japanese internment] was a violation of basic human rights, I didn’t speak out against it,” she said. “I didn’t raise my voice in protest. And in fact, I even thought for a period that they weren’t really concentration camps, because to me, a concentration camp is the ovens. … Once we were in camp, we did ask for some sort of hearings so that those who wanted to fight the actions would be given that opportunity to actively fight it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13893514']Yoneda and her son were ultimately released after her husband Karl enlisted in the U.S. military’s intelligence service as a Japanese language specialist, first serving in Burma. In fact, Karl spent his own incarceration trying repeatedly to prove his faithfulness to anti-fascist efforts. He even helped to build the Manzanar concentration camp his family was subsequently imprisoned in. For years after the war, the Yonedas campaigned for Japanese reparations, traveling regularly to the Manzanar site to raise awareness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout her life, even while under pressure to cease her political activities, Yoneda shared her husband’s dedication to the United States. At one of her 1934 court dates, it was reported that Yoneda “saluted the America flag ‘on condition that it be deemed to stand for the rights of workers.’” In the end, that is her true legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe in minority parties,” she once said. “If you let the big shots run the country, what will happen to us?”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For Elaine Black Yoneda, it wasn’t a choice. When authorities informed her that her three-year-old son Tommy would be imprisoned in a concentration camp for the crime of being half-Japanese, Yoneda — a white Jewish woman — insisted on going with him. Her Japanese American husband Karl was already being detained at Manzanar, a camp in the desert beneath the Sierra Nevada mountains. Now, just as the Yonedas had adjusted to the idea of a long period of separation, they would live as a family once more — albeit behind barbed wire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so ironic,” Yoneda later told \u003ca href=\"https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/karl-yoneda-and-elaine-black-star-crossed-lovers-in-a-class-war/\">People’s World\u003c/a> journalist Tim Wheeler. “Only a few weeks earlier, I had been delivering soapbox speeches denouncing Nazi Germany for imprisoning Jews in Dachau. Here I was, a month later, demanding that I, a Jewish woman, be placed in a concentration camp.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It was not the first time in her life that Yoneda had found herself incarcerated. Her irrepressible activities on behalf of the Communist Party and unions had landed her behind bars more than once in the 1930s — most notably for her activities during the notorious General Strike that took place in San Francisco in 1934. At the time, Yoneda was the only woman serving on the West Coast Longshoremen’s strike committee. It was a period that she would later call “a reign of terror” by “the so-called Red Squad, the Intelligence Bureau.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That year, Yoneda was arrested on charges of vagrancy and disturbing the peace at a Communist Party meeting of several hundred people at San Francisco’s Jefferson Square. At the time, she was acting as an official for the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Labor_Defense\">International Labor Defense\u003c/a> and as secretary of the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Workers_Industrial_Union\">Marine Workers’ Industrial Union\u003c/a>. Yoneda made a point to attend such meetings and demonstrations with copies of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript\">Bill of Rights\u003c/a> on her person. (“I could quote [them] verse and chapter,” she later revealed.) After the meeting was raided, she was taken into custody for refusing to obey police orders to move on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within one week of her arrest and incarceration, Yoneda was on hunger strike alongside Margaret Marshall, the lone other woman arrested that day. An image printed by the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> on Aug. 6, 1934 showed the women sitting side by side, facing each other and pointedly away from food that had been placed on a table in front of them. A caption noted that “each [woman] has [a] different view on proper methods of showing their contempt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Yoneda’s activities in support of workers’ rights were well-established by that point. Born in New York City in 1906, Yoneda’s parents, Mollie and Nathan Buchman, were Russian Jewish immigrants who had fled Mazyr to escape anti-Jewish pogroms and conscription in the czar’s army. The Buchmans had met while working as children in a match factory. Yoneda was raised with resistance in mind, something that prompted her to move to Los Angeles and join the Communist Party in 1931.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 1933, Yoneda was in San Francisco, a city well-known for its unionization efforts. Yoneda quickly earned the nickname “The Red Angel,” for her work regularly bailing out trade unionists and Communist Party members from jail. (She met her husband Karl while getting him released after his arrest and beating at a labor demonstration in Los Angeles.) By 1939, Yoneda was campaigning to be elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors — a bid that was ultimately unsuccessful. Over the course of that decade though, Yoneda had become a powerful public speaker, “out of necessity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1977, while recording \u003ca href=\"https://californiarevealed.org/do/e746644b-7543-43fe-8b64-88132a2daf86\">an oral history of her life\u003c/a> with Lucille Kendall, she said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Perhaps I had a natural way with words. I don’t know, I can talk to this day — talk too much perhaps. … And to this day, I hate a loudspeaker. Because I’ve got this loud voice. I’d probably shatter everybody’s ears if I did talk into a loud speaker. … And usually my speaking was based around the fight for civil rights and constitutional rights and the right to organize and to preserve the Constitution and to enhance it where it needed enhancing.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>After two trials related to her high-profile 1934 arrest, the charges against Yoneda were finally dismissed. “They are not vagrants. They are Communists,” the appellate court judge ruled. Yoneda was identified as such on the first day of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Un-American Activities hearings in 1953. By then, the Yonedas were operating a farm in Cotati, but her political activities never ceased.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>From the late 1950s until her retirement in 1973, Yoneda worked as a clerk for the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union Pacific Maritime Association pension fund. Yoneda remained a powerful union figurehead until her death in 1988. The week of her fatal heart attack, Yoneda had attended a union rally for then-presidential candidate \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Jackson\">Rev. Jesse Jackson\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite a life spent utterly entrenched in the often dramatic struggle for workers’ rights, Yoneda always spoke about her activism in a manner that was simple and matter-of-fact. That stoicism ultimately helped her keep a level head under any of the circumstances life threw at her, something thoroughly demonstrated in her oral history recordings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While talking about what it was like to be a prominent member of the Communist Party during a period when sexism was rampant, she explained:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The party’s principles and everything was against the domination of male chauvinism, as the terms of equality. And you found women in various posts, not only in the district offices, but in the national office and on the newspapers. … But there was male chauvinism in the ranks and even in some of the leaders because it was too new a concept for some of them. … I would point out: ‘Now, look, first of all, I am a comrade. … You know you are committing a crime against your own constitution, your own principles. You’re committing an act of male chauvinism.’\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Though Yoneda is often remembered for her bravery as one of the few non-Japanese spouses imprisoned at an American concentration camp in World War II, she later spoke about the eight-and-a-half month experience with some regret.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although I knew [Japanese internment] was a violation of basic human rights, I didn’t speak out against it,” she said. “I didn’t raise my voice in protest. And in fact, I even thought for a period that they weren’t really concentration camps, because to me, a concentration camp is the ovens. … Once we were in camp, we did ask for some sort of hearings so that those who wanted to fight the actions would be given that opportunity to actively fight it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Yoneda and her son were ultimately released after her husband Karl enlisted in the U.S. military’s intelligence service as a Japanese language specialist, first serving in Burma. In fact, Karl spent his own incarceration trying repeatedly to prove his faithfulness to anti-fascist efforts. He even helped to build the Manzanar concentration camp his family was subsequently imprisoned in. For years after the war, the Yonedas campaigned for Japanese reparations, traveling regularly to the Manzanar site to raise awareness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout her life, even while under pressure to cease her political activities, Yoneda shared her husband’s dedication to the United States. At one of her 1934 court dates, it was reported that Yoneda “saluted the America flag ‘on condition that it be deemed to stand for the rights of workers.’” In the end, that is her true legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe in minority parties,” she once said. “If you let the big shots run the country, what will happen to us?”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>When beloved San Francisco drag artist \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13967427/sf-drag-artist-leads-hunger-strike-against-us-funding-of-israel\">Mama Ganuush\u003c/a> first arrived in the Bay Area from Egypt in 2009, they were unemployed, unhoused and recovering from years of homophobic persecution. Ganuush sought support at the Tenderloin Health Clinic and quickly happened upon the woman they would come to call their “chosen mother.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969370/remembering-nabila-mango-beloved-palestinian-community-organizer-and-choir-founder\">Nabila Mango\u003c/a> was then 65 years old, a former librarian and teacher who had pivoted into working as a therapist. The change of profession came about after a spike in anti-Arab hatred that followed Sept. 11, 2001. While Mango specifically started her job to assist at-risk people of Middle Eastern descent, her door was open to everyone in need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13970706']“Nabila, she saved my life when I came here,” Ganuush told KQED in 2023. After Mango offered Ganuush a room in her home, Ganuush said it was a direct path to getting their life on track. “I got a job, I settled down, and I became an executive in tech almost 10 years later.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time of Mango and Ganuush’s first meeting, it was second nature for Mango to forge these kinds of bonds and create paths for healing. In particular, her focus was on building bridges between different ethnicities and cultures. Mango changed professions repeatedly throughout her life in order to make that a reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prior to becoming a therapist, Mango taught Arabic at schools, including San Francisco City College and San Mateo’s Skyline College. Her lessons did not stop with language. Mango’s students were regularly invited to her San Mateo home to learn about Arabic music, literature and food, and to mingle with people for whom Arabic was a first language. Needless to say, this made her an enormously popular faculty member at all her schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first half of Mango’s life was largely structured around academic institutions. It was the desire to study library science that first brought her to the United States at the age of 21. She came to the country from Jordan, where she had lived since the age of four. Though Mango was born in Jaffa, her family was forced out of her homeland in 1948 during the Nakba: the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians after Israel was established. Mango’s family made their way to Jordan on foot in search of refuge. Mango’s daughter Bisan Shehadeh later noted, “Displacement was one of the greatest pains my mother carried.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13954260'] The only time Mango was ever able to return to her homeland was during a period of study at the West Bank’s Birzeit University, where she completed her associate degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mango adapted to American life quickly after arriving in 1965, despite some initial culture shocks. (“I was shocked at the dancing here,” Mango told the \u003cem>Philadelphia Inquirer\u003c/em> in 1966. “This is forbidden in Jordan. And we don’t date as they do here.”) Her goals around connection were clear from the moment she arrived. While still a student at Glassboro State College in New Jersey, Mango even visited a local ninth grade class to answer questions about life in the Middle East.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After graduation, Mango was employed in libraries at Harvard University and the University of Chicago. She worked as a translator and contributed to the book \u003cem>Kahlil Gibran: His Life and World\u003c/em>. (The book itself notes that she retrieved and translated “all the voluminous Arabic material consulted.” Those translations were also consulted for Jean Gibran’s 2017 book, \u003cem>Kahlil Gibran: Beyond Borders\u003c/em>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the mid-1970s, Mango returned to her studies, completing a PhD in Persian literary history at the University of Pennsylvania. While there, Mango acted as an officer of the Arab-American Federation of Pennsylvania. She also served as president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates. In those roles, Mango made regular public speaking appearances and took part in roundtables to discuss and highlight Palestinian issues to diverse audiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13964200']Mango headed to California happened after completing her studies. By 1982, she and her then-husband Saber Shehadeh welcomed their only daughter, and Mango successfully mingled motherhood with her ongoing activism. In the ’80s, seeking a role that would enable her to stay at home with her daughter, but also continue with her mission, Mango started a company to distribute Arabic books. By the ’90s, the business, which had a variety of names over the years, had expanded to also export computer products to Arab countries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1997’s \u003cem>Women’s Ventures, Women’s Visions\u003c/em> by Shoshana Alexander noted at the time that the business allowed Mango “the flexibility to devote time to teaching and promoting Arabic culture and heritage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was in 2000 that Mango co-founded the project that she was ultimately most widely recognized for: a musical collective named the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/aswat.ensemble/\">Aswat Ensemble\u003c/a>, which is still active today. Mango, who is said to have owned one of the largest collections of Arabic music in North America, initially wanted to ensure that old Palestinian folk songs were preserved and stayed in the cultural zeitgeist. But the longer Aswat continued, the more the group expanded both its philosophy and musical style.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNTbepxhYzA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2011, Aswat included musicians and singers from the Palestinian territories, Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, France, Morocco, Mexico, India, Jordan, Iran, Iraq and, yes, the United States. Many of the instruments utilized were traditional ones from the Middle East, including the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ney\">ney\u003c/a> (a sort of cane flute), \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanun_(instrument)\">qanun\u003c/a> (a style of zither), \u003ca href=\"https://majiddrums.com/riq/?lang=en\">riqat\u003c/a> (small tambourine), \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamancheh\">kamancheh\u003c/a> (a string instrument) and \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabla\">tabla\u003c/a> (hand drums).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October 2012, Mango told the \u003cem>San Francisco Bay Guardian\u003c/em> that the group’s songs “represent our feelings towards occupation [of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem], the beauty of the land, our civil rights in this country, the Arab American experience and fighting hate and misinformation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13919491']Five years later, during an interview with the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>, Mango described the Aswat ethos in a way that also solidly reflected her own. “We are convinced that once one has experienced the artistic richness of another culture,” she said, “they are much less likely to dehumanize them by seeing them through media-propagated stereotypes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mango’s work with Aswat led to other important projects, including Ayadi, a nonprofit that Mango founded to provide aid and support to low income Bay Area Arab and Muslim families. The organization’s activities included a communal dinner to feed scores of underprivileged families every Sunday. In 2012, she received a grant to develop \u003cem>Doorway to Islamic Civilization\u003c/em>, a series of arts and culture workshops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Aswat Ensemble and offshoots including Aswat Youth and Aswat Women’s Ensemble are all programs within Zawaya, a nonprofit that Mango served as executive director. Zawaya remains focused on preserving, producing, and promoting Arabic arts in the Bay Area, presenting regular art shows, theatrical productions and other opportunities for community gatherings, in addition to its focus on music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13976617\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13976617\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango.jpg\" alt=\"A senior woman with grey hair smiles, chin slightly lifted, with her arms folded in front of her. She is standing in front of a wood paneled wall.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nabila Mango. \u003ccite>(Najib Joe Hakim/Courtesy of Bisan Shehadeh )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 13, 2023, after a long, fiercely fought battle against cancer, Mango finally left the Earth that she wanted so badly to unite. In her lifetime, she was honored with several awards. She was the very first person to receive the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mecaforpeace.org/remembering-the-remarkable-nabila-mango/\">Middle East Children’s Alliance’s lifetime achievement award\u003c/a>. At the American Muslims for Palestine annual dinner in 2014, she was applauded for her work making “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CkfY-OBeq0\">art as a form of resistance\u003c/a>.” There was the Yuri Kochiyama Lifetime Achievement Award for Bravery and Activism from the Asian Law Caucus in 2011. But it’s not awards that Mango will be most remembered for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nabila Mango was a beautiful example of what happens when resistance is also rooted in an overriding sense of unity. Her focus was always on community — local \u003cem>and\u003c/em> global. One of her most powerful forms of protest was preserving Palestinian culture for generations to come. (The very act of doing so speaks to the danger the culture is in of being erased.) Mango also had a special way of imparting to everybody who crossed her path a sense of pride and dignity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13975160']One Aswat member, Rana Mroue, once noted, “Nabila gives you this chance to express your identity and to feel proud of sharing your identity as something beautiful and worthy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, shortly after Mango’s death, it was her daughter who summed up Mango’s magical powers best of all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She planted seeds, she watered them, she tended them and they grew into beautiful things,” Bisan Shehadeh told the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em>. “She made most people feel like they had a special relationship with her. That was the size of her heart.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When beloved San Francisco drag artist \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13967427/sf-drag-artist-leads-hunger-strike-against-us-funding-of-israel\">Mama Ganuush\u003c/a> first arrived in the Bay Area from Egypt in 2009, they were unemployed, unhoused and recovering from years of homophobic persecution. Ganuush sought support at the Tenderloin Health Clinic and quickly happened upon the woman they would come to call their “chosen mother.