Volunteers Needed: Help Police Hiring

Citizens interested in lending a hand to help the City of Oakland reach its goal of having 803 police officers by the end of 2008 have an opportunity to participate in this important effort.
The Oakland Police Department needs community volunteers to serve as oral board panel assessors for the hiring of Police Officer Trainees. Interested candidates must meet one of the following criteria 1) live in Oakland, 2) work in Oakland or 3) own a business in Oakland. [Read more]

Hillary Wins Pennsylvania

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton seized on her decisive victory over Senator Barack Obama in Pennsylvania to proclaim “the tide is turning” in the Democratic nominating fight, arguing that her performance proved she was best suited to take on Senator John McCain in the fall because of her capacity to carry key swing states.
Mrs. Clinton won the Pennsylvania popular vote, 55 percent to 45 percent, giving her a critical boost as the she heads into the next nominating contests in North Carolina and Indiana in 13 days. Polls suggest that Mr. Obama is better positioned in those states than he was in Pennsylvania.

Fremont, YMCA’s “Cool” After-School

The principals of Fremont High’s new smaller schools have teamed with the YMCA to make an even bigger impact on the study habits of students by emphasizing after school learning activities. Their “Eye of the Tiger” partnership provides much needed programs for more than 360 students. From left to right: Chris Chatmon, Daniel Hurst, Robin Glover, Anisa Rasheed, Benjamin Schmookler, Terry-T Butler.

African American AP Students Celebrate

Left to right:James Gray, Sr., Principal of BEST College Prep High School (Business Entrepreneurial School of Technology) with students: Derricka Grundy, Jamelia Little, Megaen Curl, Quaneda Morris; ( Rear, left to right) : Jourdan Williams-Hoskin, Ronald Mills, Jermilia McLane, BEST Scholarship Director, Marsha Rhynes.

By Brenda McCuistion

There was standing room only as Oakland youth were acknowledged for participating in Advanced Placement (AP) classes. AP classes are college courses that provide college credit. A student that begins taking AP courses in their freshman year at high school could potentially receive their high school diploma and start college as a sophomore.
Walter Robinson, Director of Undergraduate Admissions at U.C. Berkeley was the key note speaker. His speech and presence at this event uplifted students, parents, teachers, educational community, and community supporters.
None of those who attended will forget Mr. Robinson sharing of a quote from Dr. Wade Nobles about the definition of POWER as being “the ability to define reality and have other people believe it is their reality”.
Mr. Robinson shared his personal story and encouraged African American students to take ownership of their education, realize that they are more than their life circumstances, and to continue to set their expectations high. (“I am often asked if it’s better to take an AP class and get a “B” or a regular college prep class and get an “A”. I tell them, it’s better to take an AP class and get an “A”). [Read more]

Swanson’s “Green Jobs” Training Bill Advances

Assembly Labor & Employment Chairman Sandré R. Swanson has introduced AB 2147 to establish the Green Jobs Corps Grant Program to implement an energy efficiency and renewable energy worker training program for individuals seeking employment pathways out of poverty into economic self-sufficiency.
“We have a tremendous opportunity in California for job growth in the ‘green’ economy,” stated Swanson. “However, we need to match up that opportunity with those members of our communities most in need of jobs, including at-risk youth and formerly incarcerated individuals. That is why I believe this bill is so important.”
The Program will be administered by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, which will develop application procedures and criteria to award $500,000 in grants to community-based organizations, local agencies, and service providers (or partnerships thereof).
Grants will be funded with State and Federal workforce development and job training funds, and/or funds allocated for rehabilitation and treatment of prison inmates and parolees. Monies will be awarded to fund programs in urban, suburban, and rural areas of northern, central and southern California. [Read more]

South Africa Honors Dellums

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums with South African President Thabo Mbeki in South Africa. 

