Barbara Lee
IN MEMORIAM: Dr. Ruth Love, 90
Love’s interest in becoming a teacher began at an early age. She wanted to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather, Andrew A. Williams, who was a runaway slave at age twelve, and a teacher who founded the first school for African Americans in Lawton, Oklahoma.

By Dr. Martha C. Taylor
Ruth Burnet Love was born, on April 22, 1932, in Lawton, Okla., and passed away on June 2, 2022, in Oakland. As I reflect on the life and legacy of Dr. Ruth Love, her achievements, aptitude, and character, she cast a wide shadow that not only touched the lives of young people, she helped to shape them into achievers of excellency.
Dr. Love, the widely admired educator, lived a long life filled with quality for self and others. Love says life is a gift. “We all have an awesome responsibility not to waste time.”
She gave the highest and best we can give to life; the gift of self.
Dr. Love was the second of five children born to Alvin E. and Burnett C. Love, who migrated to Bakersfield, California during the 1940s. Love graduated from Bakersfield High School in 1950.
Love attended San Jose State University and received her Bachelor’s Degree in education in1954.In 1959 she received her Master’s Degree in Guidance and Counseling from San Francisco State University. In 1970, Love received her Ph.D. in Human Behavior and Psychology from the United States International University, San Diego.
Love’s interest in becoming a teacher began at an early age. She wanted to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather, Andrew A. Williams, who was a runaway slave at age twelve, and a teacher who founded the first school for African Americans in Lawton, Oklahoma.
In 1960 Dr. Love began her career in education as an adult education teacher with the Oakland Unified School District. Love became an exchange teacher sent to England in 1961. She also was a professor of education at San Francisco State University. Love was a counselor and consultant for a Ford Foundation project. She became a Fulbright Exchange Educator; participating in educational experiences in Ghana and England.
Dr. Love was a fierce advocate for underprivileged children during her career with Oakland Unified Schools District. She was appointed to several different positions as a consultant to the Bureau of Pupil Personnel Services and as Director of the Bureau of Compensatory Education from 1963 to 1965.
Love also served on the United States President’s Mental Health Commission and Board of Directors for the National Urban League from December 1962 until 1970. In August 1971, Love was chosen as Director of The Right to Read program with the U.S. Office of Health and Education in Washington, D.C. Following the assassination of Dr. Marcus Foster, the first African American Superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District, Dr. Love was appointed Superintendent from November 1975 until February 1981. Two of Love’s programs “Scholars and Artists” and “Face the Students” brought renowned achievers such as Alex Haley, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, as well as Coretta Scott King to motivate and inform students.
Dr. Allie Whitehurst, an academic scholar worked with Dr. Love. She said Dr. Love provided the resources for teachers to continue their professional development to improve their teaching skills.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee honored Dr. Love, on April 23, 2015, in the House of Representatives. Lee saluted Dr. Love for a lifetime of service, “I will always remember the love, kindness, and caregiving Dr. Love provided her mother in spite of her busy schedule. She was an inspiration to me as I had the honor to care for my late mother in her golden years.”
Dr. Love continued her journey in higher academics and was appointed the first African American to serve as Superintendent for the Chicago Public Schools District from March 1981 until March 1985. In 1984 Dr. Love received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Atlanta University.
Love created and implemented the “Chicago Mastery Learning Program” during the 1981–82 school year. The program made it mandatory that all elementary school students’ reading and math courses be taught in more than one area, with students given an unlimited time to learn one area of the subject, and achieving eighty-five percent to be promoted to the next grade. Her proudest accomplishment was when the students reached the national norms on standardized tests.
In 1983, Love received the Horatio Alger Award and a Candace Award for Education from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. She was named as one of 100 of the best school managers in North America by Educator Magazine in 1984.
The memory of the just is blessed…their works do follow them. Dr. Love left a memory that cannot be erased.
Activism
Oakland Post Endorses Barbara Lee
Barbara Lee will be able to unify the city around Oakland’s critical budget and financial issues, since she will walk into the mayor’s office with the support of a super majority of seven city council members — enabling her to achieve much-needed consensus on moving Oakland into a successful future.

As we end the celebration of Women’s History Month in Oakland, we endorse Barbara Lee, a woman of demonstrated historical significance. In our opinion, she has the best chance of uniting the city and achieving our needs for affordable housing, public safety, and fiscal accountability.
As a former small business owner, Barbara Lee understands how to apply tools needed to revitalize Oakland’s downtown, uptown, and neighborhood businesses.
Barbara Lee will be able to unify the city around Oakland’s critical budget and financial issues, since she will walk into the mayor’s office with the support of a super majority of seven city council members — enabling her to achieve much-needed consensus on moving Oakland into a successful future.
