Oakland was a thriving town about 100 years ago. It went through many phases and now once again is a thriving town.
Oakland might be a poster child for our future.
Oakland had a most impressive long history as a thriving industrial center.
Oakland was first incorporated as a town in 1852. It had always been a popular place for thousands of years before by the Muwekna Ohlone who were part of the original Californians the Miwoks who spent winters near Temescal Creek and Lake Merritt for thousands of years. In 1772 the Spaniards occupied the land in the name of their king. Peralta, a Spanish soldier was deeded 44 thousand acres by the Spanish crown and his deed was confirmed when Mexico declared their independence. The land was divided up by his 4 sons. As much of California this region was covered by Oak trees and this is how it eventually got its name. During the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in the mid 19th century during the gold rush Mexico gave up the land to the US. Ever more and more squatters ignored the land ownership and a team of Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo roving soldiers led by three men from nearby San Francisco established “Contra Costa.”
In 1853 John Coffee “Jack” Hays took up residence while he served as the sheriff in San Francisco. On March 25, 1854, Oakland was once again incorporated as the City of Oakland with Carpentier one of the San Francisco war lords as the Mayor. However he was quite corrupt and was quickly voted out of office and replaced by Charles Campbell as Mayor on March 5, 1855. Thanks to the fact that the several railroads ended up in Oakland it quickly became a major industrial hub. In 1868, the Central Pacific ended at the Port of Oakland. The Long Wharf also served as the terminus for the Transcontinental Railroad and the Southern Pacific, which was localed initially at 16th Street Station located at 16th and Wood.
In 1902 a deep channel was created for large ships and this is how Alameda become an Island separated from the mainland. Due to the earthquake and subsequent fires in San Francisco in 1906 the population doubled. This is when Mayor Frank Kanning Mott launched the “Beautiful City project” establishing the many parks, lakes and oak rimmed boulevards the city enjoys to this day. In 1914 he founded the Oakland Civic Auditorium which cost $1.4 Million dollars. It was used briefly as a hospital during the 1918 flue epidemic. Oakland was one of the most wonderful places to live and jobs were plentiful. Employers included General Motors, Chevrolet, Chrysler, and several other major auto companies.
The city also housed companies such as Kaiser, Bechtel, Phelan, Dreyer’s, Rocky Road Icecream, Western Union, Del Monte, and too many others to mention here. The high employment rate and associated growth of a strong middle class allowed Oakland to fashion itself into a world class city with the Golden State Theatre, Fox, Blumenfeld, Orpheum, Turner & Dahnken, the Grand Lake and the Paramount among others. By 1949 Oakland had a seating capacity of over 43 thousand theatre goers. Theatres came and went including the Hippodrome, Lurie, Premier and Roosevelt. Thanks to the start of commercial aviation Amelia Earhart , the Alameda Navel Air Station, and the 1930’s Howard Hughes’ movie the “Hell’s Angels” Oakland was one of the romanticized the epicenter of the West Coast.
Join us to celebrate Year 100 of the ACLU at Jack London Square this Saturday, March 30, 2019, at 3:30pm with a concert by Jonah Melvon featuring Adesha
March 29, 2019, Jack London Square, Oakland, CA, at 3:30 pm Jonah Melvon featuring Adesha will perform to celebrate the ACLU 100 Years celebration, which will go on the entire weekend. See entire line up here.
This weekend’s Bay Area Celebration is part of a national tour. https://www.aclu100.org/aclu-100-experience/ which was started at SXSW. With celebrations in Phoenix, and Los Angeles. The key focus this year is to encourage everyone to join the effort to remind US citizens and voters that “Voting is a Right, not Privilege.” The Gerry Mandering and Voter Suppression have affected the countries leadership in a way that the majority of the voters are not heard:
Voting rights have come under attack across the country. States have passed laws that have made it harder for people of color, the elderly, students, and people with disabilities to cast a ballot. Experience an interactive exhibit about the many barriers erected throughout American history to prevent people from voting.
Learn how you can help ensure that everyone has the ability to exercise their right to vote.
There are many other ways to give. You may designate your support for the ACLU of Northern California (not tax-deductible) or the ACLU Foundation of Northern California (tax-deductible):
Honor a friend’s birthday, wedding, or graduation with a special gift
Celebrate the life of a loved one with a memorial gift
Make a gift of stock
Leave a legacy. Make a planned gift to keep the ACLU strong after your lifetime.
If you are interested in making a gift to support LGB T rights by giving a gift to the FrontLine Fund, please contact us. For assistance, please contact the Development Department at giving@aclunc.org or (415) 621-2493.
Networks with Bay Area and California Non-Profits
We are honored to collaborate with these non profits that make positive changes happen:
Ella Baker Center for HumanRights
Heyday Books Initiate
Justice League of Women Voters
BOSS: helping the homeless, poor, and disabled people achieve health and self-sufficiency
ACILEP network for immigrant rights
Youth Speaks
Oakland Public Library
Secure Justice
Design Action
Planting Justice
ARC: The Anti Recidivism Coalition
TGI Justice Project for transgender freedom and survival
ACCESS Women’s Health Justice
It takes a village to raise a child and a community to shape and strengthen a city. The Oakland, CA is known to have a population of which 38% hold secondary degrees. This is largely due to the effective education successes, strong family support, and a community that believes that everyone is created equally and should be treated as such under the law. Naturally, we need to reinforce these values on a daily basis to continue our history of civil rights successes.
Our History
The ACLU-NC was alone in standing with Fred Korematsu and against the forced detention of Japanese-Americans during WWII, in a case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. We dared to oppose obscenity laws in the prim 1950s, defending Lawrence Ferlinghetti for selling Howl, the groundbreaking book of poetry, in his San Francisco City Lights bookstore. In the years after 9/11, the ACLU pushed back on a wave of bigotry and fear mongering to protect the civil rights of Muslims and people of Middle Eastern and South Asian decent. In recent years, as discrimination has shifted to target Latinos and others perceived as “foreign,” the ACLU has stamped out anti-immigrant laws around the country and challenged unlawful policing in immigrant communities in California. We may be best known for litigation, but through our history the ACLU-NC has been powered by the passion of our activists. The organization was forged through the courage of trade workers and labor organizers in the 1930s. We aided the growing civil rights movements of the 1960s, providing legal protection to campaigns by African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Asian Americans, as well as anti-war protestors and LGBT activists. Over the decades, battles have been fought and won by ACLU activists in fifteen chapters across Northern California and student groups on California’s university campuses, from the activists who launched the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley in 1964 to the UC Davis students who endured pepper spray while exercising their free speech rights in 2011.
The ACLU of Northern California is one of the largest ACLU affiliates in the nation with nearly 170,000 members. We have a critical role to play. We must use our decades of experience in impact litigation, legislative advocacy, and fearless organizing to fight these un-American policies and protect our most cherished rights and freedoms. We are the resistance. Join us.
Did you know that prisoners get paid only $1.45 per day to put their life on the one fighting fires? Maybe they are in jail because they could not afford their bail, like wealthy citizens. Equity for all!
About us and how to get in touch for further conversations, interviews, etc.:
The ACLU of Northern California is an enduring guardian of justice, fairness, equality, and freedom, working to protect and advance civil liberties for all Californians. To learn more about the ACLU in Northern California please contact Carmen King at 415.621.2493 | cking@aclunc.org
To learn more about Jonah Melvon and the Rainwater Project, please visit his website at https://www.jonahmelvon.com/
See you at the show! To set up an appointment or for request for additional materials with the label, college, get photos, video links, or more please text Edie Okamoto, Media Relations, at 510-693-0166 or facebook or linked in.
You may also mail a check to our office at:
ACLU Foundation of Northern California Attn: Development Department 39 Drumm Street San Francisco, CA 94111
About the Rainwater Project
You can hear the music on Spotify or purchase them on Amazon.
Please join our list of sponsors who like you believe that education is the answer to a higher standard of living for all.
