Gallery
doing what I do
BLACK LIVES MATTER
Oakland High School students and the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade of Berkeley protesting the police shooting of my 14-year old brother in law Melvin Black
Oakland High School (OHS) students and the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade of Berkeley protesting the police shooting of 14-year old Melvin Black in Oakland, California, on March 23, 1979. Members of the youth brigade along with OHS students and other protesters led a 30-block march urging for demonstrations at Oakland Police Department headquarters.
On March 17, 1979, Melvin Black was shot by two Oakland Police Department officers after they confronted him in front of his apartment while responding to reports of a sniper. Civil rights attorney John L. Burris, appointed by then-mayor Lionel Wilson and the Oakland City Council to lead an independent investigation into Black’s shooting, credits the incident with launching his career. Burris’ findings in September 1979 concluded the shooting was unjustified, leading to public outcry and the creation of a Citizens’ Police Review Board, one of the first of its kind in the nation, as a consequence of the investigation.