Terry Messman was a longtime anti-war activist and homeless rights advocate who co-founded Street Spirit in March 1995. He was Editor-in-Chief of Street Spirit for 23 years.
Terry Messman
This newspaper is a community
‘Blessed are the acts of mercy, solidarity, and resistance’
Reflections on the Legacy of Street Spirit
Street Spirit was a decades-long effort by hundreds of writers and activists who defended the human rights of homeless people and gave a direct voice to some of the most oppressed, marginalized and voiceless members of our society.
Moms 4 Housing: Oakland’s Robin Hood
The brave and strategically brilliant members of Moms 4 Housing have given the entire nation a wake-up call about the disastrous shortage of affordable housing and the power of civil disobedience to confront the injustices of gentrification and the eviction-for-profit system.
This is a community
The poet T.S. Eliot once addressed a deeply disturbing question to city dwellers everywhere, a profound challenge to our consciences that cuts to the heart of everything that has gone wrong in our society.
Occupy Oakland shuts down the banks and the port
• FROM THE ARCHIVE • This article originally appeared in the November 2011 issue of Street Spirit. Demonstrators climbed on
An ode to the ghosts of People’s Park
The ghosts of People’s Park still haunt us today, 50 years after the police and National Guard met unarmed demonstrators with overwhelming firepower. Restless spirits still demand to be heard, and seem to speak with special power in the springtime, bringing to mind the spring of 1969 when the Park was created. It was the very springtime of our generation’s struggles for peace and justice.
Four Decades of Resistance to Duke’s Racism
The hatred and violent racism of white supremacist groups is written plainly for everyone to see. It is inexcusable that Trump has been unwilling to take a stand against right-wing extremists. And it is heartening to see widespread repudiation of everything the KKK and neo-Nazis stand for.
Shocked into Action: How Electroshock Created a Rebel
"Leonard Roy Frank is the Gandhi of the psychiatric survivors' movement. He's really helped bring a powerful spiritual discipline to this movement, similar to the work of Martin Luther King. Certainly in the 20th century, Leonard would be one of the foremost challengers of psychiatry, especially electroshock." -- David Oaks
East Bay Hospital Is Closed for Good
The undeserved suffering of poor and homeless mental-health clients galvanized us to shut down East Bay Hospital so this anguish would never visit another family. This negligent psychiatric hospital had crammed disabled clients into shamefully overloaded wards in pursuit of higher profits. Now those once-crowded wards have been closed forever.
One Death Too Many at East Bay Hospital
Marc Kiefer was found dead in a locked isolation unit at East Bay Hospital after enduring nearly 18 torturous hours of physical shackles and shocking medical negligence. Kiefer was left dead in restraints for hours while East Bay Hospital’s negligent staff ignored him in death as they had in life.