Bay Area

Sixth Annual MLK March Led by Oakland Youth

Published

1 year ago

January 23, 2020

Thousands of people gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza on Jan. 20 to participate in
Oakland’s 6th annual March and Rally to Reclaim Martin Luther King Jr.’s Radical Legacy.
Oaklanders rallied and marched through the streets led by local youth groups, who called
attention to the housing crisis, police brutality, the climate crisis and opposed war with Iran, among other topics.

The day began with story-time and music for children, organized by Abundant
Beginnings — a local community education project. At about 10 a.m. young capoeira students from Omulu Capoeira in downtown Oakland performed in front of a small crowd.

A youth activist rally was the highlight of the morning, followed by a youth march led
by the Radical Monarchs, an activist organization for young girls of color. Parents marched
alongside their children, pushing strollers and singing chants.

The Radical Monarchs, an activist organization for young girls of color led the youth march on Jan.20. Photo by Saskia Hatvany.

A march led by local youth activists circled the streets around Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland. Photo by Saskia Hatvany.

Around noon, several speakers addressed a crowd that had grown to at least a
thousand people. Local activist and co-founder of Anti Police Terror Project (APTP) Cat Brooks highlighted climate change in her speech.

“I am so grateful that this generation has taken on this fight,” she said. “It is our babies
that will save us and save mama earth, and we adults need to shut up and listen and follow their lead because we made this damn mess and they are cleaning it up.”

Seventeen-year-old Oakland activist Isha Clark also addressed the crown on behalf of
Youth vs. Apocalypse, a local group of young climate activists.
“The fight against this climate crisis is really a fight against all systems of oppression that
are fundamental to our world,” said Clark. “We fight against environmental injustice because if working-class communities of color like West Oakland were not viewed as disposable, we would not have this climate crisis.”

A drumming performance during the MLK Day rally in Oakland. Photo by Saskia Hatvany.

Local activist and co-founder of Anti Police Terror Project (APTP) Cat Brooks. Photo by Saskia Hatvany.

Moms 4 Housing, which is currently working on a deal with the City of Oakland and
corporate homeowner Wedgewood, also attended the march and was shown much support
throughout the day. Councilmember Niki Fortunato Bas and Assemblymember Rob Bonta also attended the rally.

After gathering at 14th and Broadway, the protesters marched down 14th Street to the
Alameda County Sheriff’s Office at 1401 Lakeside Drive, across from Lake Merritt, where
speakers denounced Sheriff Greg Ahern’s recent use of tanks and military gear to evict the
Moms4Housing.

The day was concluded with a closing ceremony organized by APTP in collaboration
with local organization Lead to Life. In a Facebook post following the event, the group wrote: “Lead to Life had the blessing to offer ceremony to close the Reclaim King March, to rebuke the spirit of white supremacy, displacement, gentrification, and police brutality, and to celebrate the victory, labor, and vision of the Moms For Housing movement. Last night’s ceremony was about publicly offering the mothers in our community the space to rest and be received and witnessed for their immense labor.”

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Bay Area

TownConnect Initiative Wish Program Downpayment Assistance

Published

4 hours ago

May 8, 2021

Post Staff

Bay Area

Oakland Program Distributes $500 to Families of Color

The assistance, which targets low-income families of color in the 426,000-population city, will last 18 months. Mayor Schaaf detailed that the money comes with “no-strings attached,” and recipients can use it as they please. “We have designed this demonstration project to add to the body of evidence and to begin this relentless campaign to adopt a guaranteed income federally,” Mayor Schaaf told the local ABC News station.

Published

16 hours ago

May 8, 2021

Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia

In the middle of a worldwide awakening to the centuries-old racism and oppression suffered by Black people, some African Americans finally see tangible assistance – even if the help isn’t characterized as reparations.

Oakland, Calif., Mayor Libby Schaaf announced that the city would begin a guaranteed income project that would provide $500 per month to Black and Indigenous families.

The assistance, which targets low-income families of color in the 426,000-population city, will last 18 months.

Mayor Schaaf detailed that the money comes with “no-strings attached,” and recipients can use it as they please.

“We have designed this demonstration project to add to the body of evidence and to begin this relentless campaign to adopt a guaranteed income federally,” Mayor Schaaf told the local ABC News station.

The station reported that, for the project, the Oakland Resilient Families program has so far raised $6.75 million from private donors, including Blue Meridian Partners, a national philanthropy group.

The programs require residents have at least one child under 18 and income at or below 50 percent of the area median income – about $59,000 per year for a family of three.

Half the spots are reserved for people who earn below 138 percent of the federal poverty level or about $30,000 per year for a family of three, ABC reported. Participants are randomly selected from a pool of applicants who meet the eligibility requirements.

The report noted that Oakland’s project is significant because it is one of the most outstanding efforts in the U.S. so far, targeting up to 600 families. And it is the first program to limit participation strictly to Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities.

Oakland, where 24 percent of the residents are Black, is among a growing list of municipalities providing financial payments to people of color – or reparations.

Evanston, Illinois, a city where 18 percent of its more than 74,500 residents are Black, approved the Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program, which provides up to $25,000 for housing down payments or home repairs to African Americans.

In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law historic legislation that paves the way for African Americans and descendants of slaves in the Golden State to receive reparations for slavery.

The bill, authored by California Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, establishes a nine-person task force that will study the impact of the slave trade on Black people.

It does not commit to any specific payment, but the task force will make recommendations to legislators about what kind of compensation should be provided, who should receive it, and what form it would take.

