Arabella Martinez founded the Spanish Speaking Unity Council (commonly called the Unity Council) in 1964 to improve the quality of life in Oakland’s Fruitvale District. This nonprofit community development organization achieves this by supporting small businesses, youth empowerment programs, community events, parents and seniors, housing and financial assistance programs, and a Head Start preschool. Unity …
Tag Archives: PBD
Oakland Asian Cultural Center
The Oakland Asian Cultural Center (OACC) supports the Asian and Pacific Islander community by providing cultural programs such as films, tours, exhibits, oral history projects, lectures, and book talks. These events are multigenerational and cross-cultural. The OACC also provides programs that promote health and wellness. Founded in 1984 by a corps of volunteers who recognized …
7th Street and the West Coast Blues Walk of Fame
For several decades 7th Street was a hub of commercial and cultural life in West Oakland. As one of the city’s first districts, West Oakland began as a multicultural community. As the city expanded its border, and Whites, who could afford to, moved out to other areas of town, West Oakland became a predominantly African …
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Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce
Oakland’s Vietnamese community is clustered in the East Lake neighborhood that runs from 1st Avenue to 23rd Avenue and along International Boulevard and E. 12th Street. The Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce (OVCC) estimates that there are roughly 8,000 Vietnamese living in Oakland, making it the second largest Asian group in the city after the …
East Oakland Collective
In the past 35 years East Oakland has been especially hard hit by economic instability brought on by drugs, violence, foreclosures, evictions, and gentrification. The East Oakland Collective (EOC) was founded in 2016 to counteract the disinvestment and lack of social and economic resources in deep East Oakland. This membership-based organization addresses food insecurity by …
Eastside Arts Alliance and Cultural Center
Art and activism are two things that Oakland is known for worldwide. In times of strife and repression, it is usually the artist who activates the public into organizing for change. From slave songs, to work songs in the field, to Depression-era murals, to revolutionary poetry, the arts have always lifted the spirits of and …
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East Oakland Youth Development Center
The East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC) works to develop and encourage social and leadership skills in youth, ages 5 to 24, to prepare them for employment, higher education, and leadership roles in their community and elsewhere. The EOYDC has been working with the community for nearly 50 years and is one of the city’s …
Intertribal Friendship House
In 1952 the Bureau of Indian Affairs established the Urban Relocation Program to encourage Native Americans to settle in urban centers with the promise of housing, job training, and employment. Many of those promises were unfulfilled. Just as earlier assimilation efforts (e.g., Indian removals, boarding schools) led to broken pledges and broken cultural ties, the …
Lake Merritt BART and Chinatown
Wilma Chan Park, formerly Madison Square Park, was one of seven public squares in the early days of Oakland. There has been a Chinese community in Oakland since the city’s earliest days. By 1860, there were 200 Chinese residents in Oakland out of a total population of 1500. In 1882 President Chester A. Arthur signed the …
Merritt College and the Black Panther Party
Built as University High School, a feeder school for the children of UC Berkeley faculty, this institution was originally called the Merritt School of Business in 1946. Then, in 1954, the Oakland Unified School District formed Oakland Junior College with Merritt College serving North Oakland and the Laney Trade and Technical School (later Laney College) …
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