FoundSF

Unfinished History

Billboard altered on corner of Bryant and 24th Streets in the Mission.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

Art exploded across the Bay Area on boarded up shops and restaurants. This mural was painted at Fell and Divisadero.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

On the walls...

Photo: Chris Carlsson

Weirdly, even the Giants stadium scoreboard began blasting the message to a Covid-19 empty stadium.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

As protests erupted across the U.S. in the wake of the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, San Francisco also hit the streets. This video captures but a tiny fraction of the enormous outpouring of anger and protest that spilled across the City and the Bay Area more broadly. Here is footage of the June 3 protest organized by high school students at Mission High School, followed by June 5's George Floyd Memorial Ride done in Critical Mass style, and finally on June 10 thousands of skateboarders gathered on Twin Peaks to "Bomb Hills 4 Black Lives" and this footage was captured at Market and 15th Streets as they poured by... Check out the chant of "Quit Your Job" as the protesters surround the Mission Police Station...

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The following images are from the June 3, 2020 protest called by Mission High School students and attended by apx. 20,000 people.

Photos: Chris Carlsson

The next batch of photos is from the June 5 George Floyd Memorial Ride.

The ride halted at Castro and Market for a flurry of speeches and performances.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

On June 19, demonstrators tore down monuments in Golden Gate Park to Junipero Serra (made a saint by the Catholic Church a few years ago over the strenuous protests of indigenous Californians and their supporters who stress his role in unleashing the genocide that decimated California Indians), and Francis Scott Key, the composer of the national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner. The slave-holding and -defending Key included a stanza supporting slavery in his 1812 composition, which is conveniently left out of common renditions of the song before sports events. Protesters also tore down a statue of Ulysses S. Grant, union army general and president from 1868-1874. once a slaveholder too.

The fallen Serra statue, June 19, 2020.

Photo: Veronica Solis