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New Film: “ENDGAME” for AIDS in BlNew Film: “ENDGAME” for AIDS in Black Americaack America

Published

14 years ago

January 10, 2013

By Jesse Brooks

Jesse Brooks (left), Post News Group reporter with mother Florence Brooks (Alameda County Medical Center RN since 1981) with director and producer Renata Simone of “End Game”, in Oakland while shooting the documentary.

A new documentary, called “End Game: AIDS in Black America, will air 10 p.m. on Tuesday, July 10, on Public Broadcasting Network (PBS), by award-winning filmmaker Renata Simone.
The film, in which this columnist played a part, takes viewers on an unprecedented two-hour exploration of one of the country’s most urgent, most preventable health crises, uncovering the layered truth around HIV/AIDS through interviews with basketball legend Magic Johnson; civil rights pioneer Julian Bond; leading doctors, health workers, educators and social activists working on the front lines of the crisis.
The documentary also features pastors around the country, many of whom have been divided on the response of the Black church to the epidemic over the years.
Simone shows me talking openly about my past and how internal homophobia stemmed from the homophobia I experienced as I grew up in my family, in church from my community.
Then there’s Nel, a 63-year-old grandmother who married a deacon in her church and later found an HIV diagnosis tucked into his Bible, dated a year before their marriage.
There is the interview with teenage rap duo Tom and Keith, who call themselves “Bornies,” children who were born with the virus in the early 1990s and survived after their mothers died.
These intimate portraits are presented against the backdrop of the culture, politics and social inequities that allowed the virus to spread unchecked over the past three decades and today complicate the efforts to get to the “end game.”
Speaking of her personal connection with HIV, Simone said, “I don’t know of family members, but directing and producing HIV documentaries since 1985 I’ve met people and get to hear their stories.”
“It is through their stories that they become family, so when something happens to them, I feel it,” said Simone who produced the 2006 award-winning FRONTLINE series “The Age of AIDS” and the first national series on HIV in 1989.
Three years in the making, this groundbreaking documentary film tells the story of how, from the earliest days, prejudice, silence and stigma allowed the virus to spread deep into the Black community.
Shot coast to coast in Los Angeles, Oakland, Atlanta, Birmingham, Selma, New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.; in churches, clinics, a high school classroom, a prison, a nightclub, a restaurant kitchen and on the street.
“The film is about race in America as much as it is about HIV, how a virus has exploited our inability to deal with our problems around race,” said Simone.
Marsha Martin of Get Screened Oakland sums up the 30 years of the epidemic in the Black community.
“We have achieved some things as a group of Black people in America because the civil rights movement got us to some places. But at the same time, AIDS is in it everywhere, showing us all the places that we have missed, saying, ‘Look over here, look over here, and look over here!’”
As Phil Wilson, head of the Black AIDS Institute, tells it, “We’ve been at this for 30 years now. We are at a different point in the evolution of the crisis. We need to be talking about our End Game.”
For information call (510) 575-8245 or mrjessebrooksii@gmail.com

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Oakland NAACP, BWOPA Speak Out Against Alleged Harassment of Black Women Political Leaders

The Oakland NAACP and the Oakland/Berkeley chapter of Black Women Organized for Political Action have issued a joint statement condemning a pattern of harassment, intimidation, and discrimination directed at Black women in politics. Leadership from both organizations noted that these concerns reflect a rise in online hostility and political attacks against public servants. The allegations emerged amid a contentious race for the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education, prompting a public debate over accountability and political conduct. Read more to learn how the involved parties have responded.

Published

2 hours ago

November 3, 2026

Post News Group

Danielle Motley-Lewis, president of BWOPA’s Oakland/Berkeley chapter.

By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media

The Oakland branch of the NAACP and the Oakland/Berkeley chapter of Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA) have issued a joint statement condemning what they describe as harassment, intimidation and discrimination targeting Black women in politics.

Founded in 1968, BWOPA is a California-based nonprofit advocacy and membership organization that is focused on increasing Black women’s participation and influence in the political process.

Danielle Motley-Lewis, president of BWOPA’s Oakland/Berkeley chapter, told California Black Media (CBM) that the statement reflects growing concerns about online hostility and political attacks directed at Black women candidates, elected officials and public servants.

“These allegations deserve serious attention and should not be dismissed as ordinary political disagreements,” the organizations said in their statement.

The concerns have surfaced amid a contentious race for the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Board of Education’s District 6 seat, where candidate LeAna Powell has reported experiencing harassment during her campaign.

Powell is running against Alexandra Williams and incumbent Valarie Bachelor, the school board’s vice president. All three candidates are Black women.

Motley-Lewis said the organizations’ statement addresses concerns extending beyond the school board contest, although Powell’s experiences helped bring the issue into focus.

“I could only speak to what I witnessed on social media. There were various types of harassment online,” Motley-Lewis said of the back-and-forth about the candidates online.

