Imploring young people to fight for social justice and to believe they can help change the world, two members of the Black Student Union who were at the forefront of student strike activities at San Francisco State College in 1968 engaged in a panel discussion on Saturday, November 1 at Jack Adams Hall.

Returning to campus in order to help commemorate the 40th anniversary of those ground breaking events, Jimmy Garrett and Clarence Thomas talked about the need for the next generation to build upon the gains student activists achieved in the 1960s and to emphasize that social activism should be a lifelong commitment.

“It’s a way of life,” said Garrett, who has gone on to receive two PhD’s and a law degree. “1968 was a critical time, but it was not the critical time. We’re still making history.”

Currently working in Vietnam to help that nation build a “green” future through the use of alternative energy sources, Garrett invited young people to join him and to learn the skills needed to help better their own communities’ energy future here in the United States.

“San Francisco State was not the high point of my life; that point hasn’t been reached yet,” said Garrett. “The struggle doesn’t stop.”

Clarence Thomas most certainly concurs with that assessment. Since leaving San Francisco State, Thomas has forged a career as a union activist, currently serving on the executive board of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, Local 10 based here in San Francisco. He hopes today’s students learn from the 1968 strike and apply those ideals to their own activism.

“I’m hoping that this commemoration will give students an idea of the kind of institution they’re attending and what’s expected of them in the future,” said Thomas. “There are still lessons to be learned from that San Francisco State strike.”

Obviously proud of his contribution to the strike that helped create the nation’s first ethnic studies department here on campus, Thomas sees a need to include information in that department’s current curriculum to help bridge the generational divide between the student activists of today and those that came of age in the 1960s.

“There needs to be more information being provided to the community that would give young people the experience” to continue the struggle, said Thomas. “We need to have conversations dealing with specifics.”
He hopes this week’s commemoration activities serve as a stepping-stone to an intergenerational sharing of tactics for committed activists and offer an opportunity to provide direction to today’s youth.

“Practice, theory, practice. That’s the way we did it in the old days,” said Thomas, “and that’s what needs to happen right now.