Activism

Honoring Black Women in Bay Area Who fought for Equal Education for Children

Not many people think of California as having deep roots embedded in slavery, and practices of white supremacy. California was admitted as a free state on Sept. 9, 1850. Pioneer Blacks and those who came during the Great Migration, were in search of freedom, yet they were met with the same oppressive racism and hostility that existed in the South.

Published

3 years ago

March 31, 2022

Oakland Post

By Rev. Dr. Martha C. Taylor

One of the most egregious laws enacted in the State of California was the denial of Black children having an equal opportunity for education.

Blacks were aware that the key to upward mobility was education. It is important to note in Black history that, as the late Alice Childress, playwright, actress and novelist once said Blacks “are the only racial group within the United States ever forbidden by law to read and write.”

Though not as extreme as the anti-literacy laws of the South, one racist California law stated: “every school, unless otherwise provided by special law shall be open for white children…. On the other hand, “The education of children of African descent…shall be provided for in separate schools.”

Further, Black parents were forced to pay public school taxes for white students, while Black children attended separate schools that were not equal.

Many inequities were addressed through the Black Church, the institution described by C. Eric Lincoln as the social, cultural, political, location for the Black Community; it was their school, forum, political arena, social clubs, art gallery and much more.

Ministers and others formed four California Colored Conventions with a focus on racial uplift from 1855-1865, which provided Black Churches to address concerns about state laws.

In the Bay Area and other places, the Black Church became the educational institution for Black children.

St. Cyprian African Methodist was the first organized Black church in San Francisco (later renamed Bethel AME) in 1852. Two years later, on May 22, 1854, the church served as the first schoolhouse for 23 Black children in the basement of the church. Children from elementary to high school age shared the same room with no books.

In Oakland, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) established in 1858, also was the first school for Black children.

Black women played key roles in the education of Black children.

Mrs. Elizabeth Thorn Scott-Flood opened a private school for colored children circa 1857 in the old carpenter schoolhouse that was abandoned by whites for being inadequate. Lydia Flood-Jackson, daughter of Elizabeth Flood, was a race woman who also fought tirelessly for education and women’s rights.

Lydia Floyd Jackson fought tirelessly for education and women’s rights. Wikipedia.org photo.

Ten years later, the first public colored school in Oakland was taught by Miss Mary J. Sanderson, near 10^th Avenue and E. 11^th Street in an area previously known as Brooklyn, an annex of Oakland. The school closed as Black families began to move out of the area and relocate where work was available.

Bits of history often fall between the cracks if not taught or discussed. Long before the 1954 landmark case involving 8-year-old Linda Brown vs. Board of Education, Topeka, where the Supreme Court struck down the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson ‘separate but equal’ decision, there was a case in San Francisco that dates to 1874.

In Mary Frances Ward vs. Noah Flood, the 11-year-old was denied enrollment to Broadway Grammar School, a white school near her home strictly based on her race. The matter advanced to the California State Supreme Court which ruled that Ward’s rights were not violated because there was an all-Black school near her home.

But the next year, with the support of white citizens, the school system changed. According to historian Alfred Broussard “the segregated school was more expensive to operate on a per pupil basis than were the larger white institutions.”

Looking down the corridors of time, Black Lives have always mattered.

We honor our ancestors who struggled for equality when we continue the struggle; the fight has not been won.

Vivian Rodgers was the first Black female to graduate in 1909. Vivian Osborne, a local graduate from Berkeley High School, 1914 applied to U.C. Berkeley with excellent academic records but was required to take four entrance exams.

Ida Louise Jackson, a pioneering Black woman graduated in 1922 from U.C. Berkeley, becoming the first Black public school teacher in California.

As we honor women during this month, let us also remember men who struggled for achievement through education.

Alexander Dumas Jones of San Francisco was the first Black to enroll at UC Berkeley in 1881, followed by Charles Edward Carpenter as the first Black graduate in 1905.

There are so many more, some known, others unknown. As James Weldon Johnson wrote in his poem that became the “Black National Anthem,” ‘Let us march on til victory is won.’

Oakland Post

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Activism

San Francisco Is Investing Millions to Address Food Insecurity. Is Oakland Doing the Same?

There are over 350 grocery programs across San Francisco. Less than a handful in District 10, a neighborhood classified as a food desert, and includes Hunters Point, one of the lowest income areas in the city.

Published

3 days ago

March 17, 2025

Oakland Post

The San Francisco District 10 Community Market is a fully government funded free grocery store for families in need of food assistance. The market is located in Hunters Point, one of the lowest income areas in the city. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

On a Thursday evening in February, Marquez Boyd walked along the aisles of San Francisco’s District 10 Community Market looking for eggs and fresh produce to take home to his children. He has been trying new recipes with ingredients he previously couldn’t afford or access.

“I learned how to cook greens since they got a lot of fresh greens here,” Boyd said. “All that stuff is better and more healthy for my kids because they’re still young.”

Meals filled with fresh produce are now possible for Boyd since the District 10 market in Hunters Point opened in 2024 when Bayview Senior Services, a non-profit running the program, received a $5 million investment from the city of San Francisco.

The market is a twist on a traditional food bank, where people can often wait in long lines for pre-bagged groceries they may not need. Here, the goal is to offer people in need a more traditional grocery store setting, with a bigger range of healthy options and less shame for needing assistance.

It’s a twist that Boyd appreciated. “This set up is way better as opposed to maybe like a food bank line,” he said. “It’s easier and faster.”

Similar models exist in Santa Barbara and Tennessee.

Census Bureau data show that the median income for households in the 94124 zip code, where Hunters Point is located, is just under $83,000 annually. Black households earn about $46,000, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders earn almost $41,000, and Hispanic households make just above the median income- an average of $86,000.

Located at 5030 3rd Street, the aisles are lined with fresh produce, canned goods, bread and snacks. While refrigerators and freezers in the back of the market are filled with dairy products and meat.

The best part- everything inside is free for eligible customers.

The San Francisco District 10 Community Market is stocked with fresh produce, dairy, meat and chicken, bread, and cultural food staples. Directors of the market say they pride themselves on providing healthy options for community members. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

“The interesting thing about this market is that it’s a city-funded effort to create something besides the average food line to give more dignity and choice than is normally given to low-income people,” said Cathy Davis, executive director of Bayview Senior Services.

Davis said people feel more comfortable coming into the market because they can choose the food they want and at a time that’s convenient for them.

Boyd, a single father of two kids, recently lost his job and relied on his sister’s generosity before discovering the market. He comes to market when he gets off of work in the evening.

“It’s a lot of people in these communities that don’t get a chance to eat healthy,” Boyd said. “They don’t have the money to go to grocery stores to buy expensive stuff.”

Another shopper, Rhonda Hudson, said the market helped her meet her grandson’s diet-related health problems. She used to travel outside the neighborhood for affordable groceries, but now she no longer has to.

According to the city’s Human Services Agency, there are no plans to expand the markets in San Francisco due to budget constraints.

But Davis isn’t worried about losing the market funding.

“City leaders were on board with creating it and finding the money to put it together so I would say we didn’t have to advocate because it came through the government. Now it’s our job to keep it going to prove that it’s a pilot worth maintaining,” Davis said.

District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, who co-sponsored the ordinance, said that projects like the market are “essential to our neighborhoods,” where access to affordable food has been a challenge.

“Investing in local community markets helps ensure that families have reliable, healthy food options close to home, addressing food insecurity and supporting the well-being of our community regardless of income,” Walton said.

Rhonda Hudson is a shopper of the District 10 Community Market in San Francisco. The fresh produce she gets at the free grocery store program helps her grandson, who has a diet-related illness, stay healthy. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

Why Not Oakland?

Only slightly larger than San Francisco, Oakland has over 400 food distribution sites. Oakland provides grants to nonprofit-run organizations who run grocery programs. But in recent months, the city has begun to reduce those, forcing some organizations to regroup, and making it challenging to implement a community market similar to San Francisco’s.

The Oakland Post repeatedly reached out to city and county officials for comment on the story but did not receive a response.

At several food banks across West and East Oakland, residents shared their frustrations about long lines, wilting produce, and limited food choices.

At one food bank, located at Christian Tabernacle Church, a young mother, who requested anonymity for privacy reasons, waited in the rain for over three hours for a single bag of groceries.

“I like to get here early because I get better [quality] fruits and vegetables,” she said. She added that it’s not a lot of food that she receives for her family, but it helps close the gap when her budget is tight.

Behind her, several other women waited their turn. Neither the timing of the distribution nor the location of the food bank fit their schedules, the women said, but their choices feel limited.

Only a handful of Oakland food bank sites operate throughout the day, like the San Francisco market. Most food distribution programs are sustained by Alameda County Food Bank, not by city funding. Private grants and donations also help fund the programs.

Securing city funding is increasingly challenging. Oakland faces a $130 million budget shortfall, with a projected $280 million deficit in the next biennial cycle. Citing budget concerns, the city has reduced numerous department budgets and grants. One of those cuts included slashing the longstanding SOS Meals on Wheels grant, which helped provide food to 3,000 seniors.

Charlie Deterline, executive director of Meals on Wheels, said the termination of their $150,000 annual grant could mean that Oakland residents might see a change in the amount of meals they receive. The organization has gone 19 months without funding from that grant, Deterline said, but “continued working on good faith from the city” because they were assured they would be paid out. Now, Deterline is having doubts.

The program also received a grant of more than $125,000 from the Sugar Sweetened Beverage Tax. Yet, on June 12, the city informed grant recipients that the funding could be rescinded in order to balance the budget. That ultimately happened, said Deterline.

“Oakland is by far the most expensive city for us to operate in. It is also where the greatest need is – for us to meet that need, it will take the entire community coming together,” Deterline said.

From the sugar tax, money from that measure is also not being allocated correctly as the majority of the funding has been used to fund government services, said members of the SSB tax advisory board.

The tax generates around $7 million annually. 25% to 40% of the funding goes towards grants for community based organizations instead of the 60% allocation that the SSBT advisory board recommended the city to use for health programs. The rest of the funding goes to the city, according to Oakland’s mid-cycle budget.

Advisory board member Dwayne Aikens said he’s not sure Oakland will ever renew the grants that have been cut from this tax. “I’m looking at the conditions of the city and I’m not optimistic,” Aikens said. “If they don’t have the money now, I don’t think they’ll have the money in the future.”

Aikens said the tax was “kind of a waste.” He’s heard displeasure from the community about the lack of funding into Black and Brown neighborhoods, groups who typically live in areas of Oakland that see health and income disparities.

Meanwhile, the Community Market, which reflects the diversity of the Bayview Hunters Point community, is investing in over 800 of the city’s most vulnerable households. In-store staff and directors speak the languages common to the area and the program provides a culture-of-the week selection of foods for those interested in trying something new.

Davis said it’s up to local municipalities to ensure that residents don’t go to bed hungry, and investments need to be made in order to combat the pockets of neighborhoods who are on the brink of food insecurity.

“That’s just such a core responsibility and a core goal of everyone, to make sure that people are fed and healthy. It’s not a luxury item,” Davis said. “It’s something that needs to happen, whether we’re in a budget crisis or not.”

Reporter Magaly Muñoz produced this story as part of a series as a 2024 USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism Data Fellow and Engagement Grantee.