Activism

The Rise East Project: Part 1 of 8 – Genesis of Oakland’s Black Cultural Zone and Rise East

The mission of the Black Panthers 10-point program, envisioned in 1966, germinated in 2000 at the first annual Malcolm Jazz Festival in San Antonio Park, hosted by Eastside Arts Alliance, a collective of multi-racial artists who, like Malcolm X, utilized the public platform to address racial inequities and organize a credible institution to create solutions.

Published

2 years ago

October 5, 2023

Oakland Post

The Black Cultural Zone is on track to receive $10 million of a $40 million grant to the City of Oakland for infrastructure improvements. Above is the proposed BCZ development on 73rd and MacArthur that will provide a cultural hub, 118 affordable residences plus a manager's unit, food hall, community pantry, co-working space and roller-skating rink. Courtesy image.

Rise East is a $100 million privately funded initiative that will rebuild Black neighborhoods in a 40 x 40 block area of East Oakland over 10 years. Project partners are Oakland Thrives, The 40 x 40 Council and Blue Meridian Partners.

By Tanya Dennis

Elena Serrano, an Eastside collective member who serves as its executive director says, “The Black Panthers captured hearts and minds through authentic guerrilla theater, inspiring people by how they presented themselves, dressing the same, on the same message making people believe they could create a society that benefited them.”

For nearly 30 years, Eastside Arts Alliance (EAA) has held down that Black Panther culture at 2277 International Blvd. and recently celebrated its 24^th annual Malcolm X Festival.

“We created a Black arts movement in a neighborhood that is Black, Asian and Latinx, a movement where artists’ work and organizers come together to build power,” Serrano says. “We work with teenagers that want to be hip-hop stars, poets, and writers so they address power-building strategies in their music and words.”

The Black Cultural Zone, a strategic partner in the $10 million Rise East initiative credits their genesis to Eastside Arts Alliance. Rise East is a 10-year, privately funded initiative to help Black families thrive in a 40-square-block area of East Oakland.

“We connected to the Black Cultural Zone six or seven years ago when the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project was planned for International Boulevard, a project to improve rapid transit,” Serrano says. “BRT publicity was showing beautiful neighborhoods that didn’t even have Black folks in the picture. A concerned group, OSNI (Oakland Sustainable Neighborhood Initiative), pushed back saying they would love development, but development without displacement.”

EAA later joined that fight, urging that people need to have power over policy and jobs. “We put forth the neighborhood concept of cultural centers and space where neighborhoods come together to build power and decide how they can use their power with a cultural space where they can dream and plan, and that’s how the cultural zone got started.”

Carolyn Johnson, director of the Black Cultural Zone, was working for the Northern California Community Fund as a lender during the dot-com boom in San Francisco and Silicon Valley the late 1990s. Awash in venture capital, high-salaried workers were looking for places to live.

Able to afford more in a competitive market, dot-commers’ need for housing drove up rent prices and home prices in the East Bay. Johnson observed the impact of that boom with people coming over to Oakland to buy up property, setting off gentrification that would result in Black people displacement.

When BRT was approved in 2008, Johnson, aware of the history of infrastructure projects that gentrify and displace Black people, bought a building on a commercial corridor, acknowledging the need for a Black Cultural Zone in Oakland.

From 2010 thru 2014, Roots, another Rise East member, talked to the Black Cultural Zone about purchasing the Safeway building located at 5701 International Blvd. (East 14^th Street at the time), with the intent to develop a large campus, ROOTS Community Health Center, as a part of the collaborative’s 40 blocks by 40 blocks project, a geographical area they wanted to focus on.

The building purchase did not pan out, but the beginning of a coalition that brought Allen Temple Baptist Church, the East Oakland Collective, Just Cities, East Oakland Building Healthy Communities into the mix to develop the 10-year program that started in 2013.

The California Endowment funded many of the organizations in the collaborative from 2014-16, driven by the need to help the collaborative secure real estate, address Black health and wellness, provide quality education, Black arts and culture, establish economic place-keeping, build a strong Black economy, and increase the quality of life for Black folks.

“Our initiative came to national attention while we were calling on local private funders to make strategic investments in the 40 by 40 project, an investment to restore the community that Blacks were redlined into for 40 years,” Johnson says. “Generally, the way that capital is being distributed, what we’re hearing is that it’s time for us to leave, and we’re saying no! We’re appreciative that Rise East will help catalyze our determination to stay deeply rooted in Oakland.”

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Oakland Post: Week of December 24 – 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 24 – 30, 2025

Published

3 days ago

December 25, 2025

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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Activism

Lu Lu’s House is Not Just Toying Around with the Community

Wilson and Lambert will be partnering with Mayor Barbara Lee on a toy giveaway on Dec. 20. Young people, like Dremont Wilkes, age 15, will help give away toys and encourage young people to stay in school and out of trouble. Wilkes wants to go to college and become a specialist in financial aid. Sports agent Aaron Goodwin has committed to giving all eight young people from Lu Lu’s House a fully paid free ride to college, provided they keep a 3.0 grade point average and continue the program. Lu Lu’s House is not toying around.

Published

1 week ago

December 20, 2025

Oakland Post

Tania Fuller Bryant, Zirl Wilson, Dremont Wilkes, Tracy Lambert and Dr. Geoffrey Watson. Courtesy Oakland Private Industry

Special to the Post

Lu Lu’s House is a 501c3 organization based in Oakland, founded by Mr. Zirl Wilson and Mr. Tracy Lambert, both previously incarcerated. After their release from jail, they wanted to change things for the better in the community — and wow, have they done that!

