Bay Area

Remembering Housing Activist Lillian Love

Published

6 years ago

March 5, 2020

Lillian Q. Love interviewed for television in Oak Village, August 23, 1967. Source: Oakland Redevelopment Agency Photography Collection at the Oakland Public Library. The photo is thought to have been taken by Oakland Redevelopment Association photographer Harry Wade, and was printed in “Imagining a Past Future” an article by Moriah Ulinskas, published in Places Journal on Jan. 2019.

If you take a stroll through West Oakland along 10th Street, the differences you will notice looking south into the Acorn neighborhood, and looking north into the Oak Center neighborhood are striking.

Acorn’s housing is high density and mostly small homes that look similar to one another. Oak Center’s housing is colorful with high ceilings, different from home to home, and intricate in design.

The reason for the differences? The City of Oakland allowed developers to demolish almost the entire Acorn neighborhood in 1962 to execute the first phase of The General Urban Renewal Plan (GURP). As the city geared up to execute the second phase of the plan, which would have originally meant the almost total destruction of homes in Oak Center, many of which were constructed early in the 20th century, it was met with stubborn organized opposition that changed the city’s plans.

The leader of this opposition was a Black woman named Lillian Q Love, and the old Victorian homes in Oak Center were mostly rehabilitated instead of demolished.
“There is no discussion about West Oakland and its history without the name Lillian Love. There has never been a person who has been more influential in preserving the neighborhood and character of Oak Center,” said Henry Gardner, who moved to Oakland in 1971 and has previously served as Oakland’s city manager.

Love felt that homes in West Oakland needed aid, but was against the manner in which the city worked with Acorn, simply demolishing homes there instead of working to fix them. While a World War II and post-WWII migration caused the Black population of Oakland to quintuple between 1940 and 1950, discriminatory lending practices and racist zoning laws confined Blacks during that time mostly to West Oakland. But the population was far too large for the housing available, and the overcrowding was a cause for many of the area’s old homes to fall into disrepair.

“The City did more to destroy West Oakland than anyone else,” said Gardner, of the time.
Born in Texas on April 3, 1912, Love moved to Oakland as a child, and graduated from The University of California, Berkeley, probably at some point in the 1930s. She claims her organizing was inspired by her father, William E. Meneweather, who unsuccessfully fought the city over constructing public housing that displaced his family in 1938.

In 1963, Love formed The Oak Center Neighborhood Association (OCNA), an organization that pushed the city to provide housing rehabilitation funding in place of destruction and redevelopment. The OCNA then accused Thomas Bell, the first director of The Oakland Redevelopment Agency (ORA), of purposely misleading the public on GURP. Bell faced pressure to resign by the federal Urban Renewal Administration and did so in 1964, but there’s evidence that pressure from the OCNA also caused Bell’s resignation.

“He said he was with us for preservation but in his actions he was for clearance,” said Constantine Lekas, the OCNA’s original vice president, in a 1981 interview. In the same interview, Lekas claims that OCNA was able to get Bell fired, and describes his leaving the position as “a turning point.”

While Love worked almost entirely with other Black people, it’s noteworthy that some of her organizing crossed racial lines. Lekas was an immigrant from Greece.

After Bell resigned, John B. Williams became the ORA’s new director. In 1966, Love was named a commissioner for the ORA. Williams also allotted a grant to the OCNA in 1966 in the amount of $15 million for housing rehabilitation, which is about $120 million in today’s dollars when adjusted for inflation.

Williams enforced minority training and hiring policies, which required the ORA to hire and award contracts to far more non-white people than they had previously.
Love died on Feb.21, 1987, at the age of 74. Henry Gardner, who saw her speak regularly at City Hall and admired her, said she kept up her housing activism long after the Oak Center fight had ended.

“She understood the issues upside-down. And she was active until her last breath,” said Gardner.

The Oakland Post thanks Moriah Ulinskas, who provided biographical information for this article that will soon be added to the biography cards in the Oakland History Room at The Oakland Library.