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969370/remembering-nabila-mango-beloved-palestinian-community-organizer-and-choir-founder\">Nabila Mango\u003c/a> was then 65 years old, a former librarian and teacher who had pivoted into working as a therapist. The change of profession came about after a spike in anti-Arab hatred that followed Sept. 11, 2001. While Mango specifically started her job to assist at-risk people of Middle Eastern descent, her door was open to everyone in need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Nabila, she saved my life when I came here,” Ganuush told KQED in 2023. After Mango offered Ganuush a room in her home, Ganuush said it was a direct path to getting their life on track. “I got a job, I settled down, and I became an executive in tech almost 10 years later.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time of Mango and Ganuush’s first meeting, it was second nature for Mango to forge these kinds of bonds and create paths for healing. In particular, her focus was on building bridges between different ethnicities and cultures. Mango changed professions repeatedly throughout her life in order to make that a reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prior to becoming a therapist, Mango taught Arabic at schools, including San Francisco City College and San Mateo’s Skyline College. Her lessons did not stop with language. Mango’s students were regularly invited to her San Mateo home to learn about Arabic music, literature and food, and to mingle with people for whom Arabic was a first language. Needless to say, this made her an enormously popular faculty member at all her schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first half of Mango’s life was largely structured around academic institutions. It was the desire to study library science that first brought her to the United States at the age of 21. She came to the country from Jordan, where she had lived since the age of four. Though Mango was born in Jaffa, her family was forced out of her homeland in 1948 during the Nakba: the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians after Israel was established. Mango’s family made their way to Jordan on foot in search of refuge. Mango’s daughter Bisan Shehadeh later noted, “Displacement was one of the greatest pains my mother carried.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> The only time Mango was ever able to return to her homeland was during a period of study at the West Bank’s Birzeit University, where she completed her associate degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mango adapted to American life quickly after arriving in 1965, despite some initial culture shocks. (“I was shocked at the dancing here,” Mango told the \u003cem>Philadelphia Inquirer\u003c/em> in 1966. “This is forbidden in Jordan. And we don’t date as they do here.”) Her goals around connection were clear from the moment she arrived. While still a student at Glassboro State College in New Jersey, Mango even visited a local ninth grade class to answer questions about life in the Middle East.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After graduation, Mango was employed in libraries at Harvard University and the University of Chicago. She worked as a translator and contributed to the book \u003cem>Kahlil Gibran: His Life and World\u003c/em>. (The book itself notes that she retrieved and translated “all the voluminous Arabic material consulted.” Those translations were also consulted for Jean Gibran’s 2017 book, \u003cem>Kahlil Gibran: Beyond Borders\u003c/em>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the mid-1970s, Mango returned to her studies, completing a PhD in Persian literary history at the University of Pennsylvania. While there, Mango acted as an officer of the Arab-American Federation of Pennsylvania. She also served as president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates. In those roles, Mango made regular public speaking appearances and took part in roundtables to discuss and highlight Palestinian issues to diverse audiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Mango headed to California happened after completing her studies. By 1982, she and her then-husband Saber Shehadeh welcomed their only daughter, and Mango successfully mingled motherhood with her ongoing activism. In the ’80s, seeking a role that would enable her to stay at home with her daughter, but also continue with her mission, Mango started a company to distribute Arabic books. By the ’90s, the business, which had a variety of names over the years, had expanded to also export computer products to Arab countries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1997’s \u003cem>Women’s Ventures, Women’s Visions\u003c/em> by Shoshana Alexander noted at the time that the business allowed Mango “the flexibility to devote time to teaching and promoting Arabic culture and heritage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was in 2000 that Mango co-founded the project that she was ultimately most widely recognized for: a musical collective named the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/aswat.ensemble/\">Aswat Ensemble\u003c/a>, which is still active today. Mango, who is said to have owned one of the largest collections of Arabic music in North America, initially wanted to ensure that old Palestinian folk songs were preserved and stayed in the cultural zeitgeist. But the longer Aswat continued, the more the group expanded both its philosophy and musical style.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/iNTbepxhYzA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/iNTbepxhYzA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>By 2011, Aswat included musicians and singers from the Palestinian territories, Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, France, Morocco, Mexico, India, Jordan, Iran, Iraq and, yes, the United States. Many of the instruments utilized were traditional ones from the Middle East, including the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ney\">ney\u003c/a> (a sort of cane flute), \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanun_(instrument)\">qanun\u003c/a> (a style of zither), \u003ca href=\"https://majiddrums.com/riq/?lang=en\">riqat\u003c/a> (small tambourine), \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamancheh\">kamancheh\u003c/a> (a string instrument) and \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabla\">tabla\u003c/a> (hand drums).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October 2012, Mango told the \u003cem>San Francisco Bay Guardian\u003c/em> that the group’s songs “represent our feelings towards occupation [of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem], the beauty of the land, our civil rights in this country, the Arab American experience and fighting hate and misinformation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Five years later, during an interview with the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>, Mango described the Aswat ethos in a way that also solidly reflected her own. “We are convinced that once one has experienced the artistic richness of another culture,” she said, “they are much less likely to dehumanize them by seeing them through media-propagated stereotypes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mango’s work with Aswat led to other important projects, including Ayadi, a nonprofit that Mango founded to provide aid and support to low income Bay Area Arab and Muslim families. The organization’s activities included a communal dinner to feed scores of underprivileged families every Sunday. In 2012, she received a grant to develop \u003cem>Doorway to Islamic Civilization\u003c/em>, a series of arts and culture workshops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Aswat Ensemble and offshoots including Aswat Youth and Aswat Women’s Ensemble are all programs within Zawaya, a nonprofit that Mango served as executive director. Zawaya remains focused on preserving, producing, and promoting Arabic arts in the Bay Area, presenting regular art shows, theatrical productions and other opportunities for community gatherings, in addition to its focus on music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13976617\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13976617\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango.jpg\" alt=\"A senior woman with grey hair smiles, chin slightly lifted, with her arms folded in front of her. She is standing in front of a wood paneled wall.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/N-Mango-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nabila Mango. \u003ccite>(Najib Joe Hakim/Courtesy of Bisan Shehadeh )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 13, 2023, after a long, fiercely fought battle against cancer, Mango finally left the Earth that she wanted so badly to unite. In her lifetime, she was honored with several awards. She was the very first person to receive the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mecaforpeace.org/remembering-the-remarkable-nabila-mango/\">Middle East Children’s Alliance’s lifetime achievement award\u003c/a>. At the American Muslims for Palestine annual dinner in 2014, she was applauded for her work making “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CkfY-OBeq0\">art as a form of resistance\u003c/a>.” There was the Yuri Kochiyama Lifetime Achievement Award for Bravery and Activism from the Asian Law Caucus in 2011. But it’s not awards that Mango will be most remembered for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nabila Mango was a beautiful example of what happens when resistance is also rooted in an overriding sense of unity. Her focus was always on community — local \u003cem>and\u003c/em> global. One of her most powerful forms of protest was preserving Palestinian culture for generations to come. (The very act of doing so speaks to the danger the culture is in of being erased.) Mango also had a special way of imparting to everybody who crossed her path a sense of pride and dignity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One Aswat member, Rana Mroue, once noted, “Nabila gives you this chance to express your identity and to feel proud of sharing your identity as something beautiful and worthy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, shortly after Mango’s death, it was her daughter who summed up Mango’s magical powers best of all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She planted seeds, she watered them, she tended them and they grew into beautiful things,” Bisan Shehadeh told the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em>. “She made most people feel like they had a special relationship with her. That was the size of her heart.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The ‘Rolling Warrior’ Who Demanded Equality for People With Disabilities",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://video.kqed.org/video/brief-but-spectacular-1678142686/\">Judy Heumann\u003c/a> never felt ashamed to use a wheelchair. Rather, what she felt most consistently throughout her life was fury at the many ways she was routinely excluded by a world that treated disabled people as second-class citizens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Disability isn’t a tragedy,” she said in 1990. “The tragedy is being excluded from contributing to society because of a narrow doorway, or lack of a diploma or job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13955066']Heumann knew all about being excluded. After losing her ability to walk in 1949 after a bout of polio at 18 months old, the New Yorker was denied a place in her local school because the administration there considered her “a fire hazard.” At 9 or 10, she was permitted to join special education classes in the basement of a Brooklyn school. (“We respected each other,” Huemann later said of her classmates, but “in some way, even when we were that young, we all knew we were being sidelined.”) In 1970, despite being qualified to receive her teaching license, the New York City Board of Education deemed her too much of a risk to allow in classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heumann quickly realized that even organizations set up to battle discrimination might exclude her. When she called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/aclu\">ACLU\u003c/a> for legal assistance in her fight against the Board of Education, the 22-year-old was told that being denied a teaching license for “medical reasons” didn’t count as discrimination. Heumann wrote in her 2020 autobiography \u003cem>Being Heumann\u003c/em>, that she was frustrated to realize that even the 1964 Civil Rights Act excluded her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[The act is] intended to end discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion and natural origin, but made no mention of disability. There was no law I could quote or legal precedent to cite … There were no disability rights organizations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was then that Heumann began her lifelong work to methodically and systematically transform America for people with disabilities. She refused to be daunted in the face of much more powerful forces. She refused to back down from any of her battles, no matter what blocked her path. And by the time of her death in 2023, at the age of 75, Heumann’s impact was seismic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heumann’s life of activism began when she decided to ignore the ACLU’s assessment that she wasn’t being discriminated against. Instead, she sued the Board of Education and won. As a result, Heumann became the first wheelchair-using teacher in New York. In the course of that battle, she also founded and became president of \u003ca href=\"https://www.disabledinaction.org/\">Disabled in Action\u003c/a> (DIA). The disability rights organization used protests, letter-writing campaigns, statements at public hearings and calls to public officials to make headway with their struggles. Its members absolutely refused to blend into the background.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13966863\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1662px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13966863\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest.jpg\" alt=\"Men and women — some of them using wheelchairs — carry protest signs in the street.\" width=\"1662\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest.jpg 1662w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest-800x963.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest-1020x1227.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest-160x193.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest-768x924.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest-1276x1536.jpg 1276w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1662px) 100vw, 1662px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Judy Heumann, protesting at San Francisco’s Civic Center in May 1980. \u003ccite>(San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t just come to meetings,” Heumann said in the 2020 documentary \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13877373/now-playing-crip-camp-recalls-coming-of-age-through-activism\">\u003cem>Crip Camp\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. “We yelled out at meetings, we challenged people. We were definitely considered a militant organization because we were very strong in our actions; because we disrupted things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heumann brought that energy with her when she first came to study at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/uc-berkeley\">UC Berkeley\u003c/a>. After earning a degree in speech therapy from Long Island University in 1969, Heumann got her master’s in public health at Berkeley in 1975. On campus, she was energized by the wealth of student organizing taking place during the era and joined the board of the \u003ca href=\"https://thecil.org/\">Center for Independent Living\u003c/a> (CIL) in 1973. CIL had been founded a year earlier by Ed Roberts, the first wheelchair user to attend UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13964200']The organization was determined to act as a support network for people with disabilities, offering accessible transit, personal assistant referrals, help locating suitable housing and jobs, and even running a wheelchair repair shop. CIL’s end goal was self-sufficiency for all disabled people. Heumann’s focus, as always, was turning community frustration into positive action. Her talent for doing so would become abundantly clear in April 1977, when she and around 100 other protesters staged a 26-day sit-in at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare inside San Francisco’s Federal Building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lengthy protest was all part of an effort to get Section 504 of 1973’s Rehabilitation Act signed and enacted by the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Section 504 prohibited discrimination by any organization that was receiving federal funds. (Incidentally, President Nixon only signed the Rehabilitation Act after Heumann and 50 other protesters shut down a major intersection of Manhattan with a protest outside Nixon’s New York headquarters.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heumann and her cohorts knew that getting the measure signed would force a major change in how public transport, public buildings, schools and a variety of other institutions accommodated people with disabilities. The sit-in was especially arduous for the protesters due to their reliance on medications, assistants and therapeutic equipment. Nevertheless, they persisted, with Heumann often singing to keep spirits lifted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13877414\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13877414\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/01078_HolLynnDLil_504-early-rally_folder-0-image-13_REF_COVER.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a wheelchair speaks enthusiastically into a microphone. She is wearing an anorak and glasses.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/01078_HolLynnDLil_504-early-rally_folder-0-image-13_REF_COVER.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/01078_HolLynnDLil_504-early-rally_folder-0-image-13_REF_COVER-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/01078_HolLynnDLil_504-early-rally_folder-0-image-13_REF_COVER-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/01078_HolLynnDLil_504-early-rally_folder-0-image-13_REF_COVER-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/01078_HolLynnDLil_504-early-rally_folder-0-image-13_REF_COVER-1020x574.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Judy Heumann at the mic in 1980. \u003ccite>(HolLynn D'Lil)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Heumann and her friends had outside support too. Civil rights groups across the Bay Area rushed to support the sit-in. The Black Panthers brought the protesters hot meals on a nightly basis. Union members, multiple civil rights organizations and key leaders at GLIDE (including Rev. Cecil Williams) were vocal supporters who stepped up to offer assistance in whatever way they could.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a lengthy standoff — including attempts to cut off protesters’ access to phones, hot water and food (several, including Heumann, had opted to go on hunger strike regardless) — Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph Califano finally signed Section 504. Heumann highlighted to the press that the sustained protest was proof of disabled people’s “stamina, strength [and] intelligence.” She understood how limited public perceptions were at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elated at their victory, Heumann and her fellow protesters knew there was still much to be done. Though on paper, Section 504 meant federally funded entities must accommodate disabled people, excuses were made repeatedly about why action would not be taken immediately. (The American Public Transit Association, for example, said it couldn’t afford to put wheelchair lifts into buses, even though the cost was the same as installing air conditioning). To make matters worse, better legal protections were still badly needed at a federal level to make all public places more accessible, and to make employer discrimination illegal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13919491']During this period, Heumann continued to campaign in earnest as CIL’s senior deputy director. In Oakland, she co-founded the World Institute on Disability (WID) to begin advocating for disability rights around the globe. CIL also set up a new organization to better handle ongoing legal matters. The \u003ca href=\"https://dredf.org/\">Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund\u003c/a> (DREDF) was the first legal organization run by and for people with disabilities. As such, it was inundated with calls from people all over the U.S. seeking advice on how to make their own towns and cities more accessible. But DREDF had already begun formulating a big idea to touch every corner of America in one swoop: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took until 1988 for the first version of the ADA to reach Congress. It failed to pass. A second version arrived in May 1989, but when it still hadn’t passed 10 months later, 1,000 protesters descended on Washington, D.C. to make their voices heard. Scores of disabled activists dropped to the ground and literally dragged themselves up the 83 inaccessible steps of the Capitol building. It was an image that lawmakers wouldn’t soon forget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush finally signed the ADA into law. “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down,” he declared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just three years later, Heumann would take on the role of assistant secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in Bill Clinton’s Department of Education. She served for the duration of the president’s term, as she did when Barack Obama gave her the role of special advisor for international disability rights in the Department of State.