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Book Review: The Life and Times of Jesse Perry Jr.

Published

8 years ago

November 28, 2017

Oakland Post

By Safiya-April Du Ewa

From A Northern Louisiana Village to a Northern California Village

73 years ago, in February 1944, when Jesse Perry Jr. was just 18 years old, he reported to the reception center at the Presidio in San Francisco. He’d been drafted into the World War II. His assignment was to the 3737^th Trucking Company, a segregated African- American outfit, just two years after his father moved his family to Weed, California from his birthplace in Winnfield, Louisiana. Now 92 years old, a retired, educator, World War II veteran, loving husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, world traveler, and celebrated dancer with a zest for life Perry has written his memoir.

Perry’s memoir of an enduring African-American family woven together with love, faith, education and hard work, is dedicated to his wife, Maxine of sixty-five years, his sons, Desmond, Derrick and Brian and to his grandchildren; Salina, Derrick Jr., Stephen, Allen and Quinn and to his great granddaughter, Aliana.

Perry’s story is built on vivid vignettes that represent important moments in his life. “I remember mama taking my siblings and me to what was called a ‘revival meeting’ by our circuit minister. The ‘Revival’ brought the minister to our church for three nights to ‘save souls.’ On the second night, mama looked over at me suggesting that it was time to step forward, shake the minister’s hand and commit my soul to the Lord.” This first vignette is entitled, ‘Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey.’ Perry was just ten years old.

Perry recounts some perilous World War II stories. “Following the famous ‘Battle of the Bulge’, I was assigned to the 122^nd Quartermaster Battalion Mobile Headquarters located in Munich where I became Operations Sergeant. In April of 1946, Perry returned home from war with the high hopes of getting an education and a job. “We African- American servicemen faced many challenges upon our return to civil life following World War II.” Perry recalls, “There were even hangings of Black veterans in the South.”

In the summer of 1958 Perry completed a teacher training program in San Francisco and became the first African-American male to teach English at the High School level in Oakland. But one of Perry’s pedagogical achievements for which he is most proud of, was helping his father learn to write his name. “I would notice dad signing pay checks with an X. I asked my father if he would like to learn how to write his name. He said, ‘I sure would son, will you teach me?”’ Perry was just twelve years old.

As we peer into Perry’s life saga we experience the summer of 1948 when Perry participated in what he believed to be the first ‘sit-in,’ in Los Angeles, California, organized by the NAACP in collaboration with the Congress of Racial Equality. We meet renowned figures like, Maya Angelou and Alex Haley. We share the numbing affect left upon Perry when Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. was killed.

In 2012, Perry was awarded one of his most prized and unexpected honors, an ‘Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters’ awarded by the American Baptist Seminary of West Berkeley. In the fall of 2016 Perry received an ‘Honor Flight,’ a free flight and accommodations to the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. for veterans of the Second World War who had reached 90 years or older.

We learn of the impassioned moment when Perry was named, Dean of the ‘Leadership Institute’ at Allen Temple Baptist Church in 1998. “I love the man. He served Allen Temple for more than 40 years,” says Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr., retired Pastor of Allen Temple Baptist Church. “He affirms life.”

On August 17, 2017, Perry celebrated his 92^nd birthday, and on August 16^th, he and his wife Maxine celebrated their 65^th wedding anniversary. Perry’s book can be purchased at Marcus Book Stores, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, CA, Amazon.com, and Xulonpress.com.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

3 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

4 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

6 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke