Beginning at Merritt College in Oakland in 1961, Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton organized the Negro History Fact Group, which was the first Black history course offered in higher education. The course [...] Continue Reading
BIPOC
An Infamous Event That Sparked a “Forgotten” Memory
(Editor’s note: This is the first of a series of articles regarding the incarceration of Japanese Americans in 1942–1945. This project is made possible through a grant from the California Civil [...] Continue Reading
“First They Came…” Again
We are again in a period of racist ultranationalism and right-wing extremism. It’s not the first one. We can choose to defend those who are under attack now. Or we can wait until the attackers come [...] Continue Reading
Activists Remember the Chicano Moratorium 53 Years Later
BY MARCOS FRANCO (Editor’s note: Reprinted with permission from Caló News.) It wasn’t long after sheriff deputies rolled up on the more than 20,000 protestors waving Mexican flags and picket [...] Continue Reading
Un Infame Evento Que Despertó un Recuerdo “Olvidado”
(Nota del editor: este es el comienzo de una serie mensual de historias dedicadas al encarcelamiento japonés de 1942-1945.) Un día de verano del año 2000, el Dr. Isao Fujimoto (1933-2022) vino a [...] Continue Reading
“Fresno County Didn’t Do a Thing”
A Vigil for Bessie Walker Around 75 people gathered in Fresno’s Courthouse Park on Aug. 21 for a prayer vigil in memory of Bessie Walker. The date marked two years since Walker, a 27-year-old [...] Continue Reading
Acknowledgement and Apology of Historical Injustice
California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a formal apology acknowledging the state Attorney General Office’s past complicity in the unjust deprivation of Japanese Americans’ civil rights and civil [...] Continue Reading
“Down There” in West Fresno
A recent comment from a Fresno City Council member rang an old, all too familiar bell. When District 1 representative Annalisa Perea referred to West Fresno as “down there” in an interview with [...] Continue Reading
DeSantis, Anti-Woke and African American History
The great Marxist historian Herbert Aptheker once noted that “history’s potency is mighty. The oppressed need it for identity and inspiration, [and the] oppressor for justification, rationalization [...] Continue Reading
Jack Ortega: Friend, Mentor, Organizer (1929–2023)
Jack Ortega was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, 1929. He graduated from St. Joseph’s Catholic High School in Alameda and went into the U.S. Army, serving in the Korean War as an artillery observer. [...] Continue Reading
Tulare Lake Lives!
Imagine the largest lake west of the Mississippi on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. About 200 years ago, you could see flocks of birds arriving that were as loud as a freight train. Turtles, [...] Continue Reading
Water Forum Ponders Valley Water Concerns
There are few places this year where water has been more of a preoccupation than in Kings County. That’s mainly because of a partial rewatering of the historic Tulare Lake, along with flooding due to [...] Continue Reading