Government

California Republican Assembly’s First African-American President Shares Plans to Recruit More Blacks

OAKLAND POST — Only four percent of California’s African American voters are registered as Republicans, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. The majority, about 77 percent, are members of the Democratic Party. Johnnie Morgan, 68, the newly elected president of the California Republican Assembly (CRA), wants to change those numbers. So he’s pushing a message to attract African-American Democrats and Independents to his party by highlighting ways the party’s platform aligns with who they are and the things they care about.

Published

4 years ago

July 9, 2019

Aldon Stiles California Black Media

By Aldon Stiles, California Black Media

Only four percent of California’s African American voters are registered as Republicans, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. The majority, about 77 percent, are members of the Democratic Party.

Johnnie Morgan, 68, the newly elected president of the California Republican Assembly (CRA), wants to change those numbers. So he’s pushing a message to attract African-American Democrats and Independents to his party by highlighting ways the party’s platform aligns with who they are and the things they care about.

“African Americans place a high value on family as does the Republican Party,” said Morgan, who was sworn into his new position on June 19 during the CRA’s statewide convention in Sacramento.

Morgan, who ran for the position unopposed with the full support of his organization, will serve a three-year term.

“African Americans have a history of being inventors and businesspeople involved in entrepreneurial enterprises,” he said. “The Republican Party has a focus on free enterprise and economic development.”

The CRA is a conservative activist group that helps Republican candidates it endorses get elected, supporting them with money, volunteers and other resources. Officially chartered by the California Republican Party, the CRA was formed in 1933 and was praised by Ronald Reagan as the “the conscience of the Republican Party,” according to the CRA official website.

The group, which is the largest and oldest independent Republican organization in the state, played a key role in helping Reagan win California’s gubernatorial race in 1966.

According to Morgan, the CRA implements community engagement programs and voter registration conventions to help expand the membership of the Republican Party and support the party’s goals.

Morgan becomes the head of the CRA at a time when the California GOP is making a deliberate effort to attract more members in a state that is heavily Democrat. About 43 percent of California’s voters are registered Democrats. Only 28 percent are Republican. Democrats hold supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature. In the Senate, Democrats outnumber Republicans 29 to 11. And in the Assembly, the ratio is 61 to 18.

In national elections, California has not voted for a Republican president since George H.W. Bush in 1987.

In February this year, the California Republican Party elected Jessica Patterson as its first Latina and female president with 54.6 percent of the vote.

“Today we are starting the next chapter of our party history,” Patterson said in her acceptance speech. “We’re going to be about one thing: winning. We’re going to take the fight to Democrats. We’re going to fight them in the precincts and we’re going to beat them in elections.”

At the same convention, Republican delegates from around the state elected Peter Kuo, an immigrant from Taiwan to be its vice chairman and a gay man, Greg Gangrud, as its treasurer.

Morgan has been an active member of the Republican Party for 35 years, four of which he spent as National Committeeman for the CRA. He has also served as a California delegate to the last eight Republican National conventions.

“I am excited by the opportunity to lead this superb organization, to bring good conservative government to California and grow our membership,” he said.

Morgan says he intends to showcase a more inclusive organization to offset the common perception that conservative ideals run counter to the needs of African-American communities in California.

“I plan to expand membership, increase the diversity of membership, and become more integral to the party in a more physical and active capacity,” he said.

This article originally appeared in the Oakland Post.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 31 = June 6, 2023

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 31 = June 6, 2023

Published

2 days ago

June 2, 2023

Oakland Post

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 31 = June 6, 2023

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Activism

Community Opposes High Rise Development That Threatens Geoffrey’s Inner Circle

City Council chambers were full for the May 17 Planning Commission hearing, and almost all the 40 speakers who had signed up to make presentations talked about the importance of the Inner Circle as part of Oakland and Geoffrey Pete as a stalwart community and business leader who has served the city for decades.

Published

6 days ago

May 30, 2023

Oakland Post

Geoffrey Pete went to City Hall to appeal the city Planning Commission’s approval of the high-rise development that threatens the closure of his 44-year historic cultural mecca. Photo by Jonathan ‘Fitness’ Jones.

