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By Daisha Williams
Black August is a month that celebrates everything that Oakland stands for including block parties, movie nights, and other community events.
Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency’s (BOSS) annual Black August Block Party took place on Aug. 31 at Oakland City Hall. Eastside Arts Alliance hosted a movie night with the Oakland chapter of the Malcom X Grassroots Movement on Aug. 30 at their cultural center at 2277 International Blvd.
Black August celebrates Black independence and liberation. The month gained its title because San Quentin prisoner George Jackson and Jonathan P. Jackson were killed in August of 1971 and 1970 respectively. Jonathan Jackson was killed in an attempt to kidnap a judge in Marin County and George Jackson was targeted in a prison uprising These brothers were instrumental figures in the Revolutionary Prison Movement and fought for freedom, costing them their lives.
The ways that people celebrate Black August differ, and even here in the Bay there are many different ways people honor of Black August.
BOSS is a local organization dedicated to helping disadvantaged people achieve health and self-sufficiency since 1971. The main way they do this is by trying to help the unhoused population in the Bay Area, fighting mass incarceration. They also have a trauma recovery center in East Oakland, focusing on healing some of the traumas that are part of the Black community.
This is the fourth year of BOSS’s annual block party. The event has been growing each year with fewer than 100 people present the first year and around 400 in 2023. This year they expected 400-500 people to attend.
In the second year, BOSS augmented the celebration with a “Black Market.” This is a market exclusively for Black vendors, at no cost to them, to boost economic empowerment in the Black community, one of the fundamental ideals of Black August, according to Satia Frazier-North the organizer of the BOSS Block Party.
“The foundation for Black August is art, culture, political education, and economic empowerment. We think that all of those pieces are important to the healing of the community that we serve,” Satia Frazier-North.
This year, the block party included an artists’ zone, a wellness zone which had free blood pressure screenings, performances by many Oakland musicians, poets, and rappers, as well as a food truck. The first 250 people got free food.
The Oakland branch of the Malcom X Grassroots Movement and Eastside Arts Alliance hosted a screening of the 1980 movie “Attica.” This film tells the story of one of the largest prison riots this country has ever seen which began on Sept. 9, 1971. This movie about resistance was followed by a community discussion.
The Malcom X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) is an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of Afrikan people through empowerment and education. Some of their principles include a demand for reparations, opposition to genocide anywhere in the world, and an end to gender and sexual oppression.
More than movie nights and block parties, Black August acknowledges the power that descendents of the African diaspora have shown in the face of oppression.
One notable historical event that occurred during August was the start of the Haitian Revolution on Aug. 14, 1791, brought on by the largest and most successful slave revolt in history. Haiti then became the first country to be governed by previously enslaved peoples.
The Nat Turner Rebellion took place in Virginia on Aug. 21, 1831. After receiving a sign from God, Turner killed his slave master and the slave master’s family. Then he led a group of other enslaved people to kill their oppressors. These acts of violence made it clear to white people that Black people were not timid or docile, that there will be consequences for the ways that they were treated.
Black August observations are not all deadly serious or in the distant past. Most recently the Montgomery Riverfront Brawl in Alabama took place on Aug. 5, 2023. It will likely not be the last of Black August’s notable dates because as long as people are silenced, they will rise up.
