Black History
Lee Cherry, Engineer and Advocate for African Americans in Science, Dies at 76
He loved to travel, read, promote science, technology and the environment, highlighting the accomplishments of African Americans in this country and throughout the African Diaspora.
Lee Cherry
Oakland native Lee Cherry, a dedicated scientist, engineer and advocate for science education among African American youth and an active leader in the Black Freedom Movement in his youth, passed away on July 24, 2021. He was 76.
As a young teenager, Cherry was greatly influenced and involved in the Black Freedom movement. He became involved with his older brothers in the Afro-American Association, which was influential in Oakland during the early 1960s before the start of the Black Panther Party when the struggle for racial justice was evolving from the Civil Rights Movement to the rise of Black Power.
The Afro-American Association brought leaders like Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali to the East Bay for public discussions of philosophy, religion, economics, politics and other issues. Members and associates of this group – Ron Dellums, Judge Thelton Henderson, and Cedric Robinson – became some of the most influential cultural and political Black leaders of their generation.
Cherry organized Dignity Institute of Technology in 1967, which was later renamed the African Scientific Institute (ASI) in 1975. The ASI, which is on the web at https://sci-tech.squarespace.com/, is a network of scientists and technologists who participate in their communities. The organization is particularly interested in addressing the problems of developing countries, with special emphasis on capacity building, offering a forum for the exchange of technical information and expertise.
Historically, ASI concerned itself primarily with mentorship programs for minorities entering the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Over the years, the organization expanded its objectives to become project-development oriented.
The fourth of 11 children born to Knorvel Sr. and Lucy Cherry, Lee Cherry attended Clausen Elementary School, Oakland Middle School (now Oakland International HS) and graduated from Oakland Technical High School. He attended UC Berkeley and graduated from San Jose State University. Working as an electrical and environmental engineer, he had a professional career that spanned IBM, Lockheed Aerospace, PG&E, and the Department of Defense. He managed electrical defense contracts for the U.S. Navy.
Cherry met and married Lauran Michelle Waters of Wash., DC. The couple has two daughters, Dr. Aminah Cherry and Dr. Jamilah Cherry-Woodard.
He loved to travel, read, promote science, technology and the environment, highlighting the accomplishments of African Americans in this country and throughout the African Diaspora.
He was a dedicated researcher, which enabled him to converse with anyone on multiple subjects. If he didn’t know the subject matter, he would thoroughly research the topic so he could engage. He had an insatiable love for learning.
Lee Cherry leaves to mourn his passing his wife, Lauran Michelle; daughters Dr. Aminah Cherry, Dr. Jamilah Cherry (Terrell); brothers and sisters Loye, James (Cynthia), Bernice, Betty, LaVance and Louis; mother-in-law Faye Waters; uncle Al; grandchild Amari Woodard; nieces Chaleda/Corey, Aleiya, Baniah and many more nieces, nephews, cousins, friends and colleagues.
The Oakland Post’s coverage of local news in Alameda County is supported by the Ethnic Media Sustainability Initiative, a program created by California Black Media and Ethnic Media Services to support community newspapers across California.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of March 22 – 28, 2023
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March March 22 – 38, 2023
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Black History
Westley (“Wess”) Watende Omari Moore: Maryland’s First
Wess Moore (born 1978) has taken his own place in the history of American politics. He is Maryland’s first Black governor in its 246-year history and the third Black person elected governor of a U.S. state since Reconstruction.
Wess Moore (born 1978) has taken his own place in the history of American politics. He is Maryland’s first Black governor in its 246-year history and the third Black person elected governor of a U.S. state since Reconstruction.
“It’s humbling because this is the state of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Thurgood Marshall,” Moore, a Takoma Park, Maryland native, told USA Today. “It shows that progress requires work, but it is possible as long as we’re willing to grow together.”
Moore described Election night in 2022 as “a celebration,” although he was “soaking in the moment,” thinking of his maternal grandmother, Winell Thomas, who died five days before the election.
Thomas helped raise Moore after his father, a broadcast journalist bearing the same name, died. About his grandmother’s faith in his future, Moore said: “If you had asked her when I was young if there was a chance this could have happened, she would have said yes.”
But earlier on, Moore would have disagreed. After his father’s death, Moore’s family relocated to the Bronx to live with his grandparents. Life without his father was difficult; he felt as if he didn’t fit anywhere.
Thomas enrolled Moore in an elite prep school at age 6. But coming home to the Bronx after being with wealthy classmates made him feel out of place. He’d become angry. Later, about age 11, he became truant and was placed in a squad car and arrested for tagging walls with graffiti. Moore told the MinnPost that his mother, Joy Moore, then “begged her parents to take out a loan against their house so she could send [me] to a military boarding school.”
By age 13, Moore was enrolled in Valley Forge Military Academy and College. The experience pushed him to put his life back on track. He worked as an intern for then-Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke and later graduated from Johns Hopkins University. Moore earned a Rhodes Scholarship, which led him to earn his master’s in international relations from Wolfson College at Oxford.
In 2005, Moore deployed to Afghanistan as a captain with the 82nd Airborne Division, tasked to lead soldiers in combat. On returning, he served as a White House Fellow.
“My mother and grandmother believed in me and sacrificed for me,” Moore told USA Today about the encouragement he received from family. “That election moment was a testament to that sacrifice.”
There’s an imposter syndrome with children of color, Moore says, where “you’re waiting for someone to tap you on the shoulder and say, ‘Hey, how’d you get in here?’”
Moore wants every child of color to know that “they are never in a room because of someone’s benevolence, kindness or social experiment. They’re in that room because they belong there.”
An intimate narrative about finding meaning in a volatile age, Wess Moore’s “The Work: Searching for a Life that Matters” will inspire readers to see how we can each find our own path to purpose and help create a better world.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023
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