Events

History-making Civil Rights Activists to Speak at Black History Month Celebration

Published

11 years ago

January 31, 2015

San Leandro will celebrate African American History Month on Saturday, Feb. 7 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Main Library at 300 Estudillo Ave. in downtown San Leandro.

Admission is free. Guest speakers will include Carol Ruth Silver and Freddye M. Davis, who were both activists in the Civil Rights Movement.

Ms. Silver’s will discuss her experience as a Freedom Rider.

The Freedom Riders, a group of civil rights activists, in 1961 travelled on interstate buses into the southern regions of the United States to test U.S. Supreme Court rulings that outlawed segregation in interstate bus terminal facilities.

Brutality and arrests inflicted on the Riders called national and worldwide attention to the disregard for federal law and local violence that was used to enforce segregation.

“The Freedom Riders as well as countless other organizations and individuals peacefully challenged what was an inherently unjust system of segregation that existed in some regions of the United States,” said Mayor Cutter.

Carol Ruth Silver was arrested and jailed as a Freedom Rider along with other activists. At the time of her arrest, she was a 22-year-old recent college graduate from Massachusetts.

She spent the next 40 days in Mississippi jail cells. She chronicled her horrifying experiences on hidden scraps of paper and smuggled them out upon release.

From these notes she published Freedom Rider Diary 50 years later.

Silver graduated from law school in 1964 and spent her post-law school internship working for African-American attorney Floyd McKissick, who later became head of the Congress for Racial Equality.

From 1977–1989, she served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, working with LGBT pioneer Harvey Milk on legislation.

Silver now devotes her energy to pro bono educational projects.

Freddye M. Davis, president of the Hayward Branch of the NAACP, will speak on her personal experiences during the civil rights movement.

Freddye Davis.

She was one of two NAACP members honored as “Woman of the Year” by the California State Legislature in 2006 for her strength as a crusader for civil rights.

Since moving to Hayward in 1967, Ms. Davis has continued her efforts in creating greater awareness on race equality and has been President of the Hayward Branch since 1990.

A book-signing session for Silver and a reception will follow for both honored guests.

For more information, please call the Library Information Desk at (510) 577-3971.

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Arts and Culture

Fayeth Gardens Holds 3rd Annual Kwanzaa Celebration at Hayward City Hall on Dec. 28

Kwanzaa celebrates seven principles – Nguzu Saba – that support an ideal of community, beginning from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. Those principles, in Swahili, are: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work & Responsibility), Ujamaa (Collective Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity) and Imani (Faith).

Published

1 day ago

December 14, 2025

Oakland Post

The Pride and Joy Band performed at the first annual Kwanzaa celebration sponsored by Fayeth Gardens. Courtesy photo.

Entertainment, vendors, and special honors for Sankofa Lifetime Achievement awardees

Special to The Post

Celebrating Ujima, the principle of ‘Collective Work and Responsibility,’ Fayeth Gardens’ 3^rd Annual Kwanzaa Celebration will be held on Dec. 28, from 12 noon to 5 p.m.

Kwanzaa celebrates seven principles – Nguzu Saba – that support an ideal of community, beginning from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1.

Those principles, in Swahili, are: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work & Responsibility), Ujamaa (Collective Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity) and Imani (Faith).

The free event at Hayward City Hall at 777 B St. will feature live entertainment, a guest speaker, awards for community activists whose work reflects the principle of Ujima, vendors and an honoring of the ancestors by Awon Ohun Omnira (Voices of Freedom).

On stage will be the Touch of Class Band, a New Orleans Second-Line Band, and the California Griot Storytellers. Bring the children to have fun in the Kids Korner.

Velda Goe, who has been celebrating Kwanzaa since it started in the 1960s, noticed there was no public celebration of the holiday in Hayward when she moved to the city in 2008.

“I started it a couple of years ago,” she said, “and hopefully it will continue just like the cultural events by other nationalities (in Hayward). The Afro-descendent people of Hayward deserve cultural recognition as well.”

Goe also believes it’s important that Kwanzaa gets its due because “there are so many misconceptions,” particularly by people of other nationalities, who are under the impression “that Kwanzaa is a cult, a religion, or replaces Christmas.”

The celebration, which is open to all, can have the effect of helping guests see that Kwanzaa’a principles and purpose are common to all

This year’s Sankofa Lifetime Awardees are:

Mrs. Freddye M. Davis: President of the South Hayward NAACP
•Baba Arnold X.C. Perkins: Co-founder of the Brotherhood of Elders
•Frederick Jordan,: Legendary founder of F.E. Jordan & Associates and the Design Engineer for the Charles P. Howard Container Terminal at the Port of Oakland + 1,000 Projects

Come dressed up in your best African wear to enter a raffle for a prize for best-dressed Afrocentric King and Queen.A free, healthy soul food lunch is available with an Eventbrite ticket, which can be found at for free lunch is available from for 11:30 to 12 p.m.

In its third year, the event is the brainchild of Velda Goe, founder of Fayeth Gardens, a community planting site to educate and provide a means for urban dwellers to grow healthy food for their families and develop life-sustaining eating habits.

Interested in being a vendor, volunteer, or sponsor? Reach out to FayethGardens@gmail.com

For tickets, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fayeth-gardens-3rd-annual-kwanzaa-celebration-at-hayward-city-hall-tickets-1974966953322