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"People were dragged out of the building..."

Evicted San Francisco residents commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the International Hotel eviction.

By:Kaponda

The melodic sound waves from the Xylophone and Gardigan instruments did not, alone, inspire the expressions of exultation. Nor could the warmth of the brilliant sun claim all the credit for the joyous faces. The groundbreaking ceremony and commemoration of the 23rd anniversity of the eviction of Asian tenants from the International Hotel fashioned the smiles on the faces of the many people at the juncture of Kearney and Jackson streets.

"One of the things that we are very committed to do is to make this happen, come hell or high waters. Many individuals died because of the International Hotel." Supervisor Leland Yee was very emotional as he expressed his thoughts during an interview with me after he had addressed the predominantly Asian-Amercian audience. "There memories cannot go in vain. The reason it is important to build this project is so that their memory and legacy will live on from now and into eternity." Although the Housing and Urban Development had awarded $7.7 million and the Mayor's Office of Housing had committed another $5.5 for construction of an affordable housing project, there was still a tone of skepticism in Supervisor Lee's voice as we talked. I asked if a groundbreaking of the new building at the site where the International Hotel had been located would occur during the Fall of 2000? "This is a done deal to the extent that all of the plans and all of the agreements are there, but we have still not somehow pulled it all together yet. But somehow and some way we've got to make it happen. There are still some last glitches in terms of right-of-way and so on that will be dealt with."

The Internatinoal Hotel was built during the 19th century on the corner of Kearney and Jackson streets. Its occupants were single Filipino and Chinese men who worked as longshoremen and seamen. Due to its proximity to the wharf, the International Hotel provided a convenient location for the Filipino and Chinese community. Since a single room rented for $45.00 per month, it provided affordable housing as well. Between 1960 and 1977, during the golden age of the Kearney street corridor, the Filipino community stretched more than four blocks. This enclave was dubbed, "Manilatown" and the International Hotel would play a key role in the Asian Community.

Like a shark in a frenzy from the scent of fresh blood, in 1968, commercial developers sensed huge profits along the Kearney Street corridor. Since that time, construction of buildings such as the Holiday Inn, Transamerica and Bank of America have taken place. In 1968, notices to vacate were given to nearly 200 residents of the International Hotel. It was learned that a permit to demolish the hotel was issued, so that construction of a multi-leveled parking lot could began. The tenants -- most of whom were elderly -- were only given until January 1st of the new year of 1969 to pack up and move out. That eviction notice was the catalyst of a cohesiveness that would propel a fierce, nine-year battle in the Asisan community over racism and civil rights.

After nine-years and three mayoral administrations of legal gridlock, on August 4, 1977, at three o'clock in the terror of the morning, the elderly and all other tenants of the International Hotel were forcibly evicted from their homes. It was a night when injustice and racism bellowed every aspect of their tyrannous power. The forced evictions would result in the dispersal of the historical and cultural roots of a first-generation of Filipinos whose origin went back to the beginning of the 20th century.

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A resident of the International Hotel in 1977, Emil De Guzman, who is now affiliated with the Manilatown Heritage Foundation, a community-based organization formed to assist in the development of a new Manilatown Center, shared with me his first-person experience of that night. "On August 4, 1977, 200 police, sheriffs and firemen forced their way through thousands of protesters into the International Hotel. The San Francisco Fire Department trucks were used to hoist policemen onto the rooftop of the International Hotel. People were dragged out of the building."

The Reverend Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial called the hole in the ground where the International Hotel had been, "The most important civil rights' issue in San Francisco." Furthermore, he went on to state as he spoke on the raised platform at the 23rd anniversary of the forced eviction, "We have to make sure this will never happen again."

I remembered the words of Gandhi, "If the cause is right, the means will come," when I heard Nancy Hom of the Kearney Street Workshop, encourage the crowd by stating, "When the cause is right, the human spirit will prevail....Its what's in the heart that matters." Many people were in the audience who were personally involved in the struggle from its beginning.

Bill Sorro, an organizer, activist and former tenant was married at the International Hotel. He had lived there since May of 1970. Bill did not disguise his frustration while discussing his feelings with me. "Quite frankly, more and more people need to say, 'screw you, I ain't leaving' [to any future landlords with plans for gentrification]. I know a lot of people who were there and were hurt. During the '70's, horses were a legal weapon used to control crowds, and so policemen came into the crowds on horses wielding billy clubs."

Peter Rubin of Local 261 acted as a member of a security team outside of the hotel that helped form the barricade around the hotel to deter the police from storming the building on the night of August 4, 1977. Many members of Local 261 were sympathetic to the people's struggle to resist the vacate notices by the owners of the International Hotel because the members of Local 261 understood the nature of the struggle. According to Peter, "The sheriff himself came down here and smashed in some of the doors to get to the tenants who were locked inside their rooms. When we found out that the police were coming we set up our barricade around the building. It was six-people deep around the building. The police came from Washington Street. The San Francisco Fire Department occupied the adjacent parking lot so that police units and sheriffs could successfully occupy the roof. The police were pretty violent. Police were riding on horses, swinging their clubs"

Marshall Werner, a part of the San Francisco community at-large, shared her thoughts with me about the night of August 4, 1977. "It was not just activists who were involved. Rather, it was a citywide effort that saw people from all of the Bay Area providing support to tenants of the International Hotel. This act [of eviction] by the hotel owners was viewed as a precedence for developers in San Francisco to seize land from tenants and the working class for commercial development. Looking back, historically, it has become true. In addition, the emergence of greed began to gain politically power among local politicians. We are no longer able to form the alliances to stop the rapid displacements in all of the districts in San Francisco. "

As the band, Scratch Pickles, filled the air, I watched Pearl Ubungen and Wailana Sim Cock interpret the International Hotel eviction through a dance performance on the barren sidewalk filling the atmosphere with hope, resistance and revolution.

"By virtue of its nature, change must occur. Whether a radical or positive force effects that change depends on you......" Kaponda, August 8, 2000.

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