OAKLAND, CA.—The historic Uhuru Movement for black power is expanding its Oakland institutions for African community economic development programs that have served the people for the past 30 years!
The Uhuru House has been located at 7911 MacArthur Blvd in East Oakland since 1984. The African People’s Education and Defense Fund (APEDF), a nonprofit wing of the Uhuru Movement, will launch the beautiful Akwaaba Hall at the Uhuru House in October 2015.
Akwaaba Hall will be available for rentals by the community for reunions, graduations, birthdays and more!
The Uhuru Furniture and Collectibles store, located at 3742 Grand Ave. in Oakland since 1989, is doubling in size and incorporating the adjacent storefront. Uhuru Furniture is also holding monthly furniture sales at the Uhuru House.
Uhuru Foods and Pies is expanding! Uhuru Foods and Pies is an institution of Black Star Industries (BSI), building an economy for and by African people in Oakland and around the world. Uhuru Foods is currently seeking for a site to launch an Uhuru Jiko commercial kitchen in the Oakland bay area.
The Uhuru Movement, led by the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), came to Oakland in 1980 in the wake of the U.S. government defeat of the Black Revolution of the 1960s and the assassinations of many of our beloved leaders.
Over the years every struggle for black power in the bay area has been orchestrated from the Uhuru House, a much loved Oakland landmark.
Brief history on the significance of the Oakland Uhuru House
Struggles for black community control of housing and the police, and campaigns against the brutal colonial prisons and genocidal foster care system were launched from the Uhuru House, under the leadership of Chairman Omali Yeshitela.
Black Panther Party leader Huey P. Newton, who was assassinated in 1989, gave his last speech on the stage of the Uhuru House. The Party provided the honor guard for Huey’s wake, and led a massive march after the funeral from the church where the funeral was conducted.
Popular hip-hop artists Digital Underground, Askari X and Tupac Shakur got their start in the Uhuru House. They were influenced by the Uhuru Movement’s political message of Black power to the African community and the late local movement leader, Biko Lumumba.
The Bobby Hutton Freedom Clinic and the African People’s Childcare Collective were built from within these walls along with numerous other political and economic institutions that changed the face of Oakland.
The Burning Spear newspaper was published in the Uhuru House for many years, as well as numerous books and pamphlets by Chairman Omali Yeshitela and other movement leaders.
Under the leadership of Deputy Chair Ona Zene Yeshitela, the transformation of the work in Oakland while she was there was phenomenal. She was the first to arrive to open the Uhuru House and always among the last to leave at the closing.
She exemplified the correct stance that movement forces and forces close to us should take in carrying out the political front through our economic work. One of our main tasks in Oakland is to bring the African working class into the ranks of our movement.
We are winning.
We will win!
