By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

April 22, 2001

OAKLAND -- The movement of blacks out of the East Bay's largest city may be bittersweet given its reputation as a bastion of black political leaders.

The theory is that as more blacks leave the city, fewer are elected to local offices to represent those who remain.

On the flip side, as more blacks move into Contra Costa, Solano and San Joaquin counties, their political power there will increase.

Last year in Contra Costa County, for example, Federal Glover became the first black to be elected to the Board of Supervisors. That county has seen about a 9 percent increase in the black population since 1990, census figures showed.

In Oakland, the political complexion has paled over the past decade. Most notable was the landslide election of former Gov. Jerry Brown as mayor, a white man who beat out seven black candidates in 1998 to take the seat vacated by two-term Mayor Elihu Harris, who is black.

That same year, Don Perata, D-Oakland, who is white, won a state Senate seat vacated when Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who is black, claimed the seat of retired Rep. Ron Dellums, also black.

"The election of Jerry Brown certainly was an indication of decreasing black political power, at least at the symbolic level," said Charles Henry, chair of UC Berkeley's African-American Studies Department. "Certainly, the decrease means something politically."

But Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale said that when he and Huey Newton organized the group in 1966 they never wanted an isolated populace of black politicians and their black constituents.

"It has more to do with (passion) than whether a politician is black," said Seale from his Philadelphia home. "African-Americans have made huge strides since the 1960s. It's what's in your mind and what's in your heart that matters."

Black political representation had very little effect on black people in the city, said Shannon Reeves, president of the NAACP's Oakland chapter.

"We had more black elected officials in Oakland than any other city west of the Mississippi from Congress down to the school board," he said.

"We've been known for having political presence and power in Oakland and there are a lot of people who still want that, but that's all image."

Socially and culturally, a declining black population raises the question of whether Oakland's long history of black power and residency can survive.

The city's reputation as a black stronghold was born in the World War II migration to California's shipyards. Jobs supporting the war effort exploded in the Bay Area as did Oakland's black population.

What had been the city's 8,462-member black community in 1940 exploded to 47,562 by the 1950 census. That number steadily increased over the next 45 years.

As younger middle- and upper-class whites, Latinos and Asians flow into the city, will the image of a courthouse surrounded by sign-carrying black activists disappear?

Instead of Huey Newton and black power, will Oakland instead be known the world over for its whitewashed political circles and revitalized, but culturally-vacant neighborhoods?

"I don't think it will ever lose that heritage," said Oakland City Councilman Larry Reid, who represents predominantly black East Oakland. "I'm seeing young African-Americans moving back into the inner city and back into Oakland. And I think you're going to see that shift continue to take place."