The American River College Hour presented “Lifetime of Activism: 40 Years of Protesting and Why it is Worth it” on March 15, 2012 in Raef Hall 160.
The hour-long segment focused on local ARC Professor Dolores Delgado Campbell and the accomplishments she has achieved over the years from protesting.
Campbell is the co-faculty sponsor of the Latinos Unidos Club on campus, and has also written the curriculum for the Women in American History class that is available here at ARC.
Campbell started the college hour with a short PowerPoint presentation highlighting her achievements during her 40 years of activism and also the importance of women’s rights.
Campbell spoke about the movements her and her husband were involved in, such as the United Farm
Workers Strike from 1972-79, in which they ran a boycott on places that sold food picked from non-union farm workers.
Campbell also recollected upon a time when she was almost arrested at the U.N. Conference on Women in 1975 held in Mexico City.
Often supportive of women’s rights, she won the 2001 Women in Higher Education Award. Delgado mentioned that men can be feminists as well as women.
“[A feminist] is a person who is interested in advocating for women’s equality…” said Campbell
“It can be a man, it could be a women who’s advocating that we women should have a chance to get an equal education…be allowed to participate in sports and in any kinds of things and not use the facts that we have ovaries as a reason why we can’t participate”.
Campbell has a long list of achievements from her 40 years of activism including: the United Farm Workers, Sacramento Progressive Alliance (co-chair), Los Rios College Federation of Teachers Board Meetings, and the American River College Community Equality Committee just to name a few.
Eneida Ochoa, ARC student, and student of Delgado, loved the presentations. “I loved it, I love her passion, when she talks about it (activism) you can tell she’s passionate,” said Ochoa.
Kelsi Taylor, another ARC student also enjoyed Delgado’s presentation, “It was very informative and encouraging,” said Taylor.
Throughout the entire presentation, Delgado expressed the importance of not only education but the importance of speaking up against the injustices in the world. “Go out and give something of yourself to something or someone…put your action where your mouth is, do something, contact congress, become involved, don’t become passive.”