Article by Will Anderson

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What does it mean to be an active community member

Bay Area Activism

What does being an active community member mean? Over the last few years, we’ve seen the nation take strides in becoming more politically involved, especially in our younger generations. As people take to the streets for issues they feel passionate about, the best way and most effective way to educate ourselves for the future is by looking at the past. Everyone has a different idea of what a “community member” is, but in its simplest form, it’s someone who provides something back to the community they are part of.

Chris Shrager has long been the an example of what it means to be an active community member- from establishing food banks, donating homes to create orphanages to his current restoration work for the Department of the Interior- he is the example of what it means to give back for over 50 years.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen younger generations of Americans become more politically involved. From anti-gun movements, Gen Z’s involvement in political campaigns, and especially the BLM movements, Gen Z has gathered online and in the real world to make their voices known. In the last 5 years, the millennial and Gen Z generations have been doing their part to influence society to create the world we want to live in. Although this generation’s commitment to our civic duty is something we actively pursue, it’s been hard to get laws passed and new legislation that benefits the change we’ve fought for and continue to do so.

As people take to the streets for issues they feel passionate about, the best way and most effective way to enact change is through educating ourselves for the future by looking at past efforts. Not only have different activism groups been stressing the conventional for generations but socio-political activism is something that’s been in the root of American identity since the birth of our nation. As the fight continues, we can look at prior movements to gain strategies and hope for our current activism work to continue in the most impactful way. Everyone has a different idea of what a “community member” is, but in its simplest form, it’s someone who provides something back to the community they are part of. Community organizers of the 1960s and 70s provide a blueprint for what a genuinely active community member should look like, being some of the most impactful activists that we can learn from.

Chris Shrager is the embodiment of this definition, being active in the Civil Rights and Anti-Vietnam War Movements in San Francisco throughout the 1960s & ‘70s.

The Bay Area

The Bay Area has long been a center of activism and social liberty since its creation but the Civil Rights movement of the 19050s and 60s had a significant impact on the area, inspiring generations to push for change.

In the 60s, the Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California, by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale-focusing on civil rights and community empowerment for Africa Americans and the organization of social programs.

Throughout the 1970s, San Francisco became a center for LGBTQ+ communities and broader neo-romanticism movements. In 1978, Harvey Milk became the first openly gay person elected to public office, setting a precedent for the Bay Area as a hub of social liberties.

The 1980s saw an increase in environmentl activism throughout the Bay Area, with groups like Greenpeace and the Sierra Club organizing campaigns to protect the beauty of Northern California.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Bay was a center for anti-globalization protests, with activists organizing against corporate globalization and neoliberal economic policy.The 1999 Seattle WTO protests that shut down the World Trade Organization was largely organised by Bay Area activists.

More recently, the Bay Area has been at the forefront of the Black Lives Matter movement, with protests and demonstrations organized in response to police brutality and systemic racism. The tech industry, which has a significant presence in the Bay Area, has also been the subject of activism, with tech workers organizing against issues like gentrification, labor exploitation, and data privacy.

Shrager was a social activist during the Civil Rights movement in San Francisco, his commitment to change-making can provide current social and political activists’ movements with valuable insight into how to bring change on a local level e ciently. Shrager Shrager is the embodiment of a role model whose work can in uence the ght for change- from the physical work that he did in the Bay Area to help and support his community to the protesting and activism work he contributed to in the greater area and national political and social ght

for change. From his early days in high school, he made his thoughts known and spoke openly about the movements he felt passionate about. Getting kicked from boarding school for these statements, he moved to Manhatten, joining “anarchist” groups that organized protests for the Vietnam War and the anti-Communism movement. During the Vietnam war, he ed to Cuba under Castros reign and would see the reality of what communism was and how much it provided to the people of Cuba. Seeing how the US had lied about Communism, he would come back to California and give political speeches at Menlo College, telling nieve American students about the realities of the Ameircan narrative. is is when his activism career would really expand, organizing groups around campus to

“There was a huge anti-war march in Washington on, November 15th of 1969, because it was my 18th birthday. We all {got} kind of teargassed. I purposely road back to New York, Stinking of teargas. We walked right into the draft board.”

Chris in Madrid, Spain

participate in demonstration and protests on campus and in San Francisco, which was only a half-hour drive from Menlo Park.

e trio, Chris Shrager and his friends Vicky and Harry Clark would organize movements around campus in support of the Civil Rights Movement and spend sleepless hours together at cafeteria recruitment tables, pushing for equal rights on campus and in the wider community. By graduation, the three had established medical clinics along El Camino in Menlo Park for low-income students and residents and e Spencer Moss Community College.

A er the Kent State police shootings due to student activism, Chris and his fellow activist friends would expand their work and make their voice heard that they would not stand for this infringement of their constitutional rights or the plethora of other issues they were ghting for; the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-Vietnam protests and the expanding hippie movement.

