City Government

Oakland Declares May 6 “Father Jay Mathews Day”

Published

11 years ago

May 8, 2014

The Oakland City Council this week honored beloved local priest Father Jay Mathews, who is celebrating his 40th anniversary in the priesthood and 25 years of service at Saint Benedict’s Church in East Oakland.

A City Council resolution proclaiming Tuesday, May 6 as Father Jay Mathews Day, introduced by Councilmembers Libby Schaaf and Larry Reid, passed unanimously at the Tuesday evening meeting. Father Mathews has traveled widely in the world, meeting the famous and the not so famous, said Councilmember Desley Brooks, speaking at the meeting.

< p>“He has treated each of them with kindness and love,” she said. “And he has made no distinction between the two.”

Born James Vernon Matthews II in 1948 in Berkeley, Father Mathews was ordained on May 3, 1974, as the first African-American Catholic priest in Northern California. He spent his early school years in Albany and in Oakland, graduating from Skyline High in 1966. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities and Philosophy from St. Patrick’s College, Mountain View.

He received a Master of Divinity degree from St. Patrick’s Seminary, Menlo Park, and, in 1973, he was a candidate for the Doctorate of Ministry at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley and completed his sabbatical studies in Church History at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 2000.

Besides serving at St. Benedict’s Church since 1989, he has worked as administrator at St. Cornelius Church in Richmond, administrator and Associate Pastor at St. Cyril Church in Oakland and All Saints Church in Hayward; Associate Pastor at St. Louis Bertrand Church, Oakland, Vicar for Black Catholics and In-Residence at St. Anthony Church in Oakland.

Father Mathews has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Outstanding Community Service, the Marcus Foster Educational Institute’s Distinguished Alumni Award19 and the Rose Casanave Service Award of the Black Catholic Vicariate.

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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

6 days 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.