Bay Area

Opinion: Pray and Vote

Published

5 years ago

April 2, 2020

Rev. Amos Brown

Rev. Amos
Brown

America faces two existential dangers today. One of them infects the human body. The other infects the body politic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound consequences for the entire nation. The infection threatens millions of lives. Every day, we watch the news and see and hear those who fancy themselves as leaders call for prayer for God to cure the virus.

Prayer is appropriate. Prayer is powerful. But prayer alone will not solve the public health crisis we face. Only action by a united nation will.

The administration in Washington also has had profound consequences for the entire nation. The political disaster that has befallen us threatens millions of Americans, especially people of color and the marginalized.

Every day, we see and hear young people yearn for a radical change in November, hoping that it will cure the nation of the failure of leadership and character in the White HouseHope is needed. Hope is powerful. But hope alone will not solve the political disaster that has befallen our nation. Only action by a united electorate will.

Yet I fear we are in danger of losing both battles because of pervasive apathy and cynicism.

Our country is in the grips of nationalism driven by a president who has led an assault on the poor and on the Black and Brown people of this country. The past few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic have demonstrated that in the starkest terms. It is only the latest example of how our nation is regressing toward a time that we cannot and must not relive.

That will happen without the change in leadership that young people hope for — yet I am gravely concerned that too many of them will sit on the sidelines this fall rather than unite behind a candidate that can succeed at the polls and defeat this racist regime.

I came of age as a Black man in Mississippi in an era of legalized segregation and lynchings. In 1955, I was 14 years old — the same age as Emmett Till, a Black teenager who was beaten, mutilated, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River by two white men who were promptly acquitted. Just a few weeks before Till’s murder, on May 7, Rev. George Washington Lee was killed by three shotgun blasts because he dared, as a Black man, to register to vote in Belzoni.

When Black leaders like Rev. Lee were sacrificing their lives to secure their right to vote, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. observed that many Blacks who could vote safely were not going to the polls. He warned them that “In the past, apathy was a moral failure. Today, it is a form of moral and political suicide.”

His words ring true today.

Young people born during the past three decades have enjoyed a great privilege. They have grown up in an era with strong civil rights protections enshrined in the law. They have no memories of the decades of struggle that preceded the first civil rights laws, of the long fights in the courts and in society in the years that followed. They have not seen and cannot truly imagine what we once were, and could become again.

Some may believe their vote doesn’t matter. Others insist that it must be their candidate who wins the Democratic nomination or they will refuse to unite with the rest of the party to defeat Trump.

Either path is as fatal as the virus we are now fighting.

Four more years of the present administration will not cure the country’s ills, or clear the path for a radical change in the nation’s direction. On the contrary, we would see the nationalism and racism of today entrenched, along with a reactionary Supreme Court and a conservative federal judiciary that would remain in place for two generations. We would continue our decline back toward the kind of nation where I grew up, and where no one should ever again have to live.

We cannot pray to be saved from that fate or hope that things will change. We all must unite at the voting booth in November — every age, color and faith — to cure our nation before the infection of the body politic becomes fatal.

The Rev. Amos Brown is President of the San Francisco NAACP and Pastor of the Third Baptist Church in the city’s Fillmore District at 1290 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94115, Suite 109; (415) 922-0650, Fax: (415) 922-0856.

Rev. Amos Brown

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Asm. Corey Jackson Proposes Safe Parking for Homeless College Students Sleeping in Cars

Assemblymember Corey Jackson (D-Moreno Valley), a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), is the author of AB 90, which would require community colleges and California State University campuses to create overnight parking programs where students can sleep safely in their vehicles. With one in four community college students in California experiencing homelessness in the past year, Jackson says the state must act urgently.

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5 days ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Assemblymember Corey Jackson. File photo.

By Bo Tefu
California Black Media

As California’s housing crisis continues to impact students, new legislation, Assembly Bill (AB) 90, promises to allow college students without stable housing to sleep in their cars on campus, offering a stark but practical solution aimed at immediate relief.

“This just deals with the harsh realities that we find ourselves in,” he said at a recent hearing.

The bill passed its first committee vote and is gaining attention as housing affordability remains a top concern across the state. California rents are more than 30% above the national average, and long waitlists for student housing have left thousands in limbo. CSU reported more than 4,000 students on its housing waitlist last year.

