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Hundreds of Revelers Cheer Parade, Join Fun at Juneteenth Festival in Nicholl Park

A bright sun greeted one of Richmond’s most important community gatherings on June 22: the annual Juneteenth Parade and Festival. Hundreds of people greeted the lengthy parade that began at Kennedy High School, passed under the recently-created Juneteenth Freedom Underpass Mural on 37th Street, and continued on to Nicholl Park, where a colorful festival took place through the afternoon.

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A marching band followed the parade route from Kennedy High School to Nicholl Park. Photos by Mike Aldax and Mike Kinney.
A marching band followed the parade route from Kennedy High School to Nicholl Park. Photos by Mike Aldax and Mike Kinney.

By Mike Aldax, Mike Kinney and
Kathy Chouteau
The Richmond Standard

A bright sun greeted one of Richmond’s most important community gatherings on June 22: the annual Juneteenth Parade and Festival.

Hundreds of people greeted the lengthy parade that began at Kennedy High School, passed under the recently-created Juneteenth Freedom Underpass Mural on 37th Street, and continued on to Nicholl Park, where a colorful festival took place through the afternoon.

Michelle Milam, crime prevention manager for the City of Richmond and an organizer, said the parade boasted 70 entries and the festival had 117 booths staffed with community organizations, businesses, and resources. Soul food was being served by a number of popular local eateries such as CJ’s BBQ & Fish, Snapper Seafood and Cousins Maine Lobster.

The annual event is supported via a partnership between the N.B.A., City of Richmond and Chevron.

The Standard asked dozens of community members at this event what Juneteenth means to them.

“It is a celebration of freedom,” said AJ Jelani, president of the Belding Woods Neighborhood Council.

Jelani founded the nonprofit organization A.J./Sealcraft, which honors African American individuals, organizations, groups, and businesses who contributed to empowering fellow African Americans to improve their communities.

“Juneteenth is a recognition of our culture, our history,” he said. “Our unique past was a functionality of the community. It brought us together.”

Richmond resident Gloria Wilson added, “Juneteenth is a day to remember our ancestors’ struggles for our freedom.”

Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia told us the celebration is “about our community coming together.”

“It’s about recognizing the struggles that it has taken up until now, and that there is still work ahead to achieve true equity and equality,” Gioia said.

Gioia noted Richmond is unique for having had an annual Juneteenth parade and festival years before Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021.

“Richmond has had a great history of winning struggles,” Gioia said. “It is important for us to continue that work.”

“We all have the responsibility to uplift and celebrate how people persevered and continue to persevere in the face of challenge.”

Gioia said that is why the County has an Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice.

“I was just talking to the school board and superintendent about the work we’re doing, and the superintendent was talking about their equity plan for the school district, so it all comes together,” Gioia said. “Agencies working together.”

Richmond City Councilmember Doria Robinson, who helped carry the City Council banner in the parade alongside some of her Council colleagues, said Juneteenth is a celebration of perseverance.

“It’s the day where everyone…can reflect on what happened with slavery and can realize that we all carry that burden,” Robinson said, “and that we all have the responsibility to uplift and celebrate how people persevered, and continue to persevere in the face of challenge.”

Added Councilmember Cesar Zepeda, “Richmond has been at the forefront of making sure that our community is aware of Juneteenth. And just more recently, people are finding out about Juneteenth and celebrating it in their cities. Once again Richmond is at the forefront.”

Fast on the heels of Juneteenth, Richmond will get a jump on Independence Day by celebrating along the waterfront Wednesday, July 3.

The City of Richmond will celebrate the “3rd of July Fireworks & Celebration” July 3 from 5-10 p.m. at Marina Bay Park. The fireworks will start at 9:15 p.m., with the show lasting approximately 20 minutes. Along with the fireworks, festivities will include live music, a selection of food choices and an interactive Fun Zone for the kids. Marina Bay Park is located at Marina Bay & Regatta Blvd. in Richmond.

Also on Wednesday, July 3, “Fireworks at the Point at Riggers Loft Wine Company” will take place from 6-10 p.m. Andre Thierry, a.k.a. “the Zydeco king,” will entertain the crowd while they enjoy a choice of cuisine from five food tents prepared by Chef Frank Miller.

Games, wine, cider, and sodas will also be part of the mix. At 9:15 p.m., the venue—and its bayside patio—are perfectly poised to take in the City of Richmond’s fireworks show, for which beach chairs and blankets are suggested.

Tickets are $35 for adults, $15 for those under 21 and free for kids 5 and under. Purchase tickets here and find Riggers Loft at 1325 Canal Blvd. in Richmond.

For those heading to San Francisco on the Fourth of July, the city’s fireworks are set off via two locations in front of Fisherman’s Wharf: The end of Municipal Pier and barges in front of Pier 39. Transit options from Richmond to San Francisco include the San Francisco Bay Ferry, which will operate on a weekend schedule from Thursday, July 4, through Sunday, July 7—learn more https://sanfranciscobayferry.com/holiday-ferry-schedule

BART will run a Sunday schedule (8 a.m. until midnight) on Independence Day— go to https://www.bart.gov/guide/holidaysfor more information. And visit AC Transit for info on catching a bus.

