City Government

Lynette McElhaney to Serve as New President of Black Elected Officials of the East Bay

Published

5 years ago

January 23, 2020

Black Elected Officials (BEO) of the East Bay announced the election of Lynette Gibson McElhaney as the new President of the Board of Directors. The Oakland Councilwoman succeeds founding Board President and Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson. Gibson McElhaney assumes the presidency as BEO looks to aggressively grow its geographic footprint over the coming months to further expand its services and membership reach. The Councilwoman will also oversee the organization’s transition from being volunteer-led to having a professional paid staffing structure.

A member of the Board of Directors for four years, prior to becoming President, Councilwoman Gibson McElhaney served as BEO’s Board Secretary. Gibson McElhaney also makes history as the first women to serve as Board President since the organization’s founding in 2001.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to serve in this capacity at such a time as this,” said Gibson McElhaney. “This is an incredibly exciting time for our Black elected leaders to confront persistent inequities and confront bigotry and bias at every level.”

BEO also announced the hiring of Kimberly Ellis as a Special Advisor to the Board, providing strategic advice and counsel on organizational and resource development. For nearly a decade, Ellis led Emerge California (the state’s premier training program for women to run for office) with incredible success, growing what had been a regional training program into a statewide electoral powerhouse for Democratic women, earning her the reputation for revolutionizing Democratic politics in the Golden State.

As a nonprofit public benefit corporation founded in 2001, the mission of BEO is to improve the quality of life for all African Americans by enhancing the quantity and quality of Black elected representation.

Today, the organization consists of over 100 elected and appointed officials from throughout the region with BEO leaders holding key elected positions representing over 2 million residents throughout the greater Bay Area.

BEO will host an Officer’s Welcome Reception from 6:00 – 8:00pm on Wednesday, January 29th at Lemat Ethiopian Restaurant in Berkeley

For more information contact blackelecteds@gmail.com

Kimberly Ellis, Black Elected Officials

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Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

Published

6 days ago

June 7, 2025

Oakland Post

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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

2 weeks 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.