On Thursday at 6:00 p.m., Governor Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom will induct seven new members into the California Hall of Fame. Included in the 18th class of inductees is Alice Piper, who, as a 15-year-old Native American student, successfully petitioned the California Supreme Court 100 years ago to have the defendant school district admit her into its school, overturning the district’s decision that would have required her to attend a separate “Indian school.”
This Hall of Fame class is a posthumous one (Piper died in 1985) and its members are all women, which a press release says is “a meaningful recognition of women’s achievements, which have historically been underrepresented in California’s history.” The other inductees are Julia Child — Cook, author, television personality; Ina Donna Coolbrith — California’s first poet laureate; Vicki Manalo Draves — Olympic gold medalist; Mitsuye Endo — Civil rights activist; Dian Fossey — Primatologist, gorilla conservationist; and Tina Turner — Singer, performer.
The virtual ceremony will be live streamed. A media kit with details about the inductees is here.
We’ve written about Alice Piper and her Supreme Court case over the years:
The centennial celebration of a school desegregation case
“Celebrating the centennial of a civil rights victory”
Renaming Hastings College of Law? A proposal
Hoping to honor a pioneering civil rights plaintiff
Related:
The Beach Boys, Carlos Santana, Magic Johnson, and . . . Roger Traynor?
