On April 29, LWHS students, faculty, staff, and guests once again gathered for our annual Sam Mihara Day of Justice (SMDOJ), an event dedicated to learning beyond the classroom and living our commitment to social justice. Centered on the theme of Ethnic Studies, the day created a bridge between Sam Mihara’s personal story and the vital, ongoing activism of our alumni and students.

Our annual celebration of SMDOJ is grounded in the history of the Mihara family. During World War II, Sam and his family were among the 120,000 Japanese Americans unjustly incarcerated, spending three years at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming. After the war, Sam’s family returned to San Francisco, where he went on to graduate from LWHS in 1951. 

Sam's story is a powerful example of why disciplines like Ethnic Studies are important: without more inclusive narratives and perspectives, the history we learn is incomplete and misleading.

We opened this year's SMDOJ learning about the San Francisco State University students who, in 1968, advocated for a more inclusive and complete education. LWHS students watched a PBS documentary about the Third World Liberation Front strikes at SFSU—the longest student strike in U.S. history—and how the strikers fought for a curriculum that reflected their own lives and communities. Their advocacy effectively birthed the Ethnic Studies movement in the Bay Area, creating the framework we use to analyze stories like Sam’s today.

That spirit of student-led activism emerged at LWHS in 2020, when a group of students came together to fight for the inclusion of Ethnic Studies in the LWHS curriculum. We were honored to welcome back alumni Naima Blanco-Norberg '21 and Primo Goldberg '21, who talked about their experiences as leaders of that effort. 

As members of the student group that presented a historic list of demands to the school, their organizing laid the direct foundation for the required 9th-grade Ethnic Studies course launching in the 2026–27 school year. Their activism also sparked the creation of the Ethnic Studies Working Group, which has spent the last several years developing the program and curriculum that will now become a permanent part of the LWHS experience.

Other elements of the day included:

• Town Hall Dialogues: In advisory groups, students discussed identity and belonging across five key strands: curriculum, extracurricular life, advisory, mental health, and community gatherings.
• Collaborative Art: During lunch, the campus came alive with a mural project that invited students to visually express themes of identity, resistance, and memory.
• Workshops: Led by artists and community leaders, afternoon sessions explored Indigenous knowledge systems, storytelling, activism, and cultural preservation.

Our closing gathering featured a stunning folklórico performance by Lily F. '27, followed by a moving keynote from Yanni Velasquez '15. As an Ethnic Studies major at UC Berkeley and former Associate Director of LWHS' Center for Civic Engagement, Yanni shared how this discipline continues to inform his work today, showing students how this kind of learning can make a difference in the world around us.

Thank you to everyone who helped create this special day for LWHS, including the 2025-26 Ethnic Studies Committee, our dedicated advisors, the workshop facilitators, our Center Interns, and the Facilities, Tech, Communications, and Kitchen Staff.

The pictures tell the story! Enjoy the gallery below, and find more photos from the day on Vidigami.