Banner photograph by Sean Santos.

VOICES OF TRUTH TO POWER

The 1968/69 San Francisco State College Student Strike Oral History Archive of the BSU, TWLF and Collective Community

Leading up to the 55th anniversary year (2023) of the 1968-69 BSU/TWLF student strike for Ethnic Studies, SFSU ethnic studies faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students conducted oral history interviews with over 30 former student strikers. The purpose of this oral history project is to collect the memories and stories directly from the voices of those that participated in the student strike. This digital exhibition is dedicated to making their stories publicly available to the next generation of students, researchers, and activists.

 

A small selection of oral history interviews featured here explores the theme of solidarity. As one of the largest and longest student strikes that organized along cross-racial solidarity in U.S. history, the BSU/TWLF student strike at San Francisco State University can teach us much about cross-racial solidarity for today’s movements, such as solidarity against anti-Asian violence, solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and solidarity for justice for Palestine. This project was supported by a RSCA grant and AA CARES grant. More interviews will be posted in 2024. 
         
   

Oral History Project Team

 

This digital exhibition was made possible by the labor and love of many SFSU faculty and students. The interviewing team included Dr. Grace Yoo, Dr. Tiffany Caesar, Dr. Mark Allan Davis, Dr. Baleigh Ben Taleb, and Juice Canales. The recording and editing team included Yoko April Tamada and Amarachi Obijiaku. The transcribing and digital archiving team included Dr. Chrissy Yee Lau, Dr. Tiffany Caesar, Dr. Rama Kased, Hal Saga, Charlene Olivar, Ernest Olivar, Karla Vanessa Muniz-Alvarez, Sydney Jackson, and Jade Eiler.

    
   

 

Best Practice for Citations

 

These oral histories may be used by researchers, educators, and the general public. Please cite whenever you are using the oral histories. Citations should include the names of the both the interviewee and interviewer, date of interview, name of the oral history collection, place of where the oral history collection is housed, and the webpage link. Here’s an example:

 

  1. Penny Nakatsu, Interview by Dr. Grace Yoo and Juice Canales, Voices of Truth to Power: The 1968/69 San Francisco State College Student Strike Oral History Archive of the BSU, TWLF and the Collective Community, San Francisco State University Library, https://strikecollection.quartexcollections.com/student-oral-histories-1

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PENNY NAKATSU

 

Born in 1949, Penny Nakatsu grew up in San Francisco’s Western Addition redevelopment
project of Fillmore and Japantown. In 1967, Nakatsu enrolled at San Francisco State College.
The following year, Nakatsu served on the TWLF Central Committee and recruited Asian
American students to support the strike. Afterwards, she became an attorney in the East Bay.

 

INTERVIEW

 

 

NAKATSU INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

 

REVEREND ARNOLD TOWNSEND

 

Reverend Arnold Townsend grew up in an all-Black community in Oklahoma and in an
integrated neighborhood in Los Angeles. He taught summer school as a part of the Black Student
Union in South Park, an all-Black town, after admission into San Francisco State University. He
came to San Francisco after the army during 1967. Townsend participated in the San Francisco
State Strike of 1968 as a student. Afterwards, he went to theology school and became a pastor.
Currently, he lives in the Fillmore District of San Francisco. 

 

INTERVIEW

 

TOWNSEND INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

 

ROGER ALVARADO

 

Roger Alvarado was born in San Francisco and settled with his family in Pacifica, graduating from Westmoor High School in Daly City in 1961. Alvarado entered San Francisco State that same year, and worked with the tutorial program in its efforts to support underserved high school communities. Alvarado was a member of the Latin American Student Association and represented the TWLF as a spokesperson.

 

INTERVIEW

 

ALVARADO INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

 

 

JUDY JUANITA

 

Judy Juanita is an award-winning poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist and playwright. Her family moved from Oklahoma to California where she grew up in Oakland. She attended SF State from 1966-1971 for her B.A and returned to earn an MFA in 1993. She was an active member of SFSC’s Black Student Union and the Black Panther Party. She served as editor of the Black Panther Party newspaper and wrote for the City College newspaper on the Black Liberation Movements. In 1969, Judy became the youngest faculty member in the newly established Black Studies Department, working with Dr. Nathan Hare and others.

INTERVIEW

 

JUANITA INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

 

MASON WONG

 

Mason Wong is a first-generation Chinese-American organizer. Born in New York City, he moved to San Francisco at a very young age. After serving in the Marines, he turned down an extension in order to attend SF City College in 1965 and San Francisco State in1968, where he served as president of the ICSA. While in the Marines, he witnessed segregation and discrimination towards other minority groups, which began his understanding for the movement.

 

INTERVIEW

 

WONG INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

 

 

DR. JACOB PEREA

 

Dr. Perea was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1941, where he attended elementary, middle school and high school. He went to college at New Mexico State University, doing a double major in Biological Sciences and Music. He joined the Peace Corps, traveling to Nigeria where he taught school for a year, then on to Ghana and Tanzania. Perea taught at SF State for two years (1968-1970). He then worked for seven years as an educator elsewhere, including the Navajo reservation in Arizona. In 1977, he came back to SF State to teach in the College of Education as a professor of Administration and Interdisciplinary studies. In 1985, he co-founded the Step to College Program at to encourage disadvantaged students to attend and remain in college. Perea earned  a master’s in education from SF State and an educational doctorate from UC Berkeley. His research focuses on Latino, African American and American Indian public school graduation rates and access to higher education. 

 

INTERVIEW
Perea Interview Trnscript

DR. RAYMOND TOMPKINS

 

Dr. Raymond Tompkins is a historian and scientist, born in San Diego into a navy family and moved to San Francisco during his teens. He participated in the San Francisco State College Student Strikes and afterwards served as the third chair of the Black Student Union and VP of the Associated Student Body where he helped establish the school’s first daycare center. Afterwards, he served as adjunct associate dean of the college and worked towards creating the curriculum for Black Studies. He has since worked with students and scientists on pollution and environmental racism in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

 

INTERVIEW
Tompkins Interview Transcript