Activism
Community Celebrates Lifetime Achievements of Ex-Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport
Newport, who is now in his mid-80s, was born in Rochester, New York. While living there, he was leader of the Monroe County Nonpartisan Political League, where he worked with Malcolm X to defend nine Black Muslims who were attacked and arrested during a worship service.
![Gus Newport meets friends and well-wishers at a celebration of his lifetime of commitment to social justice, organized by the Middle East Children's Alliance, Monday night at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. Photo by Ken Epstein.](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/gus-newport-featured-web.jpg)
By Ken Epstein
A large crowd turned out Monday evening, March 28, to pay tribute to Eugene “Gus” Newport, former Berkeley mayor and a grassroots leader with a long history of activism in the Civil Rights Movement and the struggle for human rights in the U.S. and globally that has continued up to the present.
Newport’s friend and fellow activist, actor Danny Glover, hosted the event.
Some of the speakers were in-person while others appeared live on a large monitor behind the stage at the Freight and Salvage. Among those who honored Newport were Angela Davis, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and singer Holly Near. Newport’s son, who was present, and his daughter who livestreamed from Atlanta, spoke lovingly of their father. His wife, Katherine Kasch, was also there. The event was a fundraiser for the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA).
Newport was a founding member of the alliance and served for years as chair of MECA’s board. MECA founder Barbara Lubin also spoke at the celebration.
Newport, who is now in his mid-80s, was born in Rochester, New York. While living there, he was leader of the Monroe County Nonpartisan Political League, where he worked with Malcolm X to defend nine Black Muslims who were attacked and arrested during a worship service.
Moving to New York, he was mentored by Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell and Malcolm X, helping him found the Organization of African American Unity.
Newport served as mayor of Berkeley from 1979 to 1986. He was one of the first U.S. mayors to ride in a Gay Freedom Day Parade in 1979. Under his leadership, Berkeley became the first city to divest from companies that supported apartheid in South Africa.
More recently, he traveled around the country to support Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
Newport has supported human rights around the world and within the U.S. He:
- Traveled to war zones in solidarity with the people of El Salvador;
- Worked for Palestinian liberation;
- Headed the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Boston, creating a national model for a neighborhood run “by and for the people;”
- Helped oversee the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina;
- Mentored young activists;
- Served on the faculty of UC Berkeley, MIT and Yale;
- Serves on the National Council of Elders, an organization of key social justice activists over 65;
- Received the 2019 Khalil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Award from the Arab American Institute Foundation.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024
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Activism
Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024
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Activism
Community Celebrates Historic Oakland Billboard Agreements
We, the Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition, which includes Oakland’s six leading community health clinics, all ethnic chambers of commerce, and top community-based economic development organizations – celebrate the historic billboard agreements approved last year by the Oakland City Council. We have fought for this opportunity against the billboard monopoly, against Clear Channel, for five years. The agreements approved by Council set the bar for community benefits – nearly $70 Million over their lifetime, more than 23 times the total paid by all previous Clear Channel relocation agreements in Oakland combined.
![The Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition.](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/economic-development-corporation-featured-web.jpg)
Grand Jury Report Incorrect – Council & Community Benefit
We, the Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition, which includes Oakland’s six leading community health clinics, all ethnic chambers of commerce, and top community-based economic development organizations – celebrate the historic billboard agreements approved last year by the Oakland City Council. We have fought for this opportunity against the billboard monopoly, against Clear Channel, for five years. The agreements approved by Council set the bar for community benefits – nearly $70 Million over their lifetime, more than 23 times the total paid by all previous Clear Channel relocation agreements in Oakland combined.
Unfortunately, a recent flawed Grand Jury report got it wrong, so we feel compelled to correct the record:
- Regarding the claim that the decision was made hastily, the report itself belies that claim. The process was five years in the making, with two and a half years from the first City Council hearing to the final vote. Along the way, as the report describes, there were multiple Planning Commission hearings, public stakeholder outreach meetings, a Council Committee meeting, and then a vote by the full Council. Not only was this not hasty, it had far more scrutiny than any of the previous relocation agreements approved by the City with Clear Channel, all of which provide 1/23 of the benefits of the Becker/OFI agreements approved by the Council.
- More importantly, the agreements will actually bring millions to the City and community, nearly $70M to be exact, 23 times the previous Clear Channel relocation agreements combined. They certainly will not cost the city money, especially since nothing would have been on the table at all if our Coalition had not been fighting for it. Right before the decisive City Council Committee hearing, in the final weeks before the full Council vote, there was a hastily submitted last-minute “proposal” by Clear Channel that was debunked as based on non-legal and non-economically viable sites, and relying entirely on the endorsement of a consultant that boasts Clear Channel as their biggest client and whose decisions map to Clear Channel’s monopolistic interests all over the country. Some City staff believed these unrealistic numbers based on false premises, and, since they only interviewed City staff, the Grand Jury report reiterated this misinformation, but it was just part of Clear Channel’s tried and true monopolistic practices of seeking to derail agreements that actually set the new standard for billboard community benefits. Furthermore, our proposals are not mutually exclusive – if Clear Channel’s proposal was real, why had they not brought it forward previously? Why have they not brought it forward since? Because it was not a real proposal – it was nothing but smoke and mirrors, as the Clear Channel’s former Vice President stated publicly at Council.
Speaking on behalf of the community health clinics that are the primary beneficiaries of the billboard funding, La Clinica de la Raza CEO Jane Garcia, states: “In this case, the City Council did the right thing – listening to the community that fought for five years to create this opportunity that is offering the City and community more than twenty times what previous billboard relocation agreements have offered.”
Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition
Native American Health Center | La Clínica de la Raza | West Oakland Health Center |
Asian Health Services | Oakland LGBTQ Center | Roots Community Health Center |
The Unity Council | Black Cultural Zone | Visit Oakland |
Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce | Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce | Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce |
Oakland Latino Chamber of Commerce | Building Trades of Alameda County | (partial list) |
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