By Ken Epstein

An outpouring of community supporters – young, old, jazz lovers, environmentalists and committed Oakland partisans – spoke out at a recent Planning Commission hearing to support Geoffrey Pete and his cultural center – The Inner Circle – an historic Oakland landmark whose future is threatened by a proposed skyscraper that out-of-town-developer Tidewater Capital wants to build in the midst of the city’s Black Arts Movement and Business District (BAMBD).

The speakers argued passionately and persuasively, winning the sympathy of the commissioners, but were ultimately unsuccessful as the Commission unanimously approved the high-rise to be built either as a residential building or office tower on Franklin Street directly behind Geoffrey’s building.

Mr. Pete has said he would appeal the decision to the City Council. He has 10 days after the hearing to file an appeal on the office building. His appeal on the residential tower has already been submitted.

Mr. Pete said the Planning Department still has not published the boundaries of the BAMBD. “Tidewater’s applications and subsequent applications should not be approved until the Planning Department fully acknowledges the existence of the BAMBD,” he said.

“This (proposed) building poses a grave danger to the historic (Inner Circle) building next to it, arguably Oakland’s most meaningful historic building,” Pete said.

“We’re here to advocate for what’s best for the African American district and community that has gotten no representation, no advocacy, as of yet,” he said. “The (commission) is guilty, the City of Oakland is guilty, and Tidewater is guilty.”

One of the first speakers was Gwendolyn Traylor, known as Lady SunRise, who directly addressed the developers.

“With all due to respect to your business, it’s not a need of this community. I would like to ask you to reconsider the location …What is being (promised) here does not add to the healing of this community,” she said.

Naomi Schiff of the Oakland Heritage Alliance emphasized that Geoffrey’s Inner Circle is a treasure of Oakland’s history.

“Our first concern is the integrity of the historic district, in particular the former Athenian-Nile Club, now Mr. Pete’s equally historic venue, which has been the location of a great number of important community events,” she said. “It would not be OK with us if the integrity of the building were damaged in any way, no matter how much insurance (the developer bought) because it is very difficult to repair a historic building once it’s damaged.”

The Inner Circle was previously owned and operated by the Athenian-Nile Club, one of the Bay Area’s largest all-white-male exclusive private membership club, where politicians and power brokers closed back-room deals over handshakes and three martini lunches.

Cephus “Uncle Bobby X” Johnson pointed out that commissioners and the city’s Planning Department have “acknowledged that you went through the entire design review process without even knowing that the Black Arts Movement and Business District existed.”

The district was created in 2016 by City Council resolution. “At the heart of the opposition to this building is the desire to further the legacy of local Black entertainment and entrepreneurship exemplified by businesses like Mr. Pete’s … a historical landmark and venue (that serves) thousands of people who listen to jazz and other entertainment and hold weddings, receptions, and memorial services,” said Uncle Bobby.

This development is taking place within a context in which the “Black population in Oakland has decreased rapidly … because of the city’s concentration on building houses that are not affordable for people who currently live in Oakland,” he said.

John Dalrymple of East Bay Residents for Responsible Development said, “This project will result in significant air quality, public health, noise, and traffic impacts. He said the city has not adequately studied the (unmitigated) impacts of this project on the Black Arts Movement and Business District.

“This project is an example of what developers are being allowed to do when they don’t have to follow the law, and they don’t have to be sensitive to our city’s culture and values,” he said. The commission should “send a signal today that we will no longer be a feeding ground for the rich.”

Prominent Oakland businessman Ray Bobbitt told commissioners, “Any decision that you make is a contribution to the systemic process that creates a disproportionate impact on Black people. Please do yourself a favor, (and) rethink this scenario. Give Mr. Pete, who is a leader in our community, an opportunity to set the framework before you make any decision.”

Though the City Council created the BAMBD, the 2016 resolution was never implemented. The district was created to “highlight, celebrate, preserve and support the contributions of Oakland’s Black artists and business owners and the corridor as a place central historically and currently to Oakland’s Black artists and Black-owned businesses.”

The district was intended to promote Black arts, political movements, enterprises, and culture in the area, and to bring in resources through grants and other funding.

Activism

Community Meeting on Crime and Violence

Join Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb to discuss the uptick in crime and violence in District 1 and across Oakland. Representatives from the Oakland Police Department will be in attendance. This event will be held in-person and online.

Published

6 days ago

May 29, 2023

Oakland Post