Five Influential Black People Who Touched San Francisco With Their Excellence
PPSSF would like to commemorate the legacy of five Black heroes who deeply touched San Francisco culture, art, education, and policy across the past 100 years. Below you will find highlights of their contributions to our great city- San Francisco!
1. Sly Stone
Sly Stone was a musical prodigy, becoming a star on the keyboard, guitar, drums and bass just by the age 11. His first break came when he joined a Vallejo-based doo wop group named The Viscaynes. It was one of the only integrated groups at the time and Sly was still in high school.
In the mid-1960s, he was a DJ for KSOL in San Francisco when he started Sly and the Family Stone which became one of the most influential musical groups of its era. In 1993, the group was inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.
2. Danny Glover
Actor and activist Danny Glover was born in San Francisco and is a San Francisco State University alumni. When he attended SFUSD, he joined the Black Student Union and participated in the 1968 student-led strike on that campus that led to the creation of the nation's first Black Studies program at a university.
He then went on to a multi-decade acting career on the screen, including starring in the blockbuster film franchise "Lethal Weapon" and "Beloved'“. Off screen, he did a lot humanitarian, political and civil rights work around the U.S., Sudan and Ecuador.
3. Willie Brown
Willie Brown was the first African American mayor in San Francisco's history. He attended San Francisco State University and then went on to earn a law degree from University of California Hastings College of Law.
Before being elected as SF's mayor in 1992, he served in the California State Assembly, first as the representative for the 18th, 17th and 13th District. He was mayor of SF for eight years, from 1996-2004, and was called one of the city's most notable mayors.
4. Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou attended California Labor School and before she graduated, she made history by becoming San Francisco's first black female streetcar conductor.
In the early 1950s, Angelou took modern dance classes, where she met nationally recognized choreographer Alvin Ailey and formed a dance team with him called "Al and Rita." With Ailey, they performed around the San Francisco area.
Angelou also went on to become one of the United States' legendary authors and poets, starting with her 1969 autobiography "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings." She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2011.
5. Hettie B. Tilghman
Hettie B. Tilghman is one of the pioneers of social justice activism, not just for African Americans, but for the Bay Area as a whole. She began as an organizer and secretary for Bethel A.M.E. Church Sunday School of San Francisco in the early 1890s.
During World War I, Tilghman organized a group called First Liberty Boys to celebrate all of the African American men drafted into the Army who were from the Bay Area. Finally, she was a women's suffrage activist up until he death in 1933.
“San Francisco has many Black hero’s to celebrate, not just for Black History Month but all year around,” PPSSF Executive Director, Vanessa D. Marrero.
Source: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/28-African-Americans-with-ties-to-the-Bay-Area-12706445.php