Protesters are fighting to make a busy Oakland intersection safer for pedestrians.
On Sunday, dozens of demonstrators gathered near the area of Grand Avenue and Park View Terrace near Lake Merritt. In February, beloved UC Berkeley professor Michael Burawoy was hit and killed while crossing the street.
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WATCH HEREThe demonstrators gathered near the intersection for a vigil in his memory. They also called on Oakland city leaders to update traffic rules in the area.
Burawoy "dedicated 47 years of his life to Berkeley, contributing immeasurably to the discipline, transforming the fields of labor, ethnography and theory," according to a February social media post by Raka Ray, dean of UC Berkeley's Division of Social Sciences.
Ray said in February that Burawoy was past president of the American Sociological Association and the International Sociological Association, the author of many scholarly books and a mentor and inspiration to thousands of students whose lives he changed with his "fierce intellect and kindness."
"This is a tremendous loss for me personally, to our Social Sciences community, UC Berkeley, and to sociologists worldwide," Ray said.
Burawoy was also known for creating a sociological theory called "public sociology." It’s a framework to help merge sociology theories with real world current events.
Bay City News contributed to the report.
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