DOCSLIB.ORG

Honoring Allan Brotsky National Lawyers Quild Bay Area Chapter

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Honoring Allan Brotsky National Lawyers Quild Bay Area Chapter National Lawyers Quild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter Testimonial Dinner 1991 Honoring Allan Brotsky National Lawyers Quild Bay Area Chapter Executive Board Members Linda Fullerton, President Stan Zaks, Vice President Barrie Becker, Student Vice President Emily Graham, Co-Treasurer Andy Krakoff, Co-Treasurer Steve Collier Dan Feinberg Bob Feinglass Cindi Fox Terry Koch Hillary Kramer Rachel Lederman Toby Lieberman Celia McGumness Bob Meola Tom Meyer Christopher Miller Ann Noel Antonio Salazar-Hobson Steve Sherman Bobbie Stein John True Terri Waller School Representatives Erica Etelson, Book Hall Law School Steve Greenwood, San Francisco Law School David Hershey-Webb, Golden Gate University Chet Hewitt, New College School of Law Cindi Mishkin, University of San Francisco Beth Morrow, Hastings College of Law Peter Omarzu, New College School of Law Brett Reid Parker, University of San Francisco Theresa Swanick, Golden Gate University Quild Staff Lora Dierker, Membership Coordinator Riva Enteen, Demonstrations Coordinator Cover photo by Susan Ehmer I would like to congratulate you on honoring Allan Brotsky. He was my teacher, and an inspiring one he was! His classroom delivery had the smoothness of fine wine, and a hidden punch. It's been ten years and the memory lingers. - Nancy M* Doctor ✓ Allan Brotsky and Who Owns Port Chicago John Fleming, 21, a student, was arrested late Wednesday afternoon as he placed a Bible and a sign citing the articles of the Nuremburg war crimes trials against the windshield of a truck- load of napalm bombs whose path he’d just blocked. He is among 32 anti-war demonstra­ tors arrested since early Monday morning for attempting to stop delivery of napalm and other explosives to the Naval Weapons Station just outside the town of Port Chicago [Port Chicago Defendants1 Statement: August, 1966]. n August, 1966, the United States was busy dropping bombs on a small Third World country which it had branded as an aggressor (sound familiar?). The country was NorthI Vietnam and the bombs were napalm. Outraged by thatwar and the use of napalm bombs, protestors held vigils and demonstra­ tions at the North Contra Costa County Naval Base of Port Chicago (the same base at which Brian Wilson lost his legs 20 years later). Thirty-two people were arrested for placing themselves in front of trucks bringing napalm onto the Port Chicago Naval Base for shipment to Vietnam. Protestors sat on the road and in the two entrance gates to the Port Chicago base. Those sitting in the entrance gates were arrested by military police and charged with trespassing on a federal reservation (the Port Chicago Naval Base). Peter Franck, a young lawyer who had just three years earlier begun practicing law in Berkeley, was coordinating a legal defense organization made up of Guild attorneys called ‘The Council for Justice.” Funded by a Santa Barbara millionaire concerned that the young civil rights and anti-war protestors of the time were not getting adequate legal representation, and guided by Francis Heisler, a World War II pacifist and conscientious objec­ tors* lawyer originally from Chicago, The Council for Justice had taken on the j ob of providing legal counsel in a broad range of anti­ war, civil rights and civil liberties cases for the activists of the Bay Area; its representation extended as far as Cesar Chavez and his (then) new farmworker movement in Delano. The case of the Port Chicago demonstrators who were accused of trespassing on a federal reserve was to be tried in federal court, which “upped the ante”, in terms of potential penalties and the seriousness of the trial. Knowing this, Franck went to the ex­ perienced and highly regarded Guild attorney Allan Brotsky and asked him to handle the federal case. After looking into the case, Brotsky agreed to take it. His assessment was that it would have to go to jury trial. He had one condition, which was that Franck try the case with him. What Allan knew was that I had been so busy organizing and coordinating that I had had little experience in the courtroom. Not admitting that I was scared of trial, I told him that I was much too busy to take on a jury trial and that he should handle the case himself. Allan, in his stubborn way, single-mindedly insisted that there was