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the rest of her life, Heumann never, ever stopped advocating for people with disabilities. And when she received praise for the multitude of ways she helped change countless lives for the better, her response was always rooted in humility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she wrote in her 2021 book, \u003cem>Rolling Warrior\u003c/em>: “All we did was refuse to believe that we were the problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://video.kqed.org/video/brief-but-spectacular-1678142686/\">Judy Heumann\u003c/a> never felt ashamed to use a wheelchair. Rather, what she felt most consistently throughout her life was fury at the many ways she was routinely excluded by a world that treated disabled people as second-class citizens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Disability isn’t a tragedy,” she said in 1990. “The tragedy is being excluded from contributing to society because of a narrow doorway, or lack of a diploma or job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Heumann knew all about being excluded. After losing her ability to walk in 1949 after a bout of polio at 18 months old, the New Yorker was denied a place in her local school because the administration there considered her “a fire hazard.” At 9 or 10, she was permitted to join special education classes in the basement of a Brooklyn school. (“We respected each other,” Huemann later said of her classmates, but “in some way, even when we were that young, we all knew we were being sidelined.”) In 1970, despite being qualified to receive her teaching license, the New York City Board of Education deemed her too much of a risk to allow in classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heumann quickly realized that even organizations set up to battle discrimination might exclude her. When she called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/aclu\">ACLU\u003c/a> for legal assistance in her fight against the Board of Education, the 22-year-old was told that being denied a teaching license for “medical reasons” didn’t count as discrimination. Heumann wrote in her 2020 autobiography \u003cem>Being Heumann\u003c/em>, that she was frustrated to realize that even the 1964 Civil Rights Act excluded her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[The act is] intended to end discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion and natural origin, but made no mention of disability. There was no law I could quote or legal precedent to cite … There were no disability rights organizations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was then that Heumann began her lifelong work to methodically and systematically transform America for people with disabilities. She refused to be daunted in the face of much more powerful forces. She refused to back down from any of her battles, no matter what blocked her path. And by the time of her death in 2023, at the age of 75, Heumann’s impact was seismic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heumann’s life of activism began when she decided to ignore the ACLU’s assessment that she wasn’t being discriminated against. Instead, she sued the Board of Education and won. As a result, Heumann became the first wheelchair-using teacher in New York. In the course of that battle, she also founded and became president of \u003ca href=\"https://www.disabledinaction.org/\">Disabled in Action\u003c/a> (DIA). The disability rights organization used protests, letter-writing campaigns, statements at public hearings and calls to public officials to make headway with their struggles. Its members absolutely refused to blend into the background.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13966863\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1662px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13966863\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest.jpg\" alt=\"Men and women — some of them using wheelchairs — carry protest signs in the street.\" width=\"1662\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest.jpg 1662w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest-800x963.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest-1020x1227.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest-160x193.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest-768x924.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/judy-protest-1276x1536.jpg 1276w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1662px) 100vw, 1662px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Judy Heumann, protesting at San Francisco’s Civic Center in May 1980. \u003ccite>(San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t just come to meetings,” Heumann said in the 2020 documentary \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13877373/now-playing-crip-camp-recalls-coming-of-age-through-activism\">\u003cem>Crip Camp\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. “We yelled out at meetings, we challenged people. We were definitely considered a militant organization because we were very strong in our actions; because we disrupted things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heumann brought that energy with her when she first came to study at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/uc-berkeley\">UC Berkeley\u003c/a>. After earning a degree in speech therapy from Long Island University in 1969, Heumann got her master’s in public health at Berkeley in 1975. On campus, she was energized by the wealth of student organizing taking place during the era and joined the board of the \u003ca href=\"https://thecil.org/\">Center for Independent Living\u003c/a> (CIL) in 1973. CIL had been founded a year earlier by Ed Roberts, the first wheelchair user to attend UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The organization was determined to act as a support network for people with disabilities, offering accessible transit, personal assistant referrals, help locating suitable housing and jobs, and even running a wheelchair repair shop. CIL’s end goal was self-sufficiency for all disabled people. Heumann’s focus, as always, was turning community frustration into positive action. Her talent for doing so would become abundantly clear in April 1977, when she and around 100 other protesters staged a 26-day sit-in at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare inside San Francisco’s Federal Building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lengthy protest was all part of an effort to get Section 504 of 1973’s Rehabilitation Act signed and enacted by the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Section 504 prohibited discrimination by any organization that was receiving federal funds. (Incidentally, President Nixon only signed the Rehabilitation Act after Heumann and 50 other protesters shut down a major intersection of Manhattan with a protest outside Nixon’s New York headquarters.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heumann and her cohorts knew that getting the measure signed would force a major change in how public transport, public buildings, schools and a variety of other institutions accommodated people with disabilities. The sit-in was especially arduous for the protesters due to their reliance on medications, assistants and therapeutic equipment. Nevertheless, they persisted, with Heumann often singing to keep spirits lifted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13877414\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13877414\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/01078_HolLynnDLil_504-early-rally_folder-0-image-13_REF_COVER.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a wheelchair speaks enthusiastically into a microphone. She is wearing an anorak and glasses.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/01078_HolLynnDLil_504-early-rally_folder-0-image-13_REF_COVER.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/01078_HolLynnDLil_504-early-rally_folder-0-image-13_REF_COVER-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/01078_HolLynnDLil_504-early-rally_folder-0-image-13_REF_COVER-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/01078_HolLynnDLil_504-early-rally_folder-0-image-13_REF_COVER-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/01078_HolLynnDLil_504-early-rally_folder-0-image-13_REF_COVER-1020x574.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Judy Heumann at the mic in 1980. \u003ccite>(HolLynn D'Lil)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Heumann and her friends had outside support too. Civil rights groups across the Bay Area rushed to support the sit-in. The Black Panthers brought the protesters hot meals on a nightly basis. Union members, multiple civil rights organizations and key leaders at GLIDE (including Rev. Cecil Williams) were vocal supporters who stepped up to offer assistance in whatever way they could.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a lengthy standoff — including attempts to cut off protesters’ access to phones, hot water and food (several, including Heumann, had opted to go on hunger strike regardless) — Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph Califano finally signed Section 504. Heumann highlighted to the press that the sustained protest was proof of disabled people’s “stamina, strength [and] intelligence.” She understood how limited public perceptions were at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elated at their victory, Heumann and her fellow protesters knew there was still much to be done. Though on paper, Section 504 meant federally funded entities must accommodate disabled people, excuses were made repeatedly about why action would not be taken immediately. (The American Public Transit Association, for example, said it couldn’t afford to put wheelchair lifts into buses, even though the cost was the same as installing air conditioning). To make matters worse, better legal protections were still badly needed at a federal level to make all public places more accessible, and to make employer discrimination illegal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>During this period, Heumann continued to campaign in earnest as CIL’s senior deputy director. In Oakland, she co-founded the World Institute on Disability (WID) to begin advocating for disability rights around the globe. CIL also set up a new organization to better handle ongoing legal matters. The \u003ca href=\"https://dredf.org/\">Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund\u003c/a> (DREDF) was the first legal organization run by and for people with disabilities. As such, it was inundated with calls from people all over the U.S. seeking advice on how to make their own towns and cities more accessible. But DREDF had already begun formulating a big idea to touch every corner of America in one swoop: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took until 1988 for the first version of the ADA to reach Congress. It failed to pass. A second version arrived in May 1989, but when it still hadn’t passed 10 months later, 1,000 protesters descended on Washington, D.C. to make their voices heard. Scores of disabled activists dropped to the ground and literally dragged themselves up the 83 inaccessible steps of the Capitol building. It was an image that lawmakers wouldn’t soon forget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush finally signed the ADA into law. “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down,” he declared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just three years later, Heumann would take on the role of assistant secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in Bill Clinton’s Department of Education. She served for the duration of the president’s term, as she did when Barack Obama gave her the role of special advisor for international disability rights in the Department of State.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the rest of her life, Heumann never, ever stopped advocating for people with disabilities. And when she received praise for the multitude of ways she helped change countless lives for the better, her response was always rooted in humility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she wrote in her 2021 book, \u003cem>Rolling Warrior\u003c/em>: “All we did was refuse to believe that we were the problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In January 1970, Violeta ‘Bullet’ Marasigan’s husband implored her to not “bring any more work home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quoted in a \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> profile, Pete Marasigan was, the newspaper reported, only half-joking. Because when Violeta Marasigan brought the office home with her, it wasn’t stacks of papers and files. More often than not, it was human beings that needed food or a bed for the night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marasigan had been in nonstop action since 1968, when she was hired by San Francisco’s United Filipino Association (UFA) as a social worker. Born in the Philippines in 1939, Marasigan had moved to California to study at San Francisco State College. Shortly after graduation, the UFA brought her on to assist the elders — or \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manong#:~:text=Manong%20(Mah%2Dnoh%2Dng,given%20to%20an%20older%20sister.\">manongs\u003c/a> \u003c/em>— of Manilatown, a 10-block stretch of Filipino businesses, restaurants and social hubs centered around Kearny and Jackson Streets in San Francisco. She was perfect for the position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13929289']“I’m very optimistic,” she later explained. “I think a lot of things can be done if we really put ourselves in it — [and] not half-heartedly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was nothing half-hearted about Marasigan. She spent her entire life fighting for Filipinos, both in the Bay and abroad. Her nickname “Bullet” was coined while still in her teens; “Bolet” is a Tagalog version of the name Violeta, but Marasigan’s moniker morphed into “Bullet” once her friends realized how impossible it was to stand in her way. That much became clear to San Francisco as soon as Marasigan joined forces with the UFA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I started working with the old men,” she told the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> in 1970, “I saw that they were discriminated against in terms of their access to social services. A lot of them had been here for over 30 years, but they could still barely speak English or write. These manongs were mostly single retired farmworkers and seamen living on social security retirement benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marasigan quickly deduced that most of these men — frequently World War II veterans — were not receiving all of the SSI benefits they were entitled to. (Some were receiving less than half of the appropriate amount.) Marasigan took it upon herself to bring these men into the Social Security office and advocate for each of them, one by one, until they each received what they were owed. And they were owed a lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the U.S. colonized the Philippines in 1898, Filipino men became a cheap labor source for American companies, particularly in agriculture, canneries and the merchant navy. In the 1920s, 100,000 workers arrived from the Philippines to the U.S. to work. But not only were these men barred from bringing their families with them, by 1933 in California, they had also been prohibited from marrying outside of their race. (That year, the California senate saw fit to add “Malay” to the state’s interracial marriage ban, thereby \u003ca href=\"https://www.cschs.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/History-Resources-Articles-Caragozian-Ban-on-Interracial-Marriages.pdf\">preventing Filipino men from marrying\u003c/a> most of the women in their vicinity.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13874853']With so many barriers to building a traditional family structure, it became essential for this first wave of manongs to form their own communities. Manilatown was central to that, and central to Manilatown was the International Hotel (often called the “I-Hotel”). The three-story structure at 838 Kearny Street housed 200 residents — mostly elderly and impoverished Filipino and Chinese men. The UFA’s headquarters, appropriately enough, was situated directly next door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Autumn of 1968, Marasigan and the UFA faced their biggest challenge yet. Residents at the I-Hotel began receiving eviction notices. (The business that owned the property, Milton Meyer and Company, wanted to turn the hotel into a multi-level parking lot.) Residents, students and other civil rights groups banded together to keep the I-Hotel open; Marasigan was a key player in negotiating the hotel a new three-year lease in 1969.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marasigan couldn’t have known that just four years later, the hotel would be sold to a developer. Then, on Aug. 7, 1977, 400 police officers forced their way through a human chain around the I-Hotel and forcibly dragged out its residents, bringing an end to the hotel — and Manilatown itself — for good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13966696\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13966696\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel.jpg\" alt=\"Men and women in 1970s clothing cluster together outside a building with a sign that says 'International Hotel' on it. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel-800x571.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel-1020x728.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel-768x548.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel-1536x1096.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel-1920x1370.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters gathered outside the International Hotel for days before police forcibly emptied the building. This image was taken on Aug. 3, 1977. \u003ccite>(Dave Randolph/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Marasigan was not there to see the end of the hotel she fought so hard to save. She had returned to Manila in 1971, quickly joining the resistance against Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator that placed the Philippines under martial law, put an end to the free press and began violently oppressing civilians. Marasigan proved herself once more to be an outspoken activist, visiting and raising money for political prisoners. For her trouble, Marasigan was arrested in 1982 on explosives charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13955066']Marasigan spent a year incarcerated at the infamous \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Crame\">Camp Crame\u003c/a> before being fully exonerated. During her time as a political prisoner, Marasigan helped organize inmates, held political discussions and even conducted a 22-day hunger strike. In 1995, looking back on the turbulent time, she told the \u003cem>Examiner\u003c/em>, “The only thing explosive about me was my mouth and my farts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She expanded: “Filipinos laugh a lot. We laugh at our mistakes. It’s one of the strengths we have. We can also fight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And fight she did. Undeterred by her time in Camp Crame, in 1984, she co-founded \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriela_Women%27s_Party\">Gabriela Women’s Party\u003c/a> — an organization formed after 10,000 women marched against Marcos, defying a ban on protests. That same year, Maragisan also helped found \u003ca href=\"https://seldapilipinas.wordpress.com/about/\">Selda\u003c/a>, an advocacy organization by and for political prisoners. As part of her work with Gabriela and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Maragisan had a hand in opening two safe havens for women: the \u003ca href=\"http://www.genuinesecurity.org/partners/buklod.htm\">Buklod Center in Olongapo City\u003c/a>, geared towards sex workers, and the \u003ca href=\"https://batiscenterforwomen.wordpress.com/about/history/\">Batis Center for Women\u003c/a> in Quezon City, which focused on female migrant workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marasigan finally came back to the Bay in 1988 and, though there was no Manilatown to return to, went straight back to work for Filipino immigrants. She worked as a social worker at \u003ca href=\"https://www.somapilipinas.org/community-1/2018/7/13/west-bay-pilipino-multi-service-center\">West Bay Filipino Multi-Services\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthright360.org/parent-program/asian-american-recovery-services/\">Asian American Recovery Services\u003c/a> and the Veterans Equity Center (now known as the \u003ca href=\"https://asianpacificfund.org/affiliate/veterans-equity-center-2/\">Bayanihan Equity Center\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the 1990s, while based in Daly City, Marasigan remained focused on seniors and veterans, setting up food and clothing banks at two separate Mission Street locations. In 1993, she co-founded the Friends of Filipino American Veterans to conduct “direct action, legal aid, advocacy and outreach programs for the veterans.” In 1994, she was president of the Filipino American Human Rights Advocates. Around this time, the editor in chief of \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipinas_(magazine)\">\u003cem>Filipinas\u003c/em> magazine\u003c/a> Rene Ciria-Cruz called Marasigan “old reliable,” and noted: “She’s a symbol of activism. When she’s there it lends a validity to the cause being taken up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marasigan broadened her focus even further in the ’90s, working more with children and teens — a natural progression, after she’d raised four daughters and a son of her own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13921886']In 1995, Marasigan volunteered with the Bilingual Advisory Council of Balboa Park’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/school/james-denman-middle-school\">James Denman Middle School\u003c/a>, was a member of the School Advisory Council and actively worked with teens on AIDS prevention. An article in the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> that year reported that she was prone to bluntly asking the teens at the West Bay Filipino Center on Mission St. if they were sexually active.