Nat Castaneda
Comment
Nat Castaneda
Comment
San Francisco has been the heart of the American protest movement for generations. In the 1960s, it was the demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Later there were repeated efforts for gay rights and other liberal causes. More recently, activists have focused on gentrification, fueled by tech workers flooding quaint neighborhoods, increasing rents and evictions, making it the most expensive city in the country.
But with Donald Trump in the White House, these tech workers and the area's old-school activists find common ground. Liberals began trying to combine the street tactics and passion of activists with the knowledge—and money—of the tech industry. When radicals team up with successful professionals, it can create dizzying scenes, but the Bay Area is used to a bit of chaos.
Pickets taken out of the lobby of San Francisco's Sheraton-Palace hotel on March 7, 1964 sing as they sit in a police cruiser awaiting transportation to prison. They were among several hundred who held a rally at the hotel to protest what they saw as the hotel's discriminatory hiring policy. (AP Photo)
Andrew McDonald II, a Hayward State College student from San Jose, applauds as San Jose protesters march in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco on March 14, 1965 during the protest rally in Selma, Alabama. The San Jose group walked the 45 miles to San Francisco in three days. McDonald's said it worked most of the time. (AP Photo)
Demonstration in San Francisco on March 14, 1965 to protest the treatment of African Americans in Selma. The civil rights protesters, four deep and walking several blocks, marched down Market Street to hear Episcopalian Bishop James A. Pike, who recently visited from Selma, Alabama, speak. (AP Photo/Ernest K. Bennett)
A young woman was unhappy after being stopped by police on April 3, 1967 in the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco, California. More than 2,000 people, mostly local hipsters, demonstrated before police began arresting some for unlawful assembly and non-dispersal. (AP Photo/Robert W. Klein)
Peace marchers crowd Fulton Street in San Francisco on April 15, 1967 during their five-mile march through the city. The march will end at the Kezar Stadium where a peace rally will take place. Groups came from Los Angeles and the Northwest to participate in the march and rally. San Francisco City Hall can be seen in the background. (AP Photo/Robert W. Klein)
In this Aug. 11, 1971 photo, poet Allen Ginsburg (right) and Lawrence Ferlinghetti (left) picket outside Varig Airlines to protest theatergoers who have been arrested in Brazil. (AP Photo/Sal Veder)
Police officers and protesters are seen outside City Hall during a riot that broke out after the controversial sentencing of Dan White, who was found guilty of manslaughter in the murder of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Superintendent of the city, Harvey Milk. San Francisco, May. January 21, 1979. (AP Photo)
More than 100 students and other anti-nuclear protesters protest outside the UC Regent's San Francisco office after the Regents voted at 7:15 a.m. . Several protesters prostrated themselves on the ground to simulate death from nuclear war, forcing several Regents to climb on top of them. (AP Photo/Olsen)
In this May 22, 1979 photo, protesters break the windows of the main doors of San Francisco City Hall. Thousands of members of the city's gay community marched on City Hall to protest the manslaughter conviction of Dan White in the fatal shooting of Mayor George Moscone and city supervisor and gay rights activist Harvey Milk. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Thousands of people march from Golden Gate Park to City Hall August 27, 1983 in downtown San Francisco to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Reverend Martin Luther King's March on Washington. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
A protester stands on tiptoe and blows bubbles while participating in a gay rights rally in San Francisco on July 15, 1984, on the eve of the start of the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Protesters marched two miles with banners opposing discrimination and demanding federal funds to fight AIDS. (AP Photo/Joe Skipper)
Demonstrators participate in an anti-gay rights protest in San Francisco on July 15, 1984, on the eve of the start of the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Demonstrators marched two miles carrying signs opposing discrimination and demanding funding federal funds to combat AIDS. (AP Photo/Joe Skipper)
Four members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a San Francisco-based protest group, arrive on Wednesday, April 15 (AP Photo)
Members of the San Francisco gay community march down Market Street to protest Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner's visit to San Francisco, Thursday, July 17, 1986, San Francisco, California. on “The functioning of the Court”. The protest is in response to the recent Supreme Court ruling on bestiality. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Veterans hold their medals from three wars under a banner on August 7, 1986 in San Francisco, California, in protest of US policy in Central America. More than 20 veterans presented their Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars and other medals at a ceremony to protest the growing role of the United States in Central America. (AP Photo/Jim Gerberich)
ACT UP protesters chant on the ground of the Moscone Center as they interrupt US Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan's keynote address during the closing ceremony of the 6th International AIDS Conference on Sunday, May 25. June 1990 in San Francisco, California. . Sullivan delivered his speech despite the noise of the protesters. (AP Photo/Bill Beattie)
Two San Francisco police officers detain an unidentified AIDS protester near the Sixth International AIDS Conference on June 22, 1990 in San Francisco, California. About 100 people were arrested on the third day of the international conference. (AP Photo/Bill Beattie)
California Highway Patrol officials prepare to allow 250 students from various Marin County high schools to cross the Golden Gate Bridge from Sausalito to San Francisco on Friday, May 1, 1992. The peaceful march was to protest the verdict in the Rodney King trial. (AP Photo/Mastro do Tribunal)
More than 5,000 protesters gather at San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza to denounce the new Bush presidency, Saturday, Jan. 20, 2001. (AP Photo/George Nikitin)
In this June 6, 2004 photo, Ryan Silva holds a protest banner as a busload of BIO 2004 conference attendees arrives for an opening reception in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Three members of Students for a Free Tibet hang a banner on the Golden Gate Bridge to protest China's human rights record and the upcoming arrival of the Olympic torch in San Francisco on Monday, April 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Jakub Mosur)
In this Nov. 15, 2008 photo, Alexander Sanchez waves a rainbow-colored American flag in front of a large crowd of same-sex marriage supporters outside San Francisco City Hall. (AP Photo/Darryl Bush)
In this June 4, 2010 photo, Gail Sredanovic of the Raging Grannies protests Facebook's privacy concerns outside Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma,
Anti-gentrification protesters temporarily block a bus full of tech workers at a public bus stop in San Francisco's Mission District in this Dec. 20, 2013 file photo. (Kurtis Alexander/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
This Jan. 14, 2013 photo shows a restored water tower with graffiti across the entrance to the main cell on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco. The inscription, located on a roughly 10-story water tower on the northern tip of the island, reads "Peace and freedom, welcome home to the free Indian land" in red block letters, up to 1.5 meters high. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
People hold signs during a rally in support of privacy protections in front of an Apple Store in San Francisco in this February 23, 2016 file photo. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
In this February 3, 2016 file photo, people hold signs and a tent during a protest demanding city officials do more to help the homeless outside Super Bowl City, a week-long soccer theme park near the Ferry Building in San Francisco, for help. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
In this Oct. 2, 2016 file photo (from left) Eli Harold, quarterback Colin Kaepernick and safety Eric Reid take a knee in protest during the national anthem before an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys in Santa Clara, California. Photo AP/Marcio José Sánchez)
Text of the AP report,AP Photos: Decades of history of protests in San Francisco.
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Nat Castaneda
Associated Press visual artist and digital storyteller