Obituary

Remembering Civil Rights Veteran Willie B. Wazir Peacock, 78

Published

10 years ago

August 28, 2016

Willie B. Wazir Peacock, a civil rights veteran with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), passed away April 17 at home in San Pablo.

The Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement held a Community Celebration to honor his life and work on June 18 at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland.

Included was a musical program by Bettie Mae Fikes from Los Angeles, who along with Mr. Peacock had been a member of the legendary SNCC Freedom Singers touring communities in the South and other parts of the country.

Since that time, she has become a gospel and blues singer and storyteller performing with many different musicians

Born in Charleston, Mississippi in 1937, Peacock witnessed “slavery first hand on [the] plantation” where his parents were sharecroppers.

While at Rusk College in 1960, he organized a boycott of a segregated movie theater in Holly Springs, taking inspiration from sit-ins that African American college students in Raleigh, N.C., had orchestrated.

That same year Peacock became a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at Rusk College and started organizing voter-registration efforts in Holly Springs.

He became a field secretary for the organization in 1961, also assisting with voter registration in Greenwood and other towns in north Mississippi.

He started a SNCC project that led to widespread changes in Mississippi, and he was one of the first civil-rights workers working full time on voter registration in a dangerous area.

He worked in Los Angeles in the late 1960s, helping build alliances between African Americans and Latinos. He served with organizations, including the Black Political Liberation Organization and the Neighborhood Adult Participation Project.

He returned to Mississippi in 1970 and from 1970 to 1989, working with several organizations in Jackson, including The Liberty House, Mississippi Community Documentation Committee, Hanging Moss East Cooperative Community and the Clinic of Herbal Medicine.

He founded the Rainbow Food Coop, which has become a thriving retail cooperative.

In 1989, Peacock moved his family to the San Francisco Bay Area and began working with developmentally challenged children and adults as an independent living services instructor at the Stepping Stones Growth Center in San Leandro for over 20 years until he retired.

He was a member of the Vukani Mawethu Choir, which sang freedom songs from South Africa and performed concerts to raise funds to support the African National Congress.

The group also performed for the late Nelson Mandela.

Peacock was also a long-time member of the Self Realization Fellowship and a follower of its founder Paramahansa Yoganan.

At a celebration on June 18, family, friends and former Civil Rights colleagues offered their reflections on Peacock while singing many of the freedom songs that were so important to building the ‘beloved community” of the 1960’s period.

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Arts and Culture

IN MEMORIAM: Oakland Dance Legend Reginald Ray-Savage, 67

Savage lived his life as tribute to the teachers who had shared their wisdom on art and life with him. With a palpably genuine enthusiasm and desire to bring out the best in people, and pass the torch to the next generation, he poured into his students, as his teachers and mentors had into him. His infectious energy, love of life, and generosity of spirit inspired countless souls, both inside and outside the dance studio.

Published

2 months ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Reginald Ray-Savage brought the old-school teaching techniques he learned in the Katherine Dunham Dance Company to the youth at the Oakland School for the Arts in 2003. Courtesy photo.

Special to The Post

Reginald Ray-Savage – dancer, choreographer, and beloved teacher, mentor, and inspiration to many – passed away on May 17. The Oakland School for the Arts dance instructor was 67.

Born Reginald Ray, Jr. in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 5, 1958, he formally adopted the name ‘Savage,’ to honor the great Archie Savage, his mentor at Katherine Dunham’s Performing Arts Training Center where his dance training journey began in East St. Louis, Illinois.

He soon started dancing professionally with Katherine Dunham Dance Company, making dance a way of life. His grit, tenacity, and notorious work ethic brought him scholarships to train at multiple prestigious dance institutions, including The Ailey School (NYC) and Ruth Page School of Dance (Chicago), under the direction of acclaimed ballet instructor Larry Long and Dolores Lipinski-Long.

He danced with several companies, including Joel Hall Dance Company, Ruth Page Ballet Chicago, Lyric Opera, Chicago City Ballet, American Festival Ballet, and touring productions of “The Music Man” and “A Chorus Line”.

In 1989, Savage moved to Oakland, where he started teaching seven days a week, amassing a devoted following that was attracted to his no-nonsense, impassioned, and effective old-school teaching style.

In 1992, at the insistence of his committed core of students, he founded Savage Jazz Dance Company (SJDC). Over a span of 30 years, Savage produced more than 100 original works and toured SJDC nationally and internationally, performing at Casa del Jazz in Rome to a packed house and rave reviews—the first dance company to receive such an invitation.

Savage built SJDC into one of the Bay Area’s most respected dance companies, creating a signature style known for its combination of disciplined training, blended with rich artistic musical expression, and raw energy.

In 2003, Savage joined the Oakland School for the Arts as chair of the School of Dance. Over the next two decades, he created, built, and maintained a strong dance program, recognized and respected by other dance institutions for forging well-trained and resilient dancers and human beings.

The depth of Savage’s tough love and care, and the skill of his teaching and mentoring are reflected in the careers of his students who have gone on to dance with the San Francisco Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, Janet Jackson, Ariana Grande, and companies across the globe.

Savage lived his life as a tribute to the teachers who had shared their wisdom on art and life with him. With a palpably genuine enthusiasm and desire to bring out the best in people and pass the torch to the next generation, he poured into his students, as his teachers and mentors had into him. His infectious energy, love of life, and generosity of spirit inspired countless souls, both inside and outside the dance studio.