It is notable that many of those who fought politically on both sides of the recent recall election battles have now laid down their weapons and become brothers and sisters in support of Barbara Lee. The Oakland Post is pleased to join them.
Activism
We Fought on Opposite Sides of the Sheng Thao Recall. Here’s Why We’re Uniting Behind Barbara Lee for Oakland Mayor
Today, we are coming together to do all we can to make sure Barbara Lee is elected Mayor in the April 15 Oakland special election. Here’s why. Now more than ever, Oakland needs a respected, hands-on leader who will unite residents behind a clear vision for change. The next mayor will have to hit the ground running with leaders and stakeholders across our political divide to get to work solving the problems standing in the way of Oakland’s progress. Job No. 1: improving public safety. Everyone agrees that all Oaklanders deserve to feel safe in their neighborhoods. But sadly, too many of us do not.

By Robert Harris and Richard Fuentes
Special to The Post
The City of Oakland is facing a number of urgent challenges, from housing and public safety to a pressing need for jobs and economic development. One of us, Robert Harris, supported the November recall vote that removed Mayor Sheng Thao from office. Meanwhile, Richard Fuentes believed the recall was the wrong strategy to tackle Oakland’s challenges.
Today, we are coming together to do all we can to make sure Barbara Lee is elected Mayor in the April 15 Oakland special election. Here’s why.
Now more than ever, Oakland needs a respected, hands-on leader who will unite residents behind a clear vision for change.
The next mayor will have to hit the ground running with leaders and stakeholders across our political divide to get to work solving the problems standing in the way of Oakland’s progress.
Job No. 1: improving public safety. Everyone agrees that all Oaklanders deserve to feel safe in their neighborhoods. But sadly, too many of us do not.
During her three decades in the state Legislature and Congress, Lee made public safety a priority, securing funding for police and firefighters in Oakland, delivering $15.8 million in community safety funding, and more. Today, she has a plan for making Oakland safer. It starts with making sure police are resourced, ready, and on patrol to stop the most dangerous criminals on our streets.
Oakland residents and business owners are feeling the impact of too many assaults, smash/grabs, retail thefts, and home robberies. Lee will increase the number of police on the streets, make sure they are focused on the biggest threats, and invest in violence prevention and proven alternatives that prevent crime and violence in the first place.
In addition, on day one, Barbara Lee will focus on Oakland’s business community, creating an advisory cabinet of business owners and pushing to ensure Oakland can attract and keep businesses of all sizes.
The other top issue facing Oakland is housing and homelessness. As of May 2024, over 5,500 people were unhoused in the city. Oaklanders are just 25% of the population of Alameda County, but the city has 57% of the unhoused population.
Unhoused people include seniors, veterans, single women, women with children, people who suffer physical and mental illness, unemployed and undereducated people, and individuals addicted to drugs. Some are students under 18 living on the streets without their parents or a guardian. Research shows that 53% of Oakland’s homeless population is Black.
Starting on her first day in office, Lee will use her national profile and experience to bring new resources to the city to reduce homelessness and expand affordable housing. And she will forge new public/private partnerships and collaboration between the City, Alameda County, other public agencies, and local nonprofits to ensure that Oakland gets its fair share of resources for everything from supportive services to affordable housing.
Besides a public safety and housing crisis, Oakland has a reputational crisis at hand. Too many people locally and nationally believe Oakland does not have the ability to tackle its problems.
Lee has the national reputation and the relationships she can use to assert a new narrative about our beloved Oakland – a vibrant, diverse, and culturally rich city with a deep history of activism and innovation.
Everyone remembers how Lee stood up for Oakland values as the only member of Congress not to authorize the disastrous Iraq War in 2001. She has led the fight in Congress for ethics reform and changes to the nation’s pay-to-play campaign finance laws.
Lee stands alone among the candidates for mayor as a longtime champion of honest, transparent, and accountable government—and she has the reputation and the skills to lead an Oakland transformation that puts people first.
The past few years have been a trying period for our hometown.
Robert Harris supported the recall because of Thao’s decision to fire LeRonne Armstrong; her refusal to meet with certain organizations, such as the Oakland Branch of the NAACP; and the city missing the deadline for filing for a state grant to deal with serious retail thefts in Oakland.
Richard Fuentes opposed the recall, believing that Oakland was making progress in reducing crime. The voters have had their say; now, it is time for us to move forward together and turn the page to a new era.
The two of us don’t agree on everything, but we agree on this: the next few years will be safer, stronger, and more prosperous if Oaklanders elect Barbara Lee as our next mayor on April 15.
