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Brandon Reeves Turns Tragedy into Triumph

Published

13 years ago

June 29, 2013

Twenty-three-year-old BrandonReeves is a go-getter, an achiever, and an all around good guy. He graduated from Berkeley High in 2008, and although he was a member of the Varsity Cross Country, Track and Field, and Basketball teams, he was offered a full academic scholarship to Santa Clara University.While at Santa Clara, he excelled and completed his studies in 2012, unknowingly about to take on a fight for his life.Brandon fell from the roof of a house in February causing severe swelling to his brain. He was on a breathing machine, fed intravenously and in a coma. In critical condition, doctors weren’t sure that Brandon would survive the fall.He was rushed to Highland Hospital where he immediately underwent emergency brain surgery to observe the swelling on the brain. Under close monitoring, doctors realized the swelling wasn’t going down so he underwent another brain surgery to remove a portion of his skull to give room to his traumatized brain.

The portion of Brandon’s skull removed was placed in his stomach, a process allowing it to be nurtured for up to nine months, if needed, while his brain healed.

But nine months wasn’t needed. Just four months since the fall, Brandon reflects on the incident. He says he always had faith that he was going to be all right.

“My brain was working, I knew I was in a coma…I just couldn’t wake up,” Brandon said. While he couldn’t respond, he remembers being in the comatose state.
So when he finally woke up, he was determined to turn the tragedy of his fall into triumph. Doctors told Brandon of the paralysis on his right side, something they believed was going to be permanent. Brandon refused to accept it.

“I’d sit in the bed and use my left side to exercise my right side,” said Brandon. “After my hand came, then it was my right ankle, and I would just move my foot up and down…I never felt it was going to be permanent.”

After one month, he was released from Highland and admitted to Oakland’s Kaiser Hospital for rehabilitation. He had to relearn his alphabet, how to brush his teeth and other basic communication skills. He worked his body physically and mentally to continue his rapid improvement.

Brandon’s father, Gary Reeves, describes Brandon’s condition as “being a man working with an infant mentality.” However, he says he made sure the energy around Brandon was always positive, never willing to accept that his son would not pull through, let alone walk again.

Gary Reeves says, “The first month the doctors had a hard time balancing his blood pressure and breathing,” and he had to regulate visitation because the impact visitors would have on Brandon’s emotion. Today, he credits God, the doctors, therapists, nurses, and the love from family and friends as the motivation that contributed to his quick recovery.

“You’re only stuck if you allow your mind to become stuck,” Gary Reeves said.
Brandon regained his speaking and walking ability, and though still needing to complete the rehabilitation program, he was able to go home.

Today, he says he is about 90 percent back to his original self. While he still works on strengthening his cognitive and speech skills, he has regained all physical movement.

Currently, he is a mentor at Berkeley Youth Authority, helping teach young kids about government funding for medical costs.

He also works with Community Partners for Bright Futures International, a charity that supports underprivileged children around the world by providing programs that help them achieve academic and professional success, and “B.U.” academy, which is sponsored by Blair Underwood.

He has volunteered teaching English as a second language to Spanish speaking mothers in San Jose at Sacred Heart Community Center and has even taught a beginning youth ski board class for the Bay Area’s Black Avalanche Ski Club.

But now Brandon’s life is the lesson. Three brain surgeries later, and overcoming every obstacle most would have counted him out on, he knows his life has purpose and new meaning.

“You do what you have to do to get better,” Brandon said. “Don’t just become a victim of your circumstances.

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Rest in Peace: A.M.E. Pastor and L.A Civil Rights Icon Cecil “Chip” Murray Passes

The Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, former pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) in Los Angeles, died of natural causes April 6 at his Windsor Hills Home. He was 94. “Today, we lost a giant. Reverend Dr. Cecil Murray dedicated his life to service, community, and putting God first in all things. I had the absolute honor of working with him, worshiping with him, and seeking his counsel,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of the dynamic religious leader whose ministry inspired and attracted millionaires as well as former gang bangers and people dealing with substance use disorder (SUD).

Published

2 months ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

The Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, former pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) in Los Angeles, died of natural causes April 6 at his Windsor Hills Home. He was 94.

“Today, we lost a giant. Reverend Dr. Cecil Murray dedicated his life to service, community, and putting God first in all things. I had the absolute honor of working with him, worshiping with him, and seeking his counsel,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of the dynamic religious leader whose ministry inspired and attracted millionaires as well as former gang bangers and people dealing with substance use disorder (SUD).

Murray oversaw the growth of FAME’s congregation from 250 members to 18,000.

“My heart is with the First AME congregation and community today as we reflect on a legacy that changed this city forever,” Bass continued.

Murray served as Senior Minister at FAME, the oldest Black congregation in the city, for 27 years. During that time, various dignitaries visited and he built strong relationships with political and civic leaders in the city and across the state, as well as a number of Hollywood figures. Several national political leaders also visited with Murray and his congregation at FAME, including Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Murray, a Florida native and U.S. Air Force vet, attended Florida A&M University, where he majored in history, worked on the school newspaper and pledged Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. He later attended Claremont School of Theology in Los Angeles County, where he earned his doctorate in Divinity.