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they cannot say ‘no’ right away,” she explained, “I grab their hand and say ‘Talk to me.’ I’m straight with them. I answer their questions and I don’t get embarrassed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marasigan wasn’t afraid to enter a classroom and tell kids something they’d never heard before — be it about safe sex or their own history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the curriculum,” she said at the time, “there is no cultural empowerment of other groups. Last week, we had a support group at Balboa, and we showed them Filipino history in America, and they were so surprised … How could our children have self-esteem in school when they don’t see they are part of the history of America?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, Marasigan’s life of service was suddenly cut short by an accident in April 2000. She had just gotten out of her parked car when it rolled down the street, knocking her to the ground. She was 61.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Memorial-Service-Held-at-City-Hall-For-Activist-2784544.php\">packed memorial service\u003c/a> for her at San Francisco’s City Hall, tributes poured in from Mayor Willie Brown, several supervisors (including Tom Ammiano and Mabel Teng) and a plethora of friends and associates. Supervisor Leland Yee didn’t mince words.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anyone with the name ‘Bullet,’ you don’t want to mess around with,” Yee said. “When you lose someone like that, you lose part of your soul.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Marasigan’s final triumphs in life was successfully fighting to re-open the \u003ca href=\"https://www.galingbata.org/\">Filipino Education Center\u003c/a> — a bilingual school and daycare for immigrant children. She believed this was an essential grounding place that would enable future generations of Filipinos to thrive in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we’re gone,” she explained in 1995, “the work will continue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In January 1970, Violeta ‘Bullet’ Marasigan’s husband implored her to not “bring any more work home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quoted in a \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> profile, Pete Marasigan was, the newspaper reported, only half-joking. Because when Violeta Marasigan brought the office home with her, it wasn’t stacks of papers and files. More often than not, it was human beings that needed food or a bed for the night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marasigan had been in nonstop action since 1968, when she was hired by San Francisco’s United Filipino Association (UFA) as a social worker. Born in the Philippines in 1939, Marasigan had moved to California to study at San Francisco State College. Shortly after graduation, the UFA brought her on to assist the elders — or \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manong#:~:text=Manong%20(Mah%2Dnoh%2Dng,given%20to%20an%20older%20sister.\">manongs\u003c/a> \u003c/em>— of Manilatown, a 10-block stretch of Filipino businesses, restaurants and social hubs centered around Kearny and Jackson Streets in San Francisco. She was perfect for the position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I’m very optimistic,” she later explained. “I think a lot of things can be done if we really put ourselves in it — [and] not half-heartedly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was nothing half-hearted about Marasigan. She spent her entire life fighting for Filipinos, both in the Bay and abroad. Her nickname “Bullet” was coined while still in her teens; “Bolet” is a Tagalog version of the name Violeta, but Marasigan’s moniker morphed into “Bullet” once her friends realized how impossible it was to stand in her way. That much became clear to San Francisco as soon as Marasigan joined forces with the UFA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I started working with the old men,” she told the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> in 1970, “I saw that they were discriminated against in terms of their access to social services. A lot of them had been here for over 30 years, but they could still barely speak English or write. These manongs were mostly single retired farmworkers and seamen living on social security retirement benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marasigan quickly deduced that most of these men — frequently World War II veterans — were not receiving all of the SSI benefits they were entitled to. (Some were receiving less than half of the appropriate amount.) Marasigan took it upon herself to bring these men into the Social Security office and advocate for each of them, one by one, until they each received what they were owed. And they were owed a lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the U.S. colonized the Philippines in 1898, Filipino men became a cheap labor source for American companies, particularly in agriculture, canneries and the merchant navy. In the 1920s, 100,000 workers arrived from the Philippines to the U.S. to work. But not only were these men barred from bringing their families with them, by 1933 in California, they had also been prohibited from marrying outside of their race. (That year, the California senate saw fit to add “Malay” to the state’s interracial marriage ban, thereby \u003ca href=\"https://www.cschs.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/History-Resources-Articles-Caragozian-Ban-on-Interracial-Marriages.pdf\">preventing Filipino men from marrying\u003c/a> most of the women in their vicinity.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>With so many barriers to building a traditional family structure, it became essential for this first wave of manongs to form their own communities. Manilatown was central to that, and central to Manilatown was the International Hotel (often called the “I-Hotel”). The three-story structure at 838 Kearny Street housed 200 residents — mostly elderly and impoverished Filipino and Chinese men. The UFA’s headquarters, appropriately enough, was situated directly next door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Autumn of 1968, Marasigan and the UFA faced their biggest challenge yet. Residents at the I-Hotel began receiving eviction notices. (The business that owned the property, Milton Meyer and Company, wanted to turn the hotel into a multi-level parking lot.) Residents, students and other civil rights groups banded together to keep the I-Hotel open; Marasigan was a key player in negotiating the hotel a new three-year lease in 1969.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marasigan couldn’t have known that just four years later, the hotel would be sold to a developer. Then, on Aug. 7, 1977, 400 police officers forced their way through a human chain around the I-Hotel and forcibly dragged out its residents, bringing an end to the hotel — and Manilatown itself — for good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13966696\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13966696\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel.jpg\" alt=\"Men and women in 1970s clothing cluster together outside a building with a sign that says 'International Hotel' on it. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel-800x571.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel-1020x728.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel-768x548.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel-1536x1096.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/i-hotel-1920x1370.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters gathered outside the International Hotel for days before police forcibly emptied the building. This image was taken on Aug. 3, 1977. \u003ccite>(Dave Randolph/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Marasigan was not there to see the end of the hotel she fought so hard to save. She had returned to Manila in 1971, quickly joining the resistance against Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator that placed the Philippines under martial law, put an end to the free press and began violently oppressing civilians. Marasigan proved herself once more to be an outspoken activist, visiting and raising money for political prisoners. For her trouble, Marasigan was arrested in 1982 on explosives charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Marasigan spent a year incarcerated at the infamous \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Crame\">Camp Crame\u003c/a> before being fully exonerated. During her time as a political prisoner, Marasigan helped organize inmates, held political discussions and even conducted a 22-day hunger strike. In 1995, looking back on the turbulent time, she told the \u003cem>Examiner\u003c/em>, “The only thing explosive about me was my mouth and my farts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She expanded: “Filipinos laugh a lot. We laugh at our mistakes. It’s one of the strengths we have. We can also fight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And fight she did. Undeterred by her time in Camp Crame, in 1984, she co-founded \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriela_Women%27s_Party\">Gabriela Women’s Party\u003c/a> — an organization formed after 10,000 women marched against Marcos, defying a ban on protests. That same year, Maragisan also helped found \u003ca href=\"https://seldapilipinas.wordpress.com/about/\">Selda\u003c/a>, an advocacy organization by and for political prisoners. As part of her work with Gabriela and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Maragisan had a hand in opening two safe havens for women: the \u003ca href=\"http://www.genuinesecurity.org/partners/buklod.htm\">Buklod Center in Olongapo City\u003c/a>, geared towards sex workers, and the \u003ca href=\"https://batiscenterforwomen.wordpress.com/about/history/\">Batis Center for Women\u003c/a> in Quezon City, which focused on female migrant workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marasigan finally came back to the Bay in 1988 and, though there was no Manilatown to return to, went straight back to work for Filipino immigrants. She worked as a social worker at \u003ca href=\"https://www.somapilipinas.org/community-1/2018/7/13/west-bay-pilipino-multi-service-center\">West Bay Filipino Multi-Services\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthright360.org/parent-program/asian-american-recovery-services/\">Asian American Recovery Services\u003c/a> and the Veterans Equity Center (now known as the \u003ca href=\"https://asianpacificfund.org/affiliate/veterans-equity-center-2/\">Bayanihan Equity Center\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the 1990s, while based in Daly City, Marasigan remained focused on seniors and veterans, setting up food and clothing banks at two separate Mission Street locations. In 1993, she co-founded the Friends of Filipino American Veterans to conduct “direct action, legal aid, advocacy and outreach programs for the veterans.” In 1994, she was president of the Filipino American Human Rights Advocates. Around this time, the editor in chief of \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipinas_(magazine)\">\u003cem>Filipinas\u003c/em> magazine\u003c/a> Rene Ciria-Cruz called Marasigan “old reliable,” and noted: “She’s a symbol of activism. When she’s there it lends a validity to the cause being taken up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marasigan broadened her focus even further in the ’90s, working more with children and teens — a natural progression, after she’d raised four daughters and a son of her own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In 1995, Marasigan volunteered with the Bilingual Advisory Council of Balboa Park’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/school/james-denman-middle-school\">James Denman Middle School\u003c/a>, was a member of the School Advisory Council and actively worked with teens on AIDS prevention. An article in the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> that year reported that she was prone to bluntly asking the teens at the West Bay Filipino Center on Mission St. if they were sexually active.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they cannot say ‘no’ right away,” she explained, “I grab their hand and say ‘Talk to me.’ I’m straight with them. I answer their questions and I don’t get embarrassed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marasigan wasn’t afraid to enter a classroom and tell kids something they’d never heard before — be it about safe sex or their own history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the curriculum,” she said at the time, “there is no cultural empowerment of other groups. Last week, we had a support group at Balboa, and we showed them Filipino history in America, and they were so surprised … How could our children have self-esteem in school when they don’t see they are part of the history of America?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, Marasigan’s life of service was suddenly cut short by an accident in April 2000. She had just gotten out of her parked car when it rolled down the street, knocking her to the ground. She was 61.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Memorial-Service-Held-at-City-Hall-For-Activist-2784544.php\">packed memorial service\u003c/a> for her at San Francisco’s City Hall, tributes poured in from Mayor Willie Brown, several supervisors (including Tom Ammiano and Mabel Teng) and a plethora of friends and associates. Supervisor Leland Yee didn’t mince words.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anyone with the name ‘Bullet,’ you don’t want to mess around with,” Yee said. “When you lose someone like that, you lose part of your soul.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Marasigan’s final triumphs in life was successfully fighting to re-open the \u003ca href=\"https://www.galingbata.org/\">Filipino Education Center\u003c/a> — a bilingual school and daycare for immigrant children. She believed this was an essential grounding place that would enable future generations of Filipinos to thrive in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we’re gone,” she explained in 1995, “the work will continue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In 1964, after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13953248/topless-at-the-condor-movie-review-carol-doda-documentary-north-beach-history\">Carol Doda danced topless at The Condor\u003c/a> for the first time, nightclubs across San Francisco’s North Beach erupted into a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13958719/who-was-yvonne-dangers-1960s-topless-north-beach-star-deportation\">topless frenzy\u003c/a>. Topless bands, topless clothing stores and even a topless shoe shine all opened in quick succession. But one of the most sensational acts of the time came courtesy of Vicki “Starr” Fernandez, a beautiful transgender woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13959375']Born in Puerto Rico in 1932, Fernandez ran away to America aged just 14, so that she might live a freer, more authentic life. “As a child,” she told the Bakersfield Californian in 1968, “I was more feminine and pretty than the girls in our school … When I was a teenager, my looks and behavior became an embarrassment to my family. The other kids started making really vicious remarks to me … [In] the States, at least I can dress and act as I please without hurting myself or my family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fernandez danced all over North Beach at clubs including Finnochio’s, El Cid, Pierre’s, Mr. D’s and Coke’s. At the Follies Burlesque, Fernandez participated in the “Battle of the Sexes” — a dance-off in which cis women went head-to-head with trans women and drag queens. (The point was that the audience could rarely tell who was who.) Fernandez was frequently billed as “Mister” (or “Mr.”) Vicki Starr, sensationalizing her trans-ness as a way to maximize audience numbers. This kind of publicity undoubtedly carried major risks for her personal safety and legal standing. Still, she boldly and diligently carried on performing, never shying away from talking about her gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13959772\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13959772\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A nightclub poster featuring two women, one glamorously made-up, the other standing topless, her back turned to the camera.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-800x620.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-1020x790.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-768x595.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-1536x1190.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-2048x1587.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-1920x1488.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A poster from Coke’s advertising performances by Vicki Starr and Roxanne Alegria with the declaration that: ‘Boys will be girls.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the GLBT Historical Society)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1967, Fernandez told \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> columnist Merla Zellerbach that she was “working for one reason — to earn money to pay for the conversion operation. As soon as it’s finished, my fiancé and I will get married, possibly adopt children and settle down quietly.” What Fernandez craved, she told the reporter, was “a normal life as a woman.” She was entirely unwilling to give up on that dream, no matter the hurdles in her path. Though Fernandez enjoyed the limelight and relished every opportunity to be her most glamorous self, the nightclubs that made her famous were in many ways merely a means of survival.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Standing up for herself\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Fernandez spent much of her life kicking against social and institutional prejudice. From the time she arrived in San Francisco, Fernandez unabashedly lived every moment as the woman that she was. She was a fashionista, always clad in the most elegant styles of the day. She attracted a large, loving and very diverse friend group. She was politically active, keeping files of political pamphlets at home from the likes of George Moscone and Willie Brown, and voting for Harvey Milk when he was a candidate for the Board of Supervisors. Throughout her life, she stood up for and fiercely defended her rights as a woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest battles of Fernandez’s life started in 1971, when Fernandez’s longterm partner Richard Smith was convicted of homicide and incarcerated. It was far from the domestic bliss she had once envisioned for herself and, making matters worse, she soon found herself restricted from visiting Smith because of her gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One correspondence from the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo reflects the hostile policies of the era:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Ms. Fernandez remains biologically a male. Accordingly, until such time as a sex change operation is completed, and other approval to visit has been granted, Ms. Fernandez would be expected to enter the institution in male attire and utilize the male rest room.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>To Fernandez, these parameters were unacceptable. She quickly sought out the assistance of the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation (SFNLAF), and together they went about becoming a thorn in the side of the California Department of Corrections. They started with letters to the California State Prison Solano, in which Smith was originally held, then moved on to the prison in San Luis Obispo, where he was moved in 1974. That year, one letter to its director Raymond Procunier stated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Ms. Fernandez was allowed to visit [Smith] for a period of 9 months without any questions raised. She made no attempt to hide her identity in this time. It was evidently only after Ms. Fernandez was discovered to be a trans-sexual that her visiting privilege was suddenly denied.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>For years, Fernandez and the SFNLAF badgered the Department of Corrections to change their stance on Fernandez’s clothing restrictions. And for years, the Department of Corrections tried to brush them off. Fernandez refused to back down. She began actively studying and campaigning for prison reform. She sought advice from the Prisoner’s Union, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Prison Law Collective. She contacted \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985739/san-franciscans-honor-glide-church-founder-rev-cecil-williams-at-memorial-ceremony\">Rev. Cecil Williams\u003c/a> of Glide Memorial, knowing he was outspoken on the topic of prison reform. She befriended Daniel Castro, the senior consultant for the select committee on corrections. She became a relentless force — and eventually, her work paid off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1975, the San Luis Obispo Men’s Colony finally relented and permitted Fernandez to visit Smith in the clothing of her choosing. Access alone was not enough to silence her. When transphobic treatment reared its head in the visitors’ room, Fernandez made sure to document her displeasure in written complaints. One letter from the SFNLAF to H.L. Shaw, then the outside lieutenant of the San Luis Obispo prison, stated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Ms. Fernandez has been subjected to further abuse which is uncalled for. Her attempts to hold hands and affectionately touch Mr. Smith in the way common between husband and wife has been precluded. Various sergeants under you have offended Ms. Fernandez by carefully policing her hand holding activities.