Bay Area

Vallejo’s NAACP Branch Sponsors Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. March

Published

5 years ago

January 16, 2020

Rachelle Jackson, 1st Vice President of Vallejo’s NAACP Branch, literally “talks-the-talk and will walk-the-walk”, literally, when she and hundreds of other Vallejo residents participate in the Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. March on Jan. 20, 2020, at 9:00 a.m.

The event, to be followed by a program at Hogan Middle School, 850 Rosewood Dr., Vallejo, at 10:30 a.m., is sponsored by the NAACP’s Vallejo Branch, the City of Vallejo, Valero Oil Refinery, the Vallejo Times Herald and the Vallejo Unified School District.

“This is the 32nd year that we’ve held this event,” said Jackson. “It’s an awareness event, while also one that honors the achievements of Dr. King, as well as bringing our communities together. It’s the perfect opportunity to bring different groups together throughout the region.

“Since our first event when nearly 100 participants attended, we’ve grown larger every year,” Jackson continued. “We anticipate upwards of 500 individuals to gather together this year. However, that will depend on the weather. If we have discouraging weather, we will immediately proceed with our program without the march.”

Jimmie Jackson, president of the NAACP Vallejo Branch, noted that it’s all about unification.

“This is what Dr. King’s message was all about, bringing people together rather than having them wander apart,” Jackson said.

“Our program will include comments by city, county and state officials, including City Councilmember Hakeem Brown and congressional representative, Mike Thompson,” said Jackson. “Our keynote speaker will be Bishop Kevin Barnes from Abyssinian Baptist Church and the program will feature performances by Vallejo youth, a community gospel choir and an activity by Vallejo’s local fraternities.”

The Vallejo Branch continues to coordinate activities in the community. The Branch recently received the prestigious Dr. H. Claude Hudson Award at the 32nd Annual California-Hawaii NAACP State Convention in Los Angeles.

“The Dr. H. Claude Hudson Award has been around for 20 years,” Jackson said. “It honors Hudson, former president of the Los Angeles NAACP branch from 1924-1934. He was a prominent businessman and advocate for civil rights.”

Hudson’s early work with the Los Angeles NAACP helped to inspire other branches to realize that with hard work, “you can get stuff done. It’s a matter of working with the community and not against the community,” Jackson said. Hudson died in 1989 at age 102.

“Never has the Vallejo branch of the NAACP taken home an honor as the ‘most efficient and proficient’ branch at its annual ceremony. We were in competition with all the branches in California and Hawaii, and Vallejo won in the “medium” category for branches with memberships between 100 and 500 people.”

Jackson pointed out that Vallejo was up against 42 other medium-sized branches, believing the local branch earned the honor for being “most efficient … having ongoing programs. “We try to do what we do,” said Mr. Jackson. “We’re usually having some big event every four months.”

“It’s good, professional competition,” he added. “It shows how creative we can be as far as getting the work done that needs to be done in the communit. We are a community-based organization that believes in trying to bring the community together.”

The NAACP is the nation’s oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization. Its mission is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.

For more information on Vallejo’s NAACP Branch and its programs, call 707-554-4993.

By Clifford L. Williams

Posts by By Clifford L. Williams

Bay Area

Oakland Awarded $28 Million Grant from Governor Newsom to Sustain Long-Term Solutions Addressing Homelessness

Governor Gavin Newsom announced the City of Oakland has won a$28,446,565.83 grant as part of the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) grant program. This program provides flexible grant funding to help communities support people experiencing homelessness by creating permanent housing, rental and move-in assistance, case management services, and rental subsidies, among other eligible uses.

Published

17 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

Governor Gavin Newsom announced the City of Oakland has won a$28,446,565.83 grant as part of the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) grant program.

This program provides flexible grant funding to help communities support people experiencing homelessness by creating permanent housing, rental and move-in assistance, case management services, and rental subsidies, among other eligible uses.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and the Oakland City Administrator’s Office staff held a press conference today to discuss the grant and the City’s successful implementing of the Mayor’s Executive Order on the Encampment Management Policy.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Bay Area

Pamela Price Appoints Deputy D.A. Jennifer Kassan as New Director of Community Support Bureau

On Monday, District Attorney Pamela Price announced Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kassan as the new director of the Community Support Bureau. Kassan has over 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises including benefit corporations, low-profit limited liability companies, nonprofits, cooperatives, hybrid organizations, investment funds, and purpose trusts.

Published

17 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kassan. Courtesy photo.

Special to The Post

On Monday, District Attorney Pamela Price announced Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kassan as the new director of the Community Support Bureau.

Kassan has over 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises including benefit corporations, low-profit limited liability companies, nonprofits, cooperatives, hybrid organizations, investment funds, and purpose trusts.