Historic Work to end Apartheid puts Mayor with Ghandi, King, Mandela and Annan

South African President Thabo Mbeki presented Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums with the “Order of the Grand Companions of OR Tambo Silver Award”, the most prestigious award granted by the South African government. Mayor Dellums is being honored for his leadership to end apartheid in South Africa.
Mayor Dellums said: “On the occasion of my leaving the Congress, many told me, ‘Dellums, you made a difference in the world.’ I had been audacious enough in my very first campaign to argue that one person could make such a difference. After a lifetime of public service, I have learned that one doesn’t make a difference by oneself. Even as I listen to others say that my efforts on the anti-apartheid sanctions bill had helped to change the world, I knew that I did not make that contribution by myself. We did it when millions of people took the time to coalesce into a mighty force that could bend the political process to its will.”
In 1972, Dellums began his campaign to end the racially segregated apartheid policies of South Africa. For all practical purposes, there was no anti-apartheid movement in the United States at the time. This bill started the process that fourteen years later would lead the U.S. House of Representatives to pass his anti-apartheid legislation, calling for a trade embargo against South Africa and immediate divestment by American corporations. The bill finally agreed to by both houses of Congress, The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 had broad bipartisan support. It called for sanctions against South Africa and stated preconditions for lifting the sanctions, including the release of all political prisoners. President Ronald Reagan vetoed the bill, which was overridden; it was the first override in the 20th century of a presidential foreign-policy veto. [Read more]

Race in America

A new site just launched to tackle the issue of race in America.  The site’s owner’s don’t make the claim to end racism, but rather to provide a place for honest discussion and debate.  Recent posts include an examination of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s recent interview with Bill Moyers and an op-ed by novelist Colson Whitehead.  Join the discussion here:

http://www.allaboutrace.com/

Post Profile: Jehmu Greene, President, Rock the Vote Foundation

Jehmu Greene was named president of Rock the Vote in September 2003. Among her myriad responsibilities, she oversees the operation of Rock the Vote and its satellite office in Washington, D.C., and manages the organization’s $5 million annual budget. Jehmu also manages the foundation’s 31-person-strong board of directors, which includes some of the most influential leaders and executives in the entertainment and media communities. Jehmu serves as the spokesperson for Rock the Vote and has appeared on numerous television programs, including CNN’s Inside Politics and 360 With Anderson Cooper, MSNBC, Fox News’s The O’Reilly Factor, NBC News and on ABC Radio. In print, she has been quoted and provided commentary for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Time magazine, among others.Jehmu joined the Rock the Vote staff in the summer of 2000. She served as director of partnerships and public relations, political director, deputy director responsible for Rock the Vote’s partnerships and programs, and finally executive director before being named president. Jehmu’s ties to Rock the Vote, however, go as far back as 1990, when as a college student at the University of Texas in Austin, she was registered to vote for the first time by a Rock the Vote volunteer. [Read more]

Faces Around the Bay:

Rennie Stockhard is pictured here at a recent event at Yoshi’s.
Stockhard has long been an advocate for children and was a teaching assistant at Ben Franklin School in San Francisco.  He is a gourmet chef and dreams of one day having his own restaurant. He has one child, Nia Stockard.  Stockard is the son of the great educator and political activist, Gloria R. Davis, for whom the Gloria R. Davis Elementary School in Bay View was named.

Photo and text by Barbara Fluhrer.

African American Historical Society Kicks Off Black Exodus Events

Ministers prepare to address packed Black Exodus meeting last Sunday Left to right; Rev. George Woodruff, Dr. Amos C. Brown, Rev. Arnold Townsend, Rev. Regnaldo Woods.

The Ecumenical Program held last Sunday at the African American Art and Cultural Complex brought together the founding churches who were instrumental in organizing the Black Exodus movement, First African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Third Baptist Church and Bethel African Methodist Episcopal church.
At Sunday’s event the 3 churches celebrated what was called the libation in remembrance of the Black Exodus declaring a year of Jubilee marking the 150th anniversary. Representatives of the three churches recited verses relating to their church’s participation in the Exodus Movement the clergy represented at the Libation celebration were Rev. Regnaldo Woods, Bethel AME Church who told the audience; Whereas great servants such as Rev. Barney Fletcher, Rev. J.B. Sanderson, Rev. Thomas Marcus Ward were sent by the African Methodist Episcopal Church to form AME congregations throughout California, including Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and members such as fugitive slave and Underground Railroad leader James Williams helped build the Church. [Read more]

Next Page »