Today we visited Alcatraz, a famous penitentiary on an island in San Francisco bay. Something interesting we learned about Alcatraz was that it in 1969, it was occupied by Native American activists to protest the federal policies that were terminating reservations and relocating them to urban areas, as well as demanded control of Alcatraz in order to build several Native American institutions. Many months after the protests began, police removed the last of the protesters. Although not all of their demands were met, the reservation termination policy was revoked. It was considered a landmark event in the Native American struggle for equal human rights. As seen below, traces of the Native American occupation can still be seen on the island. This an example of how a peaceful protest brought about profound social change.
Our next excursion of the day was a trip to UC Berkeley. It was cool to see how Berkeley was implementing sustainability and social justice initiatives on campus and comparing them to what we are doing at NC State. One initiative we have in common is the "It's On Us" campaign. It's purpose is to raise awareness about sexual assault on college campuses, and eventually reduce/remove it.