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>It never mattered who she was up against, Fernandez was always ready to fight for equal treatment, no matter the venue.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A loving legacy\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Though Fernandez’s life was not the easiest, she refused to live meekly or under anyone’s thumb. Proud of her identity, she fought tooth and nail for every scrap of progress she ever made and every shred of happiness she ever found. She was indefatigable when it came to living out loud, no matter who was judging her. But behind closed doors, she was a sensitive and sentimental soul. In the end, it was those traits that formed the foundation of Fernandez’s lasting cultural legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13870056']During an era when many of her contemporaries were trying their best to live under the radar and out of sight, Fernandez proudly documented her community in as many ways as she could. In her death, Fernandez left behind a comprehensive goldmine of photographs, flyers and other ephemera that continues to stand as a reflection of the LGBTQ community from the 1950s through the 1980s. These files reflect a joyful and loving community full of beautiful souls who refused to be relegated to the shadows. Now in the care of San Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society, they offer important insight into a woefully under-documented period of time for LGBTQ people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1967, bemoaning the many hardships she faced, Fernandez told the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em>: “If I’d been born all girl, none of this would have happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While her life would have undoubtedly been less challenging if that was the case, it was Fernandez’s trans-ness that ultimately made her so special — in her nightclub performances, in her legal battles, and in the keepsakes she ultimately left behind. “You have a very peaceful effect on people,” a friend named Susan wrote to Fernandez in the 1970s. “A harmony that lifts them and can heal them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The personal documents Fernandez left behind will continue to do so long into the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Born in Puerto Rico in 1932, Fernandez ran away to America aged just 14, so that she might live a freer, more authentic life. “As a child,” she told the Bakersfield Californian in 1968, “I was more feminine and pretty than the girls in our school … When I was a teenager, my looks and behavior became an embarrassment to my family. The other kids started making really vicious remarks to me … [In] the States, at least I can dress and act as I please without hurting myself or my family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fernandez danced all over North Beach at clubs including Finnochio’s, El Cid, Pierre’s, Mr. D’s and Coke’s. At the Follies Burlesque, Fernandez participated in the “Battle of the Sexes” — a dance-off in which cis women went head-to-head with trans women and drag queens. (The point was that the audience could rarely tell who was who.) Fernandez was frequently billed as “Mister” (or “Mr.”) Vicki Starr, sensationalizing her trans-ness as a way to maximize audience numbers. This kind of publicity undoubtedly carried major risks for her personal safety and legal standing. Still, she boldly and diligently carried on performing, never shying away from talking about her gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13959772\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13959772\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A nightclub poster featuring two women, one glamorously made-up, the other standing topless, her back turned to the camera.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-800x620.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-1020x790.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-768x595.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-1536x1190.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-2048x1587.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-1920x1488.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A poster from Coke’s advertising performances by Vicki Starr and Roxanne Alegria with the declaration that: ‘Boys will be girls.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the GLBT Historical Society)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1967, Fernandez told \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> columnist Merla Zellerbach that she was “working for one reason — to earn money to pay for the conversion operation. As soon as it’s finished, my fiancé and I will get married, possibly adopt children and settle down quietly.” What Fernandez craved, she told the reporter, was “a normal life as a woman.” She was entirely unwilling to give up on that dream, no matter the hurdles in her path. Though Fernandez enjoyed the limelight and relished every opportunity to be her most glamorous self, the nightclubs that made her famous were in many ways merely a means of survival.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Standing up for herself\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Fernandez spent much of her life kicking against social and institutional prejudice. From the time she arrived in San Francisco, Fernandez unabashedly lived every moment as the woman that she was. She was a fashionista, always clad in the most elegant styles of the day. She attracted a large, loving and very diverse friend group. She was politically active, keeping files of political pamphlets at home from the likes of George Moscone and Willie Brown, and voting for Harvey Milk when he was a candidate for the Board of Supervisors. Throughout her life, she stood up for and fiercely defended her rights as a woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest battles of Fernandez’s life started in 1971, when Fernandez’s longterm partner Richard Smith was convicted of homicide and incarcerated. It was far from the domestic bliss she had once envisioned for herself and, making matters worse, she soon found herself restricted from visiting Smith because of her gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One correspondence from the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo reflects the hostile policies of the era:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Ms. Fernandez remains biologically a male. Accordingly, until such time as a sex change operation is completed, and other approval to visit has been granted, Ms. Fernandez would be expected to enter the institution in male attire and utilize the male rest room.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>To Fernandez, these parameters were unacceptable. She quickly sought out the assistance of the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation (SFNLAF), and together they went about becoming a thorn in the side of the California Department of Corrections. They started with letters to the California State Prison Solano, in which Smith was originally held, then moved on to the prison in San Luis Obispo, where he was moved in 1974. That year, one letter to its director Raymond Procunier stated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Ms. Fernandez was allowed to visit [Smith] for a period of 9 months without any questions raised. She made no attempt to hide her identity in this time. It was evidently only after Ms. Fernandez was discovered to be a trans-sexual that her visiting privilege was suddenly denied.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>For years, Fernandez and the SFNLAF badgered the Department of Corrections to change their stance on Fernandez’s clothing restrictions. And for years, the Department of Corrections tried to brush them off. Fernandez refused to back down. She began actively studying and campaigning for prison reform. She sought advice from the Prisoner’s Union, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Prison Law Collective. She contacted \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985739/san-franciscans-honor-glide-church-founder-rev-cecil-williams-at-memorial-ceremony\">Rev. Cecil Williams\u003c/a> of Glide Memorial, knowing he was outspoken on the topic of prison reform. She befriended Daniel Castro, the senior consultant for the select committee on corrections. She became a relentless force — and eventually, her work paid off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1975, the San Luis Obispo Men’s Colony finally relented and permitted Fernandez to visit Smith in the clothing of her choosing. Access alone was not enough to silence her. When transphobic treatment reared its head in the visitors’ room, Fernandez made sure to document her displeasure in written complaints. One letter from the SFNLAF to H.L. Shaw, then the outside lieutenant of the San Luis Obispo prison, stated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Ms. Fernandez has been subjected to further abuse which is uncalled for. Her attempts to hold hands and affectionately touch Mr. Smith in the way common between husband and wife has been precluded. Various sergeants under you have offended Ms. Fernandez by carefully policing her hand holding activities.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>It never mattered who she was up against, Fernandez was always ready to fight for equal treatment, no matter the venue.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A loving legacy\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Though Fernandez’s life was not the easiest, she refused to live meekly or under anyone’s thumb. Proud of her identity, she fought tooth and nail for every scrap of progress she ever made and every shred of happiness she ever found. She was indefatigable when it came to living out loud, no matter who was judging her. But behind closed doors, she was a sensitive and sentimental soul. In the end, it was those traits that formed the foundation of Fernandez’s lasting cultural legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>During an era when many of her contemporaries were trying their best to live under the radar and out of sight, Fernandez proudly documented her community in as many ways as she could. In her death, Fernandez left behind a comprehensive goldmine of photographs, flyers and other ephemera that continues to stand as a reflection of the LGBTQ community from the 1950s through the 1980s. These files reflect a joyful and loving community full of beautiful souls who refused to be relegated to the shadows. Now in the care of San Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society, they offer important insight into a woefully under-documented period of time for LGBTQ people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1967, bemoaning the many hardships she faced, Fernandez told the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em>: “If I’d been born all girl, none of this would have happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While her life would have undoubtedly been less challenging if that was the case, it was Fernandez’s trans-ness that ultimately made her so special — in her nightclub performances, in her legal battles, and in the keepsakes she ultimately left behind. “You have a very peaceful effect on people,” a friend named Susan wrote to Fernandez in the 1970s. “A harmony that lifts them and can heal them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The personal documents Fernandez left behind will continue to do so long into the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon co-authored \u003cem>Lesbian/Woman\u003c/em> in 1972, the effect was seismic. Dedicated to “daughters throughout the world who are struggling with their identity,” the book began with a clear, unequivocal explanation:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>A Lesbian is a woman whose primary erotic, psychological, emotional and social interest is in a member of her own sex.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>That a book about lesbian culture would even require such a definition feels bizarre today. But the lifelong work of San Francisco couple Martin and Lyon is one of the reasons that so few people require such annotations now. \u003cem>Lesbian/Woman\u003c/em> didn’t just demystify same-sex female relationships — it calmly and clearly sought to normalize them. At the time, few representations of lesbians existed outside of lurid pulp fiction or psychology textbooks. \u003cem>Lesbian/Woman\u003c/em> changed the conversation and reassured queer women everywhere that there was nothing wrong with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13889944']When Martin and Lyon began their relationship in 1952, after two years of friendship, America was a terrifying place to be LGBTQ. Looking back in 1995, the couple wrote an essay recalling the “climate of fear, rejection and oppression” that marked the earliest days of their 56-year romance. “Lesbians and gay men, if found out,” the pair wrote, “were subject to reprisals from all quarters of society: employers, police, military, government, family and friends.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With that in mind — after moving into a Castro District apartment together on Valentine’s Day in 1953 — Martin and Lyon sought friendships with fellow lesbians outside of the oft-raided gay bars. That led to the establishment in 1955 of the \u003ca href=\"https://guides.loc.gov/lgbtq-studies/before-stonewall/daughters-of-bilitis\">Daughters of Bilitis\u003c/a> (DOB), the first lesbian-rights organization in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Originally the idea of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/queeriodicals/p/CFaBsyuAVGF/?img_index=1\">Rosalie Bamberger\u003c/a>, a local Filipina factory worker, the nonprofit started with just four couples. Martin was the club’s first president, and by the end of its first year, DOB had 15 official members. From there, the group expanded their ranks via the Daughters of Bilitis newsletter and, starting in October 1956, \u003ca href=\"https://archive.org/details/pub_ladder\">\u003cem>The Ladder\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a groundbreaking lesbian magazine edited by Lyon. She held a degree in journalism from UC Berkeley, and had worked in magazines and newspapers since the ’40s — but here, she published under the pseudonym Ann Ferguson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958039\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/the-ladder-scaled-e1715901912416.jpg\" alt=\"Three black and white covers of magazines. The first shows an androgynous person, the second features two cats, and the third is a sketch of a couple, viewed from behind, watching a sunset.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"891\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Issues of ‘The Ladder,’ a magazine for lesbians that began publishing in 1956. \u003ccite>(The Internet Archive)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lyon’s pen name wasn’t the only reflection of the fear-of-being-found-out that marked the era: Daughters of Bilitis’ name came from \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Songs_of_Bilitis#:~:text=The%20Songs%20of%20Bilitis%20(%2Fb,work%20is%20considered%20a%20pseudotranslation.\">Songs of Bilitis\u003c/a>, \u003c/em>a collection of lesbian love poems published in 1894 by Pierre Louÿs, who claimed the text was based on ancient Greek scripts. If anyone asked, the women could say that DOB was merely a club for women who were passionate about Greek poetry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in 1960, when the organization’s first conference was held in the penthouse of San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Whitcomb\">Hotel Whitcomb\u003c/a>, all attendees were careful to wear skirts and dresses, lest they be accused of cross-dressing. (They were right to do so: SFPD’s “homosexual detail” showed up to see if anything nefarious was going on.) At one point, Martin and Lyon were so concerned about their office being raided and the DOB mailing list being exposed, they hid the document in the back of their station wagon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, DOB persisted, acting as a support and social group, and as a source of information for its members. Even in the organization’s earliest days, Martin carried herself with an unrivaled fortitude. In 1959, she attended a Mattachine Society convention in Denver to voice her dissatisfaction with the gay organization’s attitude towards women. Pointing out that the group was 99% male, Martin announced from the stage: “Lesbians are not satisfied to be auxiliary members or second-class homosexuals. One of Mattachine’s aims is that of sexual equality. May I suggest that you start with the lesbian?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martin channeled that energy into her writing as well. Her first solo book, \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1142351\">\u003cem>Battered Wives\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, was published in 1976, becoming the first American book to discuss domestic violence in depth. By then, Martin was also the first out lesbian to have served on the National Organization of Women’s board of directors. Lyon was a fellow NOW member, which made them the first out lesbian couple to join.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he ’70s were a time of great change for Martin and Lyon. Daughters of Bilitis and \u003cem>The Ladder\u003c/em> both came to an unceremonious halt in 1970 because of intragroup politics and a couple of bad actors. Without either entity to pour their energy into, Martin and Lyon instead focused on writing \u003cem>Lesbian/Woman —\u003c/em> and this time, with incredible bravery, they used their real names. A year later came \u003cem>Lesbian Love and Liberation: The Yes Book of Sex, \u003c/em>a sex-positive guide that Martin and Lyon wrote to encourage tolerance, consent and frankness in the bedroom. The very first page came out guns blazing:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Yes, everyone has a right to a good sex life — including persons who have physical disabilities. Yes, sexuality is the most individualistic part of a person’s life. It is up to each individual to determine and then to assume responsibility for her or his own sexuality. Yes, sex is okay in its varying modes of expression — if people know what they are doing, feel good about it and don’t harm others.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Less than two years after \u003cem>Lesbian/Woman’\u003c/em>s release, and just months after \u003cem>Lesbian Love and Liberation\u003c/em> came out, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders finally stopped defining homosexuality as a mental illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 1979, the couple had established the \u003ca href=\"https://lyon-martin.org/\">Lyon-Martin Women’s Health Center\u003c/a> in San Francisco — a safe space for lesbian couples to receive healthcare. “We were trying to help lesbians find themselves,” Lyon said in 1989. “I mean, you can’t have a movement if you don’t have people that see that they’re worthwhile.” (Today, the clinic is also focused on serving trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex people.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13870056']Throughout the ’90s, as LGBTQ people increasingly found acceptance in America, Martin and Lyon celebrated how far they had come in a series of interviews and essays. While the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> referred to them as “the mothers of lesbian visibility,” the couple remained hilariously open about how long it took them to figure themselves out. In one 1992 interview, Martin joked about Lyon being a “straight lesbian for a while,” even after they were living together as a couple. Lyon laughed at the memory, admitting, “I was a little slow…”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2004, Martin and Lyon became the first same-sex couple to marry in San Francisco. At a mass wedding reception for 600 newlyweds on Feb. 23, 2004, Lyon said: “I think it’s important for a lot of the people that got married … but also for our friends who didn’t get married.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958064\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958064\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A 2004 San Francisco marriage license.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2362\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-800x738.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-1020x941.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-160x148.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-768x709.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-1536x1417.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-2048x1890.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-1920x1771.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon’s first marriage certificate. