Moms 4 Housing among Oakland’s Black History Month honorees

The activist women known as Moms 4 Housing will be among those recognized as Black History Month honorees when the Oakland City Council meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, council President Rebecca Kaplan announced.

Other honorees will include North Oakland store Marcus Books, community advocate and Oakland Tenants Union founder James Vann, activist and educator Kin Folkz, accessory dwelling unit advocate Bertram Harris; Red Bay Coffee owners the Konte family; Cypress Mandela Training Center founder Arthur “Art” Bolden; lie Omode School; and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Oratorical Festival founder Donald Oliver.

Starting last November, the Moms 4 Housing group occupied a vacant West Oakland home at at 2928 Magnolia St. for about two months to call attention to the plight of the many homeless people in society and the housing crisis affecting the Bay Area and the state.

The group was evicted from the home by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office in January after failing to win a court decision to allow them to stay.

The house had been purchased in July by Southern California-based Wedgewood Properties, which planned to renovate and sell the home. But a deal brokered in January by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s office means the home will be sold to the Oakland Community Land Trust, which buys properties and converts them to affordable housing.

The steering committee of Moms 4 Housing — of Misty Cross, Carroll Fife, Sameerah Karim, Tolani King, Merika Regan, Sharena Thomas, and Dominique Walker – will be recognized by Kaplan.

Kaplan said in a statement:

“Moms 4 Housing showed us that the raw power of organizing can create the type of political shifts we need so that our policies truly become about caring for our must vulnerable community members.”

The council meets in the third floor chamber at City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza.