Bay Area
Remembering Kenneth Brown, Educator, Engineer, and El Camino College Trustee
The El Camino Community College District, California State University Dominguez Hills, and the aerospace industry have lost a great leader and advocate with the passing of Kenneth Brown on March 23, 2023. Brown was a pioneer in his fields, and his work as an educator, scientist, engineer, and trustee impacted countless lives.

By Joe W. Bowers Jr.
California Black Media
The El Camino Community College District, California State University Dominguez Hills, and the aerospace industry have lost a great leader and advocate with the passing of Kenneth Brown on March 23, 2023.
Brown was a pioneer in his fields, and his work as an educator, scientist, engineer, and trustee impacted countless lives.
Born and raised in Carson, CA, Brown attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he earned a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Physics. He later went on to earn his M.S. in Applied Physics from Clark Atlanta University.
“As a Morehouse alum, Ken upheld the tradition of striving to make a positive difference in the world, especially for the Black community. He had a keen analytical mind and he eagerly engaged in discussions in a variety of subjects, including politics and social issues that challenged you to think critically,” said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rupert Byrdsong, a friend and college classmate.
Brown’s career in aerospace spanned over three decades. He worked for over 20 years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, where, as a System Engineering Analyst for the Mars Science Laboratory, he worked on some of the most groundbreaking missions in the history of space exploration.
He was last employed as Operations Manager for Northrop Grumman Missions Systems Engineering & Sciences (E&S) Maritime Land Sensors and Systems/Field Engineering, at Space Park, Redondo Beach. There he was the lead for a major new enhancement to the program, driving technical integration to meet performance and functional requirements.
In recognition of his contributions, Brown received the Black Engineer of the Year Modern Day Technology Leader Award in 2019.
Brown’s passion for teaching led him to serve as an adjunct professor of Physics at Cal State University Dominguez Hills. For more than 20 years he taught undergraduate physics, physical science, and math courses. Because of his exceptional ability to connect with his students, his dedication to teaching, and his caring nature, he had a reputation for being a devoted and well-admired instructor.
For the California Department of Education, Brown served as a Content Review Panel expert and helped author “Next Generation Science Standards,” which is being used in K-12 classrooms in over 40 states.
In addition to his work in aerospace and as an education practitioner, Brown was president of the Governing Board of Trustees at El Camino Community College in Torrance. He had been a Board member since 2010
“He never stopped advocating for students’ needs to ensure they found success in higher education, their chosen career fields, and in their personal lives. He inspired us to become extraordinary,” said Brenda Thames, Ph.D., El Camino College superintendent/president in reflecting on her connection with Brown. “He led as an unapologetic advocate for equity and the expansion of educational opportunities for all students. The legacy of his work will impact millions of students for decades to come.”
Vice President of the Board of Trustees Trisha Murakawa told The Union, El Camino College’s student paper, that she and Brown “‘were making good trouble, to truly help’ with education and equity at the statewide level and at El Camino.”
“Brown was a champion for students in everything he did …. and his legacy and commitment will empower generations of leaders to come,” Daisy Gonzales, the interim chancellor of California’s community college system, said in a statement.
Brown was elected to the California Community College Trustees Board in 2016, and in 2020 was elected to serve as president of the CCCT Board where he led the CCCT Board Financial Aid Implementation Committee as well as the Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative Change Leadership Committee.
“I don’t think he had “no” in his vocabulary,” said Pam Haynes, President Emerita, CCCT Board and Los Rios Community College District Trustee. “He was unwavering in his steadfast advocacy for students of color, especially Black and Brown students within our community college system.
On a national level, Brown served on the Association of Community College Trustees Public Policy and Advocacy Committee.
Brown also served on the Da Vinci Schools Board of Trustees from 2019-20 in the Wiseburn Unified School District in El Segundo and on the Da Vinci Schools Fund Board.
A true renaissance man, Brown’s accomplishments extended beyond his professional life. He was an accomplished athlete, twice named All-American in Track & Field at Morehouse College and he played in the NCAA Div. II Basketball Final Four. He qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials and Pan AM Games in the high jump.
Brown, 54, lived in Inglewood with his wife of 25 years, Dr. Karla Harness Brown, a teacher, counselor, and child welfare and attendance advisor for 30 years at the Inglewood Unified School District.
He is survived by two sons, Kenneth II, a Morehouse graduate who is now attending UCLA and Kaleb, a freshman at Howard University. He is also survived by his mother, Dr. Martha Brown, a retired professor of music and his mother-in-law, Gloria Armstrong, a retired Inglewood city employee. His father Keith Brown (deceased) was a probation officer.
From the outpouring of condolence messages and personalized tributes Brown’s family is receiving from the Inglewood community and beyond, it is certain that he will be deeply missed by his family, colleagues, and the countless students whose lives he touched through his work in education.
Bay Area
Judge Halts Funding for Housing Protested by Marin City Residents
In a ruling that marks a major milestone for affirming the concerns of Marin City residents, a Marin County judge has issued a preliminary injunction to halt public funding for the construction of a five-story, 74-unit housing development at 825 Drake Ave. in Marin City, a historically Black community that already holds a disproportionate amount of public and affordable housing in the wealthy enclave of Marin County.

By Godfrey Lee
Save Our City, a community group working to stop the proposed development at 825 Drake Ave. in Marin City, issued a press release regarding the status of the project. It is summarized below.
In a ruling that marks a major milestone for affirming the concerns of Marin City residents, a Marin County judge has issued a preliminary injunction to halt public funding for the construction of a five-story, 74-unit housing development at 825 Drake Ave. in Marin City, a historically Black community that already holds a disproportionate amount of public and affordable housing in the wealthy enclave of Marin County.
Because the 825 Drake Ave. development was approved under SB 35, a law intended to fast-track affordable housing projects without public notice or hearings, the residents of Marin City were not given notice of the development until after it was approved by the Marin County Board of Supervisors.
While SB 35 was adopted to sideline wealthy enclaves that have historically stonewalled affordable housing projects in their communities, it has been used in Marin City to create even more housing density in the County’s most racially diverse, economically disadvantaged and politically disempowered community.
The well-intentioned law failed to carve out adequate protections for low-income California communities that already have a grossly disproportionate share of their region’s affordable and public housing options, and it has failed to ensure that the term “affordable” takes into account low-income communities like Marin City that are embedded in regions with the highest Average Median Income levels in the state.
On Sept. 6, Marin County Superior Court Judge Stephen P. Freccero entered a Limited Preliminary Injunction on behalf of a Marin City organization, Save Our City (SOC), temporarily halting public funding approved by the Marin County Board of Supervisors for the construction of a five-story, 74-unit housing development at 825 Drake Ave. in Marin City.
SOC had filed suit on May 18 to invalidate the Board’s approval of the bonds, arguing that the Board had improperly failed to exercise its discretion in deciding whether to approve the bonds. Transcripts of Board proceedings showed that Board members erroneously believed that a recent state law allowing expedited approval for certain housing developments had stripped the Board of the power to decide whether funding such a development was in the community and County’s best interests.
The Court agreed with SOC, finding that Board approval of the bonds did require that “the [local authority] decide the matter [at issue] after considering local residents’ views, and by clear implication requires the [local authority] to consider city priorities and housing needs, the wisdom of preferential financing for the project, and all other relevant considerations to which elected representatives normally give weight in executing their office.”
Given these considerations, the Court stated that the Board’s refusal “to consider or exercise its lawful discretion may be grounds to invalidate the resolution.”
Save Our City was formed to stop this large-scale development from being forced on the small, historically Black community of Marin City, which is already densely saturated with affordable housing and has only one park in the entire city.
The proposed development would encroach on that limited open space available to Marin City residents and block sunlight, particularly from the seniors living in existing affordable housing directly next to the proposed site.
Meanwhile, the wealthy and predominantly white surrounding communities in Marin County offer little to no affordable housing options for Marin County residents and have ample open green and recreational spaces for their community.
The Marin County Board of Supervisors is responsible for overseeing affordable and public housing options in unincorporated Marin. To address the housing shortages in California, state law requires each region to supply housing to meet its Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA).
