Featured

OP-ED: Take Your Souls to the Polls

Published

12 years ago

November 4, 2014

Tuesday is Election Day and it is time to vote. If you fail to show up, your vote still counts, but in support of those you oppose.

For African Americans, the right to vote has always been contested. We had to fight to win the right to cast our ballots. We had no right to vote under the original Constitution, although states could count slaves as three-fifths of a person in determining congressional representation. It took the Civil War and the first reconstruction to abolish slavery and give African Americans the right to vote.

For a short period after the war, multi-racial coalitions running under the Republican banner (the party of Lincoln) elected officials across the defeated states of the confederacy. That spurred a fierce reaction. The Ku Klux Klan terrorized African Americans seeking to assert their rights and whites who dared to join with them.

Jim Crow laws enforced various ways to keep blacks from voting — poll taxes, history tests, ID requirements. A corrupt deal at the federal level ended the Reconstruction and abetted the reaction. The South turned to apartheid, legal segregation, with the Civil Rights Amendments gutted. It took decades, a powerful civil rights movement, and the sacrifice of many — Dr. King and others — to move Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. And under Lyndon B. Johnson, a second reconstruction began to fulfill the guarantee of equal opportunity. That, too, triggered a fierce reaction. Gerrymandering was used to weaken the power of the Black vote.

Nixon’s Southern strategy perfected race bait politics to consolidate control, with the Republican Party becoming a party of white sanctuary. But the movement kept building, and with the election of Barack Obama and the emergence of a majority built upon people of color, single women and young voters, a third reconstruction beckoned. Again, the resistance was fierce and immediate. Public schools were starved for funds and then large numbers were shut and privatized. The conservative five on the Supreme Court gutted the key part of the Voting Rights Act that required prior review of election law changes.

Republican governors and legislators immediately pushed new measures to suppress the vote. Those of us who have lived that history and fought those battles desperately want the young to understand how important their vote is. The insult of people still trying to lock us out should be enough to arouse us to get to the polls. But while people may appreciate the history and feel the insult, they understandably want to vote about their future.

More will vote because of hope rather than because of history or insult. And hope is not widespread in an America, where outside the richest one percent, few of us have seen much evidence of the so-called recovery. Many are turned off; many want to cast a protest vote. That’s why the choice is so important: it’s not just about the martyrs of the past, but for about what matters for the future. So let’s be clear.

We would have a higher minimum wage today, but Republicans blocked it. We would be rebuilding the country and putting people to work, but Republicans blocked it. We would have millions more Americans with health care but Republican governors refused to expand Medicaid, even though the federal government would cover most of the cost.

We’d have comprehensive immigration reform today, moving millions from living in the shadows, but Republicans blocked it. We’d be investing in universal all day free pre-kindergarten and affordable day care, but Republicans said no. A protest vote cast by staying home will strengthen the very people whose positions are what you want to protest. Make your voice heard and your vote count.

Take your souls to the polls. Email: jjackson@rainbowpush.org

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Community

Four Candidates, Including Incumbent Barbara Lee, Qualify for Oakland Mayor’s Race

POST NEWS GROUP — Four candidates, including incumbent Mayor Barbara Lee, filed their papers to run for office by last Friday’s deadline, and the City Clerk issued a list this week of those who are qualified to run.

Published

1 day ago

August 15, 2026

bpusa-syndication

View of downtown Oakland, California and City Hall. iStock photo.

By Post Staff

The four mayoral candidates who will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot are:

Brenda Grisham. A business owner in East Oakland and public safety advocate, Grisham led the successful recall campaign against Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. As part of her platform, she pledges to work with local, state, and federal partners to secure stricter gun control measures and investments in community violence intervention programs.

Barbara Lee. A former congressional representative and state Assembly member, Lee was elected by voters in a special election last year for a two-year term. Now running for a four-year term, she points out that her administration achieved major successes in addressing some of the city’s major challenges, including balancing the city budget, dramatically reducing crime, and making significant inroads into homelessness and illegal dumping.

Mindy Pechenuk. An educator and activist, Pechenuk is a registered Republican and supporter of Lyndon LaRouche, who has been described by observers as a conspiracy theorist and cult leader. She ran unsuccessfully for mayor in last year’s special election and for the at-large council seat in 2024. She seeks to end Oakland’s police commission and MACRO and invest in more police while launching a new local war on drugs.

