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Oakland Activist and Organizer Denise A. Gums, 66

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Denise Gums. Photo by Wanda Sabir.

Denise Adele Gums, an innovative organizer and activist around all things related to the African Diaspora, immigrant rights and the rights of indigenous people everywhere, passed away suddenly in Oakland on July 22, 2020. She was 66.

    Gums was born in Oakland on Oct. 26, 1953, and attended local schools, graduating from Bishop O’Dowd High School in 1971 and later attending Holy Names College.

    A woman who knew how to have fun while working for systemic change, Gums always knew where the pulse was on any issue. 

   Her work, grounded in Christ or God consciousness, and honored ancestors, aimed for African Diaspora unity. Gums saw the church as a sanctuary and its role as one of liberation theology.

    Her career in community organizing began in the 1970s, according to Melvin Phillips, a neighbor and former classmate. In her role as community liaison for Clergy United of Oakland and the Bay Area Interdenominational Ministry Alliances, Phillips recalls that Gums worked closely with the late Father Jay Matthews, rector of Cathedral of Christ the Light; the late Father Edgar Haasl of St. Louis Bertrand Catholic Church; Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, pastor emeritus of Allen Temple Baptist Church, other Pentecostal clergy and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. 

    Gums helped out at Black Panther Party Co-Founder Bobby Seale’s campaign for Oakland Mayor and went to jail often while protesting for housing rights, making “Good Trouble.”

    She supported immigrant rights and African entrepreneurship. She loved film and volunteered at the Oakland International Film Festival. She worked at the American Red Cross training disaster relief volunteers. More recently she worked as a special education teacher; she loved children, especially those children she taught at Oakland Public Schools and worried about the effects of distance education and the digital divide in the community.

Gerald Lenoir, now a strategy analyst with Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, said Gums was a big asset when he founded the Bay Area Alliance for Just Immigration in 2006. A founding member herself, Gums was a bridge between the church and the community bringing her cultural work to bear.

She was so well known in that bridge-building role that tributes from five Oakland churches were read at her homegoing: St. Columba Catholic Church, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, St. Benedict’s Catholic Church, Imani Community Church and her church home, Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

‘Oaktown’ to the core, she always wore colorful wraps, baubles on her wrists and hoops dangling from her ears, even before it was common and fashionable.  She was one of the first to model African-centered face masks as the pandemic unfolded, riding the bus to Berkeley to support an African woman-owned business. She was a ‘Race Woman,’ in the spirit of the Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

She was involved in political outreach for Africans from the Congo and Nigeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa in 1980s and 1990s. She was always advocating for the rights of people of African descent in the U.S. and Haiti.

She is survived by her mother, Mrs. Thelma Gums; sisters, Deborah and Karen Gums; aunts and uncle; cousins and too many friends to count. She was preceded in death by her father, Louis Gums and brother Kevan Gums.

Gums is interred at Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland. A public ceremony and celebration of her life was held on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020, where a City of Oakland resolution declaring it Denise Gums Day was read by Oakland City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney. 

One of her last acts was to support the people driving and riding in a caravan of vehicles decked out with Black Lives Matter signs in a COVID-19-safe protest that circled Lake Merritt in Oakland. The demonstrations began on June 2, 2020, and will run through Nov. 6, 2020, now in Gums’ honor as well.  The meeting place is Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, 2808 Lakeshore Ave., from 12:00-1:00 p.m. on first and third Fridays. For more information, call 510-255-5579.

 If anyone is interested in helping with burial costs, please contact Mr. Osagie A.D. Enabulele, a community leader at 510-393-6262.

Michelle Snider

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.

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Oakland Post: Week of March 13 – 19, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 13 – 19, 2024

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Oakland Post: Week of March 6 – 12, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 6 – 12, 2024

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Who are the Alameda County District 4 Supervisor Candidates’ Top Campaign Contributors?

Below, we’ve listed each candidate’s 10 highest campaign contributors. For Miley, two of his top campaign donors also bought their own advertisements to support him and/or oppose Esteen through independent expenditures. Such expenditures, though separate from campaign donations, are also public record, and we listed them. Additionally, the National Organization of Realtors has spent about $70,500 on their own independent expenditures to support Miley.

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Jennifer Esteen. (Campaign photo) and Supervisor Nate Miley. (Official photo).
Jennifer Esteen. (Campaign photo) and Supervisor Nate Miley. (Official photo).

By Zack Haber

Nate Miley, who has served on Alameda County’s Board of Supervisors since 2000, is running for reelection to the District 4 supervisor seat.

