Wilberforce University, the First Private HBCU...Page 2
Domestic Violence Group Honors Community Advocates From Around the State Page 5
Newsom Takes Action to Keep Californians Safe From Gun Violence...Page 3
Oakland Post
Respect For Marriage Act Page 7
“Where there is no vision, the people perish...” Proverbs 29:18
postnewsgroup.com
59th Year, No. 7
Weekly Edition. Edition. Aug. 3-9, 2022
Oakland’s Own Bill Russell, 88, Greatest Athlete/Civil Rights Activist Ever By Paul Cobb, Post News Group Publisher (Part 1)
Bill Russell, the center of attention in professional basketball died at 88 after becoming the most decorated athlete in all of the team sports in the United States. The star of the Boston Celtics from 1956-69, he changed the way basketball was played by applying his rare combination of basketball and track and field athleticism to fashion a defense-centered dominance. In a sport where one’s ability to score points was prized, he reversed the focus by making defensive thinking to prevent others from scoring his priority. He died on July 31, after more than 70 years of basketball and civil rights activism. William Felton Russell was born on Feb. 12, 1934, in Monroe, La., and his family moved to West Oakland in 1942 when he was 8. His father
President Barack Obama gave Bill Russell the Medal of Freedom
found work on the waterfront and in the Bay Area shipyards in the middle of World War II. They instilled in him a history of racial and family pride that helped him survive in a racially discriminatory Boston environment while playing for the Boston Celtics. In his early years his home was only three blocks east from Ron Dellums, Oakland’s first Black congressman, and just three blocks west from Frank Robinson, Oakland’s Continued on Page 8
Bill Russell visited his mentor Bill Patterson at McClymonds High School.
By Rev. Dr. Martha C. Taylor
Bill Russell invited McClymonds Coach Ben Tapscott to share his honor when he was inducted into USF hall of honorees
Oakland City Council Approves Funding for African American Healing Hubs By Tanya Dennis
Greg Hodge
Commentary
What Our Neighbors Want By Greg Hodge
The “unthinkable” happened yet again. A shooting in Oakland where parents and youngsters were doing the normal things Continued on Page 8
Last week, the Oakland City Council approved $250,000 to assist the East Bay Association of Black Psychologists (EBABP) and Oakland Frontline Healers (OFH) open two emergency mental health centers, one at True Vine Ministries and BOSS in East Oakland. Oakland Frontline Healers, a collaborative of Black-led nonprofits and medical doctors that joined together in April of 2020, to combat COVID-19 in the African American community by providing free PPE, testing, vaccines and support services. Last October the collaborative, after assessing their successful frontline status in serving the African American community determined they must address other critical issues. They decided to address Black mental health.
For the last 12 years, the chief justice of California’s State Supreme Court has been Tani Cantil-Sakauye, a history-making Filipino American, the first person of color and the second female ever to hold the position. Of course, you can say her name, but just in case, here’s a pronouncer: Con-TEEL-Sawka-OO-yay.) If a judge’s job is to stay above it all and concentrate on the work at hand, then the fact that Cantil-Sakauye is not exactly a household name
Opinion
Tani Cantil-Sakauye is California’s 28th Supreme Court Chief Justice. Wikipedia photo.
testifies to her ability to have done her job exceedingly well — impartially. With hardly an
In 2012, Dr. Eddie Glaude set off a national firestorm in a syndicated article argued “The Black Church, as we’ve known it, is dead. The idea of this venerable institution as central to black life and as a repository for the social and moral conscience of the nation has all but disappeared.” The phrase “as we have known it.” seems to refer to a former way that the Black Church was viewed. Formerly, the Black Church was the center of the community and the community was the black church; we operated in one collective voice on social justice issues that adversely impacted the Black community. Black people contextualized the meaning of the sacred text that God is on the side of op-
pressed people as recorded in the Exodus text, and in the first sermon Jesus preached recorded in Luke 4:18, Jesus declared that his mission was to set the captives free. As we have known it, the Black Church is where we organized marches, and strategized how to successfully boycott businesses. The Montgomery Bus Boycott is one such example. As we have known it, through collective efforts, we put pressure on the government for equal rights. As we have known it, we fought to dismantle oppression. As we have known it, according to C. Eric Lincoln “The black Church as a self-conscious, self-assertive, inner-directed institution was born when a new generation of Black people refused to be called “Negroes consciously renamed themselves by identiContinued on Page 8
Let’s come together to stop this killing snake
Vice-Mayor Rebecca Kaplan spearheaded the City Council to approve $250,000 of City funds towards the training of “culturally congruent” behavioral specialists and frontline workers to support mental wellness in the African American community.
Reaching out to the East Bay Association of Black Psychologists, Oakland Frontline Healers discovered that providing men-
Dr. Wade Nobles says the healing hubs proposed by Oakland Front Line Healers will be a first in addressing specific traumas African Americans experience daily living in a racist environment.
tal health services specifically to Black folks would be more detailed then simply securing a space Continued on Page 8
Can You Name the Chief Justice of California’s Supreme Court? Get To Know Tani Cantil-Sakauye Before She Steps Down By Emil Guillermo
Are We Still The Black Church?
objection. Without making the news. That’s why I was shocked to hear Cantil-Sakauye’s announced her retirement on July 27 at age 62. Cantil-Sakauye described the reaction from colleagues about news of her departure as “moans and groans and exclamations of concern and dismay and congratulations.” But just marvel at what she’s left us. A state judicial environment where consensus is enabled in the pursuit of fairness under the rule of law. Instead of a fragmented court constantly drawn into issues of rancor and division, California’s high court has been collegial and focused on
its job. It’s a court that in CantilSakauye’s words is now “solid and sustainable.” And perhaps that is the reason she has set a retirement date of January 1. Appointed by then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, Cantil-Sakauye took her oath in 2011. She’s guided the court system as its top administrator through budget cuts to budget surpluses, through COVID-19 shutdowns to ideological stagnation. Once seen as a stodgy conservative bunch, with CantilSakauye at the helm the high court has evolved into an institution shaped by Governor Continued on Page 8
By Tom Bowden a.k.a (Terrible Tom)
People it’s now time enough, lives have been taken, We the churches, in public, of Oakland, it’s time to do some shaking, from the lower bottom to Brookfield In our area we will take what we’ve got to come together and stop this killing snake we can’t walk down our streets in any part of town cuz when the shooting starts we’ve got to hit the ground ducking and dodging and running, no more will our families take this let’s come together it’s time to kill that snake We can Make a difference by making a public stand Our mayor and electeds alone can’t do it so let’s give them a hand when you see a shooting or killing going on don’t try to be a hero, but be brave enough to use your phone to get a license number or description It will help a lot indeed. So people let’s come together, together is what we need. Some people don’t want to get involved, this we know is true, but don’t wait until the killing and shooting happens to your loved ones Oh, they said that snitches get stitches what about our babies and dishes I’m out.