Activism

SF State Activism Gator Great Melba Beals

Melba Beals

Civil rights activist

One of the "Little Rock Nine" who integrated an all-white high school in Arkansas in 1957, this journalism grad, pictured left, is now chair of Dominican University's Communications Department. Her awards include the Congressional Gold Medal and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Excellence in Writing.

Photo courtesy of the Central High Museum Historical Collections/UALR Archives.

SF State Activism Gator Great Randy Hayes

Randy Hayes

Environmental pioneer

His masters thesis in environmental planning, a 16 mm film about the desert, won Best Student Film from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and led to Hayes founding the Rainforest Action Network.

SF State Activism Gator Great Norma Hotaling

Norma Hotaling

Crusader for survivors of abuse, prostitution and trauma

She died in 2008 but her legacy lives on through Standing Against Global Exploitation, an organization she founded as part of her health education coursework at SF State.

SF State Activism Gator Great Ralf Hotchkiss

Ralf Hotchkiss

Disability activist

He used his $260,000 McArthur Foundation "genius" grant to start an SF State group that would become Whirlwind Wheelchair International, which helps people in developing countries build their own wheelchairs.

SF State Activism Gator Great Cleve Jones

Cleve Jones

AIDS activist

The founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt was an SF State student when he stitched the first panel of what would become the world's largest, ongoing community arts project.

SF State Activism Gator Great Wilma Mankiller

Wilma Mankiller

American Indian activist

Long before her selection as first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1985, she was an SF State student who participated in the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island.

SF State Activism Gator Great Joseph Marshall

Joseph Marshall

Youth advocate

This MacArthur "genius grant" recipient has been called the "Repo Man" for his remarkable ability to turn around the lives of teens in trouble with drugs and gangs.

SF State Activism Gator Great Jerry Nims

Jerry Nims

Religious activist

Jerry Falwell's successor as head of the Moral Majority turned toward conservatism after reading Marx and Lenin as an SF State student in the '60s.

SF State Activism Gator Great Mario Save

Mario Savio

Free speech activist

Though most closely associated with the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley, his alma mater is SF State, from which he graduated with highest honors in 1984.

SF State Activism Gator Great Mu Sochua

Mu Sochua

Member of Cambodian Parliament, human rights advocate

Her efforts against sex trafficking won her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination and a Human Rights Global Leadership Award from Vital Voices Global Partnership in 2005.

     

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