Jennifer Esteen, a nurse and activist, is seeking to unseat him and become one of the five members of the powerful board that sets the county’s budget, governs its unincorporated areas, and oversees the sheriff, Alameda Health System, and mental health system.

District 4 includes most of East Oakland’s hills and flatlands beyond Fruitvale, part of Pleasanton and unincorporated areas south of San Leandro like Ashland and Castro Valley.

Voting is open and will remain open until March 5.

In California, campaign donations of $100 or more are public record. The records show that Miley has received about $550,000 in total campaign donations since he won the previous District 4 election in March 2020. Esteen has raised about $255,000 in total campaign donations since she started collecting them last July. All figures are accurate through Feb. 20.

While Miley has raised more money, Esteen has received donations from more sources. Miley received donations of $100 or more from 439 different sources. Esteen received such donations from 507 different sources.

Below, we’ve listed each candidate’s 10 highest campaign contributors. For Miley, two of his top campaign donors also bought their own advertisements to support him and/or oppose Esteen through independent expenditures. Such expenditures, though separate from campaign donations, are also public record, and we listed them. Additionally, the National Organization of Realtors has spent about $70,500 on their own independent expenditures to support Miley.

Nate Miley’s top campaign contributors:

The California Apartment Association, a trade group representing landlords and investors in California’s rental housing business, has spent about $129,500 supporting Miley’s election bid through about $59,500 in ads against Esteen$55,000 in ads supporting Miley, and $15,000 in campaign donations.

The independent expenditure committee Preserve Agriculture in Alameda County has spent about $46,025 supporting Miley through about $27,200 in their own ads, and $18,825 in donations to his campaign. Preserve Agriculture has supported reelection efforts for former Alameda County DA Nancy O’Malley, and Sheriff Greg Ahern, a republican. It’s received funding from ChevronPG&E, and a the California Apartment Association.

Organizations associated with the Laborers’ International Union of North America, or LiUNA, have donated about $35,000 in total. Construction and General Laborers Local 304, a local chapter of the union representing which represents over 4,000 workers, donated $20,000.

Laborers Pacific Southwest Regional Organizing Coalition, which represents 70,000 LiUNA members in Arizona, California, Hawaii and New Mexico, donated $15,000.

William ‘Bill’ Crotinger and the East Oakland-based company Argent Materials have donated $26,000. Crotinger is the president and founder of Argent, a concrete and asphalt recycling yard. Argent’s website says it is an eco-friendly company that diverts materials from landfills. In 2018, Argent paid the EPA $27,000 under a settlement for committing Clean Water Act violations.

Michael Morgan of Hayward, owner of We Are Hemp, a marijuana dispensary in Ashland, has donated $21,500.

Alameda County District 1 Supervisor David Haubert has donated $21,250 from his 2024 reelection campaign. He’s running unopposed for the District 1 seat.

SEIU 1021which represents over 60,000 workers in local governments, non-profit agencies, healthcare programs, and schools in Northern California, has donated $20,000.

UA Local 342, which represents around 4,000 pipe trades industry workers in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, donated $20,000.

The union representing the county’s deputy sheriffs, Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Alameda County, has donated $17,000.

Becton Healthcare Resources and its managers have donated $14,625. Becton’s mission statement says it provides “behavioral health management services to organizations and groups that serve the serious and persistent mentally ill population.”

Jennifer Esteen’s top campaign contributors:

Mary Quinn Delaney of Piedmont, founder of Akonadi Foundation, has donated $20,000. Akonadi Foundation gives grants to nonprofit organizations, especially focusing on racial justice organizing,

Bridget Galli of Castro Valley has donated $7,000. Galli is a yoga instructor and a co-owner of Castro Valley Yoga.

Rachel Gelman of Oakland has donated $5,000. Gelman is an activist who has vowed to redistribute her inherited wealth to working class, Indigenous and Black communities.

California Worker Families Party has donated $5,000. The organization’s website describes itself as a “grassroots party for the multiracial working class.”

David Stern of Albany has donated $5,000. Stern is a retired UC Berkeley Professor of Education.

Oakland Rising Committee—a collaborative of racial, economic, and environmental justice organizations—has donated about $3,050.

Fredeke Von Bothmer-Goodyear, an unemployed resident of San Francisco, has donated $2,600.

Robert Britton of Castro Valley has donated $2,500. Britton is retired and worked in the labor movement for decades.

Progressive Era PAC has donated about $2,400. Its mission statement says it “exists to elect governing majorities of leaders in California committed to building a progressive era for people of color.”

East Bay Stonewall Democrats Club has donated $2,250. The club was founded in 1982 to give voice to the East Bay LGBTQIA+ communities.

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