Mark Kitaoka, a photographer hired by Savage in 2012, posted a living eulogy on the dance instructor.

“When I see the self-pride he builds in his students, I am constantly impressed that people like Savage still exist in our ‘meme’ society,” Kitaoka wrote. “The kids he mentors are fiercely loyal to one another, and I’m certain his methods teach each of those kids to put aside social status, race and gender and are replaced by solid loyalty for other souls.

“What Savage contributes to our world cannot be completely summed up in a few meager paragraphs but can be seen in the countless lives of those he has touched. Because of him, our world and the world of the future are both a richer and better place.

Reginald Ray-Savage will forever be missed, remembered, and lovingly quoted. He is survived by his beloved life and artistic partner, Alison Hurley; brothers Lynn and Quintin Ray; mother-in-law Janet Hurley; sisters-in-law Sabine Hurley and Annette Ray; brother-in-law Christophe Dominguez; nieces Mila and Lena Rose Dominguez-Hurley; and countless chosen family and friends.

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Activism

IN MEMORIAM: William ‘Bill’ Patterson, 94

Bill devoted his life to public service and education. In 1971, he became the founding director for the Peralta Community College Foundation, he also became an administrator for Oakland Parks and Recreation overseeing 23 recreation centers, the Oakland Zoo, Children’s Fairyland, Lake Merritt, and the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center.

Published

9 months ago

November 20, 2025

Oakland Post

William "Bill" Patterson, 94. Photo courtesy of the Patterson family.

William “Bill” Patterson, 94, of Little Rock, Arkansas, passed away peacefully on October 21, 2025, at his home in Oakland, CA. He was born on May 19, 1931, to Marie Childress Patterson and William Benjamin Patterson in Little Rock, Arkansas. He graduated from Dunbar High School and traveled to Oakland, California, in 1948. William Patterson graduated from San Francisco State University, earning both graduate and undergraduate degrees. He married Euradell “Dell” Patterson in 1961. Bill lovingly took care of his wife, Dell, until she died in 2020.

He served on the boards of Oakland’s Urban Strategies Council, the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, and the Oakland Workforce Development Board.

He was a three-term president of the Oakland branch of the NAACP.

Bill was initiated in the Gamma Alpha chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.

In 1997 Bill was appointed to the East Bay Utility District Board of Directors. William Patterson was the first African American Board President and served the board for 27 years.

Bill’s impact reached far beyond his various important and impactful positions.

Bill mentored politicians, athletes and young people. Among those he mentored and advised are legends Joe Morgan, Bill Russell, Frank Robinson, Curt Flood, and Lionel Wilson to name a few.

He is survived by his son, William David Patterson, and one sister, Sarah Ann Strickland, and a host of other family members and friends.

A celebration of life service will take place at Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center (Calvin Simmons Theater) on November 21, 2025, at 10 AM.

His services are being livestreamed at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1250167107131991/

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Euradell and William Patterson scholarship fund TBA.

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Bay Area

IN MEMORIAM: Yancie Taylor Jr., 101

Yancie began his career as a journeyman and foreman in construction, eventually becoming a carpenter and aspiring to become one of the first Black business owners in Downtown Oakland. From 1964-85, Mr. Yanci’s Clothes Hanger was a fixture at 1422 Broadway, and later expanded the family business to El Cerrito Plaza.

Published

10 months ago

October 27, 2025

Oakland Post

Courtesy photo.

Special to the Post

Yancie Taylor Jr. was born in Lott, Texas, on Feb. 24, 1924, to Mariah Travis and Yancie Taylor Sr. The last of eight siblings, Taylor passed away in Dixon, California, on Oct. 9.

Yancie joined the Army at age 16 and served with the 3161 Quartermaster Service Company during World War II. Prior to his discharge, he married Alberta in 1942.

Together they raised two children, Yancie Eugene III and Mignon Denise, and settled in their first home in West Oakland, California.

After the passing of his wife, Alberta, he continued to be an active community member, attending formals, social events, and outings, often winning Best Dressed while courting his long-time girlfriend, Mrs. Annie Hatchett. Together they enjoyed their retirement, dancing and traveling.

Throughout Yancie’s retirement and golden years, he restored homes and remodeled for family, friends, and fellow elders in the community. He took pride in his humble beginnings in Lott, and whenever able, he returned to the Annual Bailey-Broadus Homecoming Reunions in Texas.

Yancie will be sorely missed but not forgotten. His legacy continues through his children, son, Yancie Taylor III, Mignon Singh, and goddaughter Yvonne Baker and her children Damonday and Trenee Jackson and Latrena Brown; grandchildren, Egypt Guillory, Asya Guillory and Iran Singh; great-grandchildren, Christiana Tolliver, Egypt J. Guillory Jr. (Kayla), Elaysah Guillory(Gamon), Thyler Guillory(Dezire), Niamey Guillory (Kameron), Kennedy Guillory, Zayre Smith and Legend and London Guillory; great-great grandchildren Egypt, Joshua, Eva, Elliana, Jordyn, Jheneya, G’zai and Catalina. He also leaves a cousin, Brenda Frank. He is also survived by his beloved friend Ulysses Brooks and longtime coworker Winky Frederick, along with a host of friends and loved ones.