Opinion

Opinion: We Have a Plan. The Time to Act on Reparations is Now

Published

7 years ago

August 2, 2019

Finally. It only took 150 years, but at last a substantive, realistic, and responsible national plan for slavery reparations has been put forward.

Question is, will the purportedly liberal and benevolent San Francisco be a leader in this effort, or will it continue to enact policies that have forced an exodus of African American families, culture, and heritage from this city?

It is no longer time to seize the moment. The moment has been seized.

Last week, I attended the NAACP convention in Detroit, where we passed a viable measure that provides reparations to African Americans in the form of resources in the areas of housing, economic empowerment, funding for historically black colleges, and health care, including mental health. Rather than provide money to individuals, we felt the need for solutions that will ultimately end regressive systems created by a damaging history of enslavement and oppression.

It is a detrimental system that can be seen in plain view in San Francisco, a city that proclaims to fight for its vulnerable, but has instead pushed policies prompting black flight.

In droves, we moved here from the South during the 1940s to help build ships and other industrial-related goods for the WWII effort. After the war ended, we were passed over for what jobs remained from the massive industrial effort. Our neighborhoods were left in aimless economic desolation, with run-down housing and schools.

Rather than address the problems, city leaders worked to push them out of sight and mind. So-called “urban renewal” projects aiming to improve our neighborhoods encouraged gentrification and the closing of black businesses and cultural centers. While the African American population in San Francisco peaked at about 13.4 percent in 1970, by 2010 it was cut in half, even though the city grew. And our population continues to dwindle.

With a renewed national movement – and, most importantly, a substantive plan – in place to right the wrongs of a sordid historical injustice, San Francisco has an opportunity to be a leader in reversing its African American exodus.

In keeping with the NAACP resolution achieved in Detroit, here are some steps San Francisco can take to achieve successful reparations:

On education: A coalition of political, spiritual, and social betterment agencies must unite to identify and carry out collaborative, comprehensive remedial programs to help families catch up and move beyond abysmal low achievement.
On economic empowerment: A coalition of the city’s economic powers, including its high tech communities, must unite to identify and carry out solutions that ensure equal opportunity for African American workers and small businesses. That includes engaging with the San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce to provide pathways for black contractors, entrepreneurs and technology gurus to receive a fair share of contracts and participation in our booming economy and tourism industry.
On housing: The city and county must strengthen its human rights commission to become a true watchdog ensuring African Americans can regain much-needed access to fair and affordable housing, particularly for those who have been, and are currently being, pushed out.
On heritage: The NAACP, faith community and allies are calling the city to do for the African American community what it did for the Asian community when it provided a space in the Civic Center for the Asian Art Museum. The city should also do the same for the Fillmore Heritage Center, ensuring the center becomes a watering hold for African American community members, a place to come together and celebrate their culture and history and to maintain the presence of the black community’s dwindling heritage in San Francisco.
On mental and physical health: We need to focus on providing comparative health systems to the African American community, in part through the San Francisco Department of Public Health and West Side Community Mental Health. Resources need to address black community members who are suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome from violence, and from many other residual mental and physical effects that have resulted from a dark history of slavery and generations of discrimination. This has led to a long list of detrimental conditions, such as depression, asthma, diabetes and hypertension. The city’s highly funded and capable public and private health sectors must collaborate on programs promoting mental and physical treatment, wellness and nutrition, in order to cease the cycles that have negatively impacted multiple generations of African Americans.

The national conversation has begun. After the Detroit convention, it is apparent that it is not going away.

San Francisco is a city that prides itself on liberal ideologies that aim to empower and uplift the underserved. As aforementioned, we must put our money and political resources where our mouths are. The time to talk is over. The time to act is now.

Rev. Dr. Amos C. Brown

Posts by Rev. Dr. Amos C. Brown

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of February 11 = 17, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 11 – 17, 2026

Published

2 days ago

February 16, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

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#NNPA BlackPress

COMMENTARY: The National Protest Must Be Accompanied with Our Votes

Just as Trump is gathering election data like having the FBI take all the election data in Georgia from the 2020 election, so must we organize in preparation for the coming primary season to have the right people on ballots in each Republican district, so that we can regain control of the House of Representatives and by doing so, restore the separation of powers and balance that our democracy is being deprived of.

Published

1 week ago

February 10, 2026

Oakland Post

Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper. File photo..

By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper

As thousands of Americans march every week in cities across this great nation, it must be remembered that the protest without the vote is of no concern to Donald Trump and his administration.

In every city, there is a personal connection to the U.S. Congress. In too many cases, the member of Congress representing the people of that city and the congressional district in which it sits, is a Republican. It is the Republicans who are giving silent support to the destructive actions of those persons like the U.S. Attorney General, the Director of Homeland Security, and the National Intelligence Director, who are carrying out the revenge campaign of the President rather than upholding the oath of office each of them took “to Defend The Constitution of the United States.”

In California, the primary comes in June 2026. The congressional races must be a priority just as much as the local election of people has been so important in keeping ICE from acquiring facilities to build more prisons around the country.

“We the People” are winning this battle, even though it might not look like it. Each of us must get involved now, right where we are.

In this Black History month, it is important to remember that all we have accomplished in this nation has been “in spite of” and not “because of.” Frederick Douglas said, “Power concedes nothing without a struggle.”

Today, the struggle is to maintain our very institutions and history. Our strength in this struggle rests in our “collectiveness.” Our newspapers and journalists are at the greatest risk. We must not personally add to the attack by ignoring those who have been our very foundation, our Black press.

Are you spending your dollars this Black History Month with those who salute and honor contributions by supporting those who tell our stories? Remember that silence is the same as consent and support for the opposition. Where do you stand and where will your dollars go?

Oakland Post

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Activism

Post Newspaper Invites NNPA to Join Nationwide Probate Reform Initiative

The Post’s Probate Reform Group meets the first Thursday of every month via Zoom and invites the public to attend. The Post is making the initiative national and will submit information from its monthly meeting to the NNPA to educate, advocate, and inform its readers.

Published

1 week ago

February 10, 2026

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Tanya Dennis

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) represents the Black press with over 200 newspapers nationwide.

Last night the Post announced that it is actively recruiting the Black press to inform the public that there is a probate “five-alarm fire” occurring in Black communities and invited every Black newspaper starting from the Birmingham Times in Alabama to the Milwaukee Times Weekly in Wisconsin, to join the Post in our “Year of Action” for probate reform.

Reporter Tanya Dennis says, “The adage that ‘When America catches a cold, Black folks catch the flu” is too true in practice; that’s why we’re engaging the Black Press to not only warn, but educate the Black community regarding the criminal actions we see in probate court: Thousands are losing generational wealth to strangers. It’s a travesty that happens daily.”

Venus Gist, a co-host of the reform group, states, “ Unfortunately, people are their own worst enemy when it comes to speaking with loved ones regarding their demise. It’s an uncomfortable subject that most avoid, but they do so at their peril. The courts rely on dissention between family members, so I encourage not only a will and trust [be created] but also videotape the reading of your documents so you can show you’re of sound mind.”

In better times, drafting a will was enough; then a trust was an added requirement to ‘iron-clad’ documents and to assure easy transference of wealth.

No longer.

As the courts became underfunded in the last 20 years, predatory behavior emerged to the extent that criminality is now occurring at alarming rates with no oversight, with courts isolating the conserved, and, I’ve heard, many times killing conservatees for profit. Plundering the assets of estates until beneficiaries are penniless is also common.”

Post Newspaper Publisher Paul Cobb says, “The simple solution is to avoid probate at all costs. If beneficiaries can’t agree, hire a private mediator and attorney to work things out. The moment you walk into court, you are vulnerable to the whims of the court. Your will and trust mean nothing.”

Zakiya Jendayi, a co-host of the Probate Reform Group and a victim herself, says, “In my case, the will and trust were clear that I am the beneficiary of the estate, but the opposing attorney said I used undue influence to make myself beneficiary. He said that without proof, and the judge upheld the attorney’s baseless assertion. In court, the will and trust is easily discounted.”

The Black press reaches out to 47 million Black Americans with one voice. The power of the press has never been so important as it is now in this national movement to save Black generational wealth from predatory attorneys, guardians and judges.

The next probate reform meeting is on March 5, from 7 – 9 p.m. PST. Zoom Details:
Meeting ID: 825 0367 1750
Passcode: 475480

All are welcome.