The RHNA is intended to promote several objectives including: (1) increase housing supply and the mix of housing types in an equitable manner; (2) discourage housing development patterns that segment communities, (3) affirmatively further fair housing. Marin County’s approval of the 825 Drake Ave. project in Marin City violates all these principles:
Marin City already has the most public housing in Marin County. While Marin City represents only 1% of Marin County in size (356 acres), it already possesses 60% of the public housing units available in all of Marin County (296 of 496 total public housing units).
Marin City already has the highest housing density. In Marin City 61.4% of the housing structures are buildings with five or more units. This is greater than the surrounding predominantly white and wealthy unincorporated communities, with Strawberry being the second largest at 42%.
Because Marin County has one of the nation’s highest Average Median Income (AMIs), the “affordable” 825 Drake Ave. housing development will not be affordable to most of the residents in Marin City and will perpetuate further gentrification of this community.
Marin County has repeatedly denied Marin City residents the courtesy of notice or an opportunity to be heard concerning the County’s approval of the 825 Drake Ave. project. During the County’s March 21 hearing to consider approval of $40 million in non-taxable bonds to support developer Caleb Roope’s construction of 825 Drake Ave., the residents raised their concerns about inequity and the project’s impacts on the community. With just five days’ notice before the hearing, community members scrambled to provide substantive feedback during the limited minutes of public comment. However, their comments fell upon deaf ears.
It is on this basis that Save Our City filed its lawsuit, arguing that the Board failed to perform their required duty under the law — which was to use their discretion to weigh whether the “governmental interest in not giving approval [of the bonds] may outweigh the desirability of furnishing low rent housing.”
Because of SB 35’s fast-track approval process, this bond hearing was the community’s sole opportunity to be heard on the devastating effects of the 825 Drake Ave. development. Instead of weighing these important interests, Board members made repeated statements about how their “hands were tied” and they did not have discretion to deny the bonds.
SOC co-founder Bettie Hodges observed that “The County has failed to represent Marin City throughout this process. First, we are told that they were not legally required to give us notice of 825 Drake’s approval, then, in the bond hearing, they tell us that they did not have discretion to consider our comments.
“We have been completely silenced at every turn. Our elected representatives could and should have given us the courtesy of notice and an opportunity to be heard, especially given the inequities in Marin City that are a direct result of Marin County’s history of discriminatory housing practices.”
Marilyn Mackel, co-founder of SOC, stated that “I was disappointed to see that even in the preliminary injunction hearing, the County stood silent. They did not defend their approval of the bonds, but also did not have the moral fortitude to concede that they failed to consider our concerns when they approved the bonds. Their repeated choice to stand silent is not just an abdication of responsibility, it is a perpetuation of economic and racial segregation in Marin County.”
Save Our City’s Lawsuit seeks to preserve this small piece of open space in Marin City. Marin County is known for its green and open spaces, including hiking trails, streams, open fields and waterways. While the rest of unincorporated Marin County is characterized by these copious green spaces, Marin City has only one small park that is made of concrete and astro-turf.
For more information, please contact: Bettie Hodges at bettie@hannahprograms.org, or Marilyn Mackel at mmackel@gmail.com
Bay Area
Black Cultural Zone, Block Inc., Gives Boost to Black Entrepreneurs
Black Cultural Zone (BCZ) and Block Inc., co-opened a space called “Uptown Market: The Best of Oakland” on Thursday, Aug. 17. They have created a free-to-use retail space in order to give small business owners a more expansive market.

By Daisha Williams
Post Staff
Black Cultural Zone (BCZ) and Block Inc., co-opened a space called “Uptown Market: The Best of Oakland” on Thursday, Aug. 17. They have created a free-to-use retail space in order to give small business owners a more expansive market.
Block Inc. is a tech company that owns Uptown Station, a historic building in the heart of downtown Oakland. On the upper floors is office space, and the first floor is home to their Community Hub in addition to Uptown Market.
Located at 1955 Broadway, Block opened Uptown Station in 2020, with the intention of using this space to support entrepreneurs. They’ve been partnering with BCZ since the pandemic, and together, with the creation of this space, they have done just that.
The market is open from Wednesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Every market day there will be multiple stations to shop at as well as a food station. The vendors are rotated every 30 days, so each time someone visits there may be new products to purchase.