“After watching [the presidential] debate, this signing can’t come too soon,” Newsom declared during a videoconference with lawmakers and other stakeholders, including the rapper Ice Cube, who championed the bill.

“As a nation, we can only truly thrive when every one of us has the opportunity to thrive. Our painful history of slavery has evolved into structural racism and bias built into and permeating throughout our democratic and economic institutions,” the governor stated.

Last summer, Asheville, a North Carolina city where Black people make up just 11 percent of the more than 92,000 residents, formally apologized for its role in slavery. The City Council voted unanimously to provide reparations to African American residents and their descendants.

“Hundreds of years of Black blood spilled that fills the cup we drink from today,” said Councilman Keith Young, one of two African American members of the City Council that voted 7-0 in favor of reparations.

“It is simply not enough to remove statutes. Black people in this country are dealing with systemic issues,” Young declared.

Asheville’s resolution doesn’t include monetary payments to African Americans but promises investments in areas where Black people face disparities.

Earlier this year, Congress debated H.R. 40, a bill that doesn’t place a specific monetary value on reparations but focuses on investigating and presenting the facts and truth about the unprecedented centuries of brutal enslavement of African people, racial healing, and transformation.

The bill would fund a commission to study and develop proposals for providing reparations to African Americans.

The commission’s mission includes identifying the role of federal and state governments in supporting the institution of slavery, forms of discrimination in public and private sectors against freed slaves and their descendants, and lingering adverse effects of slavery on living African Americans and society.

Congresswoman Jackson Lee, who sits on numerous House committees, including the Judiciary, Budget, and Homeland Security, has made the reparations legislation her top priority during the 117th Congress.

“I think if people begin to associate this legislation with what happened to the descendants of enslaved Africans as a human rights violation, the sordid past that violated the human rights of all of us who are descendants of enslaved Africans, I think that we can find common ground to pass this legislation,” Congresswoman Jackson Lee pronounced.

“Can anyone imagine that we’ve never gotten a simple, effective, deeply-embedded, and well-respected apology?”

The project in Oakland targets groups with the city’s most significant wealth disparities.

According to CNN and per the Oakland Equality Index, the median income for White households in Oakland to be nearly three times that of Black homes.

“The poverty we all witness today is not a personal failure. It is a systems failure,” Schaaf remarked. “Guaranteed income is one of the most promising tools for systems change, racial equity, and economic mobility we’ve seen in decades.”

Two years ago, 100 residents in Stockton, California, began receiving unconditional $500 payments, CNN reported. Other initiatives in Newark, New Jersey, and Atlanta, Georgia, were launched as recently as 2020.

Former Stockton Mayor, Michael Tubbs, is the founder of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a network of advocating mayors founded in 2020.

Oakland Mayor Schaaf is also a founding member of the network.

“One of my hopes in testing out a guaranteed income is that other cities would follow suit, and I’m thrilled that Oakland is among the first,” Tubbs told CNN.

“By focusing on BIPOC residents, the Oakland Resilient Families program will provide critical financial support to those hardest hit by systemic inequities, including the pandemic’s disproportionate toll on communities of color.”

Barbara Lee

In a Letter to Voters, Rep. Barbara Lee Reflects on Pres. Biden’s First 100 Days

Published

18 hours ago

May 8, 2021

Barbara Lee

Dear Friend,

Last week marked the first 100 days of Joe Biden’s presidency. On (April 28), President Biden presented his vision for an American future that builds back better after some of our most challenging years.

I sat in the chamber and listened to President Biden reflect on his first 100 days, confidently reporting that we have a stronger economy, more resilient pandemic response, and a unified mission of building back better and bolder.

I was particularly struck seeing the Bay Area represented on the dais by Vice President Harris and Speaker Pelosi. That was the first time in history two women have held that position. It was reflective of the price women have paid to get to this point. While this was a historic moment, as Vice President Harris pointed out, it is past time that it becomes “normal.”

During his speech, President Biden discussed his recently unveiled American Families Plan (AFP). The AFP is a bold step in advancing racial equity and closing the gap in education, childcare, wealth inequality, and more. By extending provisions under the American Rescue Plan (ARP), and through programs of its own, the AFP would lift more than 10 million people out of poverty.

I am excited to support this plan and similar efforts to improve equity in our school and childcare systems, and to combat inequality in the East Bay and across the country.

The AFP offers an extended tax cut for families with children and American workers. This includes the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This will work to mitigate the growing wealth inequality that we see in America and invest in low- and middle-income families who help our economy thrive.

Additional provisions of the AFP include:

Making child care affordable by ensuring that families will pay no more than 7% of their income on high-quality child care
Creating a national comprehensive paid family and medical leave program through worker payments of up to $4,000 a month
Expanding school meal programs and summer EBT funds
Extending ACA premium tax credits that were expanded under the American Rescue Plan
Providing up to $1,400 in additional assistance to low-income students by increasing the Pell Grant award
Addressing teacher shortages and improving teacher preparation, including programs that strengthen pipelines for teachers of color

(Last) week, we heard about some of the progress we have made in the first 100 days of the Biden-Harris administration, but we cannot let our foot off the gas. Among many challenges ahead, we need we need to address disparities in our public health system, do more to help families that are struggling through this economic crisis, dismantle structural racism, implement police reform and immigration reform and address the climate crisis.

We still have much work to do, but I am committed to continue fighting for you.

As always, my office is here for you. If you need help with a federal issue, please call my Oakland office at (510) 764-0370. You can also connect with me via email, Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

Please continue to stay healthy and safe.

Best,

Barbara Lee