San Francisco Human Rights Commission Reparations Project (808O)
Client: San Francisco Human Rights Commission Reparations Committee, https://sf-hrc.org
The San Francisco Human Rights Commission Reparations Committee (HRCRC) has been tasked by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to propose policies to repair enduring historical harms to San Francisco’s Black community. HRCRC has asked the Stanford Law Gould Center for Conflict Resolution to develop a Policy Lab practicum to assist with: (I) A Report on the History of Black Disenfranchisement in San Francisco (Report); (II) Student Support to HRCRC Subcommittees; and (III) A Design for a Community-Led Oral History to Capture Perspectives from Past to Present.
First, the Report will study the key policies and laws that resulted in relevant racial disparities and their wider historical and social context, and hew to the priorities of the HRCRC. At the outset, the Stanford team will conduct interviews of the HRCRC committee members, staff, and relevant stakeholders in order to better assess the goals of the report and the scope of research.
Second, HRCRC is comprised of four subcommittees: economic empowerment, education, health, and policy. These committees are actively researching the issues within their ambit and devising potential policy recommendations. Practicum students will be assigned to a subcommittee with the responsibility to attend each subcommittee meeting, record minutes of these meetings, and otherwise support subcommittee leadership and staff as agreed upon with Stanford faculty. These students will additionally serve as an important conduit to the Stanford team, ensuring that its own research efforts are tailored to the needs at the subcommittee level.
Finally, depending on student interest and capacity, the practicum may also develop a design for a community-led oral history of the lived experiences of San Francisco’s Black community. This record will go beyond what may already be in the historical literature and extend to oral narratives from those who lived through important chapters in San Francisco’s history, including elders whose personal stories reach back through much of the last century and include significant events that followed World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, Prop 13 etc., as well as significant current events. Their perspective is especially important in connecting the past with the recent present and providing a roadmap to achieving the HRCRC’s goal of narrative change (not just policy change).
The project invites applications (both graduate and undergraduate) from the Law School, the Stanford Center for Racial Justice, CCSRE, Sociology, Human Rights, the Documentary Program in the Department of Art, the dSchool, and SPARQ. The class meets Thursdays, 4:15-6:15.
