Activism

Fund Launched to Aid “Cherished” Black Communities Impacted by Fires

For thousands of displaced Black residents like those mentioned by McKenzie, the road to rebuild is just beginning. Historic and systemic inequities add hurdles to the prospect of rebuilding. The Black LA Relief & Recovery Fund seeks to address those critical challenges so Black communities can return, reclaim, and rebuild. The days, months, and years ahead will require hope, healing, and our collective resources to recover. 

Published

4 months ago

January 25, 2025

Oakland Post

Marc Philpart, Executive Director of the California Black Freedom Fund, emphasized that every legislator and the Governor of California should support the coalition's efforts. (File photo by Antonio Ray Harvey, CBM)

By Edward Henderson and Charlene Muhammad, California Black Media

The California Black Freedom Fund (CBFF) and California Community Foundation have partnered to launch the Black LA Relief & Recovery Fund to support community organizations on the ground working to meet the immediate and long-term needs of Black communities displaced by the wildfires. The fund will particularly benefit residents of Altadena, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County that has historically been a haven for Black homeowners who could not at one point buy homes elsewhere because of redlining.

“Over the last few days, we have gained a better sense of how expansive the devastation was, and we decided we needed to take action,” Marc Philpart, CEO of CBFF told California Black Media.

“Black families that had settled in that region really did so because those were the only regions that they could settle in, so we wanted to be a part of helping those individuals who were impacted find some relief and begin to start the long road to recovery.”

The recent fires in Los Angeles County have claimed 25 lives, burned over 40,000 acres of land, forced more than 150,000 people to evacuate and caused nearly $275 billion in damages.

Historically Black communities in Altadena and Pasadena have been hit particularly hard by this disaster.

Patrice Marshall McKenzie, a representative of Pasadena Unified School District 5, spoke with California Black Media about the scale of the devastation.

“I am blessed that my immediate home, is not threatened, but I cannot begin to count the number of people whose homes are,” McKenize said. “We are really working to support families, standing up locations to provide food to families, providing childcare resources to parents who still have to go to work and being able to support the needs of our students while they’re unable to be on campus full time.”

McKenzie highlighted the need for donations for many of the displaced individuals living in hotels.

“In the wake of these devastating fires, we can’t just rebuild. We must ensure communities heal and flourish for generations to come. This is about more than recovery. It’s about restoring the heart and soul of neighborhoods that hold so much history, culture, and promise,” said Miguel Santana, President and CEO of the California Community Foundation said in a statement.

Money raised by the fund will go to 12 grassroots organizations vetted by CBFF that are on the frontlines of the disaster, giving aid, counseling, housing, food rations, and other services to those most in need in the Pasadena and Altadena area.

“We’re in a prime position to support them,” said Philpart. “Many of these organizations have been starved. They haven’t had the investment that’s necessary for them to be able to do the work that’s needed in this critical moment.”

For more information or to make a donation to the Black LA Relief & Recovery Fund, please visit https://www.pledge.to/BlackLA or text BlackLA to 707070.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

39 minutes ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.