The duo developed housing for previously incarcerated people, calling it “Lu Lu’s House,” after Wilson’s wonderful wife. At a time when many young people were robbing, looting, and involved in shootings, Wilson and Lambert took it upon themselves to risk their lives to engage young gang members and teach them about nonviolence, safety, cleanliness, business, education, and the importance of health and longevity.

Lambert sold hats and T-shirts at the Eastmont Mall and was visited by his friend Wilson. At the mall, they witnessed gangs of young people running into the stores, stealing whatever they could get their hands on and then rushing out. Wilson tried to stop them after numerous robberies and finally called the police, who Wilson said, “did not respond.” Having been incarcerated previously, they realized that if the young people were allowed to continue to rob the stores, they could receive multiple criminal counts, which would take their case from misdemeanors to felonies, resulting in incarceration.

Lu Lu’s House traveled to Los Angeles and obtained more than 500 toys
for a Dec. 20 giveaway in partnership with Oakland Mayor Barbara
Lee. Courtesy Oakland Private Industry,

Wilson took it upon himself to follow the young people home and when he arrived at their subsidized homes, he realized the importance of trying to save the young people from violence, drug addiction, lack of self-worth, and incarceration — as well as their families from losing subsidized housing. Lambert and Wilson explained to the young men and women, ages 13-17, that there were positive options which might allow them to make money legally and stay out of jail. Wilson and Lambert decided to teach them how to wash cars and they opened a car wash in East Oakland. Oakland’s Initiative, “Keep the town clean,” involved the young people from Lu Lu’s House participating in more than eight cleanup sessions throughout Oakland. To assist with their infrastructure, Lu Lu’s House has partnered with Oakland’s Private Industry Council.

For the Christmas season, Lu Lu’s House and reformed young people (who were previously robbed) will continue to give back.

Lu Lu’s House traveled to Los Angeles and obtained more than 500 toys.

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Desmond Gumbs — Visionary Founder, Mentor, and Builder of Opportunity

Gumbs’ coaching and leadership journey spans from Bishop O’Dowd High School, Oakland High School, Stellar Prep High School. Over the decades, hundreds of his students have gone on to college, earning academic and athletic scholarships and developing life skills that extend well beyond sports.

Published

1 week ago

December 20, 2025

Oakland Post

NCAA football history was made this year when Head Coach from Mississippi Valley State, Terrell Buckley and Head Coach Desmond Gumbs both had starting kickers that were Women. This picture was taken after the game. Courtesy photo.

Special to the Post

For more than 25 years, Desmond Gumbs has been a cornerstone of Bay Area education and athletics — not simply as a coach, but as a mentor, founder, and architect of opportunity. While recent media narratives have focused narrowly on challenges, they fail to capture the far more important truth: Gumbs’ life’s work has been dedicated to building pathways to college, character, and long-term success for hundreds of young people.

A Career Defined by Impact

One of his most enduring contributions is his role as founder of Stellar Prep High School, a non-traditional, mission-driven institution created to serve students who needed additional structure, belief, and opportunity. Through Stellar Prep numerous students have advanced to college — many with scholarships — demonstrating Gumbs’ deep commitment to education as the foundation for athletic and personal success.

NCAA football history was made this year when Head Coach from
Mississippi Valley State, Terrell Buckley and Head Coach Desmond
Gumbs both had starting kickers that were women. This picture was
taken after the game.

A Personal Testament to the Mission: Addison Gumbs

Perhaps no example better reflects Desmond Gumbs’ philosophy than the journey of his son, Addison Gumbs. Addison became an Army All-American, one of the highest honors in high school football — and notably, the last Army All-Americans produced by the Bay Area, alongside Najee Harris.

Both young men went on to compete at the highest levels of college football — Addison Gumbs at the University of Oklahoma, and Najee Harris at the University of Alabama — representing the Bay Area on a national level.

Building Lincoln University Athletics From the Ground Up

In 2021, Gumbs accepted one of the most difficult challenges in college athletics: launching an entire athletics department at Lincoln University in Oakland from scratch. With no established infrastructure, limited facilities, and eventually the loss of key financial aid resources, he nonetheless built opportunities where none existed.

Under his leadership, Lincoln University introduced:

Football
Men’s and Women’s Basketball
Men’s and Women’s Soccer

Operating as an independent program with no capital and no conference safety net, Gumbs was forced to innovate — finding ways to sustain teams, schedule competition, and keep student-athletes enrolled and progressing toward degrees. The work was never about comfort; it was about access.

Voices That Reflect His Impact

Desmond Gumbs’ philosophy has been consistently reflected in his own published words:

“if you have an idea, you’re 75% there the remaining 25% is actually doing it.”
“This generation doesn’t respect the title — they respect the person.”
“Greatness is a habit, not a moment.”

Former players and community members have echoed similar sentiments in public commentary, crediting Gumbs with teaching them leadership, accountability, confidence, and belief in themselves — lessons that outlast any single season.

Context Matters More Than Headlines

Recent articles critical of Lincoln University athletics focus on logistical and financial hardships while ignoring the reality of building a new program with limited resources in one of the most expensive regions in the country. Such narratives are ultimately harmful and incomplete, failing to recognize the courage it takes to create opportunity instead of walking away when conditions are difficult.

The real story is not about early struggles — it is about vision, resilience, and service.

A Legacy That Endures

From founding Stellar PREP High School, to sending hundreds of students to college, to producing elite athletes like Addison Gumbs, to launching Lincoln University athletics, Desmond Gumbs’ legacy is one of belief in young people and relentless commitment to opportunity.

His work cannot be reduced to headlines or records. It lives on in degrees earned, scholarships secured, leaders developed, and futures changed — across the Bay Area and beyond.