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Arts and Culture

BOOK REVIEW: On Love

King entered college at age fifteen and after graduation, he was named associate pastor at his father’s church. At age twenty-five, he became the pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. In late 1956, he was apprehended for his part in the bus boycott there, his first of many arrests for non-violent protests and activism for Civil Rights. But when asked if those things were what he hoped he’d be honored for in years to come, King said he wanted to be remembered as “’someone who tried to love somebody.’”

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“On Love” Book Cover. Courtesy of Harper Collins.
“On Love” Book Cover. Courtesy of Harper Collins.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., c.2024, Harper Collins, Martin Luther King Jr. Library, $18.99    

Turn the volume up, please.

You need it louder because this is something you’ve been waiting to hear. You need to listen very closely; these words mean a great deal to you, and they might change your life. As in the new book, “On Love” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the message beneath the message is the most important.

As the grandson and great-grandson of pastors and the son of the senior pastor at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, it may seem as though young Martin Luther King, Jr., born in 1929, already had his life set.

King entered college at age fifteen and after graduation, he was named associate pastor at his father’s church. At age twenty-five, he became the pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. In late 1956, he was apprehended for his part in the bus boycott there, his first of many arrests for non-violent protests and activism for Civil Rights.

But when asked if those things were what he hoped he’d be honored for in years to come, King said he wanted to be remembered as “’someone who tried to love somebody.’”

His words, essays, letters, and speeches reflect that desire.

In a 1955 sermon in Montgomery, he used a parable to explain why White people needed love to gain compassion. In 1956, he wrote about the bombing of his home, telling his readers that no retaliation was needed, that to “confront the problem with love” was the righteous and better thing to do.

Later that year, he said, “I want you to love our enemies… Love them and let them know you love them.” And in November, 1956, he said, “If you have not love, it means nothing.”

“Love is the greatest force in all the world,” he said in 1962.

He wrote a book on the subject, Strength to Love, in 1963.

In 1967, just months before his assassination, he said that “power at its best is love.”

When we talk about Dr. King’s life and his legacy, so much focus is put on his work on behalf of Civil Rights and equality that it’s easy to lose sight of the thing which he felt was more important. In “On Love,” any omission is rectified nicely.

This book, “excerpted to highlight the material where King specifically addressed the topic of love,” is full of pleasant surprises, words with impact, and thought provokers. King’s speeches hammered home a need to love one’s enemies, woven into messages of gentle resistance and strength. He explained the different “levels” of love in a way that makes sense when related to equality and justice. The bits and pieces collected here will linger in reader’s minds, poking and prodding and reminding.

If your shelves are full of books about Dr. King, know that this is a unique one, and it’s perfect for our times, now. Don’t race through it; instead, savor what you’ll read and keep it close. “On Love” is a book you’ll want to turn to, often.

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Activism

Dr. Kimberly Mayfield Working to Bring a ‘Black-Affirming University’ (HBCU) to Oakland

The goal, according to Mayfield, is to “create a Black-serving institution in Oakland, which means that 50% or more of the student body would be African American.” The Oakland program could either be an HBCU, which is preferable, or a Black-serving institution unaffiliated with other HBCUs. The program itself could become a stand-alone institution or an assemblage of different programs on a single campus.

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Dr. Kimberly Mayfield. Official photo.
Dr. Kimberly Mayfield. Official photo.

By Ken Epstein

Dr. Kimberly Mayfield, who, until recently served as deputy mayor of Oakland, has been working for several years with educators and community groups to create a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) or other Black-serving institution of higher education in Oakland — potentially on the fully operational campus of Holy Names University in East Oakland, which went out of business in 2023.

The goal, according to Mayfield, is to “create a Black-serving institution in Oakland, which means that 50% or more of the student body would be African American.”

The Oakland program could either be an HBCU, which is preferable, or a Black-serving institution unaffiliated with other HBCUs. The program itself could become a stand-alone institution or an assemblage of different programs on a single campus.

“It could be a consortium model where programs from existing HBCUs locate in Oakland,” similar to the Atlanta Union Center in Georgia, which offers courses from Morehouse, Spelman, Morris Brown, and Clark Atlanta HBCUs, she said.

“There are four different institutions at Atlanta Union, and students can take classes from the different schools. They’re all based in the same place, but the programs are run by different institutions,” said Mayfield.

Key to the program would be the culture of the school, which would be “Black affirming,” offering students a supportive environment that recognizes them as individuals, she said. The program would be campus-based and include online course offerings.

Courses could be offered in downtown Oakland in office buildings in the Black Business and Arts District as well as at the Holy Names site, which was sold to developers for $64 million and is presently for sale.

Holy Names was a private Roman Catholic university in Oakland founded in 1868 by the Canada-based Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary with whom the university remained affiliated until it closed after facing several years of budget shortfalls.

