The Bay Area's Black renaissance man, Wilfred T. Ussery, was honored on his 90th birthday at Geoffery's Inner Circle, chief venue in Oakland's Black Arts Movement Business District along the 14th corridor, downtown. In his remarks, he said it was the first birthday celebration he remembers. Celebrants included his wife, Maxine, son, Wilfred, Jr., Paul Cobb, publisher of the Oakland Post, and his wife, Gay; Dezzie Woods Jones, founder of BAWOPA, Black women organized for political action; retired judge Horace Wheatly, Bill T. Jones and his wife Belva Davis, black media diva; Charlie Walker, businessman and godfather of Hunters Point, SF; Rt. Air force Col. Conway B. Jones, Civil Rights activist,Norman Brown, poet-activist Marvin X, et al.
Ussery was trained as an architect but as social activist combined his skills to become the leader of CORE, Congress of Racial Equality, San Francisco Anti-Poverty Program; organizer and designer of Oakland's Acorn housing projects, member of the Bay Area Rapid Transit BART.
Will was a key organizer of two early 60s Black Power Conferences in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
We are honored to have known Wilfred T. Ussery since the 1960s. The consensus of speakers praised his forward thinking. In his remarks, he said he still has many projects in mind but is scaling down, although he recently presented the BART Board with a 150 page proposal and has drafted a 15 page proposal for The Black Agenda in the Age of Trump, basically a do-for-self agenda.
The event was documented by three of the Bay Area's master Black photographers: Ken Johnson, Adam Turner and Gene Hazzard.. Photos to follow.
--Marvin X
10/14/18
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