Activism

Marin County Residents Hold Rally Protesting Death of George Floyd

Published

4 years ago

June 11, 2020

Lynnette Egenlauf and Ayana Morgan- Woodward

Marin youth participated in the peaceful protest in Marin City on June 2, 2020. Photos by Felecia Gaston.

Marin County residents took to the streets June 2 in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis May 25, 2020. Like many of the protests across the country and around the world, it was organized by young people.

Below, in the words of organizers Lynnette Egenlauf, Mikyla Williams, Ayana Morgan-Woodard and Paul Austin, is how it all came together.

Photos by Felecia Gaston.

Lynnette Egenlauf

On Friday night, Tamalpais High School sophomore Mikyla Williams called Paul Austin to ask if Marin City was going to have any protests. The founder of Play Marin, Austin is one of the youngest community leaders the city has. He is often the voice of the young people in Marin City.

Saturday morning, Austin sent me a text message saying, “I’m here to support whatever protest the young people want to do.” We knew being residents of Marin City that we needed to show our Black brothers and sisters our solidarity in the world, because we, too, matter.

By 2 p.m., we had a multi-generational group of Marin City residents ready to lead a peaceful protest that would give Marin County, OUR VOICE.

Austin (40), Lynnette Egenlauf (30), Ayana Morgan-Woodard (22) and Mikyla Williams (16). We felt as if this was the official passing of the torch. Our older leaders had given us the support we needed to put everything in motion.

There had been many other protests around the county earlier that week in support of Black Lives Matter. We had one question “How could these protests happen without the voice/input of Black people?”

This is the origin of our battle cry “Our Voice, Our Movement.” Marin City is the only town in Marin County that is predominantly African American. We loved that allies were protesting, but we needed to show Marin County that Black lives matter and that Marin City matters!

We organized this peaceful protest in four days, expecting just those in our community and a few others in our county to show up at the Bridge the Gap Center at 105 Drake Avenue. Never did we expect that about 1,500 would show up in support of the protest. It felt amazing! The support, the voices who spoke, and the people who marched in solidarity.

The speakers included Set Shakur, a community activist and the sister of Tupac Shakur; Rondall Legett, pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church; Honour Knudsen, a police officer; Rondall Gibson, a college success specialist for 10K Degrees and Malachia Hoover, a Stanford University Ph.D. student in molecular biology.

Our peaceful protest was in honor of all Black lives that were lost due to society’s fears of African American excellence — Marin City’s excellence! For far too long Marin County has had its knee on Marin City’s neck. It was time for us to take action and show up!

If it took four days to gather over 1,000 people, what would a week of planning have accomplished? In those three days we made and posted flyers in our local community, promoted it on social media and through word-of-mouth.

As I made the flyer I had trouble putting locations on it because I did not intend on it getting out of Marin City, so I named the locations in ways that Marin City residents knew them.

But I began to get feedback from those who wanted to attend who were wondering what I meant and that showed me that if we were going to pull this off by Tuesday afternoon that it would take all four of us to come together to accomplish a goal to change history for the residents of Marin City.

Photos by Felecia Gaston.

Ayana Morgan-Woodward

The Marin City peaceful protest was in honor of all Black lives that were lost due to the society’s fears of African American excellence. Marin County stood in solidarity with the voices of those they saw on a TV screen.

Yet they don’t stand with up with Black lives that are local that face the same problems but because we are considered privileged to live in Marin County we get the scraps (bare minimum) to survive and then are forgotten about, in one of these wealthiest counties in America.

We as Marin City needed the support of one another and others to realize how truly special we are and how we could thrive by ourselves if we were given the proper resources.

Marin youth participated in the peaceful protest in Marin City on June 2, 2020. Photos by Felecia Gaston.

Lynnette Egenlauf and Ayana Morgan- Woodward

Posts by Lynnette Egenlauf and Ayana Morgan- Woodward

Up Next

Opinion – Police Reform Was Never Going to Be Easy — But Now’s the Time

Don't Miss

Marin Car Rally Supports Protestors

Lynnette Egenlauf and Ayana Morgan- Woodward

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of June 12-18, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 12-18, 2024

Published

3 days ago

June 14, 2024

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

ICAC Invites Community to Benefit from Safe Car Park Program

The Interfaith Council of Alameda County (ICAC) will hold a meeting to announce a faith-based expansion of overnight safe car parking for unhoused families on Thursday, June 13, 2024, from 1-2 p.m. at Williams Chapel Baptist Church located at 1410 10th Avenue in Oakland. The ICAC President, Rev. Ken Chambers, announced that Williams Chapel, pastored by Rev. Kenneth Anderson, and members of ICAC, has also planned to open an overnight safe car parking program and day center to provide unhoused neighbors and families with wrap-around services.

Published

3 days ago

June 13, 2024

Oakland Post

Chambers said, "ICAC's goal is to just serve Oakland by helping to make the community surrounding 10th Avenue and International Boulevard both welcoming and safe."

by Post Staff

The ICAC President, Rev. Ken Chambers, announced that Williams Chapel, pastored by Rev. Kenneth Anderson, and members of ICAC, has also planned to open an overnight safe car parking program and day center to provide unhoused neighbors and families with wrap-around services.

