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Fight Over Vallejo NAACP Presidency Threatens to Tear Org Apart

The Vallejo branch of the NAACP was torn apart this year by the sudden death of its longtime president, Jimmie Jackson, in January. Now, a conflict has arisen over who should take his place. Letters from the organization’s state conference dated March 8 — and lawyers from its national office dated March 15 — demanded that former Vallejo City Council member Hakeem Brown abandon his claims to the position.

Published

3 years ago

April 24, 2023

Oakland Post

Photo screenshot submitted by a member of the local Vallejo NAACP branch Mark Lampkin

Mark Hedin | California Black Media

The Vallejo branch of the NAACP was torn apart this year by the sudden death of its longtime president, Jimmie Jackson, in January.

Now, a conflict has arisen over who should take his place.

Letters from the organization’s state conference dated March 8 — and lawyers from its national office dated March 15 — demanded that former Vallejo City Council member Hakeem Brown abandon his claims to the position.

As Brown tells it, he first worked with Jackson in 2017 to overcome prosecution related to being “the only Black cannabis cultivator in Napa County.” He joined the NAACP branch Jackson had led since 2008 and as the branch’s elections approached late last year, agreed to work as Jackson’s de facto lieutenant.

As Jackson’s health grew worse in January, he named Brown acting president and died unexpectedly a few days later.

Brown and his supporters maintain that Jackson’s endorsement of Brown as his successor was within his rights as president and that Brown’s position was understood and accepted at the branch’s initial meetings this year.

But those letters from the national and state NAACP offices, stated that according to organization bylaws, because Urban Strategies Council site coordinator Patricia Hunter was “duly and properly elected to the position of First Vice President,” she is first in line to take the reins “in the event of the resignation, removal or death” of the incumbent.

When Jackson was re-elected last year, Hunter, Brown and Mark Lampkin won vice-presidential seats.

There is no dispute that Hunter got the most votes of the four candidates and that Brown and Lampkin tied for second, but Brown and his supporters argue that because there was no official ranking of the vice-presidential seats, Jackson was free to later choose any of the three sitting VPs to act in his stead.

“Because there was no numerical ranking on the ballot for the election,” it was within Jackson’s authority to name Brown to fill in for him, Brown, Lampkin and 10 other members of the branch’s Executive Committee asserted in a March 9 “challenge letter” responding to the state conference’s notice.

Citing NAACP bylaws Article 7, section 2, they wrote: “The duties of the Vice President shall be: a) to perform all the duties of the President in his/her absence or disability. In case of more than one Vice President, the Vice Presidents shall be designated as first, second, third and so forth and shall perform their duties according to their numerical rank.”

“Because there was no such designation, we reject the notion that any one person was the 1^st Vice President, until such a time as Pat Hunter was elevated by Jimmie Jackson at the same time Hakeem Brown was elevated to the presidency,” the letter reads. “When our election was held, members voted for the Vice-President, not 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd Vice-President. Mr. Jackson was of sound mind when he designated Hakeem Brown President.”

Included with that letter are minutes from the branch’s Jan. 11 Executive Committee meeting in which the leadership matter was discussed.

The challenge letter also says that there were no objections to the appointment at the Feb. 8 branch meeting Brown led. Brown told California Black Media (CBM) that he stepped out of that meeting briefly to allow Hunter to oversee a vote on whether to approve his appointment, and that the entire Executive Committee, including Hunter, unanimously ratified him, with only Secretary Lynda Daniels abstaining.

Daniels, who is charged with producing the minutes of branch meetings, has not provided them for that Feb. 8 meeting.

NAACP officers seem to see it differently.

Rick Callender, California/Hawaii NAACP State Conference President, discussing the election in an email addressed to Lampkin, wrote on March 31: “You lost as you were not the top vote getter. You were not duly elected and indeed lost the election.”

The issue under discussion at that time was regaining access to the branch’s Facebook account, stemming from Hunter, who on March 7 lost access to administration privileges to the social media page.

On that page, on March 16, Lampkin, Assistant Secretary Tausha Johnson and Tamra Armstrong each posted video statements from 2 to 5 minutes long alleging a “coup” being staged against Brown by Hunter, Daniels and Hazel Wilson, another Executive Committee member.

Hunter has declined repeated requests from California Black Media to comment on the situation or her work as branch president, initially referring this reporter to Captain David Smith, NAACP California Hawaii Area Director, who deferred to Callender, who refused to comment on the record, saying he had no personal familiarity with any of the players in the drama and is only concerned with following NAACP rules and bylaws.

For questions particular to the branch, he suggested contacting Hunter, who has yet to respond to subsequent phone calls or emails.

