[1] As an activist, she supported unions, the Black Panther Party, farm workers, political prisoners, and the Korean reunification movement.
[1][2][3] Her father, Bakshish Singh Dhillon was one of the first Punjabi Sikh pioneers to arrive in the United States in 1897, with her mother, Rattan Kaur joining him in 1910.
[6] From 1916 to 1922, she and her family lived in Astoria, Oregon, where she and her siblings attended school and her father worked at a lumber mill.
[7][8] As a part of the war effort, Dhillon worked as a machinist and truck driver from the Marine Corps.
[citation needed] She picked crops, worked as a waitress, and was the secretary for the San Francisco, Teamsters and Asbestos Worker's unions.