Uncategorized

Learning History to Make Sense of Today

Published

11 years ago

July 20, 2015

By Kathleen Maclay, UC Berkeley News

Drawn to news of protests across the country over the deaths of Black men and boys pursued or detained by police, the director of the UC Berkeley’s History-Social Science Project (HSSP) pondered how to help young people make sense of the associated conflict, confusion, fear and anger.

As she did, Rachel Reinhard said some of the defining moments in the United States’ long and arduous civil rights struggle came to mind, including:

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1857 rejection of the claim to citizenship filed by Dred Scott, an enslaved man taken to free territory, a ruling that actually helped fuel abolitionist sentiment and contributed to the Civil War;

Investigative reporter and civil rights leader Ida B. Wells’ documentation of white lynchings of Blacks in the 1890s;

Striking Black sanitation workers in Memphis in the 1960s marching proudly with “I am a Man” placards

“We felt like it was up to us to determine how we contribute to the latest conversation, and how to help teachers make sense of the moment,” Reinhard said recently in explaining the evolution of this year’s HSSP Summer Institute for K-12 teachers and its theme, “Struggles for Justice: Then and Now.”

Reinhard noted that incorporating the histories often absent from the traditional, “grand narratives” can arm students with the skills and knowledge needed to make sense of their world, especially one fraught with long-festering issues such as African American history, LGBT rights and immigration reform.

“While the study of history cannot solve everything, through deliberate instruction, I hope we can work to foster greater context, analysis and empathy for the human condition among our students and, consequently, in our world,” she wrote in a post on the HSSP website.

Jenna Rentz, who taught history and government/economics at Mt. Diablo and Ygnacio Valley high schools in Concord, asked to prepare the institute’s housing discrimination lesson plan after hearing an inspirational talk at her local church by Richard Rothstein of UC Berkeley’s School of Law, linking public policy to segregation in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere.

“One of Dr. Rothstein’s statements really struck me,” said Renz. “He noted that in The Americans, the most common U.S. history textbook and one I used myself in my classroom, there is only one sentence about housing segregation: ‘African Americans found themselves in segregated neighborhoods.’”

Renz, who is on a break from teaching while studying for her master’s degree in history at San Francisco State University, said she realized she had never covered housing segregation while she was teaching, and wanted to create a lesson that provides more context and more accurately reflects government involvement in purposeful segregation of neighborhoods.

Her lesson is divided in four parts:

One gives a history of zoning, restrictive covenants and the Federal Housing Administration’s “redlining” of African American communities that led to African Americans being denied mortgages for decades and reflecting government systems and processes that supported segregation.

The second has primary-source accounts of those who experienced residential segregation, including a story from Giants slugger and Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays, who was initially denied the ability to buy a house in San Francisco because of his race.

Part 3 covers the 1968 Fair Housing Act and its limitations

Part 4 explores the lasting effects of residential segregation for African American communities, including a connection to the recent protests around policing in predominantly black neighborhoods.

Nearly two dozen teachers as nearby as Oakland, Piedmont and Pittsburg and as far away as Fresno and Trinity County are convening on campus for the institute July 13-July 17, hearing from experts and learning how to infuse their lesson plans with more historical context.

The increased attention in recent years on improving student test scores has too often minimized the time allotted to teaching social studies and history, said Reinhard.

Teachers attending the institute will learn how to:

Use model lesson plans from the institute to build historical context into their classroom presentations, teasing out information that aligns with state-mandated curriculum around California, U.S. and world history across all grades;

Integrate rich, primary online sources such as the Library of Congress into their lessons;

Develop students’ historical thinking skills.

Leading key discussion on African American history will be Waldo Martin, UC Berkeley’s Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of American History and Citizenship and the author of such books as The Mind of Frederick Douglass and Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Uncategorized

Rest in Peace: A.M.E. Pastor and L.A Civil Rights Icon Cecil “Chip” Murray Passes

The Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, former pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) in Los Angeles, died of natural causes April 6 at his Windsor Hills Home. He was 94. “Today, we lost a giant. Reverend Dr. Cecil Murray dedicated his life to service, community, and putting God first in all things. I had the absolute honor of working with him, worshiping with him, and seeking his counsel,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of the dynamic religious leader whose ministry inspired and attracted millionaires as well as former gang bangers and people dealing with substance use disorder (SUD).

Published

4 days ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

The Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, former pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) in Los Angeles, died of natural causes April 6 at his Windsor Hills Home. He was 94.

“Today, we lost a giant. Reverend Dr. Cecil Murray dedicated his life to service, community, and putting God first in all things. I had the absolute honor of working with him, worshiping with him, and seeking his counsel,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of the dynamic religious leader whose ministry inspired and attracted millionaires as well as former gang bangers and people dealing with substance use disorder (SUD).

Murray oversaw the growth of FAME’s congregation from 250 members to 18,000.

“My heart is with the First AME congregation and community today as we reflect on a legacy that changed this city forever,” Bass continued.

Murray served as Senior Minister at FAME, the oldest Black congregation in the city, for 27 years. During that time, various dignitaries visited and he built strong relationships with political and civic leaders in the city and across the state, as well as a number of Hollywood figures. Several national political leaders also visited with Murray and his congregation at FAME, including Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Murray, a Florida native and U.S. Air Force vet, attended Florida A&M University, where he majored in history, worked on the school newspaper and pledged Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. He later attended Claremont School of Theology in Los Angeles County, where he earned his doctorate in Divinity.