Between the Anti-Vietnam Movement, the Racial Justice movement, and the widespread social changes the Bay Area and nation saw, Shrager, Harry, and Vicky Clark found their footing- becoming aware of the social tension and increasing awareness of these movements by the general public. From organizing movements on campus to events that would spread into the community, the trio had joined a civil rights movement group called the Brown Berets, a paramilitary group that emerged as a result of the Chicano Movements in the late 1960s.

e group was founded by ex-leaders of the Black Panthers and modeled a er the Black Panther Party.

e goal of these groups was to organize the people and with the way that the Civil Rights riots and Anti-Vietnam protests had gone, it was made clear that the government wasn’t listening to the people

while preaching a narrative of instigation to protect democratic values. While a majority of the groups didn’t think the work they were doing would turn into a nationwide violent outbreak, many members did see this on the horizon. For example, many would go out to the forest and practice sharp-shooting while they weren’t working. Members of these groups thought the work they were doing would result in social unrest and a revolt against the government, using their voices to instigate this type of change they wanted to see. With the support of into the early 70s and the eventual middle 1970s, the ambitions of these groups largely changes and so did our trio’s goals. Shrager, Harry, and Vicky bounced around di erent groups as their alignments changed and eventually would change their role in these groups as the Civil Rights Movement ended with Federal Legislative. By the mid-1970s the Black Panthers had been demolished, with most of the leadership being imprisoned or killed as a result of their protesting. e remainder of the members would organize into smaller groups that mostly fell apart while a few stuck around or transitioned to protesting and activism on other issues.

As the momentum from the Civil Rights movement slowed down as a result of the annihilation of the Black Panthers and new legislation across the country, the activists of the 60s and early 70s had to find a new way to impact their communities and continue their work. Shrager, as well as many other activists, felt a calling to continue their work after these movements, struggling to find roles that would “do no harm” (for the environment, the community, the under-served or the little man)”, many transitioning to other movements or careers that provided similar opportunities and impacts for communities.

Black Panthers mascot

While many moved around the country and to this day fight for labor and gender rights, the Bay Area became a new hub of environmental activism, pressuring local and state government groups to protect the land to ensure the beauty and land management of the state. While Bay Area activists repositioned their political power, Shrager, Harry, and Vicki settled down into work that they deemed- “less risky,” -opening community services across the Peninsula to help lower-income communities. Shrager would spend a summer driving families out to prisons in the Central Valley and East Bay. One of the most significant projects they did in addition to food banks, medical centers and even a small community college, is the daycare center he established in Menlo Park. Shrager’ family, originally from Chicago had a family house in Menlo Park that Shrager grew up in and would come in inherit. Rather than settling down, he would turn this stately house into a daycare center for the city and end up donating the now multi-million dollar house to the city of Menlo Park where it still sits as a day care center. The Newsom administration has visited the site and granted thousands in state funding to the project.

As the Trio, Harry, Vicky and Shrager, settled from their activist lives, they found a place in their communities for them, where they could do the work that would not only fight from within the belly of the beast by working for the government, in the BLM and education sector, but changing the perceived narrative that the media perpetuates and be the change they wanted to see after dedication years of their lives to the fight. The change allowed the group to see the government and the work they did from a different perspective. From constantly fighting against the government, they were now the ones that worked for and represented it. Moving from the private sector to the public, the group got the perspective that however big the federal government is, there’s ways to continue their original activism work, but through working with them instead of against.

As the Bay grows and the people of my generation, Gen Z, assume the potential power that our parents had, we have to know how to use it. e last few years have seen a dramatic increase in political interest and social movements, from the BLM movement, and the Women’s marches of 2019 to the March for our Lives protests against gun laws, especially from the youngest members of our generation. As a result of the instant connection and organization through the internet, our generation has the potential to enact the change we want,

evident in the Trump rally that was shut down due to organization through TikTok, largely by Gen Z representatives. Although we have shown interest in nationwide issues and the power that we hold, we have to know how to e ectively and e ciently use it and that theres many di erent ways to be an engaged community member, and that jumping on the band-wagon without educated knowledge isn’t always bene cial.. To succeed in the future, it’s vital to look back- to see the activists like Chis Shrager and thousands of others that took initiative to ght for the change they wanted to see.

Shrager’ story is a great example of this because it shows that although he was one of the thousands at these protests, his voice was impactful and even if you are one in a crowd, the courage and bravery it takes is not forgotten. e few narratives we are familiar with that center around activism and protesting—Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and Greta umburg—are important, but an activist doesn’t have to be nationally known to make a di erence or to be heard. Gen Z has shown time and time again, that when faced with challenges, we rise to the occasion and push for change, seen through teenage activists a er the Parkland school shooting, and during the 2020 BLM protests where millions gathered in the streets facing Covid-19 to ght for change and during countless other movements and community events where we make out voices heard.

is generation o en feel stuck, hopeless or lacking the actuality to make our wishes reality, through looking at prior activism movements, we can gain inspiration and hope that the ght is worth it and that there’s always hope for what can be.

“ I used to be someone they were afraid of. Now they pay me. ey let me adopt children. ey let me teach other people children it. And I sort of looked at it in that light. You know, I’m ghting within the belly of the beast. I’m part of this. I think I’ve been able to have a broader, more bene cial e ect on my little tiny slice of that pie.”

Author & Bio

I’m William Anderson, a current Junior at Mountain View High School and Freestyle Academy. I was interested in the Freestyle program for the resources it provides and the real-life practice that the program teaches through technology, communication, and real work opportunities. Design is something I’m very passionate about having taken Architecture classes in prior years as well as 2d and 3d art courses. I gain inspiration from the experiences in my life, working memories, and different perspectives on what I create.

Outside of class, I like to fill my time. I feel most happy when I’m productive and getting things done. Doing chores, running errands, and going on drives are all things that I like doing-and of course spending time with my friends and taking full advantage of what California has to offer.

I’m excited to be a part of Freestyle this year and have the skills to use what’s offered to expand my creative drive. There’s so much here at our fingertips and I want to be able to execute my creative ideas in creative and professional ways.