Best of Sacramento 2015: People & Places

They reminded us that black lives matter and white privilege is real. They taught schools a civics lesson. And they broke the law by feeding the homeless. Most of all, these Sacramento activists showed up. Rabble-rousing rarely looked so cool—or necessary.

Name: Maile Hampton

Affiliations: Party for Socialism and Liberation, ANSWER Sacramento

Why they scare The Man: Hampton’s alleged efforts to save a fellow protester from arrest during a January rally for police accountability got the biracial activist charged with felony “lynching,” and catapulted Hampton to the front lines of the Black Lives Matter movement. Hampton has adjusted to the spotlight by shining it back on a wide-ranging number of causes, all of which Hampton believes to be rooted in one green machine. “Capitalism capitalizes off of the working class here in AmeriKKKa … so we can never unite and rise up against this system that was never created for us, the 99%,” Hampton writes. “I’ve learned what to really fight against, I’ve learned to be strategic, and I’ve realized this movement and this struggle, it is my life.”

Name: Berry Accius

Affiliations: Voice of the Youth, Valley Hi Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Zone, Incite Insight

Why he scares The Man: From his prolific social media output to his street-level activism and classroom lectures, the tireless community organizer knows how to cover an issue. Cases in point: He and his allies helped draw national scrutiny to the prosecution of Hampton and successfully pressed the passage of Proposition 47, a sentencing reform measure. When it comes to fighting for equality, Accius has one tenet: Make them uncomfortable. “In the times we are now, we need more real,” he says. “I love all those who love me, but I am for my race. And I’m not apologizing for that.”

Name: Asami Alair Saito

Aliases: Tsunami, Salami, Somms

Why she scares The Man: As a Student Advisory Council leader, Saito worked the inside track to transform ethnic studies from an occasional, fringe elective into a codified graduation requirement within the Sacramento City Unified School District. In other words, she helped convince schools to start teaching real history. “The fact that my school and our district did not offer a class that taught my fellow classmates and I anything about our history and culture was upsetting,” says the West Campus High senior. “In order to understand our world today, we must understand what happened before.”

Name: James Lee Clark

Alias: Faygo

Affiliations: Occupy Sacramento, Community Dinner Project, #crunchnestle alliance, The Anti-Monsanto Project

Why he scares The Man: Clark co-organized protests against Nestlé and Monsanto, marched against police brutality and flouted city laws with the Community Dinner Project, which serves homeless people organic meals each week right in front of City Hall. He did all this while living homeless himself, so don’t challenge Clark to a gut check. You will lose. “What I’ve learned is that, in order to really get the public’s attention, you have to be loud, take some risks … and be respectful if they disagree at first,” Clark says. “I also learned that when the people come together and are persistent, we can make serious change!”