Almost 60 years after bloody and brutal protests, activists from the Third World Liberation Front reflect on seeing the study in San Francisco
During the first two weeks of each school year, Joaquin Delgado said, he shows his Galileo High School ethnic-studies students an image of a student holding a clenched fist in the air, accompanied by the words “Know History, Know Self.
” The class of mostly freshmen writes down what they interpret the quote to mean. Then, Delgado asks, “What would you want to learn about your own history?”He’s referring to the action led by the Third World Liberation Front — the longest student-led higher-education strike in U.S. history — which not only established the nation’s first college of ethnic studies at SF State. It also set a precedent for education systems across the country to offer classes highlighting the experiences of ethnic minorities, specifically Black, Latino, Asian and Indigenous people. Educators such as Delgado, tasked with teaching the now two-semester ethnic-studies requirement in San Francisco public schools, say it's crucial to teach about the Third World Liberation Front early on because it gives students a personal foundation and context for the class. “San Francisco is the Mecca of ethnic studies,” Delgado told The Examiner. “I think all the time about how important it is to carry on that legacy that goes through generations.” The irony is not lost on Delgado that the classes he teaches, which outline the San Francisco origins of ethnic studies, is being challenged again inside the same city almost 60 years later. San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Maria Su announced at the end of June that The City’s public-school system will conduct an audit of its ethnic-studies curriculum during the upcoming school year following the opposition of several groups of parents and organizations to the courses’ teaching methods and subject matter. The connections between history and the present are clear not only to those teaching it, but also to those who were a part of it. “The forces that are trying to dismantle these programs are the same forces that resisted the creation of those programs in the first place,” said published writer and poet Jeff Leong, who was arrested and jailed as a student during the Third World Liberation Front demonstrations. From November 1968 to March 1969, the Third World Liberation Front — a multiracial alliance of an estimated 4,000 students and faculty — rallied on the San Francisco State and UC Berkeley campuses to protest the schools’ admissions practices, which it said largely excluded nonwhite students, and curricula that didn’t reflect the lived experiences of people of color. After five tense months — during which hundreds of strikers were arrested and then-Gov. Ronald Reagan called in the National Guard — SF State and UC Berkeley each established the nation’s first colleges of ethnic studies and altered their admissions policies regarding minorities. The Examiner spoke with four of the original Third World Liberation Front activists about their reactions to seeing ethnic-studies courses under fire, in San Francisco and beyond, amid a local curriculum backlash and federal opposition to the field entirely. “I’m alarmed that it’s continuing, but at the same time, I’m not surprised,” said longtime UC Berkeley ethnic-studies professor and former demonstrator Harvey Dong. “If anything, that points to the need for programs such as ethnic studies. If you want to end racism in society, it's through understanding — and ethnic studies provides that.” A district-conducted survey found that an overwhelming majority of last year’s San Francisco public-school students approved of the courses. Some opponents have said they want San Francisco's ethnic-studies curriculum cut entirely, while others want to see it changed or dropped as a graduation requirement. Critics have argued the classes have been teaching “ideology over history,” ostracizing and belittling the mental health of some students. “I wonder who these people are,” said Juanita Tamayo Lott, an SF State graduate who led one of the primary Filipino organizations embedded in the strike. “I wonder what their background is.” Ex // Top Stories SF art museums’ North Bay neighbors depend on collaboration San Francisco museums have it hard enough, but opening an arts institution in the North Bay can be even more daunting Homelessness oversight vacancy a litmus test for supes Christin Evans’ pursued reappointment to the commission could test the political will of a new Board of Supervisors Waller Street screen-printing shop doubles as SF pinball destination Free Gold Watch has amassed more than 60 game machines since moving into a residential garage over 15 years ago “If they haven't been in the shoes of the people who are vulnerable, whom we hurt the most, I think they need to have a little humility,” she said. “If you can't have empathy with people who aren't like you, then I don't know what to say to you.” Lott, Dong, Leong and retired San Francisco educator Laureen Chew are among the many original protesters who started as relatively agnostic college students before developing lifetime commitments to racial justice, whether through academia, community organizing or the public sector. “If you believe in this long enough, and went through that experience that I did, it becomes a part of you for the rest of your life,” said Chew, who after the movement went on to both teach in SFUSD and become associate dean of SF State’s ethnic-studies department. “Without the TWLF strike, I would not be who I am today.” Chew acknowledged that school leaders should be sensitive to concerns over the curriculum. She said she’s frustrated the ethnic-studies debate has devolved into an “either/or paradigm” of binary opinions. She said ironing out such a complex curriculum takes time — SF State’s ethnic studies department took 30 years to develop and become what she envisioned. “There needs to be a closer look at the criticisms and address them,” she said. “What and how you teach is not a stagnant process and the politics of getting it done is huge and requires stamina — collective stamina “Folks need to have fun in the process of getting ethnic studies in the schools, like we did during our experiences with organizing the TWLF strike,” she said. Lott, who lives in Seattle after retiring from a career as a demographer in The City, said she has encountered troublingly limited awareness from young people locally of vital pieces of San Francisco history such as the experiences of civil-rights activist Fred Korematsu, who resisted the federally mandated internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast during World War II, and the Third World Liberation Front. In a few weeks, Leong will soon release a memoir detailing his experience during the demonstrations. Several of his peers, including Lott, have previously done the same to shine a brighter light on that history. Leong said a group of readers who helped him with his rough draft told him most San Franciscans’ knowledge of the Third World Liberation Front is similar to a driver’s relationship with the road: They know the road exists, but don’t know how it got there. “People don’t know the struggle that people went through to create those mechanisms and programs,” Leong said. “It’s important that those who lived through events 50 years ago, particularly something like the Third World strike, share those experiences through memories.” Lott — who published her memoir, “Golden Children: Legacy of Ethnic Studies at SF State,” in 2019 — applauded the bravery of modern ethnic-studies teachers such as Delgado for continuing to press forward. Delgado said he and his coworkers know very little about next year’s new curriculum. The district plans to approve a new curriculum Tuesday, three weeks before the first day of school. Still, Delgado said he is sure about two parts of his class next year: First, the Third World Liberation Front will remain a core part of his lessons. And second, he’s going to brief his students on the current situation unfolding at the district, which he says threatens the very ethnic-studies courses he is teaching. “It's the present day, but this is really unfortunate,” he said. “It's painful to think that people really believe what they believe, and it's painful to have to spend time during the summer really trying to fight for ethnic studies.
San Francisco Unified School District Third World Liberation Front Maria Su Uc Berkeley San Francisco State
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