As staff photographer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Bob Fitch traveled around the country for almost two years documenting voter registration and other civil rights campaigns. At the same time, Bob also photographed urban and rural black life, which despite predominantly impoverished conditions was infused with a spirit of dignity and vitality. This gallery contains these images-of-spirit. Photographs are from Alabama, Mississippi, Atlanta, Chicago, and California.

The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a revolutionary black nationalist organization founded in Oakland, California and active from 1966 to 1982. The Black Panthers instituted a variety of community social programs designed to alleviate poverty, combat police brutality, and improve health in black communities. The Black Panther Party's most widely known initiatives were its armed citizens' patrols and its Free Breakfast for Children program. Most of the photographs in this gallery were taken during a March 28-31, 1972 Black Community Survival Conference Rally at Greenman Field, with images of Party chairman Bobby Seale speaking as well as food distribution, blood testing, and a voter registration drive. There are also many photos from a 1968 "Free Huey" rally in De Fremery Park following the arrest of BPP co-founder Huey Newton in October 1967. The rally featured speeches from Seale, Stokely Carmichael, and guest Reies Tijerina, New Mexico's leader of the Chicano land grant reclamation movement. This Bob Fitch Exhibit also has a few images of the Panther Party's headquarters following a violent attack by two Oakland police officers on September 10, 1968.

This documentary chronicles the US tour of a group of Black lesbian poets and musicians, who become present-day stewards of a historical movement to build community among queer women of color. Their journey to strengthen their community is enriched by insightful interviews with leading Black feminist thinkers and historians. As the group tours the country, the film reveals their aspirations and triumphs, as well as the unique identity challenges they face encompassing gender, race, and sexuality. This is a rarely seen look into a special sisterhood - one where marginalized voices are both heard and respected. This is available online on Kanopy Streaming Service. Film includes Nikky Finney, Jade Foster, Be Steadwell, Dappho the Flow Er aka Solsis, who performas as Jonquille Rice and the Coolots, etc.

The final film by filmmaker Marlon Riggs, Black Is--Black Ain't, jumps into the middle of explosive debates over Black identity. Black Is--Black Ain't is a film every African American should see, ponder and discuss. White Americans have always stereotyped African Americans. But the rigid definitions of "Blackness" that African Americans impose on each other, Riggs claims, have also been devastating. Is there an essential Black identity? Is there a litmus test defining the real Black man and true Black woman?

Ethnic Notions is Marlon Riggs' Emmy-winning documentary that takes viewers on a disturbing voyage through American history, tracing for the first time the deep-rooted stereotypes which have fueled anti-black prejudice. Through these images we can begin to understand the evolution of racial consciousness in America.Loyal Toms, carefree Sambos, faithful Mammies, grinning Coons, savage Brutes, and wide-eyed Pickaninnies roll across the screen in cartoons, feature films, popular songs, minstrel shows, advertisements, folklore, household artifacts, even children's rhymes. These dehumanizing caricatures permeated popular culture from the 1820s to the Civil Rights period and implanted themselves deep in the American psyche.

This 2-Disc video set includes a critical "reading" of Ronald Reagan's infamous 1987 speech to the American Pharmaceutical Industry, in which he finally acknowledged the AIDS crisis, six years into the epidemic. Angry Initiatives, Defiant Strategies: John Greyson produced this survey of the American gay community's response to the AIDS crisis. Be a DIVA/Like a Prayer: Designed as a rebuke and corrective to the mainstream media's distortion of the AIDS crisis, Be a DIVA is the first production of DIVA TV, an ACT UP affinity group composed primarily of lesbian filmmakers, including Ellen Spiro, Catherine Gund, and Jean Carlomusto. Like a Prayer documents the landmark 1989 "Stop the Church" demonstration at St. Patrick's Cathedral, spearheaded by ACT UP and WHAM! (Women's Health Action and Mobilization.) Target: City Hall: DIVA-TV's coverage of one of ACT UP's most potent street protests in New York City.
The 2nd disc includes, Expression = Life and Panel, as well as material from Book of James. and many original ACT UP members- examining the roots of ACT UP, the state of AIDS activism in the present day, and the role of media- both mainstream and movement-generated- in the successes and frustrations of social movements.

After decades struggling to protect her ancestors' burial places, now engulfed by San Francisco's sprawl, a Native woman from a federally unrecognized tribe and her allies occupy a development site to prevent desecration of sacred ground. When this fails to stop the development, they vow to follow a new path: to establish the first women-led urban Indigenous land trust. Beyond Recognition tells the inspiring story of women creating opportunities to preserve Native culture and homeland in a society bent on erasing them. Through cinéma vérité, interviews, and stunning footage of the land, the film introduces Corrina Gould, Johnella LaRose, and Indian People Organizing for Change as they embark on an incredible journey to transform the way we see cities. The film invites viewers to examine their own relationship to place, revealing histories that have been buried by shifting landscapes. Beyond Recognition points to the intersection of human rights, women's rights, and environmental protection, spotlighting a California story that has worldwide resonance. Stanford Users can log in to view the video in the SearchWorks record or stream it on Kanopy.

Digital collection of more than 60-pages of photographs by Bob Fitch that includes a thirteen-year-old Mexican American girl who describes her home, family, school, and daily experiences in a California grape-growing community.

This gallery features Bob Fitch's photographs of farm worker labor and housing conditions in Watsonville, Coachella, Fresno, and other parts of California's Central Valley in the early 1970s and includes photos of Filipino workers.

For nearly 100 years, California's pastures of plenty were controlled by a coalition of growers, bankers, and political interests who systematically and often brutally suppressed labor organizing efforts. Using constituency recruitment, coalition building, political lobbying, and media exposure techniques learned from the Black Civil Rights achievements, Cesar Chavez and United Farm Worker union colleagues focused national and global attention on the farmworker plight. UFW member fortitude, tactical cleverness, spiritual tenacity, and bravery in the face of violence are some of the qualities embodied in this gallery of images taken by Bob Fitch.

This video has 2 VHS tapes. The 1st VHS tape tells the story of how Asians--Filipino, Chinese, Asian Indian--first arrived in the Americas. Film crosses centuries and oceans from the 16th century Manila-Acapulco trade, to the Opium War, to the 19th century plantation coolie labor in South America and the Caribbean. The 2nd VHS tape relates the history of Chinese immigrants in California. These VHS tapes can be viewed in Green Library on VHS players.

Surveys the social history of Filipinos in the U.S., especially during the 20th century. Includes interviews with California residents of Philippine origin. This VHS tape can be played in Green Library.

"Through songs by Panday Sining and interviews, ... explores imperialism, racism, and human rights abuses suffered by migrant Filipino workers [in Canada.... and] exposes the complicity of governments and multinational corporations in the exploitation of third world labor."

Please note, this VHS video is located in off-campus storage so must be requested using the blue button in the SearchWorks record. Also, this video must be viewed inside Green Library's Media & Microtext Center.

This VHS video is a documentary on the history and culture of the Filipino Americans and their contributions to the American way of life. This video is also available on YouTube.

Willie Reed and his family appear on Stanford University's Native American Brochure in 1985.

This film reviews the political and cultural history of the indigenous peoples of Hawaii, the impact of European invaders upon their land and current day political activities by indigenous Hawaiians who wish to reclaim political control of the island. This video is in VHS format and can be played in Green Library but it is also available on YouTube.

This is a photo of Lorenza Lopez, a Mixtec immigrant from Santa Catarina Noltepec, Oaxaca, and a young man whose parents came from El Salvador, sort raspberries on a machine that picks them mechanically.

This is a photo of a worker planting apple trees and place plastic around the saplings to protect them. Evelyn Roxana Martinez is an immigrant from San Salvador, El Salvador.

Photos taken on a trip to San Bartolo, El Salvador, by Bob Fitch.

A compilation of footage documenting the first ACT UP meeting in 1987 on New York City's Wall Street, as well as subsequent meetings and actions through 2002. This video is available to streaming online on Alexander Street.

"UNITED IN ANGER: A HISTORY OF ACT UP is a unique feature-length documentary that combines startling archival footage that puts the audience on the ground with the activists and the remarkably insightful interviews from the ACT UP Oral History Project to explore ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) from a grassroots perspective--how a small group of men and women of all races and classes, came together to change the world and save each other's lives. The film takes the viewer through the planning and execution of a half dozen exhilarating major actions including Seize Control of the FDA, Stop the Church, and Day of Desperation, with a timeline of many of the other zaps and actions that forced the U.S. government and mainstream media to deal with the AIDS crisis. UNITED IN ANGER reveals the group's complex culture--meetings, affinity groups, and approaches to civil disobedience mingle with profound grief, sexiness, and the incredible energy of ACT UP."--This video is also on YouTube.