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Official Name Sought for the Concord Hill Regional Park

Published

5 years ago

September 16, 2020

Top Photo: Oak Tree with a view of Mount Diablo (Photo by Stephen Joseph). Bottom Zoom photo from left: EBRD Board members Dee Rosario, Ayn Wieskamp, Ellen Corbett. Bottom right: Lewis Thrower representing Citizens for Historical Equity.

The East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors is searching for a new name for the Park District’s 2,540 acre Concord Hills Regional Park that was acquired from the Navy earlier this year.

The Park includes a joint visitor center with the National Park Service highlighting the history of the Port Chicago, the Naval Magazine National Memorial, and the Diablo Valley. This is also the former site of the Concord Naval Weapons Station, and Port Chicago, when on July 17, 1944, over 5,000 tons of munitions at Port Chicago exploded, killing 320 mostly enlisted African American sailors, which accounted for a quarter of all African American deaths in World War II and highlighted racial inequality within the Navy.

After the explosion, 50 sailors, eventually known as the Port Chicago 50, refused to return to load munitions because no safety measures had been implemented, and were sentenced to 15 years in prison.

They were released at the end of the war. A white lieutenant and later, Thurgood Marshall, defended these men at their trial. “This is not 50 men on trial for mutiny,” Marshall said, “This is the Navy on trial for its whole vicious policy toward Negroes.”

Today, names are being sought for the naming of the Concord Hills Regional Park. One name is the “Thurgood Marshall Regional Park” to honor the life and work of the Supreme Court Justice who fought for the civil rights of both Native and African Americans, especially the Port Chicago 50.

The District has planned to name the Park the “Chupcan Territories Regional Park” in honor of the Bay Miwok Indian tribes who lived in central and eastern Contra Costa County. They also welcomed input from the Ohlone, Bay Miwok, Muwekma, and or Delta Miwok Indian tribes.

The Park District will welcome the community involvement and not rush the naming process. They have delayed the naming selection to ensure that all voices can be heard.

During a Board of Directors video conference meeting on Sept. 3 for the naming selection of Concord Hills, Diana McDaniel, representing the Friends of the Port Chicago National Memorial, shared her concern that the Port Chicago story will be lost, and suggested the name Port Chicago Memorial Regional Park.

Lewis Thrower, the spokesperson for Citizens for Historical Equity, said that people of color are underrepresented in East Bay Regional Park names as there are currently no regional parks named after African Americans in Contra Costa County.

Thrower and Citizens for Historical Equity recommend renaming the Concord Hills Regional Park to “Thurgood Marshall Regional Park,” and one or more neighboring parks to “Chupcan Territories Regional Park” to honor the Native tribes in Concord.

For more information, go to https://www.change.org/p/east-bay-regional-park-district-rename-bay-area-park-to-honor-thurgood-marshall?recruiter=1145248678&recruited_by_id=310cba10-ea12-11ea-86a37b226e9af80e&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard

Michelle Snider

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.

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Michelle Snider

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

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

Published

2 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

1 week 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.