Community

Terry Collins, SF State Strike Leader and Radio Journalist, Dies at 85

A radio journalist, he was also KPOO-FM Radio co-founder and station board chair. He obtained the license for KPOO at a time when few African Americans were in possession of an FCC broadcast license.

Published

4 years ago

July 31, 2021

Christy Price

Terry Collins. Photo courtesy of the family.

Terry Collins was a major leader of the 1968-69 San Francisco State University Black student strike which created the world’s first Black Studies program and first College of Ethnic Studies. He died on July 8 at the age of 85.

A radio journalist, he was also KPOO-FM Radio co-founder and station board chair. He obtained the license for KPOO at a time when few African Americans were in possession of an FCC broadcast license.

Collins was a host and producer of several shows on KPOO and a mentor to hundreds of KPOO programmers, volunteers and interns who have become elected officials, college professors and award winning journalists.

Born in Lansing, Mich., on Jan. 29, 1936, he spent his early years in the small town of Connersville, Indiana. When he was 16, he moved to Los Angeles with his mother.

He graduated from Dorsey High School in 1952 and then attended Los Angeles Community College. Drafted in 1959, he was stationed in Germany for 19 months serving in the 13th and 35th Artillery. These were both all-Black divisions.

After he was discharged in 1961, he backpacked around Europe and North Africa.

During this early adult years he started thinking about Marxism and socialism.

He returned to Los Angeles in 1964 and became politically active. He had become an internationalist through his travels and his contacts with the African National Congress (ANC).

He moved to San Francisco in 1967 where he was a founder of the Black Draft Counseling Center and became a student at San Francisco State.

He joined the Black Student Union and the Black Panther Party. He made major contributions to the BSU by pushing for more structure and for strong alliances with other oppressed communities and Third World student organizations.

He was part of the leadership of the San Francisco State Strike, the longest and most successful student strike in U.S. history.

The strike established the first Black Studies Program and led to the teaching of ethnic studies across the country. Collins continued to be involved at San Francisco State throughout his life and was awarded the Exemplary Leadership Award in 2012 and 2019.

In 1973, he co-founded KPOO Radio Station 89.5 FM – The People’s Station. KPOO was a pioneering station which hosted shows by communities that were often ignored. In addition to serving as a board member and as president, he hosted the show, “Spirit of Joe Rudolph.”

Because of his amazing work on the station and at S.F. State on behalf of the Arab and Palestinian communities, a Palestine scholarship was established in his name and announced at his memorial service on July 24.

The service was attended by Danny Glover, who had once been Collins’ roommate; S.F. Mayor London Breed, Pastor and community leader Arnold Townsend, and several hundred of the people who loved Collins.

As the program for his memorial said, “He was a husband, father, ‘papa’ uncle, brother, son comrade, scholar, king, revolutionary and so much more. May he rest in power and peace.”

Collins is survived by family members including his wife Cecelia Johnson Collins; daughters Kiara Collins and Renia Collins; and others. He was related to Malcolm X by marriage

Terry Collins’ memorial service was broadcast live on KPOO 89.5 FM and kpoo.com at 2 p.m., Saturday July 24,2021. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to KPOO FM Radio https://kpoo.com/support

Christy Price

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Oakland Post: Week of July 2- 8, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 2 – 8, 2025

Published

6 days ago

July 7, 2025

Oakland Post

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Trump Set to Sign Largest Cut to Medicaid After a Marathon Protest Speech by Leader Jeffries

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S.

Published

1 week ago

July 3, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all of the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti.

The vote occurred as members were pressed to complete their work before the arbitrary deadline of the July 4 holiday set by President Trump. It also occurred after Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took the House floor for over 8 hours in protest. Leader Jeffries broke the record in the U.S. House for the longest floor speech in history on the House floor. The Senate passed the bill days before and was tied at 50-50, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying that, “my hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” There were no changes made to the Senate bill by the House. A series of overnight phone calls to Republicans voting against, not changes, was what won over enough Republicans to pass the legislation, even though it adds trillions to the debt. The Trump spending bill also cuts money to Pell grants.

“The Big Ugly Bill steals food out of the hands of starving children, steals medicine from the cabinets of cancer patients, and equips ICE with more funding and more weapons of war than the United States Marine Corps. Is there any question of who those agents will be going to war for, or who they will be going to war against? Beyond these sadistic provisions, Republicans just voted nearly unanimously to close urban and rural hospitals, cripple the child tax credit, and to top it all off, add $3.3 trillion to the ticking time bomb that is the federal deficit – all from a party that embarrassingly pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility and lowering costs,” wrote Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in a statement on July 3.

“The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 17 million people will lose their health insurance, including over 322,000 Virginians. It will make college less affordable. Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations,” wrote Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) in a statement. The bill’s passage has prompted Democrats to start thinking about 2026 and the next election cycle. With the margins of victory in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate being so narrow, many are convinced that the balance of power and the question of millions being able to enjoy health care come down to only several thousand votes in congressional elections. But currently, Republicans controlled by the MAGA movement control all three branches of government. That reality was never made more stark and more clear than the last seven days of activity in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.