Julius Robinson. While little information is available so far about Robinson, he was quoted in a KTVU story about Thao’s recall, stating that people in Oakland want to come together as a community but lack infrastructure and leadership.

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Black History

Oakland Observes Black August with Block Parties, Film Showings, Workshops

POST NEWS GROUP — Beginning in 1979 in San Quentin State Prison, the Black Guerrilla Family called for the remembrance of political prisoner George Jackson and his brother Jonathan Jackson who were assassinated in the early 1970s. George Jackson was considered a political prisoner in that it was the anti-Black justice system that led to his incarceration for armed robbery with a sentence of one year-to-life in 1960.

Published

1 day ago

August 15, 2026

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George Jackson wrote two books: “Soledad Brother,” and “Blood in My Eye” before her was killed in an attempt to escape prison on Aug. 21, 1971.

By Jana Lang, Propel Youth Reporter

Study. Train. Fast. Fight.

These are the four tenets of Black August, a month dedicated to commemorating the sacrifices of political prisoners and Black revolutionaries in the struggle for Black liberation.

Observers are urged to study the history of the Black struggle for freedom, train their bodies for health and self-defense, fast to cleanse the mind, body, and spirit, and fight ongoing oppression alongside their communities and local political organizations.

Beginning in 1979 in San Quentin State Prison, the Black Guerrilla Family called for the remembrance of political prisoner George Jackson and his brother Jonathan Jackson who were assassinated in the early 1970s. George Jackson was considered a political prisoner in that it was the anti-Black justice system that led to his incarceration for armed robbery with a sentence of one year-to-life in 1960.

While in prison, George befriended fellow prisoner W.L. Nolen, who introduced him to the works of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, and Frantz Fanon. This radicalization coupled with his experiences of violence while imprisoned led to him writing and publishing two books, “Soledad Brother” (1970), and “Blood in my Eye” (1972). In January of 1970, George and two other prisoners were charged with murdering a corrections officer at Soledad State Prison in Monterey County.

On Aug. 7, 1970, Jonathan Jackson burst into a Marin County courtroom armed with a shotgun to demand the freedom of the Soledad Brothers. He, along with the inmates he freed, was shot and killed while driving away. This involved one of the Black Panther Party’s most notable associates, Angela Davis, because the shotgun was registered in her name. She was later acquitted of charges of conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder in 1972.

On Aug. 21, 1971, George Jackson was assassinated by a corrections officer after attempting to escape and free other inmates. As a result, there were uprisings and protests within prisons all over the country that year, calling forth resistance against racial oppression and mass incarceration.

Since its outset, Black August has evolved across the country, taking many forms to honor this history and embody the four tenets.

In Oakland, the upcoming Black August Experience, hosted by Youth Alive! and the East Oakland Boxing Association (EOBA), is a free, family-friendly event celebrating the legacy of Black August. Activities include free food and drinks, a kids’ activity zone, interactive workshops, live cooking and boxing demonstrations, and more.

Happening on Aug. 21 from 4-8 p.m. at the EOBA Patio, Carolyn Flynn, director of administration at EOBA, said the event, in its second year, will be an opportunity to engage with people in person through food, shared space, and education.

“We do regular classes in education, and those are ongoing programs that we offer, but we wanted to have [an opportunity] for our neighbors to utilize this space.” Combined with Youth Alive’s work in community violence prevention and youth leadership, this event surely aims to bring the Oakland community together to capture what Black August means today.

Here are additional Black August events happening in Oakland:

Forum and Community Discussion hosted by the Oakland Liberation Center, 1499 Fruitvale Ave., Aug. 14, 7 p.m.

“George Jackson/San Quentin” Screening hosted by Nostalgic for Nothing Cinema at Moments Co-Op, 410 13th St., Aug. 16, doors at 6 p.m., show at 6:30 p.m. (Masks required and scent-free)

Commemorating the Struggle, Building the Altar for Liberation: Black August at Bandung Books, 2269 International Blvd., Aug. 23rd, 1-5 p.m.

Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), will host “Black August: The Arc of Liberation” at Oakland City Hall on Sat. Aug. 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.