Black History

Women’s History Month: Meet the Black Women Legislators Shaping California Policy

Since Yvonne Braithwaite Burke became the first Black woman elected to serve in the California State Assembly in 1966, 20 other African American women have represented their constituents in both houses of the California State Legislature with distinction. Many of them have gone on to make their marks in various political arenas at the state, local and national levels.

Published

2 years ago

April 2, 2023

Oakland Post

Assemblymembers Dr. Akilah Weber (D- San Diego), Mia Bonta (D- Oakland) Tina Mickinnor (D- Los Angeles), Senator Lola Smallwood Cuevas (D- Los Angeles) Assemblymember Lori Wilson (D- Solano). Photos courtesy of California Black Media.

By Mark Hedin
California Black Media

Many of them have gone on to make their marks in various political arenas at the state, local and national levels.

Take U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA-12), who represented Oakland and adjacent communities in the State Assembly and Senate for eight years before winning the first of 13 terms she has now served in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Or Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, also a California Assembly alumna, who became Speaker of the body in 2008 and served six terms in the U.S. Congress.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA-29) represented South L.A. in the state Assembly and is serving her 17^th term in the U.S. Congress.

In 2023, five of the 12 members of the California Black Legislative Caucus (CBLC) are women. They are:

Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D – Ladera Heights)

The only Black woman in the California State Senate, Lola Smallwood-Cuevas represents state Senate District 28, a small, densely populated section of Los Angeles County that includes Culver City and parts of mid-city Los Angeles and unincorporated Los Angeles County.

A former journalist and labor advocate, she worked in the successful Justice for Janitors campaign of the 1990s, and, during 15 years working at UCLA, she founded the Center for Advancement of Racial Equity at Work and co-founded the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, which became a model for similar organizations across the country, recognized by President Barack Obama.

In her first months as a state senator, Smallwood-Cuevas has introduced a package of worker and civil rights measures.

Among them is SB 627, legislation that would help workers laid off by a chain business to find work at other locations nearby. Another, SB 497, would offer workers whistleblower protection in cases of alleged wage theft or unequal pay.

Lori Wilson (D – Suisun City)

When she was elected mayor of Suisun City in 2018, Lori Wilson became the first-ever Black woman to serve as mayor anywhere in Solano County. She’d been vice mayor for six years.

Now, she’s chair of the CBLC after her election in April last year to represent the 11^th Assembly district, which straddles Solano and Contra Costa counties.

She used her background in finance and accounting to work with homebuilders, fair housing agencies and as Solano County’s auditor.

She serves on the Appropriations, Banking and Finance, and the Accountability and Administrative Review standing committees.

Akilah Weber (D – San Diego)

From the 79^th Assembly district is Akilah Weber, representing parts of San Diego, her hometown, and El Cajon, Lemon Grove, Spring Valley/La Presa and La Mesa.

After becoming first Black person ever elected to the La Mesa City Council in 2018, Weber left in early 2021 to run for the Assembly seat in a special election to replace her mother, Dr. Shirley Weber, who’d been named secretary of state. She won, and her mother swore her in. Akilah Weber was re-elected in 2022.

Weber is a doctor who founded San Diego’s Rady Children’s Hospital Pediatric & Adolescent Gynecology Division, heads the adolescent gynecology program at UC San Diego Health, and is an assistant clinical professor at UCSD.

In the state Assembly, she serves on six standing committees: Health, Higher Education Appropriations, Communications and Conveyance, and Water, Parks and Wildlife, Legislative Ethics Committee (co-chair) and Social Determinants of Health select committee (chair).

Tina McKinnor (D – Inglewood)

Tina McKinnor’s 61^st Assembly district spans communities in western Los Angeles County including Inglewood, Gardena, Hawthorne, Marina del Rey, Venice, Westchester, Westmont, West Athens and parts of Los Angeles.

She was elected to the state Assembly in July last year in a special election after the sudden resignation of Autumn Burke, herself a former CBLC vice-chair and the daughter of California Assembly alum and three-term U.S. Congresswoman Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. Burke cited COVID impacts on her family at the time for her resignation.

McKinnor, who had worked in the Assembly for years as Burke’s chief of staff, is now chair of the Assembly’s Public Employment and Retirement Committee, chair of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games Select Committee, and a member of the Business and Professions and the Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials committees.

Mia Bonta (D – Oakland)

Mia Bonta ran for and won the 18^th Assembly district seat in Alameda County in a 2021 special election called after her husband, Rob Bonta, who’d held the seat since 2012, was named California Attorney General.

Bonta describes herself as a “proud Black Latina, raised by activists who protested outside the halls of power so that people like her could one day have a seat at the table inside.”

She earned her law degree at Yale, after studying there as an undergraduate. She earned her Ed.M from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Prior to being elected to the state Assembly, Bonta’s work revolved around improving educational outcomes for low-income students as CEO of Oakland Promise, a district-wide Oakland college and career prep program, and board president of the Alameda Unified School District.

She serves on six Assembly committees: Joint Legislative Budget, Public Safety, Human Services, Communications and Conveyance, Business and Professions and the Budget Committee, including two of its subcommittees: No. 5, Public Safety; and No. 6, Budget Process, Oversight and Program Evaluation.

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In 1974, Then-Gov. Jimmy Carter Visited the Home of Oakland Black Black Political Activist Virtual Murrell While Running for President

civil rights icon Georgia State Representative Julian Bond said that Carter, along with governors Reuben Askew of Florida, Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and Terry Sanford of North Carolina, were all a part of what was being dubbed the “New South” and so supported civil rights and voting rights for African Americans.