Rev. Chambers said additional support for the program will also come from Bishop Bob Jackson, Pastor of Acts Full Gospel Church and Pastor Phyllis Scott, head of the Oakland Police Chaplaincy Program.

Chambers said, “ICAC’s goal is to just serve Oakland by helping to make the community surrounding 10^th Avenue and International Boulevard both welcoming and safe.”

David Longhurst, a member of Oakland Temple LDS Church and an ICAC board member, said

“We can make the city of Oakland safer, one block at a time, by connecting our community and neighbors.”

Chambers said ICAC has a $450,000 grant commitment from the City of Oakland and a $2.5M grant request has been presented to Nate Miley, President of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors President Nate Miley to cover and expand ICAC’s Safe Car Park Program located at West Side Missionary Baptist Church to additional locations including Center Street Baptist Church, Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church, Corinthians Baptist Church, Allen Temple Baptist Church, Acts Full Gospel Church, and other congregations.

Dr. Ken Chambers said he and ICAC are assisting congregations on how to receive a one-time $5,000 grant. “ICAC has plans for several tiny homes with kitchens, living space and bathrooms that we hope will become available this fall in partnership with the State, County and City of Oakland.”

Chambers is appealing to the public to help with transitioning the unhoused populations into tiny homes or affordable housing. “If you or anyone you know is living out of a car and needs a safe place to park overnight, visit interfaithAC.org, call 510-239-6681, or stop by the ICAC hub at 732 Willow Street, Oakland, CA 94607 between the hours of 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.”

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Calif. Leaders Discuss Foster Care Reform Strategies for Black and Brown Youth

Before becoming a nationally recognized social justice leader and a member of California’s Mandated Reporting Taskforce, Shane Harris spent 13 years as a foster care youth after he lost both of his parents. As President of the national civil rights organization, People’s Association of Justice Advocates (PAJA), he’s aiming to solve some of the toughest challenges Black and Brown children in the foster care system face.

Published

6 days ago

June 10, 2024

Oakland Post

Shane Harris, PAJA President and member of the California Mandated Reporting Taskforce (center) with Hafsa Kaka, Senior Advisor on Homelessness to Governor Gavin Newsom and Dr. Janet Kelly, Founder & Director of Sanctuary of Hope LA (far right) (Lila Brown CBM)

By Lila Brown, California Black Media

Before becoming a nationally recognized social justice leader and a member of California’s Mandated Reporting Taskforce, Shane Harris spent 13 years as a foster care youth after he lost both of his parents. As President of the national civil rights organization, People’s Association of Justice Advocates (PAJA), he’s aiming to solve some of the toughest challenges Black and Brown children in the foster care system face.

During National Foster Care Month in May, Harris visited the Sanctuary of Hope in Los Angeles to host a roundtable meeting with current and former foster youth, many of whom, like Harris, have beat the odds and become successful professionals.

According to the federal government’s Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, there are nearly 370,000 American children and youth in foster care.

Nationally, Black children are overrepresented in foster care. According to datacenter.kidscount.org, Black children represented 14% of the total child population in the United States. However, they represented 23% of all children in foster care. Harris pointed out that one out of every four foster youth go homeless upon exiting foster care in California. Across the state, there are nearly 65,000 children in foster care, he added. Of the 65,000 children in foster care across California, 14,000 of them are Black American.

Harris also announced a new effort already underway to push for the removal of the term “case” in L.A. County when referring to foster youth during the roundtable which featured Hafsa Kaka, Senior Advisor to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Janet Kelly, the Founder and Director of Sanctuary of Hope. The session focused on solving problems foster youth face.

Sharing personal stories, insights, and various visions for policy changes, the participants discussed numerous solutions and addressed specific concerns about ongoing challenges with the foster care system.

One top priority was how to close the foster care to homelessness pipeline for the disproportionate number of Black and Brown children in LA County’s and the state’s foster care system.

“When you see the direct connection between the disproportionate rates of Black children in foster care and the disproportionate rates of Black people in the general homeless population, there is a very clear connection there in which our foster youth are coming out of care,” stated Harris during opening remarks.

Kaka said the governor has been intentional about making sure that foster children are homeless prioritized as the state addresses homelessness.

“This is a critical moment for foster care,” said Kaka. “The systems that are working together are looking at leveraging federal, state and local funds.”

Harris said he has already begun efforts in San Diego County to drop the word “case” when referring to homeless youth.

“We are asking for a 90-day public input period, in which the county CEO and leadership can facilitate discussions with the community on replacement terminology. There’s plenty of ideas,” Harris elaborated.

Kelly said a majority of the youth who go through the Sanctuary of Hope program are young people who have experienced some form of housing instability or housing crisis.

“The goal of the work that we do is really centered around helping young people leave here with leadership skills and other forms of what we call protective factors in order for them to continue on with their stabilization journey and become loving, caring and active citizens in this world,” Kelly said.