By The People: How Black Activists Transformed Voting in Oakland

This is the third episode of By The People, The Bay podcast’s new series highlighting the way democracy shows up in the places around us, and how we can all plug in.

A vote in Oakland today goes farther than it did prior to 1980. That’s when voters passed Measure H, which moved the city from at-large to district-based elections . The change was huge for Black and brown voters, who now had the opportunity to elect candidates from their neighborhoods instead of being represented by white men backed by money and power. The reason why Measure H passed can be traced back through decades of organizing by Black activists seeking political representation.

Guest: Darwin BondGraham, editor of The Oaklandside

Read the transcript here. You can read Darwin’s full article here

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