HEADING EAST: JUNE 22, 2006

Meeting Ron Dellums:

Our ride stated auspiciously at City Hall: only days after Dellums’ victory was announced, he was holding a press conference in Ogawa Plaza. We seized the opportunity and rode over to talk to him. Under a blazing sun (it must have been close to 90 degrees) Dellums appeared incredibly cool while wearing an elegant white suit. We had to wait to make our break into the crowd to talk to him. When we did, he gave us his full attention.

We explained the premise of our project and then asked him to give us three to five words that would describe West and East Oakland. He answered (almost majestically) that “Humanity can’t be reduced to three words.” Towering at well over 6’,Dellums then flowed into his political reverie, outlining West Oakland’s post-industrial woes and his vision for revitalization. After a few minutes, Dellums returned from his trance-like political oration; as he focused his gaze upon us, he discussed his plans for ‘greening’ Oakland and invited us to be members of his citizen-based environmental committee.

Dellums’ pr crew ushered him along; he couldn’t move very quickly. Every few feet he was stopped by optimistic passers-by, who all hoped that the change in Oakland’s ‘leadership’ will offer Oakland a chance at a new soul. Look here to read a very insightful interview with Ron Dellums as part of the UC Berkeley Institute of International Studies. He said this about his childhood in West Oakland:

“I was born in 1935. West Oakland, early on, was a definite community. There were many white ethnics who lived in West Oakland as a working-class community. When World War II began, West Oakland became the major point of entry for black people coming in from the South, who came in to take advantage of the economic expansion and opportunities of the war economy, as it were. As a result of that, suddenly West Oakland over night becomes a small Southern town.”

It is also important to note that his uncle was instrumental in forming the African American trade union in the history of America, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.