Organizers Meet to Address the 'State of Black Oakland'

On Saturday, a coalition of black organizations is hosting the State of Black Oakland 2015: A People's Assembly.

The event will give community members of the city's shrinking black community an opportunity to unite, share their experiences and create a political agenda focused on what organizers call "nine areas of self-determination," including politics, economy, family, health, education, arts and culture, and self-defense.

One longtime resident who will attend the assembly is Akiba Bradford, who grew up in East Oakland and says she's worried about housing, underemployment and crime in her community.

"I am very concerned about raising a black man in this city, raising a child in this city," Bradford says. "... I've been a child who has had incarcerated parents. I have seen a lot of my extended family destroyed by the lack of having male figures."

Bradford hopes this is the first step in moving from the multiracial talks and marches of the Black Lives Matter movement to creating policy for black folks by black folks.

Saturday's assembly will take place at Geoffrey's Inner Circle, a historic black-owned club near City Hall. It's the first of three events planned throughout the city. Organizer Tur-Ha Ak says this one is about listening and having a discussion on concrete strategies.

"There are going to be issues between us, differences of approaches, differences of class dynamics, a broad spectrum of things that we'll have to address. I think it's best that we do that first before we even ask anybody else to support our efforts," he says.

"Sometimes people associate the desire for an all-black space with an anti-everyone else, but [it's] really a strong love for the empowerment of black folks," says Carroll Fife, another State of Black Oakland organizer.

And that, the organizers say, is building on a rich local history of self-determination, pioneered by the Black Panthers.

The State of Black Oakland 2015: A People's Assembly is hosted by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Black Organizing Project, Community Ready Corps, ONYX Organizing Committee, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, Eastside Arts Alliance and the African American Studies Department and Merritt College.