Activism

Rev. Amos Brown Brings Wisdom, Guidance to Cal’s Reparations Task Force

“We’re about balance, inclusion, and stating the case precisely so that it doesn’t face paralysis of analysis or become just another study,” Brown said. “We have had too many studies of Black folks in the past. Now is the time to show us that we are serious about being ‘one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,’” said Rev. Amos C. Brown who is vice-chair and the senior member serving on the nine-member California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, referencing the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance.

Published

4 years ago

December 27, 2021

Oakland Post

The Rev. Amos C. Brown.

By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

The Rev. Amos C. Brown is vice-chair and the senior member serving on the nine-member California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.

Brown, 80, says he is “extremely pleased” with what the committee has accomplished after four meetings.

The task force held its fifth and final two-day meeting session of 2021 on Dec. 7 and Dec. 8. As written in Assembly Bill (AB) 3121, the group has until 2023 to present a set of recommendations to the state for consideration.

“The task force has been extremely focused and substantive. We have some of the best minds — people who know the history, psychology, and sociology of the pressure Black folks in this country have felt,” Brown told California Black Media.

The task force was created after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 3121 into law in September 2020. California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber authored the bill while she served in the State Assembly representing the 79th District in San Diego.

The law calls for the state to set up a task force to study slavery, Jim Crow segregation and other injustices African Americans have faced historically in California and across the United States.

The group will then recommend appropriate ways to educate Californians about reparations and propose ways to compensate descendants of enslaved people based on the task force’s findings.

The members of the task force come from diverse professional backgrounds. So far, the panel has heard testimony from a range of experts and witnesses, including descendants and representatives of people or families the government denied justice in the past; as well as historians, economists and academics.

“We’re about balance, inclusion, and stating the case precisely so that it doesn’t face paralysis of analysis or become just another study,” Brown said. “We have had too many studies of Black folks in the past. Now is the time to show us that we are serious about being ‘one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’” Brown said, referencing the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance.

According to Brown, African Americans in his hometown of San Francisco need to overcome decades of psychological damage imposed by racism, discrimination and unfair government policies, including some urban renewal programs that hurt Black families more than they helped.

On Nov. 22, Brown joined actor Danny Glover, other local Black leaders, and members of the San Francisco Reparations Committee, to ask the city to donate the historic Fillmore Heritage Center to the African American community.

Many have referred to the Fillmore neighborhood as the “Harlem of the West” in the 1940s, Brown said. By 1945, over 30,000 Black Americans lived in the historic area.

Today, around 6% of San Francisco’s population of nearly 875,000 people are Black or mixed-race African Americans.

“San Francisco City leaders have a moral obligation to right the racist wrongs that destroyed that culture and that community and allow the Fillmore Heritage Center to live up to the full meaning of its name,” Glover said in a statement.

In 2007, the center became a venue for Jazz and Blues, reminiscent of the culture and Fillmore night clubs that attracted musical greats like Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and others.

Last May, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to appoint a 15-member African American Reparations Advisory Committee.

“That building, that land, represents the disenfranchisement, redlining of Black folks in this town, and the redevelopment agency not being fair,” Brown said. “The Fillmore, 12 blocks, itself was the hub of Black entertainment, Black culture, Black businesses and Black life. You just can’t wipe out our history or our heritage.”

Born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1941, Brown says he was delivering JET magazine when the popular weekly published graphic photos of 14-year-old Emmett Till murdered by a racist mob in August 1955 in Money, Mississippi, a rural area known for the cultivation of cotton. Till’s lynching ignited the Civil Rights Movement.

“Emmett and I were the same age,” Brown said. “When I picked up a copy (of Jet magazine), I saw that mutilated head. It horrified me. I remember it vividly.”

At 15, Brown started the first youth council for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1956, Medgar Evers, a Mississippi state official for the NAACP, brought Brown, then 15, to San Francisco to attend the NAACP’s national convention where he first met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Brown later studied under King at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

In 1961, he was arrested with King at a lunch counter sit-in and joined the Freedom Riders, a group of activists who protested segregation in the South.

“In 1960, before I joined the Freedom Riders, the NAACP Youth Council actually organized the first ‘sit-down protest’ in Oklahoma City in August 1958,” Brown said. “The first sit-down movement did not start in Greensboro, North Carolina. It began in Oklahoma City, Wichita (Kansas), and Louisville (Kentucky) under the auspices of the Youth Council of the NAACP.”

Brown earned a Doctor of Divinity from United Theological Seminary in Ohio and a Master of Divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania.

Brown has been the pastor of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco since 1976. From 1996 to 2001, he served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He is president of the San Francisco Branch of the NAACP and a member of the organization’s national board of directors.

Brown said he is monitoring reparation legislation and conversations across the country to see if proposals being put forward are in sync with California’s efforts.

“What I want to accomplish is: Black people being and knowing that something was done about their pain — that can be done in the state of California,” Brown said. “Things can never be perfect, but at least collectively people of conscious and good will can stand up and say, ‘this is what we must do to right this wrong.’”

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The Ladies of Delta Sigma Theta Hold Day of Advocacy at the Capitol in Sacramento

A member of the “Divine Nine,” Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., was founded on Jan. 13, 1913, at Howard University in Washington, D.C. The organization was established by 22 women who sought to shift the group’s focus from social activities to public service, academic excellence, and social activism.

Published

2 days ago

May 17, 2026

Oakland Post

Sen. Laura Richardson (D-San Pedro) presents a Senate resolution to the Delta Theta Sigma Sorority Farwest Region at the State Capitol on May 4. Photo courtesy of the Senate Rules Committee.

By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media

On May 4, members of the Farwest Region of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., convened at the California State Capitol for the organization’s 23rd annual Delta Days in Sacramento.

The two-day advocacy event brings together chapters from across California to engage directly in the legislative process, connect with lawmakers, and advocate for policies impacting Black communities.

Members of the sorority were honored on the Senate floor by Sen. Laura Richardson (D-San Pedro), who is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta.

Richardson welcomed the Farwest Region during the presentation of a Senate resolution recognizing outgoing Regional Director Kimberly Usher for her leadership and service.

“In addition to the Far West Region, we are led by a fearless leader, regional director Kimberly Usher. She has now served her full term of what’s allowed,” Richardson said. “We are going to be having our regional conference, but we wanted to give it to her here, officially recognizing her service.”

The resolution was co-authored by Richardson and fellow members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) and Delta Sigma Theta, Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson (D-San Diego) and Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom (D-Stockton).

Usher has served in the leadership role since 2022.

“We are founded on sisterhood that is deeply rooted in scholarship, service, and social action,” said Weber Pierson, a member of the Gamma Alpha chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

“Today, we continue a legacy of empowering communities and upholding the high cultural, intellectual, and moral standards established by our founders over a century ago,” she added.

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Rep. Kamlager-Dove Introduces Bill to Protect Women in Custody After Reports Detailing Miscarriages and Neglect

The Pregnant Women in Custody Act would expand safeguards beyond the federal prison system to include women detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The proposal follows reports of pregnant women being shackled, denied medical care and suffering miscarriages while in immigration detention.

Published

2 days ago

May 17, 2026

Oakland Post

iStock

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA-37) on May 7, reintroduced updated legislation aimed at strengthening protections and healthcare standards for pregnant and postpartum women held in federal custody, including in immigration detention facilities.

The Pregnant Women in Custody Act would expand safeguards beyond the federal prison system to include women detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The proposal follows reports of pregnant women being shackled, denied medical care and suffering miscarriages while in immigration detention.

The legislation builds on a bipartisan version previously passed by the House during the 117th Congress. The updated bill includes new standards for healthcare access, mental health and substance use treatment, high-risk pregnancy care, family unity protections and increased federal oversight.

“Proper pregnancy care is a human right, regardless of your immigration or incarceration status,” Kamlager-Dove said in a statement. “It’s unacceptable that there are virtually no legal safeguards for pregnant women in federal custody.”

The bill would also limit the use of restraints and restrictive housing for pregnant women, improve data collection on maternal health in custody and require additional staff training and enforcement measures.

Supporters of the measure said the legislation is intended to address long-standing concerns about maternal healthcare and safety in detention settings, particularly for Black women and low-income women who are disproportionately impacted by incarceration and health disparities.

“Pregnant women in custody should never be subjected to dangerous and inhumane treatment that threatens their health, dignity, or the well-being of their babies,” said Patrice Willoughby, chief of policy and legislative affairs for the NAACP and a longtime public policy and government affairs strategist, in a statement.

A 2021 report estimated there are about 58,000 admissions of pregnant women into U.S. jails and prisons each year. Kamlager’s statement also cited a recent investigation by NBC News and Bloomberg Law that identified allegations of severe mistreatment or medical neglect involving at least 54 pregnant women or families in county jails between 2017 and 2024.

Federal policy under the Department of Homeland Security restricts the detention of pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants except in extreme cases. However, the agency reported that ICE deported 363 pregnant, postpartum or nursing women between January 2025 and February 2026, including 16 recorded miscarriages during that period.

The bill is cosponsored by several House Democrats and backed by organizations including the NAACP and the Vera Institute of Justice.

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OPINION: The Fire of Oakland’s Justin Jones

Jones made headlines three years ago when he was one of a pair of Justins. Along with fellow State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), he fought their removal from the state house in Tennessee and won reinstatement. Now, Pearson is running for Congress and Jones is still fighting for all of us.

Published

2 days ago

May 17, 2026

Oakland Post

Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville). File photo.

By Emil Amok Guillermo

You may know Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville).

He grew up in Oakland and the East Bay. His mother is Filipino. You can tell by his full name Justin Shea Bautista Jones.

His father is African American.

He is fighting for all of us.

Now, Pearson is running for Congress and Jones is still fighting for all of us.

The recent 6-3 Supreme Court decision barring the use of race in drawing congressional districts marks a major turning point in U.S. history.

The decision took away the Voting Rights Act’s power to assure minority voices were both heard and represented.

“What we’re seeing now is this new Jim Crow system in which Black and Brown communities are without voice in our political process,” he told Fredricka Whitfield on CNN last weekend.

“That’s a canary in the coal mine for the rest of the nation. If they come for one of us, they’re coming for all of us, and some of my message to America is that the South is the front line of democracy,” Jones said. “They are dismantling multi-racial democracy here in the South, in states like Tennessee and Louisiana. But they aren’t going to stop here.”

That’s why Jones said we have to start paying attention to the South, and start helping them fight back there,” he said.

“I want to be clear that this terror, this type of system they’re enacting, are the same systems my grandparents told me about who grew up in Tennessee, a system where people like me couldn’t even be in political office. That’s the time they’re bringing us back to and I’m not sounding the alarm to be alarmist. But I am sounding it because we’ve seen this before in our history.”

Jones talked about Reconstruction and about what happened between the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1960s, when there was no Black political representation.

It’s a rebellion to keep our democracy going forward, he said.

“Stand with us and help us fight back against this extremist power grab — this racist power grab against our vision of a multi-racial democracy,” Jones added.

“While there is a litigation strategy, it’s important to maintain what he called a “movement strategy” that leads to the largest voter mobilization and registration that has ever been seen in the South,” he encouraged.

In 2026.

“Tennessee is an oppressed state,” Jones said. “It’s a state where one in five Black voters can’t vote because of felony disenfranchisement. It is where you can use a gun permit to vote, but you can’t use a student ID card to vote.

That’s the Asian American African American voice of Justin Jones.

Read his words for inspiration.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a veteran journalist, commentator, and comic stage monologist. His new show “69, Emil Amok: Anchorman—The News Made Me Do It,” is at the San Diego Fringe at New Destiny/Lincoln Park, 4931 Logan Ave. Ste. 102. May 14-23, at various times. Get tickets here.