Daily Archives: May 9, 2016

Inspired by the stamina of the “Frisco 5” hunger strikers, hundreds of chanting supporters occupied the rotunda and grand staircase inside City Hall for seven hours on May 6. Their demand: “We won’t leave City Hall until the mayor fires Greg Suhr,” the top cop complicit in a string of police murders of Black and Brown people in the city. The movement to fire Chief Suhr, stubbornly resisted by the city’s political establishment, is nevertheless gaining momentum.

In 2010, Malcolm Shabazz and I traveled to Chicago to be a part of the annual Chairman Fred Hampton Street Party, celebrating the life of the assassinated Black Panther leader. While on that trip, we were introduced to Prince Amir, the grandson of Imam Malik aka Jeff Fort of the Black P. Stone Nation. Prince Amir and Malcolm hit it off immediately.

If you haven’t heard of The Direction: Lowell High School Advocates, it is a student-led organization, started in my program for individuals with learning differences at Lowell High School in San Francisco. The social movement curriculum I teach was designed to expose students to the social movements of the past, while helping them to draw connections to the current issues related to disability rights.