Da Corner,14th and Broadway, Downtown Oakland CA
photo Adam Turner
James Copes, Lake Merritt Black Vendor organizer, and Oakland City Council member Nikki Fortunato Bas address a group of street vendors during a recent town hall meeting. James Copes is on the BAMBD Black Vendors Association Board of Directors. He and Marvin X agreed the Black Vendors Association must be a first class organization with a politically conscious membership able to advocate for economic equity as part of the City of Oakland's Downtown Plan for the next 25 to 50 years. Photo Credit: Darwin BondGraham
Board of Directors: Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, James Vorett Copes, Delores Nochi Cooper,
Adama Oshuntoki Mosley, Ramal Lamar, Tony B. Conscious
I first called for Black vendors on the streets of Oakland during the regime of our first Black
Mayor Lionel Wilson. That was in the 80s. The situation of Black vendors at Lake Merritt
is fluid unless a Black Vendors Association is organized to demand economic equity in the city
North American Africans have made Oakland known throughout the world as The City of
Resistance with the Pullman Porters Union and the Black Panther Party. Marcus Garvey
told us long ago the world is moving against all unorganized people. So vendors get organized
or suffer the consequences of economic strangulation.
In a conversation with brother James Copes, organizer of the Lake Merritt Black Vendors,
we agreed that Black vendors should ready themselves to take advantage of the
community benefit agreements the BAMBD CDC has worked out with developers for
below market rate retail spaces in developments along the 14th Street BAMBD,
downtown Oakland. If you are a vendor and would like more information about
the BAMBD Black Vendors Association, please call me: 510-575-7148; email:
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
