An Altar of Hope: West Oakland Mural Project

March 27, 2024

In the early 1900s, West Oakland was an abundant Black community with many families and thriving businesses. By the 1940s, however, the once thriving community was isolated from the rest of the city and endured restrictions on education, jobs and other resources. The use of eminent domain by the city was a large factor in the breakdown  of many African American neighborhoods in West Oakland, also referred to as the Lower Bottoms.

“When they built the train through West Oakland, they displaced a lot of Black families. Then they built the freeway, then the post office was built after that. The Lower Bottoms were cut off from the rest of Oakland, essentially.” shared Jilchristina Vest, activist and resident of West Oakland.

In 1966, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense was formed by, then college students, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in West Oakland, CA. The party’s main focus was on establishing systems for African Americans in West Oakland that addressed food insecurity, police violence, education and career advancement, and self defense. 

The party created over 65 survival programs that specifically helped those in the communities that were isolated from certain resources due to racist regulations. These programs were spread out across the United States in 30 cities, with West Oakland serving as the main headquarters for the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, later shortened to the Black Panther Party. 

Over forty years later after the disbandment of the party, Jilchristina Vest was searching for a home in West Oakland to be closer to the bustling Black community in that area, after completing her undergraduate degree at California State University, San Francisco. She settled on a cozy duplex on Center Street in 2000, only feet where the former leader of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton was assassinated.  

In 2020, the protests and uprisings for the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States seemed to ignite a fire all across the world, and in Vest. The idea to create the mural came at a time when Vest felt hopeless and lost, but wanted to create something that would alchemize the negative feelings into something positive. 

“Here was the one time in history that everyone in the world united to protest against one issue. You have people in different countries that may have protests about transportation or labor unions, and those issues may never leave that country, but Black Lives Matter was something everyone was fighting against.” said Vest.

When she first strategized a way to make an impact, she turned to the neighborhood and the community around her. She emphasized wanting to receive blessings from not only her neighbors to put up the mural, but wanted to convene with an actual Panther about the story of the party. 

From this concern, the West Oakland Mural Project was born, on the same streets that its namesake once operated from.

“I wasn’t a Panther, I didn’t have any Panthers in my family and I didn’t know anyone that was a Panther, at the time, so I wanted to make sure that what I was trying to depict, was an accurate representation of what happened back then.” said Vest. 

Leila Hudspeth, a student at Rialto High School who attended BLU’s trip, stated that she learned only brief snippets of history about the Black Panther Party, but nothing that goes as in depth as the West Oakland Mural project. 

“I really liked learning about the museum and the start of the Black Panther Party, but I didn’t really know about all of the history about the program, though.” said Hudspeth 

The women of the Black Panther Party served multiple roles in different chapters, with many serving as important community board members, educators, doctors, researchers, reporters and more. In many modern understandings of the Black Panthers, only a select few African American women are remembered for their efforts, with many others being forgotten. Huggins emphasized the stories of those forgotten were a central part to honoring the Black Panther Party, as a whole. 

Vest contacted artist James Shields to create the first draft of the mural, based on his poster, ‘Power to the People’. From there, muralist Rachel Wolfe took Shields’ concept to complete the painting itself. Vest had felt inspired by the already existing images of women in the party and wanted to materialize all the efforts of the women and the survival programs that they left behind.   

The backdrop of the house is a bright blue with three Black women and a Black child at the center of the house. The woman at the top left assumes the role of protector over the neighborhood and never breaks eye contact with those passing by. She also represents the self defense survival programs that the Black Panther Party established during its existence. 

The woman wearing the doctor’s coat and holding the child, depicts the social programs that established education for children and provided healthcare for those in need. The final woman holding up her fist represents the hundreds of Black women that went out into their communities as Panthers, board members and activists, who vocalized the concerns and solutions that impacted those in the community. 

To the right side of the house, a woman with a head wrap carries a bag of groceries, illustrating the numerous food programs the Black Panthers had established to address those needs. 

Painted in white, covering the arches above the windows are adinkra symbols for protection and safety for the house. Adinkra symbols are motifs that originated from Ghana, with many serving as a way to ward off evil spirits, bring prosperity and many other spiritual properties. 

Along the walls of the home, from top to bottom, are the over 300 names of the women that were active in the Black Panther Party. On the back, Vest had painted a quote from Sandra Bland, a victim of police brutality that was killed in July 2015. The mural also served as a memorial to the #SayHerName movement, and to others lost to racial injustice. 

The placement and meaning of the quote serves as a reminder to those in the West Oakland community of the love around them. For Vest, the mural is meant to be a beacon of hope for not only her community, but also for herself. Instead of dwelling in the past, Vest wants to focus on creating solutions for the future. 

“Black history is not what was done to us, it’s what we have accomplished and will continue to accomplish in the future. I want to choose to surround myself with all the amazing things Black people have done, and this mural is my way of paying honor to that.” Vest said.

The mural currently allows scheduled tours for those interested in learning about the Black Panther Party, and other prominent figures involved.

“It was really inspiring and eye opening to see what Black people in the past have accomplished in their lives,” said Brooklyn Gardner, a senior at Rialto High School who also attended the trip. “It also inspired me to probably make a group similar to that in the future.”