A fascinating history of the early days of the Mission Tenants Union, posted by the excellent Found SF. The history was written by off-again on-again Mission resident John Ross, who died this morning in Michoacan, Mexico.
Favorite quote:
“In a ploy to get health inspectors into the apartments on Folsom and Shotwell, we began paying the kids a penny a cockroach until we had filled up a half-dozen milk jugs with the creepy crawlers and took them down to 101 Grove to get Health Department director Dr. Ellis Sox’s attention. “Get the Black Flag!” he squealed in terror when Norma released the beasties into his office carpet. Channel 7 got film. For years, Norma was known as the Cockroach Lady amongst the downtrodden of the Mission.”