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the San Francisco History Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The unions were frustratingly short-lived — within a month, the California Supreme Court had declared every same-sex marriage that had just taken place in San Francisco invalid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But four years later, Lyon and Martin proudly returned to City Hall and made things official once more, after the California Supreme Court’s landmark decision on marriage equality. The couple were literally first in line, just as they had been in 2004, and were married by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom — the man who had sanctioned their first wedding. They even wore the same \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLBT_Historical_Society#/media/File:GLBTHistoryMuseum.WeddingPantsuits12_10.jpg\">mauve and turquoise suits\u003c/a> they had worn for their first ceremony. (Those outfits are now held in San Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society’s permanent collection.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_102855']It was an enormously meaningful day for the couple. When Martin died at the age of 87, less than three months after their wedding, Lyon said: “I am devastated, but I take some solace in knowing we were able to enjoy the ultimate rite of love and commitment before she passed.” Castro’s Pride flag and the flags at City Hall flew at half-mast in Martin’s honor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lyon soldiered on without her love for another 12 years. She died in 2020, aged 95, at home in San Francisco. On learning of the news, Gavin Newsom tweeted: “Phyllis — It was the honor of a lifetime to marry you & Del. Your courage changed the course of history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would be a gross understatement to say that Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon’s love, and their willingness to speak openly and often about it, impacted America’s view of same-sex unions. The couple spent their whole lives putting themselves in the spotlight — and sometimes grave danger — to raise awareness, and to help women still struggling with their own sexualities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2017, Lyon reminded the world why she and Martin had lived their lives in service. “If you’ve got stuff you want to change, you have to get out and work on it,” she said. “You can’t just sit around and say ‘I wish this or that was different.’ You have to fight for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">W\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hen Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon co-authored \u003cem>Lesbian/Woman\u003c/em> in 1972, the effect was seismic. Dedicated to “daughters throughout the world who are struggling with their identity,” the book began with a clear, unequivocal explanation:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>A Lesbian is a woman whose primary erotic, psychological, emotional and social interest is in a member of her own sex.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>That a book about lesbian culture would even require such a definition feels bizarre today. But the lifelong work of San Francisco couple Martin and Lyon is one of the reasons that so few people require such annotations now. \u003cem>Lesbian/Woman\u003c/em> didn’t just demystify same-sex female relationships — it calmly and clearly sought to normalize them. At the time, few representations of lesbians existed outside of lurid pulp fiction or psychology textbooks. \u003cem>Lesbian/Woman\u003c/em> changed the conversation and reassured queer women everywhere that there was nothing wrong with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>When Martin and Lyon began their relationship in 1952, after two years of friendship, America was a terrifying place to be LGBTQ. Looking back in 1995, the couple wrote an essay recalling the “climate of fear, rejection and oppression” that marked the earliest days of their 56-year romance. “Lesbians and gay men, if found out,” the pair wrote, “were subject to reprisals from all quarters of society: employers, police, military, government, family and friends.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With that in mind — after moving into a Castro District apartment together on Valentine’s Day in 1953 — Martin and Lyon sought friendships with fellow lesbians outside of the oft-raided gay bars. That led to the establishment in 1955 of the \u003ca href=\"https://guides.loc.gov/lgbtq-studies/before-stonewall/daughters-of-bilitis\">Daughters of Bilitis\u003c/a> (DOB), the first lesbian-rights organization in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Originally the idea of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/queeriodicals/p/CFaBsyuAVGF/?img_index=1\">Rosalie Bamberger\u003c/a>, a local Filipina factory worker, the nonprofit started with just four couples. Martin was the club’s first president, and by the end of its first year, DOB had 15 official members. From there, the group expanded their ranks via the Daughters of Bilitis newsletter and, starting in October 1956, \u003ca href=\"https://archive.org/details/pub_ladder\">\u003cem>The Ladder\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a groundbreaking lesbian magazine edited by Lyon. She held a degree in journalism from UC Berkeley, and had worked in magazines and newspapers since the ’40s — but here, she published under the pseudonym Ann Ferguson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958039\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/the-ladder-scaled-e1715901912416.jpg\" alt=\"Three black and white covers of magazines. The first shows an androgynous person, the second features two cats, and the third is a sketch of a couple, viewed from behind, watching a sunset.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"891\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Issues of ‘The Ladder,’ a magazine for lesbians that began publishing in 1956. \u003ccite>(The Internet Archive)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lyon’s pen name wasn’t the only reflection of the fear-of-being-found-out that marked the era: Daughters of Bilitis’ name came from \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Songs_of_Bilitis#:~:text=The%20Songs%20of%20Bilitis%20(%2Fb,work%20is%20considered%20a%20pseudotranslation.\">Songs of Bilitis\u003c/a>, \u003c/em>a collection of lesbian love poems published in 1894 by Pierre Louÿs, who claimed the text was based on ancient Greek scripts. If anyone asked, the women could say that DOB was merely a club for women who were passionate about Greek poetry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in 1960, when the organization’s first conference was held in the penthouse of San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Whitcomb\">Hotel Whitcomb\u003c/a>, all attendees were careful to wear skirts and dresses, lest they be accused of cross-dressing. (They were right to do so: SFPD’s “homosexual detail” showed up to see if anything nefarious was going on.) At one point, Martin and Lyon were so concerned about their office being raided and the DOB mailing list being exposed, they hid the document in the back of their station wagon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, DOB persisted, acting as a support and social group, and as a source of information for its members. Even in the organization’s earliest days, Martin carried herself with an unrivaled fortitude. In 1959, she attended a Mattachine Society convention in Denver to voice her dissatisfaction with the gay organization’s attitude towards women. Pointing out that the group was 99% male, Martin announced from the stage: “Lesbians are not satisfied to be auxiliary members or second-class homosexuals. One of Mattachine’s aims is that of sexual equality. May I suggest that you start with the lesbian?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martin channeled that energy into her writing as well. Her first solo book, \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1142351\">\u003cem>Battered Wives\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, was published in 1976, becoming the first American book to discuss domestic violence in depth. By then, Martin was also the first out lesbian to have served on the National Organization of Women’s board of directors. Lyon was a fellow NOW member, which made them the first out lesbian couple to join.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>he ’70s were a time of great change for Martin and Lyon. Daughters of Bilitis and \u003cem>The Ladder\u003c/em> both came to an unceremonious halt in 1970 because of intragroup politics and a couple of bad actors. Without either entity to pour their energy into, Martin and Lyon instead focused on writing \u003cem>Lesbian/Woman —\u003c/em> and this time, with incredible bravery, they used their real names. A year later came \u003cem>Lesbian Love and Liberation: The Yes Book of Sex, \u003c/em>a sex-positive guide that Martin and Lyon wrote to encourage tolerance, consent and frankness in the bedroom. The very first page came out guns blazing:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Yes, everyone has a right to a good sex life — including persons who have physical disabilities. Yes, sexuality is the most individualistic part of a person’s life. It is up to each individual to determine and then to assume responsibility for her or his own sexuality. Yes, sex is okay in its varying modes of expression — if people know what they are doing, feel good about it and don’t harm others.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Less than two years after \u003cem>Lesbian/Woman’\u003c/em>s release, and just months after \u003cem>Lesbian Love and Liberation\u003c/em> came out, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders finally stopped defining homosexuality as a mental illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 1979, the couple had established the \u003ca href=\"https://lyon-martin.org/\">Lyon-Martin Women’s Health Center\u003c/a> in San Francisco — a safe space for lesbian couples to receive healthcare. “We were trying to help lesbians find themselves,” Lyon said in 1989. “I mean, you can’t have a movement if you don’t have people that see that they’re worthwhile.” (Today, the clinic is also focused on serving trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex people.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Throughout the ’90s, as LGBTQ people increasingly found acceptance in America, Martin and Lyon celebrated how far they had come in a series of interviews and essays. While the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> referred to them as “the mothers of lesbian visibility,” the couple remained hilariously open about how long it took them to figure themselves out. In one 1992 interview, Martin joked about Lyon being a “straight lesbian for a while,” even after they were living together as a couple. Lyon laughed at the memory, admitting, “I was a little slow…”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2004, Martin and Lyon became the first same-sex couple to marry in San Francisco. At a mass wedding reception for 600 newlyweds on Feb. 23, 2004, Lyon said: “I think it’s important for a lot of the people that got married … but also for our friends who didn’t get married.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958064\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958064\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A 2004 San Francisco marriage license.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2362\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-800x738.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-1020x941.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-160x148.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-768x709.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-1536x1417.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-2048x1890.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/20240402_161657-1920x1771.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon’s first marriage certificate. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the San Francisco History Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The unions were frustratingly short-lived — within a month, the California Supreme Court had declared every same-sex marriage that had just taken place in San Francisco invalid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But four years later, Lyon and Martin proudly returned to City Hall and made things official once more, after the California Supreme Court’s landmark decision on marriage equality. The couple were literally first in line, just as they had been in 2004, and were married by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom — the man who had sanctioned their first wedding. They even wore the same \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLBT_Historical_Society#/media/File:GLBTHistoryMuseum.WeddingPantsuits12_10.jpg\">mauve and turquoise suits\u003c/a> they had worn for their first ceremony. (Those outfits are now held in San Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society’s permanent collection.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It was an enormously meaningful day for the couple. When Martin died at the age of 87, less than three months after their wedding, Lyon said: “I am devastated, but I take some solace in knowing we were able to enjoy the ultimate rite of love and commitment before she passed.” Castro’s Pride flag and the flags at City Hall flew at half-mast in Martin’s honor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lyon soldiered on without her love for another 12 years. She died in 2020, aged 95, at home in San Francisco. On learning of the news, Gavin Newsom tweeted: “Phyllis — It was the honor of a lifetime to marry you & Del. Your courage changed the course of history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would be a gross understatement to say that Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon’s love, and their willingness to speak openly and often about it, impacted America’s view of same-sex unions. The couple spent their whole lives putting themselves in the spotlight — and sometimes grave danger — to raise awareness, and to help women still struggling with their own sexualities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2017, Lyon reminded the world why she and Martin had lived their lives in service. “If you’ve got stuff you want to change, you have to get out and work on it,” she said. “You can’t just sit around and say ‘I wish this or that was different.’ You have to fight for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the late 1960s, an uncommonly energetic 43-year-old named Ruth Beckford was teaching an Afro-Haitian dance class in Oakland. A dancing pro since the age of eight, Beckford had a habit of taking a close personal interest in her students. She taught the youngest ones a combination of life skills and etiquette to set them up for bright futures. She encouraged teens and young women to love themselves and pursue their dreams. And when one of her students told Beckford about her involvement with the Black Panther Party, Beckford was keen to be of assistance with that, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The student in question was LaVerne Anderson, who happened to be the girlfriend of Huey P. Newton. Beckford began by accompanying Anderson to some of Newton’s 1968 trial dates. In September of that year, when the idea for the Panthers’ Free Breakfast for School Children Program first came up, it was Beckford who sprang into action and made it happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13874853']Beckford had long been a parishioner at Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://staugepiscopal.org/\">St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church\u003c/a>, then situated at West and 27th Streets. Beckford approached her priest there, Father Earl A. Neil, to find out if St. Augustine’s was willing to host a daily program there to feed neighborhood kids. Father Neil agreed, and he and Beckford went about building a health code-safe kitchen and dining space, as well as a nutritionally balanced menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the first day — a Monday in January 1969 — 11 children came to eat. By Friday, that number had swelled to 135. Beckford and Father Neil made such a success of the free breakfasts, the program was soon mandatory in all Black Panther chapters nationwide. It was also a shining example of Beckford’s ability to turn ideas into action, and to plant seeds that would one day create mighty forests. That’s something she had already been doing in her dance classes for 22 years before she got involved with the Panthers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952106\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/GettyImages-939585344-scaled-e1707777665615.jpg\" alt=\"Several young Black boys, one of whom is wearing a suit, raise their hands to speak as they sit around a table, paper plates of food in front of them.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1298\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children program — like this one in New York City in 1969 — combined education and good nutrition. \u003ccite>(Bev Grant/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]B[/dropcap]eckford was born on Dec. 7, 1925 in Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://localwiki.org/oakland/Providence_Hospital\">Providence Hospital\u003c/a> to a Jamaican father and a mother from Los Angeles. Beckford was the youngest of four — she had a big sister and a pair of twin brothers — and was raised on 38th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard. She grew up in a household so supportive that, when they saw her kicking along to music in her crib as a baby, her parents pledged to get her into dance class as soon as she was old enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At three years old, Beckford began training in “every kind of dance,” her dedicated mom sewing all her costumes. It was clear from the beginning that the young girl was naturally gifted, and that dance was indeed her calling. By eight, she was a vaudeville dancer. By 14, she was teaching other children. At 17, she toured with the prestigious \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13899186/if-cities-could-dance-east-st-louis\">Katherine Dunham\u003c/a> Company, where she fully embraced African and Caribbean dance for the first time. Beckford loved the work but declined a seven-year contract from Dunham so she could attend UC Berkeley instead. (Dunham remained a mentor and friend for life, and Beckford taught in her New York dance school in 1953.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13926548,pop_102326,arts_13916612']During her studies, Beckford was the only Black dancer in UC Berkeley’s dance club, Orchesis. The experience prepared her for working in majority-white companies later on. In her 20s, as the only Black dancer with the \u003ca href=\"https://calisphere.org/item/8c65bcebbbc335b04faa0cd457e3ebd7/\">Anna Halprin and Welland Lathrop\u003c/a> modern dance company, Beckford said she could sometimes hear the audience gasp as she arrived on San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once Beckford had graduated with a modern dance degree, she was keen to serve her community while doing what she loved most. First, she started an annual modern dance showcase that ran for over a decade. Then in 1947, aged just 21, Beckford started the Oakland Recreation Modern Dance Department — the first city-funded dance classes in the United States — and remained project director there for 20 years. Beckford insisted the classes be free so that anyone, no matter their means, would be able to attend. By the time she left in 1967, the department was running 34 modern dance classes for 700 students of all ages and abilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the importance of this program, Beckford later stated: “My philosophy for the young girls was, I would get them in through dance, but my whole goal was to make them be strong, free spirits. The girls got a lot of doses of self-empowerment training, self-esteem training,” she said. “Out of the thousands of girls that I taught, I knew a few would be dancers, but they all had to become women. I wanted them all to be strong young ladies — and it worked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These relationships were so important to Beckford, she prioritized them over having children of her own. “I feel if I had had children,” she said in 2000, “I would not have been the mentor to the hundreds and hundreds of girls I mentored. I would give them all the attention. I would tell them they were special.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From 1954 on, Beckford was also running her own company, the Ruth Beckford African Haitian Dance Company. Her understanding of traditional styles was so exhaustive, she was invited to choreograph a folk festival in Haiti in 1958. At home, her company’s performances — comprised of six dancers accompanied by three drummers — were unlike anything most dance fans had seen in the Bay Area before. For a start, the company was comprised entirely of Black dancers — a refreshing contrast to the companies Beckford had grown up in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13951198\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13951198 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/GettyImages-576842076-scaled-e1706578196329.jpg\" alt=\"A Black male dancer does the splits in mid-air, while two Black women dance either side of him.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1516\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students and members of Ruth Beckford’s dance group rehearse a number in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Ted Streshinsky/ CORBIS/ Corbis via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap]fter Beckford retired from teaching in 1975, there was still no stopping her. She became an author, writing an autobiography, two cookbooks and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784188\">Katherine Dunham biography\u003c/a>. She also co-authored \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.everand.com/book/502678421/The-Picture-Man-From-the-Collection-of-Bay-Area-Photographer-E-F-Joseph-1927-1979\">The Picture Man\u003c/a>,\u003c/em> about Black Bay Area photographer E.F. Joseph. Her final work, \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Still-Groovin-Affirmations-Women-Second/dp/0829813373\">\u003cem>Still Groovin’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, was a book of spiritual advice and affirmations aimed squarely at mature women. “Women are sort of out there by themselves,” she said, “and women have to mentor each other. My book is a tool to help them become stronger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Still Groovin’\u003c/em> wasn’t her only means of trying to empower her peers. Between 1984 and 1988, Beckford wrote a trilogy of plays titled \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’\u003c/span>\u003cem>Tis the Morning of My Life\u003c/em>, about a woman named Roxie Youngblood who finds herself in a relationship with a much younger man. Beckford admitted the story was inspired by her own life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_102855']“I have a different energy, I think, to most men my age,” she once explained. “As long as I have this energy, I’m going to use it and have fun with younger people. Younger men have the energy I have, and I feel mine is worthy of that.” On another occasion, she noted: “Older women are marrying younger men nowadays because they find they have much more in common.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a New York theater asked permission to stage her first play, Beckford agreed only if the original Bay Area cast could perform it. “It’s time for New York to see what the West Coast can do,” she insisted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a lot of people, co-founding the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast program would have been the pinnacle achievement of a lifetime. That Beckford then went on to mentor generations of young Black women was a huge deal. And the sheer number of ways Beckford sought to be of service throughout her life is ultimately breathtaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She served on the Board of Oakland\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s\u003c/span> African American Museum and Library, where she also founded an oral history program. She counseled homeless people in Berkeley, and women in shelters and prisons around the state. She served on a dance panel at the National Endowment for the Arts and campaigned for better theater facilities in Oakland. She founded a women’s golf club. She even spent Thursday afternoons in the late 1990s volunteering in Jack London Square’s information booth so that she might pass on her passion for all things Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ruth Beckford remained indefatigable (despite surviving five back surgeries and a hip replacement) until her death at age 93. Shortly before her passing on May 8, 2019, Beckford reflected on a life thoroughly well lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have a joyous life, I have a good time,” she said. “I choreographed my life. Step-by-step, year-by-year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Beckford had long been a parishioner at Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://staugepiscopal.org/\">St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church\u003c/a>, then situated at West and 27th Streets. Beckford approached her priest there, Father Earl A. Neil, to find out if St. Augustine’s was willing to host a daily program there to feed neighborhood kids. Father Neil agreed, and he and Beckford went about building a health code-safe kitchen and dining space, as well as a nutritionally balanced menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the first day — a Monday in January 1969 — 11 children came to eat. By Friday, that number had swelled to 135. Beckford and Father Neil made such a success of the free breakfasts, the program was soon mandatory in all Black Panther chapters nationwide. It was also a shining example of Beckford’s ability to turn ideas into action, and to plant seeds that would one day create mighty forests. That’s something she had already been doing in her dance classes for 22 years before she got involved with the Panthers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952106\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/GettyImages-939585344-scaled-e1707777665615.jpg\" alt=\"Several young Black boys, one of whom is wearing a suit, raise their hands to speak as they sit around a table, paper plates of food in front of them.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1298\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children program — like this one in New York City in 1969 — combined education and good nutrition. \u003ccite>(Bev Grant/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">B\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>eckford was born on Dec. 7, 1925 in Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://localwiki.org/oakland/Providence_Hospital\">Providence Hospital\u003c/a> to a Jamaican father and a mother from Los Angeles. Beckford was the youngest of four — she had a big sister and a pair of twin brothers — and was raised on 38th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard. She grew up in a household so supportive that, when they saw her kicking along to music in her crib as a baby, her parents pledged to get her into dance class as soon as she was old enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At three years old, Beckford began training in “every kind of dance,” her dedicated mom sewing all her costumes. It was clear from the beginning that the young girl was naturally gifted, and that dance was indeed her calling. By eight, she was a vaudeville dancer. By 14, she was teaching other children. At 17, she toured with the prestigious \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13899186/if-cities-could-dance-east-st-louis\">Katherine Dunham\u003c/a> Company, where she fully embraced African and Caribbean dance for the first time. Beckford loved the work but declined a seven-year contract from Dunham so she could attend UC Berkeley instead. (Dunham remained a mentor and friend for life, and Beckford taught in her New York dance school in 1953.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>During her studies, Beckford was the only Black dancer in UC Berkeley’s dance club, Orchesis. The experience prepared her for working in majority-white companies later on. In her 20s, as the only Black dancer with the \u003ca href=\"https://calisphere.org/item/8c65bcebbbc335b04faa0cd457e3ebd7/\">Anna Halprin and Welland Lathrop\u003c/a> modern dance company, Beckford said she could sometimes hear the audience gasp as she arrived on San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once Beckford had graduated with a modern dance degree, she was keen to serve her community while doing what she loved most. First, she started an annual modern dance showcase that ran for over a decade. Then in 1947, aged just 21, Beckford started the Oakland Recreation Modern Dance Department — the first city-funded dance classes in the United States — and remained project director there for 20 years. Beckford insisted the classes be free so that anyone, no matter their means, would be able to attend. By the time she left in 1967, the department was running 34 modern dance classes for 700 students of all ages and abilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the importance of this program, Beckford later stated: “My philosophy for the young girls was, I would get them in through dance, but my whole goal was to make them be strong, free spirits. The girls got a lot of doses of self-empowerment training, self-esteem training,” she said. “Out of the thousands of girls that I taught, I knew a few would be dancers, but they all had to become women. I wanted them all to be strong young ladies — and it worked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These relationships were so important to Beckford, she prioritized them over having children of her own. “I feel if I had had children,” she said in 2000, “I would not have been the mentor to the hundreds and hundreds of girls I mentored. I would give them all the attention. I would tell them they were special.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From 1954 on, Beckford was also running her own company, the Ruth Beckford African Haitian Dance Company. Her understanding of traditional styles was so exhaustive, she was invited to choreograph a folk festival in Haiti in 1958. At home, her company’s performances — comprised of six dancers accompanied by three drummers — were unlike anything most dance fans had seen in the Bay Area before. For a start, the company was comprised entirely of Black dancers — a refreshing contrast to the companies Beckford had grown up in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13951198\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13951198 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/GettyImages-576842076-scaled-e1706578196329.jpg\" alt=\"A Black male dancer does the splits in mid-air, while two Black women dance either side of him.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1516\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students and members of Ruth Beckford’s dance group rehearse a number in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Ted Streshinsky/ CORBIS/ Corbis via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>fter Beckford retired from teaching in 1975, there was still no stopping her. She became an author, writing an autobiography, two cookbooks and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784188\">Katherine Dunham biography\u003c/a>. She also co-authored \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.everand.com/book/502678421/The-Picture-Man-From-the-Collection-of-Bay-Area-Photographer-E-F-Joseph-1927-1979\">The Picture Man\u003c/a>,\u003c/em> about Black Bay Area photographer E.F. Joseph. Her final work, \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Still-Groovin-Affirmations-Women-Second/dp/0829813373\">\u003cem>Still Groovin’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, was a book of spiritual advice and affirmations aimed squarely at mature women. “Women are sort of out there by themselves,” she said, “and women have to mentor each other. My book is a tool to help them become stronger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Still Groovin’\u003c/em> wasn’t her only means of trying to empower her peers. Between 1984 and 1988, Beckford wrote a trilogy of plays titled \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’\u003c/span>\u003cem>Tis the Morning of My Life\u003c/em>, about a woman named Roxie Youngblood who finds herself in a relationship with a much younger man. Beckford admitted the story was inspired by her own life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I have a different energy, I think, to most men my age,” she once explained. “As long as I have this energy, I’m going to use it and have fun with younger people. Younger men have the energy I have, and I feel mine is worthy of that.” On another occasion, she noted: “Older women are marrying younger men nowadays because they find they have much more in common.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a New York theater asked permission to stage her first play, Beckford agreed only if the original Bay Area cast could perform it. “It’s time for New York to see what the West Coast can do,” she insisted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a lot of people, co-founding the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast program would have been the pinnacle achievement of a lifetime. That Beckford then went on to mentor generations of young Black women was a huge deal. And the sheer number of ways Beckford sought to be of service throughout her life is ultimately breathtaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She served on the Board of Oakland\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s\u003c/span> African American Museum and Library, where she also founded an oral history program. She counseled homeless people in Berkeley, and women in shelters and prisons around the state. She served on a dance panel at the National Endowment for the Arts and campaigned for better theater facilities in Oakland. She founded a women’s golf club. She even spent Thursday afternoons in the late 1990s volunteering in Jack London Square’s information booth so that she might pass on her passion for all things Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ruth Beckford remained indefatigable (despite surviving five back surgeries and a hip replacement) until her death at age 93. Shortly before her passing on May 8, 2019, Beckford reflected on a life thoroughly well lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have a joyous life, I have a good time,” she said. “I choreographed my life. Step-by-step, year-by-year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>On Nov. 13, 1856, witnesses on San Francisco’s shoreline were astonished by the sight of a pregnant 19-year-old girl guiding a grand, 216-foot-long clipper ship into port. Mary Ann Patten had spent the previous two months leading the crew and cargo of the Neptune’s Car to safety from Chile’s Cape Horn. It was a role the young woman stepped up and took on after her husband — respected captain and master mariner, Joshua Adams Patten — contracted \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK541015/#:~:text=Tuberculous%20meningitis%20(TBM)%20is%20caused,to%20be%20infected%20with%20MTB.\">tuberculous meningitis\u003c/a> and pneumonia, rendering him blind, incoherent and bedridden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That Mary had successfully overseen the ship’s safe passage — even while nursing her ailing husband — made her an instant celebrity. That she was the first American woman to captain a merchant vessel made her a nautical legend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932525']The end of the Pattens’ journey on Neptune’s Car in many ways stands as a testament to their partnership. Joshua and Mary were married when she was just 16. The refined and intelligent girl was born in East Boston to immigrant parents from England, and always had a passion for learning. Joshua was widely viewed as a man of strong principles and good character. Though he was ten years Mary’s senior, the pair quickly developed a deep dedication to one another that was rooted in mutual respect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That dedication was in evidence after the original captain of the Neptune’s Car became ill and Joshua was asked to take his place on an 18-month around-the world voyage. Keen to accept the business opportunity but loathe to leave Mary for so long, Joshua contacted New York’s Foster & Nickerson shipping company and said that he would accept the job only under one unusual condition — that his wife be allowed to go with him. His bosses agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937748\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1596px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937748\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM.png\" alt=\"A 19th century painting of a vast clipper ship at sea.\" width=\"1596\" height=\"1130\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM.png 1596w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-800x566.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-1020x722.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-160x113.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-768x544.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-1536x1088.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1596px) 100vw, 1596px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neptune’s Car, the ship that Mary Ann Patten would later captain, as seen in Hong Kong Harbor in the early 1850s.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Conditions aboard clipper ships in the 1850s were far from romantic. Everyday life was cold, wet and grueling. Food rations were limited, illness was common on long journeys and, though sick sailors were isolated as soon as possible, it wasn’t unusual for disease to spread in the tight living quarters. Despite what was sure to be a challenging environment, Mary had no fear about joining Joshua on the epic journey. Having been born into a family of seafarers, she held a reverence and love for the open ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For her first year aboard Neptune’s Car, Mary spent her time wisely and constructively. She studied marinery in Joshua’s library. She assisted her husband with his duties, even keeping the captain’s log. She also took the time to learn how to use the ship’s chronometers — tools to aid celestial navigation. Thanks to her curious mind and diligent personality, by the time Joshua fell ill, Mary had a solid understanding of how to run the ship effectively. It’s a good thing: If she hadn’t, the fate of Neptune’s Car would have been much bleaker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13892514']The reason it was left to Mary to captain the vessel was because the ship’s first and second mates were incapable of doing so themselves. The second mate had never learned how to navigate, and the first — a man named Keeler — was grossly incompetent to the point of dangerous. (Keeler was a hasty replacement for the original first mate, who had broken his leg just before Neptune’s Car set sail.) Keeler was such a liability that he was removed from duty while Joshua was still in charge. One 1877 newspaper article even reported that Keeler was “put in irons” after trying to start a mutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon after Mary took over, Keeler wrote her a letter from the brig to try and persuade her that she was ill-equipped to take charge of the ship. He, rather absurdly, suggested that he might take the job instead. Mary responded simply that her husband had not trusted Keeler, so she wasn’t inclined to either. Mary already knew that she had the trust of the rest of the crew, who had adapted remarkably quickly to taking orders from a woman — a diminutive one at that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 1857, the \u003cem>Star of the North\u003c/em> newspaper reported:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The rough sailors all obeyed the ‘little woman’ as they called her, with a will, and eyed her curiously and affectionately through the cabin windows while deep in the calculations on which her life and theirs depended … Her time was spent between the bedside of her delirious husband and the writing desk, working up the intricate calculations incident to nautical observations, making entries in the log book in her own delicate penmanship and tracing out with accuracy the position of the ship from the charts in the cabin.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>When Neptune’s Car finally arrived in San Francisco safely, Mary’s first priority was getting Joshua home and to medical attention. Because he was a member of their fraternal organization, the California Masonic Temple quickly arranged travel for Joshua and Mary back to Boston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13908327']Soon, news broke that Foster & Nickerson were refusing to pay Joshua’s wages. The resulting public outcry was so great that the New York Board of Underwriters awarded Mary $1,000 and the companies whose cargo she had safely delivered gave her an additional $1,500. (All told, that adds up to around $90,000 in 2023 money.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After receiving the money, Mary responded with a humble and widely circulated letter. In it, she wrote: “I … endeavored to perform that which seemed to me, under the circumstances, only the plain duty of a wife towards a good husband.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, just eight months after the Pattens’ return home, and four months after Mary had given birth to their son, Joshua finally succumbed to his long illness at the McLean Asylum in Somerville, Massachusetts. An obituary published July 25, 1857 stated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Deaf and blind and sick as he has been for months past, [Joshua’s] heroic wife refused to surrender him to the care of strangers. It was not until Friday, when it was apparent that his reason was gone and he was utterly unmanageable, that she consented to his removal to the Asylum. Mary had a fever herself at the time. The patience in suffering and the energy in emergencies which she has hitherto displayed may carry her over this, which she regards as the greatest of her sorrows.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Mary was not long without Joshua. She died of tuberculosis just one month before her 24th birthday, leaving her son, Joshua Jr., to be raised by his maternal grandmother. Today, Mary and Joshua are buried side-by-side in Woodlawn Cemetery, Massachusetts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearby, there is a white stone etched with the words: “Are there seas in heaven, Joshua? And is there such a vessel as our Neptune’s Car? If there is, wait for me and we shall explore the vast and boundless reaches of eternity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The end of the Pattens’ journey on Neptune’s Car in many ways stands as a testament to their partnership. Joshua and Mary were married when she was just 16. The refined and intelligent girl was born in East Boston to immigrant parents from England, and always had a passion for learning. Joshua was widely viewed as a man of strong principles and good character. Though he was ten years Mary’s senior, the pair quickly developed a deep dedication to one another that was rooted in mutual respect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That dedication was in evidence after the original captain of the Neptune’s Car became ill and Joshua was asked to take his place on an 18-month around-the world voyage. Keen to accept the business opportunity but loathe to leave Mary for so long, Joshua contacted New York’s Foster & Nickerson shipping company and said that he would accept the job only under one unusual condition — that his wife be allowed to go with him. His bosses agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937748\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1596px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937748\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM.png\" alt=\"A 19th century painting of a vast clipper ship at sea.