Dis Oakwood University Crowned the 35th Honda Campus All-Star Challenge National Champion ... see page 2
Pastor Talia Benet: An Advocate for Economic Development ... see page 2
California Assembly Passes Bill to End Digital Discrimination ... see page 6
U.S. Rep. Kamlager-Dove Leads Discussion on Improving Black Student Learning, Test Scores ... see page 9
Oakland Post “Where there is no vision, the people perish...” Proverbs 29:18
61st Year, No. 16
Weekly Edition. Edition. April 17 - 23, 2024
postnewsgroup.com
Former Holy Names University Education Students Struggle to Complete Credentials
Alameda District Attorney Pamela Price is Considering Legal Action if Recall Makes it to Ballot
Call on HNU Trustees to Honor Commitment to Pay Teacher Training Scholarships
CLTRE Keeper Program Director Ashley Garner. Photo courtesy of California Black Media.
Funds for Down Payments and Credit Repair Given to Black First-Time Homebuyers Alameda County District
By McKenzie jackson California Black Media Former Holy Names students who are teaching while finishing their teacher training are shown online during a Zoom meeting. Courtesy photo.
By Ken Epstein
A group of former Holy Names University (HNU) education students are seeking support from local leaders and members of the public to push the HNU Board of Trustees to honor its commitment to use a still existing $55 million endowment to pay tuition for its education students who are now at other teacher training institutions after the university closed and abandoned them. HNU trustees still administer the affairs of the university, though they closed the school in Spring 2023 and sold the campus to private real estate developers.
Many of HNU’s former education students currently teach in public, charter, and private school classrooms around the Bay Area while struggling to pay the high expenses of finishing their teaching credentials, often at the cost of over $1,300 a unit. About 90 former HNU education students signed a letter to Attorney General Rob Bonta, asking the institution’s trustees to use the $55 million endowment for its intended purpose, which was left to the university as part of an estate to support training for new East Bay teachers. The HNU Board responded in Continued on page 10
The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) won a $10,000 fair housing settlement last November against a property management company, CIM Group LP, a global real estate company headquartered in Los Angeles, and property owner, RACR Sora, LLC, for implementing a blanket ban on renting to tenants with criminal histories at Sora Apartments in Inglewood. Three months earlier, the department, which enforces California’s civil rights laws, won another $20,000 civil rights settlement against a Lemon Grove property manager, who had targeted a Black tenant with a series of racist actions and threats of violence. CRD Director Kevin Kish said the department investigates cases of
Called a ‘Miracle’ School, Oakland’s Emiliano Zapata Street Academy Celebrates 50 Years
Students at Emiliano Zapata Street Academy hold a community circle for International Women’s Day. Photo by Nick Young.
By Post Staff
In 1970, high school graduation rates for Black students in the U.S. were half those of whites. Civil rights protests turned this reality into a big issue and these protests made possible the birth of a truly unique school like the Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy. Over the years, it has been featured in several local news stories. One network touted it as ‘the
miracle school located at 417 29th St. And, perhaps miraculously, the school will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a community party on Saturday April 27 at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church. While the system called kids drop-outs, the organizers of the Street Academy said they were actually being pushed out by an impersonal and bureaucratic system. Whereas regular high school stu-
dents had six or seven classes a day with no adult that really got to know them, the Street Academy created a “consulting teacher” model with one adult for every 20 students. The consulting teacher would get to know them and their families well and stay with them throughout their years in high school. While other schools had history classes focused through the lens of European accomplishments, Street Academy was the first high school to require that every student take an ethnic studies class And Street Academy had staff with activist mindsets. Bernard Stringer, the history teacher, for example, had been on strike as a student at San Francisco State. Betsy Schulz had been part of VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) a sort of stateside Peace Corps. Roger Chavarin had been an activist in
‘Ngingubani:’ Who Am I?
How DNA and Oral History Helps Black Youth Connect to Tribal Roots
Participants of the program gather for a cultural celebration with family members shortly following their reconnection. Courtesy photo. By Chelsea Trautman
‘I didn’t know who I was.’
This was not an uncommon
belief for teenage boys plucked
from the streets of Johannesburg,
South Africa. Often disconnected
from their families and living on
the streets, they had little evidence
of strong family ties. Maybe their story sounds familiar to you. Maybe you find yourself asking similar Continued on page 10
apparent racial bias in housing and sometimes more subtle acts of prejudice like nuisance-free or crimefree housing policies or holding tenants to different standards based on their race. Kish said, “People will get evicted if they call the police. This can negatively impact victims of domestic violence. We also see these no-crime ordinances, or nocrime policies, used in racially discriminatory ways. If there is some kind of incident, and the police are called and it involves a Black family, then they get evicted, but other folks aren’t necessarily evicted.” On April 11,1968, a week after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, President Lydon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination Continued on page 10
the Latino community. As a result, many of the students have shown a desire to help the community and Street Academy graduates have had an impact within and beyond the school. Ze Segundo and Corrina Gould worked for the American Friends Service Committee. Gould later became a leader of the Ohlone people and has led in the repatriation of Ohlone land through her organization, the Segorea Te Land Trust Ana Guadalupe Aviles graduated in 1990 and became a bilingual mental health therapist and a member of the Street Academy board. Bukola (Lara) Lawal and Jaron Epstein graduated from Street Academy, went to college, and returned to the school as educators. The staff has influenced other schools as well. Gina Hill and Monica Vaughan worked at the Street Academy for many years and carried its practices into their new leadership responsibilities at Alameda County and the Oakland Unified School District level. Street Academy also has a unique travel club: Students have visited Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti and France. This year, some students are going to Italy. The school has had many “angels” over the years, people who went out of their way to make sure the school survived. Former school board members, Sylvester Hodges and Peggy Stinnett, now deceased, were pivotal, as were the owners and publishers of this newspaper, Gay and Paul Cobb. Several television networks have aired shows about the Street Academy. One of them referred to it as the “Miracle School.” The ‘Miracle School’ celebrates its 50th birthday this year The 50th anniversary celebration will be at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, 521 29th St., in Oakland from 1-5 p.m. Web site - https:// www.streetacademy.online/
Attorney Pamela Price speaks with supporters at a ‘#DECLINE TO SIGN’ rally in opposition of the recall. Photo: Pamela Price via Facebook. By Magaly Muñoz
The Alameda County Registrar of Voters announced Monday that they had certified the required number of signatures to trigger a recall election against Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. Recall supporters submitted 123,374 signatures before the March 5 deadline, although only needing 73,195 valid signatures to trigger a special election. After the Registrar of Voters (ROV) was unable to verify the needed amount through a random sampling, they proceeded to manually count the signatures, which resulted in 74,757 signatures verified.
Save Alameda For Everyone (SAFE), one of the two primary recall groups, celebrated their success in a press release Monday afternoon, stating they were “thrilled” for reaching this milestone towards ensuring “accountability and transparency in the District Attorney’s office.” “We are confident that this grassroots movement will pave the way for positive change and a brighter future for all residents and businesses in Alameda County,” Carl Chan, SAFE’s Principal Officer, said in the statement. Brenda Grisham, the other primary officer of SAFE, told the Post that they’re excited that the efforts of the volunteers and all involved with the campaign are paying off “Our effort is just about public safety. Our main focus is keeping the citizens of Alameda County safe,” Grisham said. SAFE initiated its efforts only seven months into Price’s administration, a point that Grisham made when discussing how long Price had to prove herself in the District Attorney role. She claimed that Price had six months to meet with families of victims and prosecute perpetrators of those crimes to the fullest extent of the law, but instead chose to do the opposite and not protect the people in the community as crime and concerns for public safety continue to rise. SAFE is calling on the AlamContinued on page 10
Jovanka Beckles will face Jesse Arreguín in November in State Senate District 7 runoff election. File photo of Arreguín, Beckles photo by Ken Epstein.
In Crowded Race, Jovanka Beckles Wins Spot in November Runoff for State Senate
By Ken Epstein
AC Transit Board Director Jovanka Beckles came in second place in the six-way primary race for the State Senate District 7 seat to represent Oakland and Berkeley, placing her in the runoff race in November against Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín to replace Sen.
Nancy Skinner, who termed out. Beckles, writing on social media, emphasized that she had won with community support though the leading candidate was way ahead in campaign spending. “Despite being vastly underfundraised, we have emerged vicContinued on page 10
FACES AROUND THE BAY:
Visual Artist Akaysha Calhoun
Akaysha Calhoun. Photo by C. Calhoun.
By Barbara Fluhrer
Akaysha Calhoun, great-granddaughter of Doctors Raye and Julian Richardson (founders of Marcus Books) was born in Berkeley, CA in 2001 to Cherysse and James Calhoun. She created and shared her short stories, complete with illustrations, with her second grade class. “My teacher sat me in front of the class,
and my classmates listened to the stories, pointing at the pictures.” In middle school she continued drawing and learning about different artists and art forms. When her school closed after the seventh grade, Calhoun applied to Oakland School of the Arts (OSA). She studied fine arts with some of her favorite teachers to date. “Before OSA, I was painting whatever, but there I had to be more focused and consistent. I had wonderful and supportive teachers who understood my need to see myself reflected in my art.” Calhoun attended an online high school where she took classes at Laney Community College concurrently with her high school curriculum, allowing her to finish high school early. Continued on page 10