“It was unnerving.”

Powell, a former aide to former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, previously filed an informal complaint with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission alleging that Thao, then a City Council member, pressured city employees to work on her mayoral campaign.

Thao was recalled in November 2024 and left office Dec. 17 of that year. She subsequently faced federal charges related to an alleged bribery scheme. The criminal proceedings are separate from the dispute involving Powell’s school board campaign.

Powell also filed a complaint with the NAACP concerning what she described as harassment during her campaign.

Among those publicly criticizing Powell is Brandon Harami, a former Oakland mayoral staffer and LGBTQ+ advocate who said he previously worked with Powell in Thao’s office.

In a Sept. 27 Facebook post, Harami questioned Powell’s qualifications, judgment and political associations.

“District 6 candidate for School Board LeAna Powell does not have the maturity nor spine required to be on the school board,” Harami wrote.

Motley-Lewis said the organizations had documented or witnessed conduct they considered troubling, although she emphasized that their concerns were not limited to Harami or Powell.

Harami has denied the allegations and accused the organizations of misrepresenting his conduct.

In an Oct. 11 Instagram post, he called the joint statement a political smear and demanded that BWOPA and the Oakland NAACP retract it.

He argued that the organizations’ characterization of his actions unfairly portrayed him as having a history of harassment and discrimination. He also contended that the allegations were being used to silence LGBTQ+ voices.

Motley-Lewis said she declined Harami’s request for a retraction because the statement addressed a broader pattern of conduct affecting Black women in politics.

“I was open to brokering that conversation. However, (Harami) was unwilling,” Motley-Lewis said. “He did reach out to BWOP to retract our statement, and I advised him that I would not be doing that. The statement that he was included in (addressed) a broader problem that is experienced by various women.”

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COMMENTARY: Valarie Bachelor and Jennfier Brouhard are Excellent School Board Members and Deserve to Be Reelected

The Oakland Unified School District recently achieved a major milestone by escaping 22 years of state control and opening the school year with a teacher in every classroom. Incumbents Jennifer Brouhard and Valarie Bachelor are seeking reelection to the school board after overseeing balanced budgets, averting labor strikes, and reversing previous decisions to close local elementary schools. While the board now focuses on student-centered programs and school-based health facilities, a new wave of opposition candidates backed by wealthy tech donors has emerged. Read more about the shifting dynamics in this local election.

Published

1 week ago

October 25, 2026

Post News Group

Valarie Bachelor and Jennfier Brouhard, File images.

By Dr. Kitty Kelly Epstein and Dr. Kimberly Mayfield, Special to The Post

The Oakland schools have excellent leadership right now. I know it’s hard to believe – because there is so much wrong with the national education picture. But sometimes good things do happen locally.

This school year:

The Oakland Unified School District escaped from state control after 22 years.
Every classroom had a teacher at the beginning of the year, unlike past years when many classes started the year with day-to-day substitute teachers.
Dr. Denise Saddler, an African American woman, is leading the district as superintendent now. She was an excellent choice with vast understanding of Oakland, of schools, and of educational systems locally and nationally.
The school board and teachers managed to avert a teachers’ strike by some strategizing, listening and compromising.
The school board does not plan to close more schools. For the first time in decades, those in charge of the district were not discussing closures.

The two women leading the school board are excellent educators themselves.

Board President Jennifer Brouhard (District 2) served as an Oakland teacher and was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching and the U.C. Berkeley Social Science Project Teacher of the Year Award.

When Brouhard joined the board four years ago, she voted to reverse the decision of the previous board which had planned to close Brookfield, Carl B. Munck, Grass Valley, Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy and Horace Mann elementary. Half the students at Carl Munck and at least a third of the students at several others were African American.

In refusing to close schools, she pointed out that in Oakland and other districts it has been Black and Brown students who have been most affected and that closing schools does not save money.

Then, she focused funding on classrooms rather than paying outside consultants. For that, she and her colleagues have incurred the wrath of real estate developers and school privatizers who want to get their hands on public property.

Board Vice President Valerie Bachelor (District 6) has worked on important facilities projects. She helped to set up the first school-based dental project at Frick United Academy of Language, an Oakland middle school. She championed the Melrose Leadership Academy groundbreaking and the Skyline dining facilities.

Bachelor facilitated a balanced budget, which was pivotal in helping the district finally end state control. She also worked to direct funding toward student-centered programs like the Black Thriving Community Schools Program, instead of spending money on the never-ending. highly paid outside consultants.

The people financing the opposition candidates are Ryan Graciano, co-founder of Credit Karma, which made $ 2.7 billion last year; and Gagan Biyani, who says he became a millionaire at age 25.

The literature produced on behalf of the opposition supports closing schools, which harms students, and advocates expenditures that would put OUSD back under state control.