Robert Harris is a retired attorney at PG&E and former legal counsel for NAACP.
Richard Fuentes is co-owner of FLUID510 and chair of the Political Action Committee, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 57.
Activism
Faith Leaders Back Barbara Lee for Mayor, Criticize Candidate Loren Taylor for Dishonest Campaigning
Speaking as individuals, participants in the interview were Pastor Michael Wallace of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church; Pastor Mike McBride, Oakland resident and pastor of the Way Christian Center in Berkeley; Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Thompson of Allen Temple Baptist Church; Bishop Kevin Barnes, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church; and Bishop Keith Clark of Word Assembly.

‘Barbara Lee has a proven track record of listening to the community and translating things into action, and not just talking about it, but doing it. And I believe that this is one of the qualities that will serve her well as being our mayor,’ said Pastor Kevin Barnes
The Black Church PAC, a national faith leaders initiative, will be posting its endorsement of Lee this week
Ken Epstein
Prominent local faith leaders held a telephone interview Thursday with the Oakland Post to express their concerns about the election and their support for former Congresswoman Barbara Lee for Mayor of Oakland.
Speaking as individuals, participants in the interview were Pastor Michael Wallace of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church; Pastor Mike McBride, Oakland resident and pastor of the Way Christian Center in Berkeley; Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Thompson of Allen Temple Baptist Church; Bishop Kevin Barnes, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church; and Bishop Keith Clark of Word Assembly.
“I feel that this is a critical election for the City of Oakland,” said Pastor Wallace. “Our city is in a crisis, and we need someone who has the experience to stabilize our city and to go beyond the borders of our city to bring resources to address the issues that we’re facing.”
The leaders also criticized another candidate, former Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor, for conducting a dishonest smear campaign against Lee and urged Oakland flatland residents to go to the polls and join efforts to actively encourage others to vote in the April 15 special election.
Pastor McBride said, “I believe Oakland needs to send a loud message that our city is not for sale. Barbara Lee is the epitome of ‘unbought, unbossed’ integrity and is someone who has brought results. It has been very offensive to listen to candidates in this race, particularly Loren Taylor, attempt to disparage her name and discredit her record.”
“I truly believe that Congresswoman Lee is the best-suited candidate” for the job, he continued, adding that it is “absolutely crucial that individuals in our communities, particularly in the flatlands, are encouraged to participate in this process because the stakes are high, and I don’t think we should surrender our city to special interests. We have to let (people) know that our city will not be seized without our voices being heard.”
Pastor McBride added, “The only way we can really ensure that we’re going to be able to do that is to make sure that Oakland does not fall into such dishonor is to vote with a level of turnout that ensures the election is not close.”
“Barbara Lee has spoken for us, not just through slogans and not just through rhetoric, but she’s bought billions of dollars just in the last two years, arguably in the worst era of pandemic suffering. She has helped to stabilize the city,” he said.
Pastor McBride said that this race has attracted a lot of outside “money and supporters who align themselves with the likes of [President Donald] Trump. Any candidate running for mayor of Oakland who can be attractive to MAGA ought to give folks a pause. Why is Barbara Lee not the candidate for MAGA but Loren Taylor seems to be?”
Rev. Thompson said, “I’m concerned about the tone and the tenor of the race. We have proof from Washington, D.C., that elections matter. It is not just a matter of that you are running, but it is also how you are running. So, the idea that there would be an attempt to castigate the character of a woman who’s been wholly committed, not just to her district but to her city, is concerning.
“The idea that misinformation and alternative facts would be allowed to be propagated, unchecked, without any attempt to correct it by someone who seeks to be our leader is challenging to me,” said Thompson. “I support Barbara Lee because Barbara Lee is a proven leader.
“She’s proven that she can bring people together,” she said. “She has also proven when she stood as the lone person against the vote for a blank check in times of war that she cannot be bought, that she will keep the needs of the people, not just the needs of those who are considered elite or up-and-coming, but the needs of the least and the lost and the ‘left out’ of this city.”
Dr. Thompson said, “I support her because has been faithful to this city, whether you have seen her or whether you have not seen her. The millions and billions of dollars that she has brought to our area is unquestionable.”
The Black Church PAC, a national initiative led by faith leaders including Dr. Frederick D. Haynes, will post its endorsement of Congresswoman Barbara Lee this week.
Bishop Clark said, “In times like these we need someone who can fix and build our city and communities, and I believe that Congresswoman Barbara Lee can do the job”
“Barbara Lee has a proven track record of listening to the community and translating things into action, and not just talking about it, but doing it. And I believe that this is one of the qualities that will serve her well as being our mayor,” said Bishop Barnes.
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