#bay-area-activism

#bay-area-activism

Elizabeth Thorn Scott Flood opened Oakland's first private school for African American children in 1857, paving the way for desegregated education in California. In 1913, Piedmont nurse Bertha Wright founded Children's Hospital Oakland and established the state's first public child daycare center. Frances Albrier became the first Black woman to run for Berkeley City Council in 1939 and the first Black female welder in the Richmond shipyards during World War II.

The Raging Grannies are part of an international collective of women whose mission is to use performance art to deliver pointed anti-corporation and political messages, a movement that began in Victoria, British Columbia, in the late 1980s and has since spread to cities across the United States. The Palo Alto chapter, known as the Raging Grannies Action League, shows what activism can look like in older age.

On October 23, 2025, a large vigil and protest against a planned federal immigration crackdown took place at the entrance to Coast Guard Island in Alameda. Demonstrators gathered to oppose the deployment of federal agents, and the protest involved clashes with law enforcement, the use of tear gas and stun grenades, and at least two arrests. The event was part of a broader day of activism against the Trump administration's planned immigration operations in the Bay Area.