To read more, go to Education Week, “The Harm of School Closures Can Last a Lifetime, New Research Shows” (2024), www.edweek.org/leadership/the-harm-of-school-closures-can-last-a-lifetime-new-research-shows/2024/06

Dr. Kitty Kelly is a Professor of Education and Urban Studies. Dr. Kimberly Mayfield is Dean at Kalmanovitz School of Education, Saint Mary’s College of California.

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PRESS ROOM: Transformative Justice Coalition 2026 Voting Rights Champion Awards Reception ‘Yesterday Is Today: The Battle For Voting Rights

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE –

Published

3 weeks ago

October 13, 2026

Post News Group

Featuring a Special Fireside Chat with 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Survivor Sarah Collins Rudolph

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sixty-three years after the bombing of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist

Church shocked the conscience of the nation, Sarah Collins Rudolph—known as the “Fifth Little Girl”—will join the Transformative Justice Coalition (TJC) for a special Fireside Chat examining the enduring connection between the civil rights struggle of 1963 and the battle for voting and civil rights in 2026.

The Fireside Chat, hosted in partnership with Attorney A. Scott Bolden of Reed Smith, LLP, will be a featured part of TJC’s 2026 Voting Rights Champion Awards Reception, held in commemoration of the September 15, 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

Collins Rudolph survived the bombing that killed four young girls, including her sister, Addie Mae Collins, and left her seriously injured. During this extraordinary conversation, she will share her firsthand experience of the bombing, its lifelong impact, and her continuing struggle for justice.

Her appearance comes at a consequential moment for voting and civil rights in America and offers a living reminder that the struggle against racial hatred, disenfranchisement, and injustice is not simply a chapter of history. Under the theme “Yesterday Is Today: The Battle for Voting and Civil Rights in 2026,” the evening will connect the sacrifices of the Civil Rights Movement with the continuing responsibility to protect voting rights and advance justice today.

WHAT: Transformative Justice Coalition 2026 Voting Rights Champion Awards Reception

“Yesterday Is Today: The Battle For Voting And Civil Rights In 2026”

Featuring a Special Fireside Chat with 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Survivor Sarah Collins Rudolph

WHO: Barbara Arnwine, Esquire, Founder/President/Co-Leader, Transformative Justice Coalition

Daryl D. Jones, Esquire, Board Chair/Co-Leader, Transformative Justice Coalition

Sarah Collins Rudolph, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing Survivor

A. Scott Bolden, Esquire, Reed Smith, LLP; Sponsor of the Fireside Chat and Reception

WHEN: Wednesday, September 16, 2026, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. WHERE: Location will be emailed to registrants 48 hours before the event.

WHY: Attorney Barbara Arnwine, the President & Founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition (TJC), and Attorney Daryl Jones, Co-Leader and Board Chair of TJC, said of Mrs. Collins Rudolph’s appearance that “TJC believes that it is critically important that people hear from the sole survivor of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing.” Arnwine and Jones further stated that “this event will provide people with an opportunity to hear, first-hand, the results of racial hatred through the eyes of Mrs. Collins Rudolph, who was in the church with the four little girls who were killed at the time of the bombing.”

Attorney A. Scott Bolden, the sponsor of the Fireside Chat and Reception to benefit the non-profit Transformative Justice Coalition, said, “I am proud to support the work of the Transformative Justice Coalition. This is an organization that is truly in the trenches fighting for social justice and voting rights in America.” Bolden continued, “I have been an advocate for social justice my entire life. I strongly encourage people to come hear Mrs. Collins Rudolph and support the work of the Transformative Justice Coalition.”

TJC will bestow its 2026 Voting Rights Champion Award upon Collins Rudolph in recognition of her courage, perseverance, and continuing struggle for justice.

Attorney Arnwine and Attorney Jones concluded that, “Mrs. Collins Rudolph’s determination, heart, and perseverance to survive is to be applauded. This is the reason why TJC is bestowing upon her the 2026 ‘Voting Rights Champion Award.’ The character that Ms. Collins Rudolph displayed in her struggle to survive exemplifies the depth of commitment we must have today to protect our voting rights and work toward building a more robust, multicultural, and inclusive society for the future.”

REGISTRATION & SUPPORT: Registration for the Fireside Chat and Reception is available through Eventbrite or TJC’s website. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law and are strongly encouraged. Proceeds will support the TJC John Lewis Make Good Trouble Vote Bus, which will travel across America to marginalized communities, register voters, and help take voters to the polls.

Founded in 2015 by Barbara Arnwine, president emeritus of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, where she created the national election protection program. Ms. Arnwine serves as President and Founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition, which seeks to catalyze transformative institutional change that advances justice and equality in the United States and abroad. Learn more at tjcoalition.org.

This story originally appeared on Black Press USA as “PRESS ROOM: Transformative Justice Coalition 2026 Voting Rights Champion Awards Reception ‘Yesterday Is Today: The Battle For Voting Rights”. Auto-delivered via NNPA Newswire.