Last week, CBM also emailed and called NAACP lawyer Janette Wallace, who signed the March 15 “cease and desist” letter sent to Brown from the organization’s national headquarters.

Neither Wallace nor the other NAACP members who had been cc’d in an emailed version of the letter and were similarly contacted responded to those requests.

At the Dec. 14 branch meeting, Brown called for congratulating Hunter for receiving an award at the 113^th NAACP convention held in Boston for 2022 College Division and Youth Advisor.

He attributes the “coup attempt” to people simply being resistant to change, citing an incident when Hunter asked him in December to relax his posture when dealing with Vallejo officials. There are also suggestions that his interest in the branch’s finances may have spurred resistance to his leadership efforts.

Photo screenshot submitted by a member of the local Vallejo NAACP branch Mark Lampkin

(The national NAACP office has not confirmed this ballot)

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At the event, 16 entities signed the EIP pledge, vowing to take steps to increase public contracting opportunities in their spheres for small and historically underutilized businesses. The pledge signees included Hub International, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California High-Speed Rail Authority, the Port of Oakland, Robert Graham of Webcor Builders, Holder Construction, the Weitz Company, Sky Blue Builders, Hornblower, Swinerton, Luster National, Talson Solutions, Center for Community Wealth Building, and the Construction Contractors Alliance.

Published

1 week ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Toks Omishakin, secretary of the California State Transportation Agency, was one of the speakers at the event. Photo by Shellee Fisher Photography and Design.

By Calvin Naito, Special to The Post

On June 4, a national nonprofit named the Equity in Infrastructure Project (EIP) – which aims to increase public construction contracting opportunities for small and historically underutilized businesses – held a day-long event in downtown San Francisco to rally supporters and build momentum to its cause.

It was attended by more than 100 individuals from public agencies, private firms, and other organizations committed to increasing contracting opportunities with governmental agencies, thereby creating more competition and lowering public costs.

The EIP event was held the Hyatt Regency San Francisco in conjunction with BuildIT, which aims to increase contracting opportunities for LGBT-owned businesses.

At the event, 16 entities signed the EIP pledge, vowing to take steps to increase public contracting opportunities in their spheres for small and historically underutilized businesses.

The pledge signees included Hub International, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California High-Speed Rail Authority, the Port of Oakland, Robert Graham of Webcor Builders, Holder Construction, the Weitz Company, Sky Blue Builders, Hornblower, Swinerton, Luster National, Talson Solutions, Center for Community Wealth Building, and the Construction Contractors Alliance.

Following the workshop, BuildIT hosted a VIP evening reception honoring EIP, whose principals – Phil Washington, John Procari, and Rick Jacobs – accepted the award.

The event also set in motion the coalition’s efforts to implement recommendations from EIP’s “Procurement for Prosperity: A Playbook.”

The Playbook is a practical guide for public agency leaders and procurement and contracting practitioners to grow the capacity of small and first-time contractors, strengthen competition, and deliver better value for taxpayers.

Toks Omishakin, Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), a long-time EIP supporter, also told attendees, “This is about commitment. This has been a life’s work. This is a tailwind moment.”

The event’s presenting sponsor was Hub International, one of the largest insurance brokerages in the nation, which was joined by partners Travelers Insurance and the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

After the pledge-signing ceremony, attendees participated in a workshop in which they examined the policies, practices, and programs needed to meet EIP goals, learned from practitioners, and identified next steps toward utilizing the Playbook.

Ingrid Meriwether, formerly of Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services (MWIS) and current president of Hub International’s Aligned Risk Management, MWIS, described the hard-fought lessons she and her MWIS team have learned over the last three decades administering contractor development programs (CDPs) for the City and County of San Francisco, Alameda County, City of Los Angeles, LA Metro, and other municipalities.

The CDPs help small and local construction firms win public infrastructure contracts with these government agencies. The program provides bonding assistance, contract financing, technical support, training, and other services to underrepresented businesses funded by public agencies who seek greater contracting participation with these firms.

Merriwether said programs like these “break down systemic barriers, create greater fairness, and save taxpayers money by enabling more competition. The contractor development programs have, cumulatively, over two decades, helped contractors access over $1 billion in bonding, supporting over $380 million in awarded contracts, and maintaining a loss ratio 250 times lower than the industry average – while saving participating municipalities more than $27 million in contracting costs as a result of enabling more competition.”

Rick Jacobs, EIP co-founder and co-chair urged attendees make plans to meet again in the near future “to continue building on this work, share progress on organizational commitments, and discuss how we can collectively advance the goals of the EIP pledge.”

For more information on the EIP and to access a copy of the Playbook, go online to https://equityininfrastructure.org/

Calvin Naito is communications manager for Equity in Infrastructure Project.

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Oakland Museum Presents Landmark Retrospective Celebrating Beloved Bay Area Artist Mildred Howard

“Poetics of Memory” coincides with a year of major recognition for Howard. In 2026, she received the California Arts Council’s 50th Anniversary Award, honoring artists whose work has shaped California’s cultural and civic life, as well as the Museum of the African Diaspora’s Artist Impact Award. In 2025, she was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in recognition of her transformative contributions to American cultural life.

Published

1 week ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Mildred Howard. Photo by Christine Cueto for the Oakland Museum of California, 2025.

Special to The Post

The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) opened “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory,” the first major museum survey of Bay Area artist Mildred Howard, on June 12.

The exhibition spans five decades of Howard’s influential work, bringing together immersive installations, found-object sculptures, archival materials, and new commissions that explore memory, identity, and power in American life.

Howard was born in San Francisco in 1945 and raised in the East Bay, where she went on to study Afro-Haitian dance, make and sell clothing, and experiment with collage and sculpture.

Her multimedia art practice emerged from these experiences, later becoming associated with West Coast conceptual art, San Francisco funk, and a vibrant community of artists like Oliver Jackson, Betye Saar, and Raymond Saunders. Since the 1970s, she has used found materials and family stories to explore memory—both individual and collective.

At OMCA, visitors enter “Poetics of Memory” through a series of intimate galleries featuring Howard’s early mixed-media pieces and sculptures, along with a large video projection of a number of her public artworks.

Together, they emphasize Howard’s interest in everyday objects as powerful carriers of individual and shared stories. Highlights include collages that remix images of the artist herself; found-object sculptures like The History of the United States with a few Parts Missing (2007) that address omissions in dominant narratives; and public works like “Locks and Keys for Harry Bridges” (2001) that transform urban space into a meditation on access and labor.

This culminates in a richly detailed “studio” environment, where works in progress, archival exhibition flyers, historic photographs of Howard and her community, postcards from fellow artists, and other materials offer insight into her creative process and daily life.

The exhibition then opens into a high-ceilinged, dramatically lit space that brings together Howard’s signature immersive installations. On one end, “Crossings” (1997/2026) – a field of hundreds of ceramic eggs leading to an ornate mirror – suggests cycles of birth, motherhood, and transition, while drawing on the emotional echoes of the Middle Passage. On the other end, “Blackbird in a Red Sky” (a.k.a. “Fall of the Blood House”) (2002) – a red glass shack bordered by a pond – also uses reflection and transparency to draw viewers into the work and prompt consideration of themes of identity and home.

Howard’s newest video installation, “Moving Stills” (2026), repurposes never-before-seen family footage she took as a teenager on a train trip to the American South. Projected onto cascading layers of translucent fabric that stretch across an entire gallery wall, the piece immerses viewers in a layered meditation on memory, migration, and time.

The “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory” exhibit will be on display through Oct. 11 at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland, CA 94612. Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours on Fridays to 9 p.m.

This story is sourced from the Oakland Museum of California press office.

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Alameda County

Ferry Fares to Increase July 1 as Ridership Hits Record Highs

The Oakland and Alameda routes will increase from $4.90 to $5.10, the South San Francisco route will go up from $7.40 to $7.60, and the Vallejo route will increase from $9.90 to $10.

Published

1 week ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Courtesy photo.

By Mike Aldax, The Richmond Standard

Starting July 1, the standard adult fare for the San Francisco Bay Ferry route between Richmond and San Francisco will increase to $5.20, up from the current $4.90.

Discounted fares for eligible passengers, including youth, seniors, people with disabilities, and Clipper START users, will rise to $2.60 from the current $2.40. Children under 5 will continue to ride for free.

The Oakland and Alameda routes will increase from $4.90 to $5.10, the South San Francisco route will go up from $7.40 to $7.60, and the Vallejo route will increase from $9.90 to $10.

The adjustments are part of a systemwide fare update approved by the agency’s Board of Directors, which is moving away from a flat 3% annual increase to route-specific pricing for the 2027 and 2028 fiscal years.

This fare update arrives as San Francisco Bay Ferry celebrates a historic May, transporting 301,270 passengers. The record-breaking figure represents an 8% increase over May 2025 and marks the third consecutive month of record-setting ridership.

Furthermore, it is the sixth month in a row that passenger numbers have exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Weekend travel has been a primary driver of this growth, with average weekend ridership seeing a 56% increase compared to pre-pandemic trends.

The agency states that the fare adjustments are necessary to ensure the long-term fiscal sustainability of public ferry services. By shifting to route-specific adjustments, the agency aims to offset rising operating costs while maintaining the high levels of service frequency and reliability.