\" width=\"1596\" height=\"1130\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM.png 1596w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-800x566.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-1020x722.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-160x113.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-768x544.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-1536x1088.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1596px) 100vw, 1596px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neptune’s Car, the ship that Mary Ann Patten would later captain, as seen in Hong Kong Harbor in the early 1850s.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Conditions aboard clipper ships in the 1850s were far from romantic. Everyday life was cold, wet and grueling. Food rations were limited, illness was common on long journeys and, though sick sailors were isolated as soon as possible, it wasn’t unusual for disease to spread in the tight living quarters. Despite what was sure to be a challenging environment, Mary had no fear about joining Joshua on the epic journey. Having been born into a family of seafarers, she held a reverence and love for the open ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For her first year aboard Neptune’s Car, Mary spent her time wisely and constructively. She studied marinery in Joshua’s library. She assisted her husband with his duties, even keeping the captain’s log. She also took the time to learn how to use the ship’s chronometers — tools to aid celestial navigation. Thanks to her curious mind and diligent personality, by the time Joshua fell ill, Mary had a solid understanding of how to run the ship effectively. It’s a good thing: If she hadn’t, the fate of Neptune’s Car would have been much bleaker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The reason it was left to Mary to captain the vessel was because the ship’s first and second mates were incapable of doing so themselves. The second mate had never learned how to navigate, and the first — a man named Keeler — was grossly incompetent to the point of dangerous. (Keeler was a hasty replacement for the original first mate, who had broken his leg just before Neptune’s Car set sail.) Keeler was such a liability that he was removed from duty while Joshua was still in charge. One 1877 newspaper article even reported that Keeler was “put in irons” after trying to start a mutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon after Mary took over, Keeler wrote her a letter from the brig to try and persuade her that she was ill-equipped to take charge of the ship. He, rather absurdly, suggested that he might take the job instead. Mary responded simply that her husband had not trusted Keeler, so she wasn’t inclined to either. Mary already knew that she had the trust of the rest of the crew, who had adapted remarkably quickly to taking orders from a woman — a diminutive one at that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 1857, the \u003cem>Star of the North\u003c/em> newspaper reported:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The rough sailors all obeyed the ‘little woman’ as they called her, with a will, and eyed her curiously and affectionately through the cabin windows while deep in the calculations on which her life and theirs depended … Her time was spent between the bedside of her delirious husband and the writing desk, working up the intricate calculations incident to nautical observations, making entries in the log book in her own delicate penmanship and tracing out with accuracy the position of the ship from the charts in the cabin.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>When Neptune’s Car finally arrived in San Francisco safely, Mary’s first priority was getting Joshua home and to medical attention. Because he was a member of their fraternal organization, the California Masonic Temple quickly arranged travel for Joshua and Mary back to Boston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Soon, news broke that Foster & Nickerson were refusing to pay Joshua’s wages. The resulting public outcry was so great that the New York Board of Underwriters awarded Mary $1,000 and the companies whose cargo she had safely delivered gave her an additional $1,500. (All told, that adds up to around $90,000 in 2023 money.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After receiving the money, Mary responded with a humble and widely circulated letter. In it, she wrote: “I … endeavored to perform that which seemed to me, under the circumstances, only the plain duty of a wife towards a good husband.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, just eight months after the Pattens’ return home, and four months after Mary had given birth to their son, Joshua finally succumbed to his long illness at the McLean Asylum in Somerville, Massachusetts. An obituary published July 25, 1857 stated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Deaf and blind and sick as he has been for months past, [Joshua’s] heroic wife refused to surrender him to the care of strangers. It was not until Friday, when it was apparent that his reason was gone and he was utterly unmanageable, that she consented to his removal to the Asylum. Mary had a fever herself at the time. The patience in suffering and the energy in emergencies which she has hitherto displayed may carry her over this, which she regards as the greatest of her sorrows.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Mary was not long without Joshua. She died of tuberculosis just one month before her 24th birthday, leaving her son, Joshua Jr., to be raised by his maternal grandmother. Today, Mary and Joshua are buried side-by-side in Woodlawn Cemetery, Massachusetts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearby, there is a white stone etched with the words: “Are there seas in heaven, Joshua? And is there such a vessel as our Neptune’s Car? If there is, wait for me and we shall explore the vast and boundless reaches of eternity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Sailors called her “mother,” thieves cursed her name, and for decades she entertained both at her Embarcadero saloon. Mother Thompson, as she was known, may have shared a nickname with a \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_Thompson\">well-known temperance campaigner\u003c/a>, but her business was booze, banter, then more booze. It was also her to job to boldly defend her bar during a time when it was dangerous to be a woman behind one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13931837']Mother Thompson’s establishment, named Mrs. Thompson’s, was opposite today’s Rincon Park. Its front door was on Embarcadero between Howard and Folsom, with an additional rear entrance on Steuart Street that faced a vacant lot. \u003cem>The San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> reported in 1901 that one patron attempting to use the back entrance was robbed of his pocket watch by three men. The front entrance wasn’t much safer. In 1918, the \u003cem>Sacramento Bee\u003c/em> reported that a 41-year-old sailor named John McMahon was shot in front of the bar by an unknown assailant and died on his way to the Harbor Emergency Hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trouble didn’t always stay outside the saloon either. On one occasion when a customer refused to pay for his drinks, Thompson simply came out from behind the bar, walked up to the man, and slammed him in the throat with a length of rubber hose. \u003cem>The Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> later reported that “he went down as though struck by a pile driver,” and “a couple of swampers [men who performed odd jobs] picked him up and tossed him to the sidewalk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933424\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933424\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-800x946.jpg\" alt=\"An historical image of crowds of men gathered with mules on a busy corner. Behind them is a city block of wooden structures and shops.\" width=\"800\" height=\"946\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-800x946.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-160x189.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-768x908.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367.jpg 846w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The view, in 1900, of Embarcadero facing north from Folsom St. Mother Thompson’s bar was on the block visible behind the crowds in the foreground. \u003ccite>(OpenSFHistory / wnp37.02367)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Thompson’s regulars — mostly sailors — treated her with the utmost respect, often bringing her gifts from their travels including fine silks, wooden carvings and artificial flowers. When her tavern caught fire in 1916, sailors assisted the firemen tasked with extinguishing the blaze. \u003cem>The Chronicle\u003c/em> reported that during the fire, six men in the bar refused to leave, saying “If she goes down, we go with her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13927137']Thompson returned these kinds of favors by offering tabs and free drinks to friendly seafarers who were down on their luck. In a 1911 story in \u003cem>The San Francisco Call\u003c/em>, Thompson — apparently “getting on in years” with gray hair and a “very ample” waistline by then — was quoted as saying, “The sailor byes [boys] has a hard life with nothin’ but a plank between him and death. And so they likes to have what fun they can ashore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These men often felt protective of Thompson and assisted her when she was faced with unruly patrons. “Niver have I been insulted by sailor men,” Thompson told \u003cem>The Call\u003c/em>. “One or twice a man has started to say something, but always it was a landsman and the byes put him out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1913, when a towboat captain named Joseph C. Powell demanded repeatedly that someone else in the bar pay for drinks he’d already consumed, Thompson’s regulars were said to have set upon him, beaten him senseless and taken $5 from his pocket to pay her. \u003cem>The Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> reported shortly thereafter that Powell was “laid up at the harbor hospital for repairs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933422\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933422\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-800x630.jpg\" alt=\"A black wooden shack marked PIER 10 sits before ships docked on the San Francisco Bay. The air is thick with smoke. The ferry building is visible off in the distance.\" width=\"800\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-800x630.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-160x126.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-768x605.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The scene across the street from Mrs. Thompson’s back in 1900. \u003ccite>(OpenSFHistory / wnp4.1330)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It is fairly likely, based on the manner in which she was quoted in \u003cem>The Call\u003c/em>, that Thompson originally hailed from England. This would also explain her popularity with British sailors — she was the only bartender in San Francisco who served English ale in pewter mugs, as was customary in the U.K. at the time. Sailors from Liverpool flocked to see Thompson every chance they got. One report in \u003cem>The San Francisco Call\u003c/em> also mentioned “a swarthy, black-haired Highland Scotchman and a gray-haired old Welsh bosun” enthusiastically singing the sea shanty “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItFqjjLPjcA\">Blow the Man Down\u003c/a>” at the end of the bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thompson, though well equipped to deal with even the roughest of customers, was also known to sit behind the bar knitting on slow nights. She had raised several children — when they were young, they stayed with her at the bar while she worked — and kept a large gray cockatoo as a pet. The bird hung out at the tavern and was known to occasionally shout “Belay, there!” at noisy customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just how long Mrs. Thompson’s was in operation is now difficult to ascertain. Some turn-of-the-century newspaper articles said only the oldest of sailors would remember exactly when it opened. Based on when newspaper reports about the bar disappeared, it was likely put out of business by Prohibition in 1920.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13929998']What we do know is that between 1900 and 1940, women like Mother Thompson made up just 2% of the bartending workforce. Things got even worse in 1948 when \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goesaert_v._Cleary\">a Supreme Court ruling stopped women from working as bartenders\u003c/a> in any establishment that wasn’t owned by their father or husband, or in any town that had a population over 50,000 people. The law was designed to force women back out from behind the bar after the boom in female bartending that had happened during World War II. That law wasn’t overturned until 1971.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mother Thompson had neither the time nor the inclination to worry about whether or not her profession was suitable for someone of her gender. This undoubtedly eccentric woman was concerned only about living her life on her own terms from beneath her signature black straw bonnet. But Thompson also served as an important early example of just how successful a female bar owner could be — not to mention how beloved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She has a deal of kindness in her eyes,” \u003cem>The San Francisco Call\u003c/em> once noted, “and she smiles when she talks of the seafaring men.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Mother Thompson’s establishment, named Mrs. Thompson’s, was opposite today’s Rincon Park. Its front door was on Embarcadero between Howard and Folsom, with an additional rear entrance on Steuart Street that faced a vacant lot. \u003cem>The San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> reported in 1901 that one patron attempting to use the back entrance was robbed of his pocket watch by three men. The front entrance wasn’t much safer. In 1918, the \u003cem>Sacramento Bee\u003c/em> reported that a 41-year-old sailor named John McMahon was shot in front of the bar by an unknown assailant and died on his way to the Harbor Emergency Hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trouble didn’t always stay outside the saloon either. On one occasion when a customer refused to pay for his drinks, Thompson simply came out from behind the bar, walked up to the man, and slammed him in the throat with a length of rubber hose. \u003cem>The Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> later reported that “he went down as though struck by a pile driver,” and “a couple of swampers [men who performed odd jobs] picked him up and tossed him to the sidewalk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933424\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933424\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-800x946.jpg\" alt=\"An historical image of crowds of men gathered with mules on a busy corner. Behind them is a city block of wooden structures and shops.\" width=\"800\" height=\"946\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-800x946.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-160x189.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-768x908.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367.jpg 846w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The view, in 1900, of Embarcadero facing north from Folsom St. Mother Thompson’s bar was on the block visible behind the crowds in the foreground. \u003ccite>(OpenSFHistory / wnp37.02367)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Thompson’s regulars — mostly sailors — treated her with the utmost respect, often bringing her gifts from their travels including fine silks, wooden carvings and artificial flowers. When her tavern caught fire in 1916, sailors assisted the firemen tasked with extinguishing the blaze. \u003cem>The Chronicle\u003c/em> reported that during the fire, six men in the bar refused to leave, saying “If she goes down, we go with her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Thompson returned these kinds of favors by offering tabs and free drinks to friendly seafarers who were down on their luck. In a 1911 story in \u003cem>The San Francisco Call\u003c/em>, Thompson — apparently “getting on in years” with gray hair and a “very ample” waistline by then — was quoted as saying, “The sailor byes [boys] has a hard life with nothin’ but a plank between him and death. And so they likes to have what fun they can ashore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These men often felt protective of Thompson and assisted her when she was faced with unruly patrons. “Niver have I been insulted by sailor men,” Thompson told \u003cem>The Call\u003c/em>. “One or twice a man has started to say something, but always it was a landsman and the byes put him out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1913, when a towboat captain named Joseph C. Powell demanded repeatedly that someone else in the bar pay for drinks he’d already consumed, Thompson’s regulars were said to have set upon him, beaten him senseless and taken $5 from his pocket to pay her. \u003cem>The Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> reported shortly thereafter that Powell was “laid up at the harbor hospital for repairs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933422\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933422\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-800x630.jpg\" alt=\"A black wooden shack marked PIER 10 sits before ships docked on the San Francisco Bay. The air is thick with smoke. The ferry building is visible off in the distance.\" width=\"800\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-800x630.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-160x126.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-768x605.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The scene across the street from Mrs. Thompson’s back in 1900. \u003ccite>(OpenSFHistory / wnp4.1330)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It is fairly likely, based on the manner in which she was quoted in \u003cem>The Call\u003c/em>, that Thompson originally hailed from England. This would also explain her popularity with British sailors — she was the only bartender in San Francisco who served English ale in pewter mugs, as was customary in the U.K. at the time. Sailors from Liverpool flocked to see Thompson every chance they got. One report in \u003cem>The San Francisco Call\u003c/em> also mentioned “a swarthy, black-haired Highland Scotchman and a gray-haired old Welsh bosun” enthusiastically singing the sea shanty “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItFqjjLPjcA\">Blow the Man Down\u003c/a>” at the end of the bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thompson, though well equipped to deal with even the roughest of customers, was also known to sit behind the bar knitting on slow nights. She had raised several children — when they were young, they stayed with her at the bar while she worked — and kept a large gray cockatoo as a pet. The bird hung out at the tavern and was known to occasionally shout “Belay, there!” at noisy customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just how long Mrs. Thompson’s was in operation is now difficult to ascertain. Some turn-of-the-century newspaper articles said only the oldest of sailors would remember exactly when it opened. Based on when newspaper reports about the bar disappeared, it was likely put out of business by Prohibition in 1920.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>What we do know is that between 1900 and 1940, women like Mother Thompson made up just 2% of the bartending workforce. Things got even worse in 1948 when \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goesaert_v._Cleary\">a Supreme Court ruling stopped women from working as bartenders\u003c/a> in any establishment that wasn’t owned by their father or husband, or in any town that had a population over 50,000 people. The law was designed to force women back out from behind the bar after the boom in female bartending that had happened during World War II. That law wasn’t overturned until 1971.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mother Thompson had neither the time nor the inclination to worry about whether or not her profession was suitable for someone of her gender. This undoubtedly eccentric woman was concerned only about living her life on her own terms from beneath her signature black straw bonnet. But Thompson also served as an important early example of just how successful a female bar owner could be — not to mention how beloved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She has a deal of kindness in her eyes,” \u003cem>The San Francisco Call\u003c/em> once noted, “and she smiles when she talks of the seafaring men.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"onourwatch": {
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
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