Supporters stress that the bill is not a long-term solution, but a humane step toward helping students who have no other place to go. A successful pilot program at Long Beach City College has already shown that safe, supervised overnight parking can work, giving students access to restrooms, Wi-Fi, and a secure environment.

However, the CSU and community college systems oppose the bill, citing funding concerns. Critics also worry about safety and oversight. But Jackson and student advocates argue the crisis demands bold action.

“If we know students are already sleeping in their cars, why not help them do it safely?” said Ivan Hernandez, president of the Student Senate for California Community Colleges.

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Faces Around the Bay: Author Karen Lewis Took the ‘Detour to Straight Street’

“My life has been a roller-coaster with an unlimited ride wristband! I was raised in Berkeley during the time of Ron Dellums, the Black Panthers, and People’s Park. I was a Hippie kid, my Auntie cut off all our hair so we could wear the natural styles like her and Angela Davis.

Published

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April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Karen Lewis. Courtesy photo.

By Barbara Fluhrer

I met Karen Lewis on a park bench in Berkeley. She wrote her story on the spot.

I got married young, then ended up getting divorced, raising two boys into men. After my divorce, I had a stroke that left me blind and paralyzed. I was homeless, lost in a fog with blurred vision.

Jesus healed me! I now have two beautiful grandkids. At 61, this age and this stage, I am finally free indeed. Our Lord Jesus Christ saved my soul. I now know how to be still. I lay at his feet. I surrender and just rest. My life and every step on my path have already been ordered. So, I have learned in this life…it’s nice to be nice. No stressing, just blessings. Pray for the best and deal with the rest.

Nobody is perfect, so forgive quickly and love easily!”

Lewis’ book “Detour to Straight Street” is available on Amazon.

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Barbara Lee Accepts Victory With “Responsibility, Humility and Love”

“I accept your choice with a deep sense of responsibility, humility, and love. Oakland is a deeply divided City,” Lee said in an April 19 statement. “I answered the call to run to unite our community, so that I can represent every voter, and we can all work together as One Oakland to solve our most pressing problems.”

Published

5 days ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Barbara Lee. File photo.

By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌,
California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

As a candidate for mayor, former U.S. Representative Barbara Lee released a “10-point plan” last week to reassure residents that she will tackle Oakland’s most pressing challenges.

Now that she has edged out her competitors in the ranked-choice special election with 50% or more of the vote, the former Congresswoman, who represented parts of the Bay Area in the U.S. House of Representatives, can put her vision in motion as the city’s first Black woman mayor.

On Saturday evening, Taylor conceded to Lee. There are still about 300 Vote-by-Mail ballots left to be verified, according to county election officials. The ballots will be processed on April 21 and April 22.

“This morning, I called Congresswoman Barbara Lee to congratulate her on becoming the next Mayor of Oakland,” Taylor said in a statement.

“I pray that Mayor-Elect Lee fulfills her commitment to unify Oakland by authentically engaging the 47% of Oaklanders who voted for me and who want pragmatic, results-driven leadership.”

The influential Oakland Post endorsed Lee’s campaign, commending her leadership on the local, state, and federal levels.

Paul Cobb, The Post’s publisher, told California Black Media that Lee will bring back “respect and accountability” to the mayor’s office.

“She is going to be a collegial leader drawing on the advice of community nonprofit organizations and those who have experience in dealing with various issues,” Cobb said. “She’s going to try to do a consensus-building thing among those who know the present problems that face the city.”

Born in El Paso, Texas, Lee’s family moved to California while she was in high school. At 20 years old, Lee divorced her husband after the birth of her first child. After the split, Lee went through a tough period, becoming homeless and having to apply for public assistance to make ends meet.

But destitution did not deter the young woman.

Lee groomed herself to become an activist and advocate in Oakland and committed to standing up for the most vulnerable citizens in her community.

Lee traveled to Washington, D.C. to work for then U.S. Congressman Ron Dellums after receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mills College in Oakland in 1973. Lee later won a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) fellowship to attend the School of Social Welfare, and she earned a Master of Social Work from the University of California-Berkeley in 1975.

Lee later served in the California State Assembly and State Senate before she was elected to Congress in 1998.

After serving in the U.S. Congress for more than 25 years, Lee ran unsuccessfully for California’s U.S. Senate in the 2024 primary election.

Lee joins current Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass and former San Francisco Mayor London Breed as Black women serving as chief executives of major cities in California over the last few years.