Murray is survived by his son Drew. His wife Bernadine, who was a committed member of the A.M.E. church and the daughter of his childhood pastor, died in 2013.

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Court Throws Out Law That Allowed Californians to Build Duplexes, Triplexes and RDUs on Their Properties

Charter cities in California won a lawsuit last week against the state that declared Senate Bill (SB) 9, a pro-housing bill, unconstitutional. Passed in 2021, SB 9 is also known as the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency Act (HOME). That law permits up to four residential units — counting individual units of duplexes, triplexes and residential dwelling units (RDUs) – to be built on properties in neighborhoods that were previously zoned for only single-family homes.

Published

2 months ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

Charter cities in California won a lawsuit last week against the state that declared Senate Bill (SB) 9, a pro-housing bill, unconstitutional.

Passed in 2021, SB 9 is also known as the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency Act (HOME). That law permits up to four residential units — counting individual units of duplexes, triplexes and residential dwelling units (RDUs) – to be built on properties in neighborhoods that were previously zoned for only single-family homes.

A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ruled in favor of the cities, pointing out that SB 9 discredited charter cities that were granted jurisdiction to create new governance systems and enact policy reforms. The court ruling affects 121 charter cities that have local constitutions.

Attorney Pam Lee represented five Southern California cities in the lawsuit against the state and Attorney General Rob Bonta.

“This is a monumental victory for all charter cities in California,” Lee said.

However, general law cities are excluded from the court ruling as state housing laws still apply in residential areas.

Attorney General Bonta and his team are working to review the decision and consider all options that will protect SB 9 as a state law. Bonta said the law has helped provide affordable housing for residents in California.

“Our statewide housing shortage and affordability crisis requires collaboration, innovation, and a good faith effort by local governments to increase the housing supply,” Bonta said.

“SB9 is an important tool in this effort, and we’re going to make sure homeowners have the opportunity to utilize it,” he said.

Charter cities remain adamant that the state should refrain from making land-use decisions on their behalf. In the lawsuit, city representatives argued that SB 9 eliminates local authority to create single-family zoning districts and approve housing developments.

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Funds for Down Payments and Credit Repair Given to Black First Time Homebuyers

The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) won a $10,000 fair housing settlement last November against a property management company, CIM Group LP, a global real estate company headquartered in Los Angeles, and property owner, RACR Sora, LLC, for implementing a blanket ban on renting to tenants with criminal histories at Sora Apartments in Inglewood. Three months earlier, the department, which enforces California’s civil rights laws, won another $20,000 civil rights settlement against a Lemon Grove property manager, who had targeted a Black tenant with a series of racist actions and threats of violence.

Published

2 months ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

By McKenzie Jackson, California Black Media

Three months earlier, the department, which enforces California’s civil rights laws, won another $20,000 civil rights settlement against a Lemon Grove property manager, who had targeted a Black tenant with a series of racist actions and threats of violence.

CRD Director Kevin Kish said the department investigates cases of apparent racial bias in housing and sometimes more subtle acts of prejudice like nuisance-free or crime-free housing policies or holding tenants to different standards based on their race.

Kish said, “People will get evicted if they call the police. This can negatively impact victims of domestic violence. We also see these no-crime ordinances, or no-crime policies, used in racially discriminatory ways. If there is some kind of incident, and the police are called and it involves a Black family, then they get evicted, but other folks aren’t necessarily evicted.”

On April 11,1968, a week after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, President Lydon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, religion, and nationality.

Kish noted that William Byron Rumford, the first Black California State Assemblymember, who represented Berkley and Oakland, spearheaded the passing of the Rumford Act in 1963. That law sought to end discriminatory housing practices in the Golden State, five years before the Fair Housing Act became law.
Real estate agent and housing advocate Ashley Garner is the director of the CLTRE Keeper Home Ownership program. That organization gave 25 Black, indigenous, and people of color $17,500 each in down payment and credit repair support to purchase a home in Oak Park, a traditionally Black neighborhood in Sacramento, last fall. CLTRE obtained a $500,000 grant from the city of Sacramento to award the funds to the residents after they completed an eight-week homeownership program.

In 2021, the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) noted that around four in 10 Black California families owned homes, which trails that of White, Asian-American and Latinos.
According to Forbes, the median price for a home in California is over $500,000, which is double the cost of a home in the rest of the country.

Black lawmakers recently introduced their Reparations Priority Bill Package that includes support for Black first-time homebuyers, homeowners’ mortgage assistance and property tax relief for neighborhoods restricted by historic redlining.

California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) spokesperson Eric Johnson said CalHFA helps prospective low-income and moderate-income Californians purchase homes by offering down payment and closing cost aid. “There are lots of people who have steady jobs, good credit scores, constant income, but they haven’t been able to save up the money that traditional banks need or want to see for a down payment,” Johnson stated. “We help those folks out. We give a loan for the down payment to get them over that hurdle.”
CRD and the Department of Real Estate hosted “Fair Housing Protections for People with Criminal Histories” Zoom call on April 10.

On April 25, CRD will also hold Zoom seminars focused on advocating for fair housing for people with disabilities.