Working in the DA’s new administration since 2023, Kassan was most recently assigned to the Organized Retail Theft Prosecution team.

Kassan has a master’s degree in City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship from Yale Law School, and graduated from Yale Law School in 1995. She earned her B.A. in Psychology with a minor emphasis in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley.

Kassan’s education, extensive legal background, list of notable accomplishments and impressive resume includes helping to found and lead multiple organizations to support community wealth building including:

Community Ventures, a nonprofit organization that promotes locally-based community economic development,
the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a nonprofit that provides legal information, training, and representation to support sustainable economies
the Force for Good Fund, a nonprofit impact investment fund
Crowdfund Main Street, a licensed portal for regulation crowdfunding
Opportunity Main Street, a place-based ecosystem building organization that supports under-represented entrepreneurs and provides education about community-based investing.

In addition, Kassan served as an elected member of the City Council of Fremont, California from 2018 to 2024, and on the Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies.

In 2020 she was named to the list of World-Changing Women in Conscious Business by SOCAP Global.

“We are excited to see Jenny accept the role as the new leader for the Community Support Bureau,” said Price. “She brings a wealth of talent, experience, and a vision to expand our office’s engagement with community groups and residents, that will level-up our

outreach programs and partnerships with local organizations with the aim of promoting crime prevention.

“We thank Interim CSB Director Esther Lemus, who is now assigned to our office’s

Restitution Unit, for her hard work and a great job fostering positive relationships between the DAO and the community.”

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Bay Area

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s Open Letter to Philip Dreyfuss, Recall Election’s Primary Funder

Oaklanders Defending Democracy, a group opposing the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, shared an open letter she wrote to Philip Dreyfuss of Farallon Capital, a coal hedge fund. According to Thao’s supporters, “Dreyfuss is the primary funder of the recall effort to remove her from office. He has not explained his motivations or answered one question about why he’s funding the recall or what his agenda is for Oakland.

Published

18 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

Special to The Post

Publishers note: Oaklanders Defending Democracy, a group opposing the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, shared an open letter she wrote to Philip Dreyfuss of Farallon Capital, a coal hedge fund.

According to Thao’s supporters, “Dreyfuss is the primary funder of the recall effort to remove her from office. He has not explained his motivations or answered one question about why he’s funding the recall or what his agenda is for Oakland.

“All we know about him is his firm has invested over $2 billion in coal since 2022. Farallon Capital is a global hedge fund with $39 billion capital under management, headquartered in San Francisco, the supporters say.

The effort to recall Mayor Sheng Thao was built on top of an argument about a crime wave, pinning the blame for it on a newly elected Mayor. Now that crime has dropped massively, recall proponents are left with no compelling argument.

Oct. 30

Dear Philip Dreyfuss,

We haven’t met. As you know, I’m the Mayor of Oakland, elected in 2022 to serve and protect this city. Since stepping into office, I’ve tackled rising crime, homelessness, and budget challenges head-on, working tirelessly for Oakland’s future.

You are a hedge-fund manager and coal investor who doesn’t live in Oakland who is trying to buy our city government. But the people didn’t elect you, they elected me to protect them from people like you.

Shortly after my term began, you launched a campaign to remove me from office, pouring in nearly $500,000 of your own wealth. We’ll know the outcome of your campaign on Nov. 6, but let’s be clear about what’s at stake.

Since I took office, crime has dropped over 30%—we’re on track for less than 100 homicides for the first time since 2019, with 15,000 fewer crimes overall.

We’ve invested hundreds of millions into affordable housing, modernized our 911 system, streamlined construction permitting, and are fighting to make Oakland a safer and cleaner city.

If your recall succeeds, Oakland will see four mayors in just five years, another election for mayor the following year and a whopping $10 million cost to taxpayers. In other words, chaos. None of this will impact you because you don’t live here.

Oaklanders deserve to know who you are. I looked into your record and found that the hedge fund you help manage, Farallon Capital, has invested over $2 billion in coal since 2022.

For years, Oakland has stood tall against coal money threatening the health of West Oakland, Chinatown, Jack London and downtown.

Did you know that life expectancy in West Oakland is 7.5 years lower than the County average? Or that our children suffer from asthma at a rate twice as high as the rest of the County?

Philip, instead of trying to use your wealth to hijack our democracy and create chaos in our city you could have put your money where your mouth is.

Instead of investing in coal you could have invested in our young people—created scholarships for our college-bound kids, funded apprenticeships for those who want to learn a trade or helped rid our schools of lead.

Instead, you chose to divide us while you try to buy us. But I’m here to tell you, Philip, on behalf of the 450,000 residents of my city that Oakland is not for sale. NO to coal. NO to chaos. And NO to your selfish and self-serving recall.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, City Hall, Oakland