Before serving as Deputy Mayor, Dr. Mayfield began her career as an educator in the Oakland Unified School District and served as dean of the School of Education and Liberal Arts and the vice president for external relations and strategic partnerships at Holy Names.

She said she has already found a lot of interest from various sources for donating funds to start the school, she said. “We have reached out to the East Bay Community Foundation, to set up the necessary structures to receive money to help with strategic planning,” and all other aspects investors want to see, including an internet presence.

The team working on the initiative has 16 members and is led by Mayfield, Councilmember Carroll Fife, and retired attorney Kim Thompson. They recently attended a conference of HBCU leaders held by the United Negro College Fund, where the Oakland proposal was greeted with enthusiasm.

Mayfield emphasized that the goal of bringing an HBCU is something that has broad support in Oakland and has been a subject of growing interest for several decades.

“This is a community-driven initiative. While former Mayor Sheng Thao’s support was important and allowed us to get organized in a certain way, it doesn’t end with her leadership” she said, adding that outgoing Congresswoman Barbara Lee and other mayoral candidates have expressed support for this initiative.

Mayfield said she and her team have been in conversations with leaders of some HBCUs, which are interested in expanding to the West Coast but face financial constraints.

“It’s the racial wealth gap, which affects HBCUs,” the same as the rest of Black America, she said. “They just don’t have the same financial resources that predominantly white institutions have. It’s hard for them to think about a completely separate, sustained campus, when they have to deal with preserving the infrastructure on their main campus.”

She said Holy Names University had 1,400 students at its largest enrollment, with no online component. “We could easily have 1,000 students matriculating on campus, and another online population of students, virtually.”

“We’d like all the virtual students to be close enough to come to campus and participate in the campus culture,” because that’s the difference an HBCU makes, Mayfield said. “It cares for students, sees you as a person, not a number, in touch with wraparound services, calling you if you’re not in class.”

“We want to have an institution that knows who the students are,” she said. “You know their brilliance when they walk in, and you’re doing everything possible academically for them to succeed and thrive.”

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Arts and Culture

Book Review: Building the Worlds That Kill Us: Disease, Death, and Inequality in American History

Nearly five years ago, while interviewing residents along the Mississippi River in Louisiana for a book they were writing, authors Rosner and Markowitz learned that they’d caused a little brouhaha. Large corporations in the area, ones that the residents of “a small, largely African American community” had battled over air and soil contamination and illness, didn’t want any more “’agitators’” poking around. They’d asked a state trooper to see if the authors were going to cause trouble.

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Courtesy of Columbia University Press
Courtesy of Columbia University Press.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

 Author: David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, c.2024, Columbia University Press, $28.00

Get lots of rest.

That’s always good advice when you’re ailing. Don’t overdo. Don’t try to be Superman or Supermom, just rest and follow your doctor’s orders.

And if, as in the new book, “Building the Worlds That Kill Us” by David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, the color of your skin and your social strata are a certain way, you’ll feel better soon.

Nearly five years ago, while interviewing residents along the Mississippi River in Louisiana for a book they were writing, authors Rosner and Markowitz learned that they’d caused a little brouhaha. Large corporations in the area, ones that the residents of “a small, largely African American community” had battled over air and soil contamination and illness, didn’t want any more “’agitators’” poking around. They’d asked a state trooper to see if the authors were going to cause trouble.

For Rosner and Markowitz, this underscored “what every thoughtful person at least suspects”: that age, geography, immigrant status, “income, wealth, race, gender, sexuality, and social position” largely impacts the quality and availability of medical care.

It’s been this way since Europeans first arrived on North American shores.

Native Americans “had their share of illness and disease” even before the Europeans arrived and brought diseases that decimated established populations. There was little-to-no medicine offered to slaves on the Middle Passage because a ship owner’s “financial calculus… included the price of disease and death.”  According to the authors, many enslavers weren’t even “convinced” that the cost of feeding their slaves was worth the work received.

Factory workers in the late 1800s and early 1900s worked long weeks and long days under sometimes dangerous conditions, and health care was meager; Depression-era workers didn’t fare much better. Black Americans were used for medical experimentation. And just three years ago, the American Lung Association reported that “’people of color’ disproportionately” lived in areas where the air quality was particularly dangerous.

So, what does all this mean? Authors David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz don’t seem to be too optimistic, for one thing, but in “Building the Worlds That Kill Us,” they do leave readers with a thought-provoker: “we as a nation … created this dark moment and we have the ability to change it.” Finding the “how” in this book, however, will take serious between-the-lines reading.

If that sounds ominous, it is. Most of this book is, in fact, quite dismaying, despite that there are glimpses of pushback here and there, in the form of protests and strikes throughout many decades. You may notice, if this is a subject you’re passionate about, that the histories may be familiar but deeper than you might’ve learned in high school. You’ll also notice the relevance to today’s healthcare issues and questions, and that’s likewise disturbing.

This is by no means a happy-happy vacation book, but it is essential reading if you care about national health issues, worker safety, public attitudes, and government involvement in medical care inequality. You may know some of what’s inside “Building the Worlds That Kill Us,” but now you can learn the rest.

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