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
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