Richard Oakes Multicultural Center

The Richard Oakes Multicultural Center stands at San Francisco State University as a tribute to a man who transformed both the campus and the national conversation on Indigenous rights. Richard Oakes was a Mohawk activist and former student here who famously led the nineteen-month occupation of Alcatraz Island starting in nineteen sixty-nine. Driven by a desire for sovereignty and representation, he worked with faculty during his time as a student to develop one of the first American Indian Studies departments in the entire country. The center was established in nineteen ninety-eight to carry on his legacy of intellectual activism and to provide a space for students from all backgrounds to pursue self-determination and cultural awareness.