Terry Francois Vita ; Ancestor Table

Terry Francois

Board of Supervisors: Political Activity: Terry 1957-1959 Member San Francisco FEP Commission 1960-1963 President San Francisco NAACP 1964 First Negro member of the City of San Francisco Board of Supervisors. 1969 A Black Man Looks At Black Racism Readers Digest, September, 1969 Floor leader for the Embarcadero project. Francois Drive replaces China Basin as name of the Boulevard along the Bay Freeway builders continued to resurrect various routes, encountering persistent, well-organized resistance by San Francisco neighborhoods. In 1964 the Panhandle-Golden Gate Freeway plan reached a climax, with a May 17th rally at the Polo Grounds to save the Park, featuring a "Natural Anthem" and a dedicated tune by Malvina Reynolds, the famous left-wing folk singer, and a speech by poet Kenneth Rexroth. Months later, in a final, climactic 6-to-5 vote, the Board of Supervisors rejected the Park Freeway on October 13th. Black Supervisor Terry Francois cast the deciding vote, delivering a point-by-point, six-page rebuttal to the pro-freeway arguments. (It is interesting to note that the other "No"-votes on that Board were future Mayor George Moscone, future CAO/auto dealer and consumer of sexual services Roger Boas, future Lt. Governor Leo McCarthy, William Blake and Clarissa McMahon. In favor of the freeway were "progressive" supervisors Jack Morrison, Joseph Casey, Jack Ertola, Joseph Tinney and Peter Tamaras.) Mayor Jack Shelley was all for it, as was the Labor Council from which he hailed. The Supervisors' Transportation Committee had received a petition with 15,000 signatures, 20,000 letters and telegrams, and had received opposition from 77 community organizations. Place: San Francisco