only one way he would take on the case, and that was with my help. I knew, and he knew I knew, that he thought that it was time for me to get out from behind the coordination desk and into the trenches of actual movement trial work. This was the best and most generous type of mentoring of the next generation. The teaching had only begun. The case went to trial before United States District Court Judge Lloyd Burke on January 11th, 1967. Burke was a crusty Nixon appointee who had neither sympathy nor patience with anti-war demonstrators. After some preliminary motions, a jury was seated and the government asked the defense to stipulate to a number of routine matters. The stipulations would speed the trial and avoid boring the jury. Among the proposed stipulations was that the U.S. government owned the land on which the Port Chicago Naval Base sat. Since the offense was trespassing on a federal reserve, a key element of the prosecution was that the land in question belonged to the federal government. Brotsky, being ornery (I thought) and not liking the government much, said we should refuse to stipulate. I thought this was silly and would simply waste time, but bowed to Allan's greater experience. The government opened its case with an expert on title to the land. In his tenacious fashion, Brotsky started questioning the government witness. Taking him through entire documents, Brotsky insisted on knowing how the federal government had acquired the land. The expert testified that it was through the equivalent of federal eminent domain. Where were the eminent domain documents? The expert did not know. Where were the references in the records to the particular tract of land on which the defendants had been arrested? Well, they could only find reference to one of the two tracts. The other was not actually referred to in the documents that he had. It turned out that the federal government had never properly acquired the land at the section of the Port Chicago Base on which some of our clients had been arrested. There had therefore been no trespass, and Judge Burke was forced to dismiss all charges against those defendants. Throughout this process, Allan exhibited the combina­ tion of good humor, seriousness, devotion to his clients and distrust of the government which are his hallmark and the hallmark of all good people's lawyers. He also exhibited a generosity of sharing his experience and a commitment to teaching and passing it on which one young lawyer never forgot. Allan's argument to the jury, on our clients' peaceful and Nuremburg intent, was so powerful that Judge Burke stopped him in the hall two days later and complimented him on it. Inciden­ tally, it led to a hung jury (ten to two for acquittal) and the subsequent dismissal of all charges by the U.S. Attorney's Office. Allan Brotsky, a lawyer, a teacher, and a role model for all of us. by Peter Franck FIRST YEAR TRIUMPHS: Allan Brotsky By Cindy Ossias The following article was originally written for The Caveat. the student newspaper of Golden Gate University School of Law, in 1980. t was a dark and stormy Monday. I slid into a seat in the back of the room hoping to be overlooked. Not only had I not briefed Buckeye Boiler Co. v. Superior Court of Los I Angeles County, I hadn’t even glanced at it. I’d had a good weekend. A1 Brotsky leaned against the lectern, his full head of white hair renewing my awe of older men. If I were male, I’d want to look just like him when I grew up. He called for plaintiffs counsel to rise. “Would Melvin Belli and Bella Abzug please stand? “And Deborah Halvonik and William Kunstler?” Attorneys for the defense joined them. With the timing of George Bums and the gentleness of Kwang Kai Chang, Professor Brotsky began leading them through their paces. “Melvin, whom do you represent?” I kept an ear open while I suffered with my hangover. (Too many boilermakers...) “I represent a California resident and employee of the California General Electric Company who was injured when a pressure tank exploded, and who was further injured by a fall in the hospital.” What a mouthful, I thought, the right side of my head pounding. Would I ever be able to speak in sentences that long? And not forget the first few words by the time I reach the end? “Bella, do you agree with your colleague?” At that, I noticed an audible intake of breath from my own colleagues. “Yes, I do.” The woman on my left leaned over and whispered, “Bella told us she was representing Buckeye Boiler. I’m glad she changed her mind.” I opened one eye slowly — the one on the opposite side of the throbbing — and attempted to follow the proceeding more closely. “What did your client tell you he wanted from this lawsuit?” “Money...” answered Bella emphatically. Carefully, with empathy for the plight of the fourth-week first-year student, the professor said, “We in the legal community refer to money as 'compen­ sation for damages or injuries/ You’re doing just fine, though. Let’s go on.” The throbbing began to subside as I tuned in to the finer techniques of pedagogy practiced by this distinguished gentleman in the charcoal gray suit.