J. Paul Leonard Library
During the SF State student-led Strike for Ethnic Studies Dr. Richard Fine led the medical presence on campus from The Medical Committee for Human Rights. Doctors and nurses caring for humans (and animals) was documented in news footage and images, but newspapers frequently cropped the men and women in the white coats.
Dr. Richard H. Fine (1940-2015) was a San Francisco Bay Area physician who practiced primary care internal medicine, trained house staff, and administered programs and clinics as a Clinical Professor of Medicine on the full-time faculty of the University of California Medical Center’s San Francisco General Hospital campus. Dr. Fine recalled, “Every day at twelve o’clock we would come to San Francisco State for the riot.” Later, during the Occupation of Alcatraz Island held over 18 months, Dr. Fine made weekly trips to bring medical supplies to the island on the “official” ferryboat and remained to treat patients for minor injuries, colds, and pneumonia.
Materials in the J. Paul Leonard Library
Online Archive of California
The collection in the Online Archive of California contains materials documenting injuries sustained by people during the 1968-1969 student strike at SFSC. It includes photographs of people injured by the police and treated by the Medical Committee for Human Rights. It also contains newspapers and clippings, and documents from the SFSC Legal Defense Committee.