Feature Archives

On Wednesday August 20th people will share stories about how they have experienced racism in the areas of education, housing employment, law enforcement relations, health, or immigration. This rare listening and documentation session will take place at United Presbyterian Church in Watsonville, starting at 6:30pm. You can share your stories anonymously, if you choose.

In August 2006, seven African American lesbians were walking down the street in the West Village, when a male bystander assaulted them with sexist and homophobic comments. The women tried to defend themselves, and a fight broke out. The women were arrested and three of them accepted plea offers while the other four received sentences of up to 11 years in prison.

On Monday, June 23, 2008, Terrain Dandridge’s case was overturned, all her charges were dropped and her record was cleared. Terrain Dandridge and her mother meet with Angela Davis at the San Francisco Women’s Building for a public event Tuesday, June 24th to discuss the experiences of violence faced by queer people of color.

Between 1973 and 1976, more than 76 traditional Lakotas and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) were killed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. These deaths were part of the F.B.I.'s "Reign of Terror", designed to destroy traditional peoples' resistance to corporate projects such as uranium mining. A free film screening and information night on Wednesday, June 4th in Santa Cruz will include literature on John's case and related resistance movements, and will be introduced by a friend and supporter of John Graham.

Two years after six local activists were arrested on Cinco de Mayo at Story and King Roads on the Eastside of San Jose, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office dropped all charges against the last of the defendants, Brian Helmle. The charges stem from Mr. Helmle’s arrest, along with five others, for their participation in a speakout against police brutality and copwatch on May 5, 2006.

Bay Area environmental and social justice organizations are demanding a halt to San Francisco's proposed highly polluting Peaker Power Plant Project. Also known as the Combustion Turbine Project, the plant is proposed to be built in Southeast San Francisco, right next to the Bayview Hunters Point community that is already overburdened with pollution.

Jason Paschal, an African-American tarot card reader, has successfully ended a 9-month battle to beat charges against him--after he called the Santa Cruz police last summer to complain that a patron of O'Neill's Sports Shop on Pacific Avenue called him a "nigger" and spat on him.

On April 17th, community supporters and student activists at D-Q University received letters from the Yolo County District Attorney that informed them that the charges against the 18 arrested on campus on March 31, 2008 have been dropped. D-Q University is California’s only Tribal College and was founded in 1971 by Native American and Chicano activists. Friends of D-Q U will continue to demand justice for the three students arrested on February 20, 2008 on campus, as well as the two who were arrested as they slept next to the sweat lodge on ceremonial grounds on April 2, 2008. D-Q U's ASB and supporters are demanding an end to the harassment against the students by the Board of Trustees, the Yolo County Sheriffs Department and the Yolo County Board of Supervisors by writing letters to local and national officials.