Fours Years Later: African Americans in Oakland react to President Obama’s reelection

As President Obama was elected for a second time, the band played and the building came alive.

Four years ago, people danced in the streets in front of Everett and Jones BBQ Restaurant in Jack London Square. They embraced loved ones and high-fived total strangers. The news cameras rolled, and non-reporters became journalists as they documented history via grainy pictures from their camera phones. The first African American president in the history…

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Quan passes baton to Schaaf in District Four

When Jean Quan chose to run for mayor this fall rather than for reelection to Oakland’s City Council, she left a vacuum in the city’s fourth municipal district, which she has represented on the council since 2003.  Seven candidates vied for her seat, more than for any office on an Oaklander’s ballot other than the…

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Small business owner Arnie Fields aims for top Oakland job

Arnie Fields talking politics behind the bar at Revolution Cafe.

Of the ten people running for mayor in Oakland this fall, Arnold Fields—Arnie to his friends, and if you’re voting in Oakland, he considers you a friend—may be the candidate whose campaign most resembles his life before politics. Between appearances on the campaign circuit, Fields still pulls double duty as a real estate broker and as the owner and operator of Revolution Café, a West Oakland coffee shop and bar that doubles as his campaign headquarters.

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Many Movements, One Struggle: Remembering the Black Panthers and the Asian American, Chicano, and Native American Power Movements of the 1960s to 1970s

LINKS The following links are a sample of organizations that have grown out of the movement for political, social, and racial equality among African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicanos, and Native Americans. Asian Health Services (Oakland) – Provides health care for immigrants, the uninsured, and low income Asians and Pacific Islanders in Cantonese, Khmer, Korean, Lao,…

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For Native Hawaiians, it’s a paradise lost

Hawaiians struggle in their native islands against the forces of tourism and militarism, according to Ikaika Hussey, publisher of the Hawaii Independent, a Honolulu-based newspaper devoted to in-depth coverage of local issues. On Sunday, March 15, at the Eastside Cultural Center in downtown Oakland, Hussey, joined by Malia Connor, founder of the Malia Movement Company,…

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