Black History

Robert L. Allen, 82, Leaves Legacy of Civil Rights Activism and Scholarship

Robert L. Allen, historian scholar, and civil rights activist, died on July 10 at 82. One of his important works, “The Port Chicago Mutiny,” played a significant role in the struggle that ultimately led to the exoneration this month of the African American sailors who were convicted of mutiny during World War II for going on strike following a deadly munitions explosion that claimed the lives of hundreds.

Published

2 years ago

August 18, 2024

Oakland Post

Robert L. Allen. Courtesy of U.S. Naval Institute

By Ken Epstein

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 29, 1942, Allen learned at an early age about social responsibility from his parents, who were community activists, developing a lifelong commitment to social justice.

Allen was 13 when Emmett Till, who was 14 when he was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955. “This s when I realized that the white people were not only dangerous, but they were dangerous to all of us, including me, because he was my age,” Allen said in an interview quoted in the New York Times.

He graduated from Morehouse College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1963, where he was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He earned a Ph.D. in sociology in 1983 from the University of California. He doctoral research on racial dynamics within labor movements laid the basis of some his later work.

Dr. Allen served as a professor and chair of the ethnic studies department at Mills College in Oakland. In 1994, he was hired as a professor of ethnic student and African American studies at UC Berkeley.

Allen’s book, “The Port Chicago Mutiny” was published in 1989, thoroughly researching the 1944 explosion at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in the San Francisco Bay Area, which killed 320 men, most of whom were African American. The book documented the strike of the surviving African American sailors against hazardous and segregated working conditions, and the Navy’s subsequent harsh punishment of the sailors, exposing racial discrimination in the military and society at large.

Allen brought to light this buried history and advocated for justice for the Port Chicago 50, who after 80 years were finally exonerated by the Secretary of the Navy on July 17, 2024, shortly after Allen died.

His research focused on the systemic roots of oppression and examined the interconnected struggles of marginalized communities. His books included:

“Black Awakening in Capitalist America: An Analytic History” (1969),
which examines the rise of Black Power movements and the economic conditions that impacted them;

“Reluctant Reformers: Racism and Social Reform Movements in the United States” (1974), which analyzes the history of social reform movements in the U.S. and their contradictory approach to racial justice;

“Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America” (1996).
Co-authored with Herb Boyd, these are essays and stories exploring the experiences faced by African American men throughout history. The book delves into various aspects of the Black male experience in America.

“The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: C.L. Dellums and the Fight for Fair Treatment and Civil Right.” This book delves into the history of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the role of C.L. Dellums in the fight for civil rights and labor equality.

Dr. Allen was also senior editor and writer for The Black Scholar journal and co-founded the small press, Wild Trees Press, with Alice Walker, with whom he was in a relationship at the time.

Allen is survived by his wife Zelia Bora; son, Casey Allen; sisters, Damaris Kirschhofer, Teresa Coughanour, and Rebecca Allen; and three grandchildren.

Yulie Padmore, executive director of a group called the Port Chicago Alliance, gave Allen credit for his steadfast work for justice for the Black sailors.

“Without his work, we wouldn’t know what we know today,” she said in an interview with the New York Times. “We wouldn’t be here without him talking to the men and hearing what they wanted to say all along.”

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Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

Published

2 days ago

September 7, 2026

Oakland Post

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Black History

Jackie Wright Champions Bay Area Stories, Filmmakers and Cultural Institutions

As an award-winning communications professional, Wright has worked with corporations, nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, artists, and community organizations. In 2026, she expanded that work by launching an introductory public relations class for small businesses and nonprofits, offering practical tools for gaining visibility, shaping messages and building productive relationships with the media.

Published

1 week ago

August 30, 2026

Post News Group

Jackie Wright of Wright Enterprises. Photo courtesy of Wright Enterprises.

By Carla Thomas

Jackie Wright has spent more than two decades helping people, organizations and communities understand the power of a well-told story.

As founder and president of Wright Enterprises, a San Francisco-based strategic communications and public affairs firm, Wright has built a career spanning journalism, public relations, media relations, crisis communications, community engagement and multimedia storytelling.

Wright’s commitment to storytelling is also deeply personal. She wrote and co-directed the 15-minute documentary, “Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor,” which chronicles the story of her parents, Specialist Five (S5 Wyley Wright Jr. and Ouida Fay McClendon Wright. Her father, a U.S. Army helicopter crew chief, died in Vietnam in 1964 while serving as an honor guard during a visit by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Decades later, Wright and her siblings had their father exhumed from a segregated cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida, and their mother moved from her burial place in Georgia so the couple could be reunited at Arlington National Cemetery in 2014.

The family journey later took Wright and her sister to Vietnam, where they discovered the former military compound that had been named in honor of their father and another fallen soldier. The documentary, centered on love, war, family, racial understanding, and remembrance, earned festival recognition at screenings.

“It was quite an honor to learn about my family’s history and share it on film,” said Wright.

That filmmaking experience complements Wright’s longstanding advocacy for independent cinema. She has served as a media partner and brand ambassador for Bay Area film festivals, including the San Francisco Black Film Festival, Oakland International Film Festival, and the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa.

“It’s important to help filmmakers and underrepresented stories reach broader audiences,” said Wright.

Whether promoting a neighborhood organization, championing an independent filmmaker or preserving her own family history, Wright has remained consistent. Through Wright Enterprises, she has turned communications into both a profession and a form of community service, telling stories that might otherwise go unheard.

“Our stories are an integral part of our history, and our history is not only American history, but worldwide,” she said.

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Black History

BOOK REVIEW: Every Inch of a Lady

“Born, bred, toasted, buttered, jellied, and honeyed in Harlem” in 1937, Audrey Smaltz was a force to be reckoned with almost from the time she could walk. Her parents imbued confidence in her; they nurtured her creativity and sent her to charm school, but they never allowed her to create a stir.

Published

1 week ago

August 30, 2026

Post News Group

Audrey Smaltz' latest book "Every Inch a Lady" with Alina Mitchell, is a colorful autobiographical story following a young Black model's pursuit to become a fashion designer in New York City during the pre-Civil Rights era.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Audrey Smaltz with Alina Mitchell, foreword by Michael Kors, Copyright: c.2026, Publisher: Amistad, SRP: $27.99, Page Count: 256 Pages, Snaps, zippers, buttons, ties.

Toss that garment on, pull it up, wrap it around; you know what you like and how to wear it. The color is perfect for your skin tone, and the fabric enhances your figure. Yep, you always look your best and, as in the new book “Every Inch a Lady” by Audrey Smaltz (with Alina Mitchell), that best is fabulous.

“That,” says Smaltz, “is not what ladies did.”

By the time she was a teenager, Smaltz was modeling for New York City designers. Shortly thereafter, she started working for a married man with whom she had an affair, and whom she loved very much. She broke up with him, attended college, and worked a series of jobs that taught her about fashion and jobs that didn’t seem to fit her. An ill-fated marriage took her to Chicago, where she ultimately landed a position that sent her to work in Ebony magazine’s New York office.

Working at Ebony was a career-changer, in a way. Smaltz traveled the world and learned more about fashion, but she didn’t exactly get along with her boss.

Finally, seizing an opportunity, Smaltz decided to launch her own company, Audrey Smaltz, Inc., a “fashion production business,” but she couldn’t get any designers to take a chance on her. Undaunted, she reorganized, re-branded, hit the streets, and knocked on doors until she finally found one client, which led to many others.

Through it all, her personal life was a whirlwind. She dated “more men than you can shake a book at,” settling down occasionally, briefly. Fashion had always been her first love, but she accidentally found real love, “the love of a woman,” at a leadership course…

There’s an old saying that writers need to add lots of “color” into their stories. Read a little of “Every Inch a Lady,” and you’ll notice immediately that author Audrey Smaltz (with Alina Mitchell) quite literally takes that to heart by mentioning nearly every color of the spectrum here. Hmm.

That oddity aside, Smaltz is a wonderfully lively storyteller, speaking with the energy of a woman much younger to the heart of anyone who loves fashion. That glee extends to collectors of vintage clothing, who will be delighted to read about the industry long ago and the way things worked then. Smaltz says she experienced racism, which is not unusual for pre-Civil Rights America, but doors were surprisingly closed for other reasons that will astound anyone who’s savvy about the fashion industry, even today.

There’s quite a bit of name-dropping in this book, but most of it belongs in the anecdotes, so you likely won’t mind. If you’re a fashionista, too, find “Every Inch a Lady,” and snap it up.