Published

1 day ago

January 3, 2025

Oakland Post

Virtual Murrell chats with Jimmy Carter two years before Carter was elected president in 1976. Courtesy photo.

By Virtual T. Murrell
Special to The Post

On his way to seeking the presidency, then-Gov. Jimmy Carter visited the Bay Area in his capacity as campaign chairman of the Democratic National Committee in March of 1974.

A friend of mine, Bill Lynch, a Democrat from San Francisco, had been asked to host Carter, who was then relatively unknown. Seeking my advice on the matter, I immediately called my friend, civil rights icon Georgia State Representative Julian Bond, for his opinion.

Bond said that Carter, along with governors Reuben Askew of Florida, Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and Terry Sanford of North Carolina, were all a part of what was being dubbed the “New South” and so supported civil rights and voting rights for African Americans.

Based on Julian’s comments, I agreed to host the governor. We picked him up at the San Francisco Airport. With his toothy smile, I could tell almost right away that he was like no other politician I had ever met. On his arrival, there was a message telling him to go to the VIP room, where he met then-Secretary of State Jerry Brown.

After leaving the airport, we went to a reception in his honor at the home of Paul “Red” Fay, who had served as the acting secretary of the Navy under President John Kennedy. (Carter, it turned out, had been himself a 1946 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served as a submariner in the 1950s.)

The following afternoon, the Niagara Movement Democratic Club hosted a reception for Carter, which was a major success. Carter indicated that he would be considering running for president and hoped for our support if he did so.

As the event was winding down, I witnessed the most amazing moment: Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, was in the kitchen with my former wife, Irene, wearing an apron and busting suds! You would have to have been there to see it: The first and last time a white woman cleaned up my kitchen.

A few months later, President Richard Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal. He was succeeded by his vice president, Gerald Ford.

On the heels of that scandal, Jimmy Carter’s election in 1976 represented integrity and honesty at a point in America’s history when he was just what the nation needed to lead as president of the United States.

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Oakland Post: Week of January 1 – 7, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of January 1 – 7, 2025

Published

3 days ago

January 2, 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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2024 in Review: 7 Questions for Social Justice Executive Kaci Patterson

Kaci Peterson, the founder and Chief Architect of Social Good Solutions and the Black Equity Collective, has over 18 years of experience in the non-profit and philanthropy sectors. California Black Media (CBM) spoke with Peterson recently. She discussed the organization’s successes, disappointments, and lessons from 2024 as they continue their initiatives into the new year.

Published

6 days ago

December 30, 2024

Oakland Post

File photo: Kaci Patterson, founder of Los Angeles-based Black Equity Collective, represented grassroot organizations from across the state that demanded the state invest into a coalition that aims to build a healthy relationship between philanthropy groups and the public sector. May 10, 2023, Sacramento, California. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

By Edward Henderson, California Black Media

The Black Equity Collective (BEC) is a community-focused, public-private partnership with Black equity as its central, driving force.

Born out of two organizations – the Social Good Solutions Firm and the Black Equity Initiative — BEC’s mission is centered on the belief that progress on Black equity and racial justice must be part of any credible social justice movement in the United States. Additionally, the collective believes equity is only achieved when philanthropic investments, public policies, and institutional practices converge to boldly confront racial injustice.

Kaci Peterson, the founder and Chief Architect of Social Good Solutions and the Black Equity Collective, has over 18 years of experience in the non-profit and philanthropy sectors.

California Black Media (CBM) spoke with Peterson recently. She discussed the organization’s successes, disappointments, and lessons from 2024 as they continue their initiatives into the new year.

Looking back at 2024, what stands out to you as your most important achievement and why? 

This year, we celebrated our 10-year anniversary as a firm. Since the firm’ s inception we are proud to announce that cumulatively we’ve been able to raise and leverage over $55.5 million for Black-led organizations in California.

One of the things that we have accomplished is our expanded membership. We had an initial goal of 30 to 40 organizations. We have a current membership of 54 organizations and a waiting list of over 120.

How did your leadership and investments contribute to improving the lives of Black Californians? 

We launched a survey involving 200 Black-led organizations to study the economic impact of Black-led organizations on California’ s GDP. The results of that survey will be released in early 2025.

What frustrated you the most over the last year?

The decline in philanthropic investment after the height of commitments following the murder of George Floyd, following COVID.

What inspired you the most over the last year?

I am always inspired by the leaders on the ground who just continue to do monumental work. The fact that here in Los Angeles, we’ve been able to stand up a doula hub in response to the policy advocacy work that so many of our leaders, our Black women in particular, really pushed and got state legislation passed a couple of years ago so that doulas can be an approved and reimbursable expense through Medi-Cal.

What is one lesson you learned in 2024 that will inform your decision-making next year?

I started an 11-week sabbatical on Nov. 1. I think oftentimes as Black leaders, we are burning the candle at both ends. And I don’ t think Black people are even aware of the social, emotional, and physical toll that taken on us/ We must rest, retreat and take respite as part of our journey to justice.

In one word, what is the biggest challenge Black Californians face?

Erasure.

We’ve really leaned into a narrative of Black permanence and what it means to preserve our community, our culture, our contributions, our language, our history, our leaders, our institutions.

What is the goal you want to achieve most in 2025?

I really want to start up an endowment for the collective. I think it’s really important to be able to preserve all of the things that the collective has contributed the philanthropic ecosystem so far.