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Mike Miller Papers, MS 4139
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8dr32b8 No online items Finding Aid to the Mike Miller Papers, MS 4139 Isaac R. Fellman, Lynda Letona, and Marie Silva Funding for processing this collection was provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. California Historical Society June 2019 678 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94105 [email protected] URL: http://californiahistoricalsociety.org/ Finding Aid to the Mike Miller MS 4139 1 Papers, MS 4139 Contributing Institution: California Historical Society Title: Mike Miller papers Creator: Miller, Mike, 1937- Identifier/Call Number: MS 4139 Physical Description: 147 linear feet(133 record storage cartons) Date (inclusive): circa 1958-2012 Abstract: The Mike Miller papers document Miller's six decades as a community organizer, comprising institutional records, writings, and extensive subject files of the donor's research into the history and practice of organizing. Topics are wide-ranging and include the civil rights movements of the 1960s; the anti-urban renewal struggles of the 1960s and '70s; labor and left-wing movements from the 1970s to the present; the religious left; and community organizing as a grassroots model for civic engagement. The collection includes correspondence, research and position papers, outreach and training materials, drafts of Miller's work, public documents, and books. Language of Material: Materials primarily in English, with a limited amount in Spanish and Portuguese. Conditions Governing Access Collection is open for research. Immediate Source of Acquisition Purchased from Mike Miller, 2011. Arrangement The collection is divided into five series, roughly following Mike Miller's original filing scheme: 1) Organizational records; 2) Subject files; 3) Manuscripts and personal papers; 4) Audiovisual materials; and 5) Publications and ephemera.
    [Show full text]
  • Locked Down: the Hidden History of the Prisoners' Rights Movement
    Locked Down: The Hidden History of the Prisoners’ Rights Movement Tiana Alexandria Williams* Mentor: Dr. Jesse Drew Department of Cinema and Digital Media, UC Davis Abstract In recent years, there has been an increasing discourse centered on the prison-industrial complex, addressing issues that range from ending the school-to-prison pipeline to calls for the abolition of prisons entirely. However, this movement is far from a novelty, rather, it is the resurgence of a forgotten moment in history that is being revitalized by a new generation. In order to understand the recent development of the anti- incarceration movement, it is important to provide context to these current conversations and ensure that the contributions of the prisoner’s rights movement are properly understood. Through the uncovering and analysis of archival materials, collections of recorded oral histories and published prison letters, this paper illustrates how prisoner activism of the 1970s brought the plight of prisoners into the limelight, while also leading to increased systemic repression and a debilitating historical declension narrative. By highlighting this history of prisoner activism, this paper challenges the declension hypothesis approach to the prisoners’ rights movement and investigates the movement’s effects on the current day structure of the criminal justice system. Introduction The prisoners’ rights movement is an undermentioned and understudied movement that grew for decades in the United States, finally reaching maximum visibility in the early 1970s. The dominant narrative surrounding the movement can be traced as: The American prison system was cruel, inhumane and unjust. Prisoners fought for better conditions and rights, using similar rhetoric to that of the Civil Rights Movement.
