SGVCC Exhibit 2022 – Racial Justice

“Give A Damn”

January 20, 2020, Reclaim MLK March & Rally – Oakland, CA

Hosted by the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP), this rally and march followed 6 days after Oakland police arrived at the Moms 4 Housing site in West Oakland in armored vehicles and riot gear to arrest the moms bringing national attention to the housing crisis.

At issue was the huge number of corporate-owned houses sitting vacant across Oakland, contributing to skyrocketing housing prices, a housing shortage, and poor people being pushed into the streets.

RACIAL JUSTICE

– Demanding fair and equal treatment of Black communities, and accountability and justice when violations have been committed.

In December 2014, thousands marched through the streets of Oakland in the Millions March. All races were well represented demanding justice following the failure to indict white police officers in the killing of two unarmed black men, Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York.

In 2015, the movement to Reclaim MLK’s Radical Legacy was born. In Oakland, CA, the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) uses this framing to organize huge marches and rallies on MLK Day and “brings together thousands of people across race, class and political ideology with a commitment to build a just and equitable Oakland that Dr. King would be proud of. For decades, MLK’s legacy has been whitewashed. Often portrayed as a passive figure, in truth he was a radical leader demanding rational change: an end to capitalism, to war, to empire, to poverty, and to white supremacy. Communities in Oakland and across the country take this opportunity every year to celebrate the true spirit of this revolutionary.”

In 2020, after the high profile murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery (among many others), massive spontaneous protests erupted all over the country. The Black Lives Matter movement had, for years, been helping people to recognize the blatant injustices of policing in the US. When the world watched Derek Chauvin kneel on George Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, the world knew and understood what it was seeing.