Zack Haber

Posts by Zack Haber

Related Topics:Acorn neighborhood Lillian Love Lillian Q Love Oak Center Zack Haber

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Bay Area

IN MEMORIAM: Longtime OUSD Employee Debra King-Cooper, 73

Longtime OUSD Employee Debra King-Cooper, 73 Caption: Debra King-Cooper. Courtesy photo. Special to The Post Debra King-Cooper, a beloved mother, grandmother, queen, sister, church member, caregiver, and matriarch, transitioned peacefully on May 20 surrounded by family and love i

Published

12 hours ago

June 17, 2026

bpusa-syndication

Debra King-Cooper. Courtesy photo.

Special to The Post

Debra King-Cooper, a beloved mother, grandmother, queen, sister, church member, caregiver, and matriarch, transitioned peacefully on May 20 surrounded by family and love in the comfort of her home. To her children, she was royalty, grace, strength, and unconditional love embodied.

Debra Diane Edgar was born on May 28, 1952, in San Francisco, California, to Charles Edgar Sr. and Mamie Arthur Edgar. She was raised alongside her younger brother, Charles Edgar Jr., affectionately known as “Little Brother” or “Lil Bruh.” She also shared close bonds with her older siblings Carol Edgar-Lang, Maryann Edgar Calloway, and Lonnie Lewis Sr.

A proud product of San Francisco’s historic Fillmore District, Debra attended Andrew Jackson Elementary School, where she met her lifelong best friend and adopted sister, Lynn Green, in the fifth grade. She later attended Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School, Roosevelt Junior High School and Thomas Jefferson High School.

Debra’s mother transitioned when she was only 17 years old, and her father transitioned when she was 23. Despite these profound losses, Debra remained grounded through the love and support of extended family and lifelong family friends,

In 1971, she married Harold King. On Sept. 24, 1972, they welcomed their first son, Dajuan Artese King, affectionately called “Pop” or “Poppa.” On Aug. 5, 1976, they welcomed their second son, Dante Dupree King, affectionately called “Tay” or “Taboocoo the Baby.”

After her divorce in 1982, Debra assumed full responsibility for raising her sons.

She supported Dajuan’s passion for football by purchasing sports equipment and attending games faithfully. She supported Dante’s love of music by enrolling him in the San Francisco Boys Choir, Oakland Boys Choir, and the Castlemont Castleers.

Professionally, Debra built an exceptional career. She worked at Blue Shield of California from 1973 until 1994, earning multiple promotions.

She later joined the Oakland Unified School District, initially in a temporary role before being promoted into management within the Labor Relations Department. She retired from OUSD in 2015 after years of distinguished service. During her years at OUSD, she built meaningful friendships with her colleagues.

Faith was central to Debra’s life. During the 1980s, following personal hardship, she joined Love Center Church under the leadership of Bishop Walter Hawkins, where she brought her children regularly. She later became a member of Triumphant: A Church Without Walls Ministries under Pastor Dr. Larry Short, who became a beloved spiritual mentor.

After Triumphant closed in 1992, Debra joined Cosmopolitan Baptist Church in Oakland under the leadership of Pastor Larry Ashley, where she remained for the rest of her life.

At Cosmopolitan, she worked in numerous ministries. She served on the usher board, sang in the choir, participated in the AIDS ministry during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, helped feed and support unhoused community members, and mentored and supported a group of young girls.

After retirement, she cared for older adults in her church community, driving them to appointments, cleaning their homes, managing finances, preparing meals, and helping families navigate funeral arrangements after loved ones transitioned.

Even while battling Stage 4 cancer herself, she continued caring for others.

Debra was preceded in death by her parents, Charles Edgar Sr. and Mamie Arthur Edgar; her brothers, Lonnie Lewis Sr. and Charles Edgar Jr.; her sisters, Maryann Edgar Calloway and Victoria Stephenson Knight; and her adopted mother, Clara Oliver.

She leaves to cherish her memory her beloved sons, Dajuan King and Dante King; grandson, Tiyler Dajuan Artese King; sister, Carol Edgar-Lang; goddaughters Monique Belle and Ricketa Matthews Jones (Leonard); daughter-in-love Quiona Sullivan; son-in-love Marcel Walker; sister-in-law Delores Lewis; adopted sisters and lifelong friends Lynn Green, Barbara Stephenson Hill, and Sarah Fine; a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, great-nieces, great-nephews, extended family members, her church family and dear friends.