    [Show full text]
  • Alumni Forum, Fall 1986
    Golden Gate University School of Law GGU Law Digital Commons Alumni News Other Law School Publications Fall 1986 Alumni Forum, Fall 1986 Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/alumnews Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation "Alumni Forum, Fall 1986" (1986). Alumni News. Paper 34. http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/alumnews/34 This Newsletter or Magazine is brought to you for free and open access by the Other Law School Publications at GGU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Alumni News by an authorized administrator of GGU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ( ~~ (,I~:: lJ,1'/ t-~> ~ '.p ...; • if· Alumni o ~ c.:l • ~ FOUNDED 1901 <J>(> .:i< ®.: qo OL OT \.>"" Vol. 12, No.1 FALL 1986 GGU Grad Wins Bingham Aquiltal Sixty-seven jury trials over the last ten years proved excellent preparation for Susan Rutberg's ('75) defense work in the celebrated Stephen Bingham triaL A lawyer who always tends to view her cases with optimism, Rutberg used her voir dire experience ~ <U to make eye contact, establish rapport Z ~ and push luck in favor of the defense « x "lring jury selection. The small <U o fense team, composed of chief U counsel Gerry Schwartz bach, co­ '" oz counsel Rutberg, research lawyer « ~ Bruce Cohen and law students Matt ___..... ...z Menzer (Boalt) and Maxine Fasulis « :C'" (USF) won an unanimous verdict of u Z acquittal on the first ballot. Despite ;u significant handicaps going into the o~ ~ case, R utberg "always believed we ~ would win this triaL" ::2 6 The case was 15 years old, and I­ o the San Quentin "seven," minus :r: 0.
    [Show full text]
  • San Quentin News
    San Quentin News THE PULSESE OFOF SAN QUENTIN—DESIGNEDQUENTIN—DESIGNED AND WRITTEN BY PRISPRISONERSONERS FFOROR PRISPRISONERSONERS AANDN STAFF VOL.2011 NO. 6 September 2011 SAN QUENTIN, CALIFORNIA 94964 www.sanquentinnews.com POPULATION 4,652 NASA to Start Program With S.Q.’s Machine Shop By MICHAEL R. HARRIS Editor-in-Chief NASA Ames has picked San Quentin for an important train- ing program to manufacture a platform that will enable hun- dreds of science projects on a single launch vehicle during space fl ights. Photo: Lt. Sam Robinson Health fair Photo Acting Warden Michael Mar- tel joined NASA Ames admin- istrators on a tour of San Quen- T.R.U.S.T. Fellows tin’s vocational machine shop. Included were Charles “Chuck” Duff, Ames Center deputy direc- Photo: Lt. Sam Robinson Hold Health Fair tor; Adriana Cardenas, associate Acting Warden Michael Martel signing Nasa contract In spite of a chilly morning, offer eye examinations, and give director of engineering who is hand to teach them the fi ner as- There was a signing ceremo- hundreds of prisoners lined up, chiropractic aid to prisoners. the liaison to San Quentin, Gary pects of machining. ny authorizing the partnership/ listening to lectures from doc- These were among some of the Martin, director of partnerships, Michael Villanueva, who is in training program, punctuated by tors, nurses, and counselors on services of the 8th Annual Health and John Yembrick, public af- charge of shop safety, explained prisoners’ applause. how to practice wellness while Fair on the Lower Yard. fairs director. the monthly training and meet- Prisoners will be taught “work incarcerated, and upon release.
    [Show full text]
  • Stopped, Fined, Arrested
    April 2016 | www.ebclc.org/backontheroad Acknowledgements Contributors Stephen Bingham, Michael Herald, Staff Attorney, Bay Area Legal Aid, retired Policy Advocate, WCLP Mari Castaldi, Dana Isaac, Program Coordinator, EBCLC Thurgood Marshall Fellow, LCCR Elisa Della-Piana, Alex Kaplan, Legal Director, LCCR Law and Public Policy Student, EBCLC Meredith Desautels, Brittany Stonesifer, Staff Attorney, LCCR Staff Attorney, LSPC Antionette Dozier, Theresa Zhen, Senior Attorney, WCLP Skadden Fellow, ANWOL Kristina Harootun, Ford Foundation Fellow, LCCR Special thanks to Assemblymember Jones Ian Haney-Lopez, John H. Boalt Candice Francis, Sawyer and Marvin Deon Professor of Law, Berkeley Law Communications Director, Senator Robert Hertzberg Tirien Steinbach, Executive LCCR and staff Director, EBCLC Advancement Project Building Men of Color Debt Free SF All of Us or None - Los Angeles Contra Costa County Voices for Civil Justice Bay Area Legal Aid Public Defender Mercy Albaran Stephanie Flores Jonathan Recinos Ashley Artmann Anisha Gandhi Mona Tawatao Cynthia Anderson Barker Jon Haveman Katie Tonkovich Melissa Colon David Kaplan Heidi Quach Bo Ericsson Edber Macedo Thomas Watson Sofia Espinoza Dalia Nava All the clients and advocates Meredith Fenton Veryl Pow who shared their stories with us Table Of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................1 I. THE PROBLEM: RACIAL DISPARITIES IN LICENSE SUSPENSIONS AND TRAFFIC ARRESTS .........................4 A. Overview of Previous Research on Traffic Stops and Traffic Courts in California 4 Inequality in Traffic Stops and Searches 4 B. New Data Shows Disproportionate License Suspension and Arrest Rates for Low-Income People of Color 6 1. License Suspensions based on FTA/FTP, correlated with household income and race (Dataset A) 7 2.