The vendors, who were chosen through an application process earlier in the year, all went through a training workshop, with the goal that at the end of their experience with them they will have gained all the skills necessary to open and manage their own storefront.
COVID-19 caused many small businesses to close — especially BIPOC businesses. BCZ and Block are attempting to remedy this, using Uptown Market as a way to help these businesses get back on their feet and continue to thrive.
“We hope that by the end of the program they will have the knowledge and experience that they can take to scale their business into a brick-and-mortar space — not just Downtown, but in other opportunities of Oakland that Black Cultural Zone is also investing in,” said Jazmine Kelly.
BCZ has been putting on events like these to help strengthen the Black community by circulating the Black dollar since 2014. During the pandemic, they created and regulated Akoma Market to help businesses stay afloat. Since then, they’ve hosted markets at Liberation Park in 7101 Foothill Blvd. in East Oakland.
Carolyn Johnson, CEO of BCZ, talked about why they made the shift from these outdoor markets to Uptown Station:
“A great step for those vendors that are still with us is to give them the opportunity to be in a retail space, to get a sense of what a brick-and-mortar feels like: what it means to deal with your inventory, to get the support you need, the systems you need, and to engage one-on-one with a different group of people that come to downtown Oakland as opposed to East Oakland.”
This market was created with hopes that they would be able to create something more stable and beneficial long-term for businesses, and Uptown Market is the realization of that dream.
Art
‘An Archeology of Silence’ Exhibit at De Young Museum is Something to Talk About
Kehinde Wiley’s new exhibit “An Archeology of Silence” made its U.S. premiere at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. The exhibit, which opened in March, runs through Oct. 18, and is free to all Bay Area residents on weekends.

By Daisha Williams
Post Staff
Kehinde Wiley’s new exhibit “An Archeology of Silence” made its U.S. premiere at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. The exhibit, which opened in March, runs through Oct. 18, and is free to all Bay Area residents on weekends.
According to his website, Kehinde Wiley is an American artist born in Los Angeles in 1977 and is best known for his portraits that render people of color in the traditional settings of Old Master paintings.
The recipient of the U.S. Department of State’s Medal of Arts, Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal, and France’s distinction of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, Wiley earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute, his website reveals.
In 2018, Wiley became the first African American artist to paint a presidential portrait when he was selected by former president Barack Obama.
Wiley created “An Archeology of Silence” during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in response to the death of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020.
Wiley’s 25 works include sculptures and paintings large and small.
Walking through the exhibit feels surreal. Wiley has effectively captured the beauty of Blackness in the face of tragedy: the works evoke feelings of sadness, helplessness and admiration. The rooms are silent, except for occasional whispering, though there is a guided audio tour available while browsing the exhibit.
The paintings are vibrant and brightly colored, consistent with Wiley’s established art style. The room otherwise is dark, causing the paintings to stand out, shining a light on the way that Black bodies are often only really seen in the wake of their deaths.
Especially now, in the age of technology, people are able to view traumatizing acts of hatred inflicted on Black people by simply turning on the television. Wiley states, “That is the archaeology I am unearthing: the specter of police violence and state control over the bodies of young Black and Brown people all over the world.”
For the premiere of this exhibit to be in the Bay Area feels fitting, in part because of the vibrant Black community that lives here, and also due to the fact that the Bay has seen its fair share of violence inflicted upon Black bodies.
Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, states:
“Utilizing the historical visual language of the dying hero, Wiley’s portraits of Black youths render visible previously obscured victims and survivors of systemic violence. In the Bay Area — a place that has resisted violence against Black people, as evidenced in the Black Power movement and the current Black Lives Matter movement — Wiley’s work has deep resonances. They ask each of us, how are we implicated? And how do we take action?”
In collaboration with Live Free USA, Wiley will continue his series of conversations associated with the exhibit at 1 p.m. on Sept. 16, this time discussing reparations. The event is free with seating in Koret Auditorium on a first-come, first-served basis. It does not include access to the exhibit.
From San Francisco, the collection will travel to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from Nov. 19, 2023, to June 19, 2024; Pérez Art Museum in Miami from July 26, 2024 – Jan. 12, 2025, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art from Feb. 22–June 22, 2025.
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