Bayview Community Speak Out At Housing Authority Meeting

KRON-TV news footage from March 9th 1966 with reporter Art Brown featuring scenes from a meeting of the San Francisco Housing Authority, at which residents from the Bayview Hunters Point community demand to be heard. A Housing Authority spokesman describes a meeting they had with the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) and asserts: "This meeting was called for a bond issue. We're not going to discuss the Hunters Point problem today!" The Hunters Point community refuse to be ignored, block the exits and oblige officials to listen to a statement, read out by George Earl: "We have long complained and long been ignored. We again rehearse our complaint. Number one: evictions can no longer be done in the high handed manner which has become routine. We protest any evictions which is done without exalting all methods of resolving the principle problems involved." Other community members visible in the room include Mrs David Commer, Ruth Williams, Sylvester Brown and also the Reverend H. Boswell. The prevailing mood throughout these exchanges is tense and combative. Ends with the Housing Authority official being interviewed. He states: "In the long run, these people ... can't look to the Housing Authority to cure the economic and social ills implicit in our society. The problem is one of jobs."

Note that an additional 9 minutes of footage ("outs") was found from this story in June 2019 and added to the mp4 file, including scenes of the comunity singing "We shall overcome." Opening graphic designed by Carrie Hawks.