Murray is survived by his son Drew. His wife Bernadine, who was a committed member of the A.M.E. church and the daughter of his childhood pastor, died in 2013.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Uncategorized

Court Throws Out Law That Allowed Californians to Build Duplexes, Triplexes and RDUs on Their Properties

Charter cities in California won a lawsuit last week against the state that declared Senate Bill (SB) 9, a pro-housing bill, unconstitutional. Passed in 2021, SB 9 is also known as the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency Act (HOME). That law permits up to four residential units — counting individual units of duplexes, triplexes and residential dwelling units (RDUs) – to be built on properties in neighborhoods that were previously zoned for only single-family homes.

Published

4 days ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

Charter cities in California won a lawsuit last week against the state that declared Senate Bill (SB) 9, a pro-housing bill, unconstitutional.

Passed in 2021, SB 9 is also known as the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency Act (HOME). That law permits up to four residential units — counting individual units of duplexes, triplexes and residential dwelling units (RDUs) – to be built on properties in neighborhoods that were previously zoned for only single-family homes.

A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ruled in favor of the cities, pointing out that SB 9 discredited charter cities that were granted jurisdiction to create new governance systems and enact policy reforms. The court ruling affects 121 charter cities that have local constitutions.

Attorney Pam Lee represented five Southern California cities in the lawsuit against the state and Attorney General Rob Bonta.

“This is a monumental victory for all charter cities in California,” Lee said.

However, general law cities are excluded from the court ruling as state housing laws still apply in residential areas.

Attorney General Bonta and his team are working to review the decision and consider all options that will protect SB 9 as a state law. Bonta said the law has helped provide affordable housing for residents in California.

“Our statewide housing shortage and affordability crisis requires collaboration, innovation, and a good faith effort by local governments to increase the housing supply,” Bonta said.

“SB9 is an important tool in this effort, and we’re going to make sure homeowners have the opportunity to utilize it,” he said.

Charter cities remain adamant that the state should refrain from making land-use decisions on their behalf. In the lawsuit, city representatives argued that SB 9 eliminates local authority to create single-family zoning districts and approve housing developments.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Uncategorized

Funds for Down Payments and Credit Repair Given to Black First Time Homebuyers

The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) won a $10,000 fair housing settlement last November against a property management company, CIM Group LP, a global real estate company headquartered in Los Angeles, and property owner, RACR Sora, LLC, for implementing a blanket ban on renting to tenants with criminal histories at Sora Apartments in Inglewood. Three months earlier, the department, which enforces California’s civil rights laws, won another $20,000 civil rights settlement against a Lemon Grove property manager, who had targeted a Black tenant with a series of racist actions and threats of violence.

Published

4 days ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

By McKenzie Jackson, California Black Media

Three months earlier, the department, which enforces California’s civil rights laws, won another $20,000 civil rights settlement against a Lemon Grove property manager, who had targeted a Black tenant with a series of racist actions and threats of violence.

CRD Director Kevin Kish said the department investigates cases of apparent racial bias in housing and sometimes more subtle acts of prejudice like nuisance-free or crime-free housing policies or holding tenants to different standards based on their race.

Kish said, “People will get evicted if they call the police. This can negatively impact victims of domestic violence. We also see these no-crime ordinances, or no-crime policies, used in racially discriminatory ways. If there is some kind of incident, and the police are called and it involves a Black family, then they get evicted, but other folks aren’t necessarily evicted.”

On April 11,1968, a week after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, President Lydon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, religion, and nationality.

Kish noted that William Byron Rumford, the first Black California State Assemblymember, who represented Berkley and Oakland, spearheaded the passing of the Rumford Act in 1963. That law sought to end discriminatory housing practices in the Golden State, five years before the Fair Housing Act became law.
Real estate agent and housing advocate Ashley Garner is the director of the CLTRE Keeper Home Ownership program. That organization gave 25 Black, indigenous, and people of color $17,500 each in down payment and credit repair support to purchase a home in Oak Park, a traditionally Black neighborhood in Sacramento, last fall. CLTRE obtained a $500,000 grant from the city of Sacramento to award the funds to the residents after they completed an eight-week homeownership program.

In 2021, the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) noted that around four in 10 Black California families owned homes, which trails that of White, Asian-American and Latinos.
According to Forbes, the median price for a home in California is over $500,000, which is double the cost of a home in the rest of the country.

Black lawmakers recently introduced their Reparations Priority Bill Package that includes support for Black first-time homebuyers, homeowners’ mortgage assistance and property tax relief for neighborhoods restricted by historic redlining.

California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) spokesperson Eric Johnson said CalHFA helps prospective low-income and moderate-income Californians purchase homes by offering down payment and closing cost aid. “There are lots of people who have steady jobs, good credit scores, constant income, but they haven’t been able to save up the money that traditional banks need or want to see for a down payment,” Johnson stated. “We help those folks out. We give a loan for the down payment to get them over that hurdle.”
CRD and the Department of Real Estate hosted “Fair Housing Protections for People with Criminal Histories” Zoom call on April 10.

On April 25, CRD will also hold Zoom seminars focused on advocating for fair housing for people with disabilities.