Today is a dark anniversary. On November 18th, 1978, 900 people died in a mass murder-suicide via cyanide-laced punch, orchestrated by cult leader Jim Jones. The effects of the massacre are so vast, they were felt in the 2024 election.
Most people know the term “drinking the Kool-Aid,” but few know how diverse Jonestown was. Seventy percent of the followers were Black, half of them Black women. The Peoples Temple was beloved in the Bay Area throughout the 1970s. The organization provided healthcare, elderly care, childcare, drug addiction treatment, and was pro-women’s rights, pro-civil rights, pro-environmental conservation, and pro-LGBT rights. While Reverend Jim Jones was secretly a sadistic, drug- and sex-addicted charlatan and false healer, he was also adored and powerful in San Francisco politics. The Peoples Temple could mobilize thousands of voters. Their support helped elect Harvey Milk in 1977.
In 1977, investigations into the cult reached the White House. These were prompted by families of the followers and former members, who formed the organization "Concerned Citizens." Bay Area progressive leaders, including Harvey Milk and Angela Davis, wrote letters of support for Jim Jones. After Jonestown, politicians scrambled to distance themselves.
Only 10 days after the massacre, Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone were assassinated. These two events, back-to-back, plunged San Francisco into despair. For many, they signaled the end of '60s idealism and '70s radicalism. Next in line for mayor was the president of the Board of Supervisors, a woman named Dianne Feinstein. She was set to retire from politics but instead became the city’s first female mayor. Her moderate politics were embraced by a city that craved law and order. She served for 10 years before going on to the Senate. Her tenure shaped the city for decades and directly influenced SF politicians like Nancy Pelosi, Mayor Gavin Newsom, and Kamala Harris. Harris’s 2024 campaign echoed many of San Francisco’s most moderate policies and messaging, many of which were forged in November of 1978.
There have been so many takes on the results of the 2024 election, as if we can deduce a single reason or gauge its ripple effects with certainty this soon. Meanwhile, politicians are taking full advantage of this cacophony, drowning us in news. It's the same tactic Jim Jones used when he blasted his voice into a megaphone at Jonestown while his followers worked, ate, and slept. He gave sermons, read the newspaper, and warned them of threats from all sides. This information overload kept his followers alert, fatigued, and paranoid.
We like to think we’re in unprecedented times, but the reality is that madmen with megaphones are America’s legacy, and their sermons of love often end in sermons of death. When I feel hopeless about current events, history always provides some cold comfort: the misery of San Francisco in November of 1978 gave its citizens the fortitude to face what followed in the 1980s…
More history and politics in my book POST.
Sources: Season of the Witch by David Talbot (book, 2012), The California Historical Society, American Experience: Jonestown (2006 documentary).
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