Felecia Gaston Publishes New Book on Marin City
By Godfrey Lee
Felecia Gaston, the founder and director of Performing Stars of Marin, and The Marin City Historical and Preservation Society, will be promoting her new book, “a brand new start…this is home – The Story of World War II Marinship and the Legacy of Marin City.”
Gaston will be in conversation with Cheryl Popp on Tuesday, April 25 at 6:00 p.m. at Sausalito Books by The Bay, 100 Bay St. in Sausalito.
“A brand new start…this is home” is a commemorative book for the Marin City 80 celebration, and includes “historical images, excerpts of oral histories, archival news, headlines and documents that have been previously published,” said Gaston.
It reveals the untold stories, experiences, and what the Black people in Marin City had endured for 80 years, and highlights the community’s dignity, character, and pride from the 1940s to the present.
The book also talks about the “influences and infringements from outsiders who have historically and continue to impose their vision for the community…and portrays the strength and tenacity of local advocates who wanted to decide their destiny,”
The book begins by casting back to the original inhabitants, the Coast Miwok Indians to the Azorean Portuguese of Southern Marin, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor leading to the United States entry into WWII, the Bechtel Corporation’s contract to build the Liberty ships, and the people from near and far who did the work.
Gaston writes about the Marin Housing Authority building temporary homes in 1942, the beginning of a community in Marin City, outside developers, the Ku Klux Klan’s cross burning in Marin City, what the Marin Civic Center was proposing for the future of the land in Marin City in 1952, and how people such as Supervisor Vera Schultz, Mary Summers, Aaron Green, Lawrence Livingston, Jr., Lawrence Halprin, and John Carl Warnecke help to plan and shape Marin City.
The book references Marin City’s Black business owners from 1950s to the present, a professional sports archive, local entertainment groups, and individual entertainers such as George Duke, Tupac Amaru Shakur, Rap Group 51.50 Illegally Insane, and Evard “Avar the Star” Auxila.
The book narrative continues with the legacy of the Black Panthers in Marin City, Geronimo Pratt, the Marin City Community Festivals from 1975 to 1989, the Blues, the Jazz & Soul Festivals in The Park from 1998 to 2012, the Tuskegee Airmen and Veterans’ Day Celebrations, George “Rocky” Graham Park of 2015, Golden Gate Village in 2017, and the Trump Caravan, coronavirus pandemic, George Floyd protests, and the U.S. Census in 2020.
Gaston writes that Marin City community has tackled the “interconnected issues of systemic racism, housing inequity, gentrification, the collapse of the middle class, and (its) resilience.”
She says that after celebrating Marin City’s 80th birthday, now is time introduce the Marin City Historical and Preservation Society in order to recognize her legacy, preserve her history and “contribute to the community’s growing vitality, richly deserved by the many residents who have invested deeply in this unique historical enclave.”
