A walking tour around California is helping inform tourists about Black history and culture in the area.
Known as “The Black Liberation Tour Walking Tour,” the experience, created by resident David Peters, guides visitors to the important sites that have contributed to historic movements in Black history such as the Black Power Movement.
“The Black Liberation Walking Tour (BLWT) is a community-led cultural asset map celebrating Hoover-Foster’s multi-generational Black history and culture,” said a statement on the tour’s website. “We celebrate belonging through the 100 year narrative ribbon leading from the early West Coast civil rights movement through the second wave of the Great Migration to the Black Liberation actions of the present day.”
Located mostly around the West Oakland area of California, the tour offers the attendees information on ten places through the use of electronic devices. Through scanning a QR code, visitors are electronically given a comprehensive account of the site’s history, including audio clips and stories by community members. Although the tour generally lasts for an hour, people can take as much time as they want to focus and visit the sites on their own schedule.
Amongst the 10 locations on the tour is St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.
Built in the 1890s, the church played a prominent role in supporting the Black community in West Oakland and has a history that’s deeply intertwined with the Black Panther Party.
St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church’s Father Earl Neil, who overcame struggles as the only Black student in his religious education classes, took part in both “Freedom Summer” and the March on Selma that was orchestrated by Rev. Martin Luther King. His work further engrained him in the Civil Rights Movement when he met with co-founder of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton, when Newton was being held in the Alameda County Jail.
His relationship with Newton led to Neil’s role as the “spiritual advisor” to the activists. Little by little, St. Augustine became one of the key locations for the Black Panther Party meetings. By working closely with the revolutionary party, the church was also able to create one of the country’s first breakfast programs, known as the Free Breakfast Program for School Children.
The tour also includes the California Hotel, one of the area’s first locales to host Black performers, as one of its stops. The venue was identified as one of the main places where Black people could safely spend the night and view performances by big-name musicians such as Billie Holiday, Sam Cooke and James Brown.
The hotel is featured alongside the St. Augustine Episcopal Church on the Black Liberation Mural which was funded by the people of the Black Liberation Walking Tour. As a community project, the work of art is a love letter to West Oakland’s rich Black history.
“When Black people see ourselves reflected in our spaces, it affirms who we are in the world and the culture and the history that we carry with us,” said Peters in a statement.