    [Show full text]
  • The Kindred Client - Interview with Susan Rutberg Jorge Aquino the Recorder
    Golden Gate University School of Law GGU Law Digital Commons Interviews Faculty Scholarship 3-6-1997 The Kindred Client - Interview with Susan Rutberg Jorge Aquino The Recorder Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/interviews Part of the Criminal Law Commons, and the Criminal Procedure Commons Recommended Citation Aquino, Jorge, "The Kindred Client - Interview with Susan Rutberg" (1997). Interviews. Paper 5. http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/interviews/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at GGU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Interviews by an authorized administrator of GGU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TIIEC CORDER THE BAY AREA'S LEGAL NEWSPAPER SINCE 1877 REPRINT The Kindred Client Empathizing with a defendant was never so easy for Susan Rutberg as when she represented Stephen Bingham, accused of furnishing the gun used in the San Quentin Massacre gust 21, 1971, went down as the bloodiest day in the history of California's prison system. That day, the state's most amous inmate, "Soledad ABrother" George Jackson, got hold of a gun and took over San Quentin State Prison's maximum security section in a daring escape attempt. The incident, which came to be known as the "San Quentin Massacre," ended with the deaths of Jackson, three guards and two other prisoners. At the time, Jackson was awaiting trial for allegedly killing a guard during a 1970 upris­ ing at Soledad State Prison. How Jackson obtained a 9 mm Astra in San Quentin's high-security adjustment center became one of the great whodunits of that tumultuous period.
    [Show full text]
  • COINTELPRO.S.Pdf
    COINTELPRO, FBI Counterintelligence, Covert Operations, Black Bag Jobs, Church Committee COINTELPRO http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointel.htm (1 of 7) [9/3/2001 11:33:41 AM] COINTELPRO, FBI Counterintelligence, Covert Operations, Black Bag Jobs, Church Committee COINTELPRO was the FBI's secret program to undermine the popular upsurge which swept the country during the 1960s. Though the name stands for "Counterintelligence Program," the targets were not enemy spies. The FBI set out to eliminate "radical" political opposition inside the US. When traditional modes of repression (exposure, blatant harassment, and prosecution for political crimes) failed to counter the growing insurgency, and even helped to fuel it, the Bureau took the law into its own hands and secretly used fraud and force to sabotage constitutionally - protected political activity. Its methods ranged far beyond surveillance, and amounted to a domestic version of the covert action for which the CIA has become infamous throughout the world. The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States by Ward Churchill & Jim Vander Wall Preface - The Face of COINTELPRO HTML Index to the Documents Introduction - A Glimpse Into the Files of America's Political Police Chapter 1 - Understanding Deletions in FBI Documents Chapter 2 - COINTELPRO - CP/USA Chapter 3 - COINTELPRO - SWP Chapter 4 - COINTELPRO - Puerto Rican Independence Movement Chapter 5 - COINTELPRO - Black Liberation Movement Chapter 6 - COINTELPRO - New Left Chapter 7 - COINTELPRO
    [Show full text]
  • The Assassination of George Jackson Lawyer and Political Activist
    A story from this week's San Francisco Bay View: The assassination of George Jackson Lawyer and political activist Stephen Bingham remembers Black Panther archivist Bill Jennings, in his report, “George Jackson Funeral,”at http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Memorials/george_jackson_1.html, writes: “When the (church) doors opened, and we stepped outside with the body, I saw that the crowd had grown tremendously. There were people on rooftops, hanging from telephone poles and filling the streets. Everyone raised their fists in the air and chanted ‘Long Live George Jackson.’It was a sight that could set a fire in your heart.”- Photo: Stephen Shames Last December, in okaying the execution of Stan Tookie Williams, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger went out of his way to smear a whole history of Black struggle against racism. The most abuse of all was heaped on George Jackson – whose inclusion in Stan’s dedication “is a significant indicator that Williams is not reformed,”read Schwarzenegger’s statement. Jackson, author of the widely read prison memoir “Soledad Brother,”had been thrown in jail for a petty robbery, and became a revolutionary behind bars. He was murdered in August 1971 by guards at San Quentin prison in an alleged “escape attempt.” Stephen Bingham, one of several lawyers working with Jackson, was accused of being part of the escape plot. He spoke to Socialist Worker’s Joe Allen about George Jackson’s legacy – and his own fight for justice. Joe Allen: Could you tell us something about the life of George Jackson? Stephen Bingham: George grew up in Los Angeles – like many young African Americans, in a hostile urban environment.
    [Show full text]
  • HENRY ELLIOT WEINSTEIN University of California, Irvine
    HENRY ELLIOT WEINSTEIN University of California, Irvine, School of Law 401 East Peltason Dr., Room 3500G Irvine, Ca. 92697-8000 Office: 949-824-3642 Mobile: 323-445-7006 Fax: 949-824-2808 [email protected] March 1, 2016 PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS -Professor of the Practice of Law, School of Law, University of California, Irvine, (2008- present). -Senior Lecturer, with Security of Employment, Department of English, UC Irvine (2008- present). - Los Angeles Times (1978-2008). Legal Affairs Writer, 1993-2008; Staff writer, 1989-93; Labor Writer, 1982-89; Staff Writer, 1978-82. -Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Southern California Law School, 2004. -Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Southern California Law School, 2002. -Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Southern California Law School, 2000. -Staff Reporter, San Francisco Examiner, 1976-78. -San Francisco Bureau Stringer, New York Times, 1973-76. -Press Secretary, California Delegation to the Democratic National Convention, 1972. -Northern California Press Secretary, McGovern for President, 1972. -Staff Writer, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco bureau, 1969-71. EDUCATION -University of California, Berkeley, B.A, History, 1966. Senior Thesis: ``You Can’t Weave Cloth with Bayonets,’’ a study of the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence, Mass. -Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, J.D., 1969. -Summer postgraduate program in state and local government, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 1981. -Between 1998 and 2000, I participated in a 2.5 year study of indigent defense issues co- sponsored by Harvard Law School and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. LICENSURES AND CERTIFICATIONS Member of the California Bar WRITING BACKGROUND During my career as a journalist, I have written more than 3,000 stories and done reporting on the ground in 36 states plus the District of Columbia and Canada.
    [Show full text]
  • John E. Thorne Papers MS.423
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8wh2tcc No online items John E. Thorne Papers MS.423 Annie Tang, Samantha Williams, Mary DeVries, Kate Dundon University of California, Santa Cruz 1156 High Street Santa Cruz 95064 [email protected] URL: http://guides.library.ucsc.edu/speccoll John E. Thorne Papers MS.423 MS.423 1 Language of Material: English Contributing Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz Title: John E. Thorne Papers source: Thorne, John creator: Thorne, John Identifier/Call Number: MS.423 Physical Description: 54.2 Linear Feet122 boxes Date (inclusive): 1949-1997 Date (bulk): 1960-1990 Abstract: John Ebson Thorne (January 20, 1921-May 10, 2002) was a San Jose-based attorney and activist who specialized in civil rights and constitutional law. Over the course of his career, Thorne extended his legal services to organizations including the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), the American Indian Movement (AIM), and anti-Vietnam War activists. He also represented Black Panther Party member and activist George Jackson, and intellectual Angela Davis. Thorne was also a prominent figure in Santa Clara County and California state Democratic Party politics. The collection primarily consists of Thorne's correspondence, legal documents, client and witness interviews, case research materials, and publications related to his professional and activist work. Processing Information Processed by Project Archivist Annie Tang, with assistance from Samantha Williams, graduate fellow in the Center for Archival Research and Training (CART) at UC Santa Cruz. Initial inventory by Project Archivist Mary DeVries. Machine-readable finding aid by Annie Tang and Kate Dundon. Access This collection is open for research.
    [Show full text]
  • Patti Roberts Papers 1968-2009 (Bulk 1971-2004) GLC 111
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8s1870x No online items Finding aid to the Patti Roberts Papers 1968-2009 (bulk 1971-2004) GLC 111 Finding aid prepared by Tim Wilson James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library 100 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA 94102 [email protected] URL: http://sfpl.org/gaylesbian 2016 Finding aid to the Patti Roberts GLC 111 1 Papers 1968-2009 (bulk 1971-2004) GLC 111 Title: Patti Roberts Papers Date (inclusive): 1968-2009 (bulk 1971-2004) Date (bulk): 1971-2004 Identifier/Call Number: GLC 111 Creator: Roberts, Patti R. Physical Description: 8 cartons, 1 oversized framed certificate, 2 map folders(8 cubic feet) Contributing Institution: James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library 100 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA 94102 415-557-4567 [email protected] URL: http://sfpl.org/gaylesbian Abstract: Patricia (Patti) Rose Roberts was a longtime San Francisco Bay Area resident and civil rights and labor attorney. The papers document her interest in prison reform, George Jackson and Stephen Bingham, comparable worth and pay equity for women, gay and lesbian issues in the workplace, and employment discrimination. The collection contains subject files, photographs, books and magazines, and posters and ephemera. The collection is stored onsite. Language of Material: The majority of the materials are in English with some items in Spanish. Conditions Governing Access The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours, with photographs available during Photo Desk hours. Conditions Governing Use Copyright and literary rights retained by the Estate of Patti Roberts. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Patti Roberts Papers (GLC 111), LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library.
    [Show full text]
  • Op-Ed How to Fix Solitary Confinement in American Prisons
    Op-Ed How to fix solitary confinement in American prisons An empty solitary confinement cell at the Barry J. Nidorf Jevenile Hall in Sylmar on June 9, 2015. Earlier this year, Los Angeles County approved sweeping restrictions on the use of solitary confinement for juvenile detainees. (Los Angeles Times) By Keramet Reiter OCTOBER 17, 2016, 4:00 AM undreds of prisoners live in solitary confinement in Los Angeles County jails. On average, they spend at least one year in a cell the size of a wheelchair-accessible bathroom stall, leaving only a few H times a week, one at a time, for showers or exercise. Meals arrive through a slot in the cell door. Between the long hours in isolation and the steel doors, a prisoner might go days, or longer, without looking another person in the eye. Solitary confinement costs taxpayers 2 to 3 times more per prisoner than less restrictive forms of incarceration. California officials estimated they would save $28 million this year by reducing the state’s solitary confinement population by even a few hundred prisoners. But solitary is even more expensive in social terms. It can cause serious psychological damage — anxiety, paranoia and hallucinations that may continue long after prisoners return to our neighborhoods. The U.S. Supreme Court attempted to abandon solitary confinement in the late 19th century, calling the practice barbaric. Almost 100 years later, in the 1970s, courts in California and across the United States were still chastising prison officials for keeping prisoners locked in their cells for months at a time, with little access to running water, lighting or human contact.
    [Show full text]