This email was sent to you for Jonah Melvon and the Rainwater Project
Inaugural Peralta Colleges Foundation for Study Abroad Fundraising Event
March 21, 2019, Oakland, CA, The event will be held at the renowned jazz supper club Yoshi’s Oakland on Thursday, April 4, 2019 from 7:30pm – 10pm featuring entertainment by local sensations Jonah Melvon featuring Adesha. Jonah and Adesha are more than Oakland natives who share a passion for the arts, they also happen to be siblings. This year they decided to bring the household back together again, as they tour on Jonah’s latest record “RainWater Project”, with teasers from his first record “This is the Year”. This soulful, lyrical, warm-hearted dual, is proud to be bringing their home away from home experience, to listeners worldwide.
The sponsors and listeners support provides scholarships to worthy students so that they may have the resources for this once in a lifetime experience. In 2019, the Peralta Colleges are planning to offer up to 11 programs in Japan, Taiwan, Belize, New Zealand, Germany, Mexico, Egypt, London, China, Ghana and Costa Rica (http://web.peralta.edu/international/study-abroad).
It takes a village to raise a child and a community to shape and strengthen a city.
The Oakland, CA is known to have a population of which 38% hold secondary degrees. This is largely due to the effective education successes.
The Peralta Community College District helps fuel the economic engine of East Bay, supplying the region with a trained workforce in essential fields such as nursing, automotive technology, office administration, mechanics, biomanufacturing, bookkeeping, carpentry, food service and restaurant management, to name a few. This workforce helps build and maintain a vibrant, economically diverse region that meets the present and future needs.
According to the California Community Colleges system, if an additional two percent of California’s population earned associate degrees and an extra one percent earned bachelor’s degrees, the state’s economy would grow by $20 billion. These educated workers would generate state and local taxes of $1.2 billion a year, and create 174,000 new jobs in California. Students receiving a degree or certificate from a community college see an 86 percent increase in their wages, from $25,600 to $45,571, three years after earning their degree. For every dollar spent on economic and workforce development programs at community colleges, there is a $12 increase in California’s business income and employee wages.
According to the Institute for International Education (IIE), fewer than 10% of American college students participate in international study programs, and less than 25% of those students are from underrepresented minority groups. Since many of our students are from low-socioeconomic families, studying abroad has never been a major priority for them. The study abroad experience often is a life-changing event that can provide a student with a new found sense of confidence or independence, a new foreign language skill, an increased ability to work in diverse work environments and most importantly the opportunity to explore new cultures. The Study Abroad program has been shaped by visionary and author, Drew Gephart and his dedicated team.
To learn more about how you can join us in this celebration of music, art, and education please contact Drew Gephart, M.S., International Services Manager at dgephart@peralta.edu or 510-587-7834 for any questions you may have. We sincerely thank you for your time and continued support. http://web.peralta.edu/international/study-abroad you save $5 per ticket by buying from the website. You may also purchase tickets at Yoshi’s.
About the Artists
Jonah and Adesha are siblings and Oakland, California natives, who have a passion for the arts. Raised in a household that fostered music and the arts, they have fond memories of their parents singing along to Marvin Gaye, and dancing the night away to Stevie Wonder.
In 2019, Jonah launched the “Bridging the Gap” music tech tour. Designed to bring awareness about the dissolving art scene to the tech community, and to spark ideas and thoughts of community leaders to actively “bridge the gap” between tech and art
To learn more about Jonah Melvon and the Rainwater Project, please visit his website at https://www.jonahmelvon.com/
Media Relations Contact
See you at the show! To set up an appointment or for request for additional materials with the label, college, get photos, video links, or more please text Edie Okamoto, Media Relations, at 510-693-0166 or facebook or linked in.
About the Rainwater Project
You can hear the music on Spotify or purchase them on Amazon.
Please join our list of sponsors who like you believe that education is the answer to a higher standard of living for all.
Sponsored by Vigilint Biosensors: Keeping Families together 24/7 – digitally. www.vigilint.store
RioVida Networks: Bringing artists, musicians, celebrities and corporations together for mutual benefit. www.riovida.net
Welcome to the Jonah Melvon and the Rainwater Project – together we are “Bridging the Gap.”
