Humanitarian and Social Justice Panel
Represented in this panel are some of the humanitarian and social justice efforts by our citizens over the years, exemplifying the values of Vision, Engagement, Compassion, and Global Citizenship:
• Measure A was the successful citizen-driven campaign in 1978 for the city to divest from South Africa. Davis was the first municipality in the country to do so. For years, dignitaries from various African nations who came to the university and the Mondavi Center, knew about Davis, and thanked us for our early support of the Anti-Apartheid divestment movement.
• In 1972, Dr. John H. Jones started the Davis Free Clinic, which, over the years, grew and became Communicare, a far-reaching and award-winning non-profit health clinic filling the important role of providing health care to under-insured and uninsured citizens, especially vital following the closing of Yolo General Hospital.
• Davis Community Meals and Housing began in 1990 as a non-profit volunteer organization providing a free weekly meal to people in need. Since then it has expanded to address ongoing issues of homelessness as well as food insecurity.
• 'We March with Selma." In 1965, 35 Davis Citizens, including pastor Dewey Proett from Davis Community Church, answered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call after Bloody Sunday, and took a Greyhound bus from in front of the church, to join the march from Selma to Montgomery.
• STEAC, begun in 1967, provides short term emergency aid to address issues of food insecurity.
•Since 1977, California Institute for Rural Studies, CIRS, and California Agrarian Action project, CAAP (which became CAFF-Community Alliance for Family Farmers), have worked to build an agricultural system that is environmentally balanced, socially just, and economically sustainable. Their work has improved working conditions for farmworkers, fostered the growth of small scale family farms, and helped Davis become a leader in the Farm to Fork movement.