Intrigued by her parents’ Communism, activist’s path led to San Francisco, where she and her husband have brought news to the Black community for nearly 30 years.
They thought she might become a professional flutist. When Mary Ratcliff was only nine, she joined the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. But by the age of 15, she realized she didn’t have the drive it took to become a professional. More importantly, what she really wanted was to “be with people who discussed the big ...