The Middle Passage: No Turning Back Page 2
Bidenâs Inauguration Marked By Swag and Magic of Black, Brown Folks...P3
Mindfulyou.life App Designed to Support Holistic Wellbeing for Black People Page 6
General Lloyd Austin is First Black U.S. Secretary of Defense Page 5
Oakland Post âWhere there is no vision, the people perish...â Proverbs 29:18
postnewsgroup.com
57th Year, No. 32
Weekly Edition. Edition. Jan. 27-Feb. 2, 2021
Community Support Needed to Ensure Progress Addressing City of Oakland Contracting Disparities Beverly Robinson
Robinson Retires From OUSD After 40 Years of Service By Clifford L. Williams
After a career in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), spanning over 40 years, Beverly Robinson retired on January 15. Her next full-time project: âresuming my joy of traveling when itâs safe.â Robinson served as an Instructional Assistant, Special Education teacher and administrator for OUSD. She got her first job as an A.I. at Claremont Middle School right after graduating from UC. Berkeley in 1977 under Title I funding and worked in that position for two years. She later returned to school to earn her teaching credentials. Robinson was then hired as a special education teacher in 1981 and taught early childhood pupils for seven years at Ralph Bunche Center in West Oakland. At Manzanita Elementary School and Manzanita Child Development Center, where she taught for 12 years, Robinson pioneered one of the first integrated pre-school programs to include children with disabilities. Robinson later became a site administrator in the Early Childhood Education Dept. with responsibility for developing and implementing programs for children aged 3 to 9 years old in multiple child development centers. She supervised child development centers in North, West and East Oakland for 10 years. As a site administrator, she worked with Jewish Family Services to provide a consultation model of mental health care services to children, families and staff. Through a federally funded Early Reading First grant, she was part of the implementation of classroom learning strategies contributing to the early literacy of pre-schoolers and the improvement of their standardized assessment scores. In her last position, Robinson was a home and hospital teacher. Here, her students had disabilities who were ill and medically fragile. Because her students were not permitted to attend school, she would drive to Continued on Page 10
By Loren Taylor
Over the past six weeks, The Oakland Post has run several articles on the significant disparities facing Black and women-owned businesses who pursue city contracts. We are focusing on this topic so much because the millions of dollars that should have come to the Black community are sorely needed to help improve the educational, economic, and health outcomes of our community. Legislation proposed by District 6 Councilmember Loren Taylor is intended to bring those millions of dollars back to the Black community. As reported in 2017 Race & Gender Disparity Study, African-American companies were awarded 3.21% of the
Race & Gender Disparity Study. Graphics from postnewsgroup.com
prime construction contracts and only 0.32% of total construction contract dollars. As it relates to professional services, African-American companies received 2.92% of prime contracts and 0.91% of total dollars. According to Taylor, âThese numbers are particularly concerning seeing that African Americans comprise 25% of Oaklandâs population.â In conjunction with the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce and the Oakland Post News Group, Taylor is hosting a virtual town hall on Saturday, February 13 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. During this meeting di-
verse business owners will hear directly from the councilmember on his proposed solutions to address the cityâs current contracting disparities. This will also be an opportunity for companies to learn more about local resources available and share insight on what is still needed. To ensure these new policies move forward, community members are invited to attend the upcoming City Council Meeting on Tuesday, February 16 at 1:30 p.m. and e-mail the City Council at council@oaklandca.gov. Loren Taylor is the District 6 councilmember for the City of Oakland
Your Student Loans Are Paused â But Not Yet Pardoned By Quinci LeGardye California Black Media
On January 20, at the request of Pres. Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it would extend the federal student loan payment moratorium, suspending payments on student loans through Sept. 30, 2021. The interest rates on these loans will also stay at 0% until then. Federal student loan payments have been suspended since March 2020 as part of the federal governmentâs economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The moratorium extension came on the day of Bidenâs inauguration, and less than two weeks before the previous pause on payments was
Congresswoman Barbara Lee
Congresswoman Barbara Lee to Chair Powerful Foreign Affairs Subcommittee By Sean Ryan
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-13), senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, on Monday was named the new Chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS). Chairwoman Lee will be the first African American member of Congress to serve as chair of the subcommittee, which funds many of the nondefense inter-
national affairs activities of the United States. The subcommittee funds the State Department and other Foreign Operations accounts and is one of the 12 annual appropriations acts that fund the federal government each fiscal year. Of the 12 distinct appropriations measures used to fund federal programs and activities, the SFOPS subcommittee has jurisdiction over funding U.S. Continued on Page 10
Oakland Education Town Hall: âThe Future of Oakland Schools,â Feb. 4
Oakland parents, students, teachers, and community members are invited to join a virtual Oakland Education Town Hall on Thursday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. The town hall will offer a free parent workshop on navigating the challenges in remote learning. The event will also explore the future of Oakland public schools in a community discussion with Oakland school board members. This discussion will address permanent closures of public schools as a racial justice issue.
set to expire on January 31. The request to extend the moratorium was one of 17 executive actions Biden signed on his first day in office. An estimated 41 million Americans will benefit from the extended pause on payments.
âToo many Americans are struggling to pay for basic necessities and to provide for their families. They should not be forced to choose between paying their student loans and put-
Baseball Hall-of-Famer, Home Run Master, Hank Aaron, Dies at 86
Continued on Page 10
Oakland: Firefighters, City Officials Resolve Differences Over Reduction In Service By Keith Burbank, Bay City News Service
Firefighters and city officials in Oakland reached an agreement to take one engine company off the street to help address a budget shortfall in the city, fire officials said Friday. Originally, the equivalent of 2.5 companies were going to be removed on a rotating basis for about six months, fire spokesman Michael Hunt said. Oakland is working to close a $62 million fiscal year 202021 General Purpose Fund year-end deficit and the original fire department plan would have saved about $4 million.
Henry Louis Aaron. Photo courtesy of en.wikipedia.org By Kiki
Oakland Fire Department. Photo courtesy of twitter. com
The new plan will go into effect Wednesday, last about 20 weeks and save about $1 million, Hunt said. If two engines were removed from the streets, it was likely to affect response times, interim
Fire Chief Melinda Drayton said in a Jan. 15 letter to all department staff. âThis plan on a temporary rotating basis is likely to have Continued on Page 10
Henry Louis Aaron was born Feb. 5, 1934, in Mobile, Ala. He died on January 22, 2021, in Atlanta, Ga. His cause of death was listed as natural causes. Aaron is most renowned for breaking Babe Ruthâs homerun record in 1973 with 715 career homeruns and went on to attain 755 career homeruns. He was lauded for this achievement, breaking a record long held by Ruth, a beloved figure before professional baseball
was integrated. Aaron received a plaque from the U.S. Postal Service for receiving more mail, 930,000 pieces than any other non-politician after breaking the homerun record. A great deal of it was hate mail. Aaron experienced racism and segregation throughout his life. Aaron started his career with the Negro Leagues (classified as major leagues by Major League Baseball in December 2020), Indianapolis Clowns in 1952 and Continued on Page 10