Richard Oakes, a 30-year-old leader in the Red Power movement best known for his role in the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz, was shot and killed on September 20, 1972, at a YMCA camp near Annapolis in Sonoma County, California. The camp caretaker, Michael Oliver Morgan, shot Oakes; Morgan claimed he acted in self-defense, saying Oakes had threatened him with a knife.

Witness testimony and physical evidence did not fully support Morgan’s account, and witnesses reported Morgan had made racist remarks about Oakes and Native Americans in the days before the shooting. Morgan was arrested and charged with manslaughter; the trial took place in 1973 and ended in an acquittal. Oakes’ death was widely felt as a significant loss to the movement and remains a focal point for those remembering his activism.