Growing up in Oakland, Mike lost many friends and family members in the streets. Three years ago, he almost became a victim, too, when he was shot seven times while sitting in a car with his daughter. Since then, Mike has recovered his health and built a thriving shoe customization business*. He also moved to a safer area. Today’s episode features a deep exploration of Oakland’s violent history with somebody who understands it intimately.

*Check out Magic Mike Customs here: https://www.instagram.com/magicmikecustoms/

Tobie Gene Levingston left behind his life as a Louisiana sharecropper in the mid-1950s to work at a Oakland metal foundry. Within a few years, he started the East Bay Dragons, which grew to be one of the most legendary Black motorcycle clubs in the world. This episode goes into the Dragons’ clubhouse for a deep conversation with two long-time members, Melvin Shadrick and Picasso, to explore how the club has managed to thrive all these years – and what it feels like to cruise past another motorcycle pack on the highway going 140 miles per hour.

This episode’s art is a watercolor painted by Oakland-based illustrator and author Robert Liu-Trujillo. You can see more of Rob’s work at http://work.robdontstop.com/

The style, music and politics of the East Bay have had a major influence on hip-hop since even before the very first rap album dropped. Photojournalist Eric Arnold recently mapped out the most important locations of this history in the “Hip Hop Atlas of The Bay,” part of the Oakland Museum’s exhibition: “RESPECT: Hip-Hop Style & Wisdom.” In this episode, Arnold shares stories about the Oakland dance trends that laid the groundwork for “b-boy” culture, how Too Short changed the music industry and much more.

The Oakland Museum’s hip hop exhibition is running through August 12th. Details here: http://museumca.org/exhibit/respect-hip-hop-style-wisdom

North Oakland’s Golden Gate neighborhood has undergone a rapid demographic shift over the past decade as many longtime Black residents have moved out and wealthier, younger white people have moved in. This episode features five stories that explore how folks are navigating these changes. Interviews for this episode were conducted by cultural researcher Sue Mark, founder of Commons Archive. To learn more about the “neighborhood memory bank” that Sue is building, visit: http://www.commonsarchive.net/

The woman featured in this episode’s art is Josephine Lee, who was born in Oakland on August 29, 1925. As you’ll hear in her interview, she is one of Oakland’s many Black residents who refuses to leave the town she loves. You can see more of Josephine Lee and the other residents featured in this video: https://vimeo.com/138672648

The abandoned pink building on the corner of MacArthur and Martin Luther King Jr. Way has visually dominated that busy intersection for so long that it feels like a monument. But what this monument represents depends on your perspective. It could by a symbol of what happened to one of Oakland’s thriving Black business corridors and the ongoing exodus of a community. Or it could be a symbol of how the revolutionary dreams of the Occupy era literally went down in flames. Or it could symbolize the East Bay’s insane real estate market, where the same piece of property could sell for $90,000 in 2012 and then $3.2 million a few years later. This episode explores these questions with journalist Sam Lefebvre, who recently dug into this history for Open Space magazine.

Here’s a link to Sam’s article: “Nine Tenths of the Law” https://openspace.sfmoma.org/2018/05/nine-tenths-of-the-law/

Following the 1906 earthquake, Oakland’s Lew Hing supported thousands of victims from San Francisco’s Chinatown who were turned away from official relief camps due to rampant discrimination. On the grounds of his massive Pacific Coast Cannery in West Oakland, Lew fed and sheltered this marginalized community when nobody else would. This episode explores how a self-made mogul overcome California’s vicious anti-Chinese racism to become one of the most powerful businessmen in the early 20th century Bay Area. We’ll also take a tour of the Pacific Cannery Lofts to see what’s left from when the East Bay was the canning capital of the Pacific coast.

Featuring interviews with:

-Bruce Quan, Lew Hing’s great-grandson

-Don Hausler, retired Oakland librarian

-Rick and Nancy Holliday, who converted the abandoned cannery into a residential development

In the early 1900s, newspapers proclaimed that Oakland would become “the great metropolis of the West Coast.” During these boom years, East Bay politicians and business leaders celebrated a hot air balloon called “The City of Oakland” as a representation of the region’s rising prospects. This episode explores the relationship between the balloon’s eventual fate and Oakland’s economic trajectory. Featuring an interview with Gene Anderson, author of “Legendary Locals of Oakland”

If you want to get a copy of the Long Lost Oakland map, you get it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eastbayyesterday/long-lost-oakland

Out of all the features on the Long Lost Oakland map, the Ohlone shellmounds have drawn the most questions. Many of those questions were addressed in an earlier episode, so I’m sharing it again. Here’s the original description: “Have you ever wondered what the East Bay was like before colonization? In this episode, Corrina Gould of Indian People Organizing for Change shares knowledge of how her ancestors, the Ohlone people, maintained a relatively peaceful culture here for thousands of years. Although this history was nearly wiped out, struggles to protect sacred shellmound sites—some of them older than the Egyptian pyramids—have sparked a movement to honor this region’s original inhabitants and reclaim ‘lost’ languages, crafts and practices.”

Oakland’s Black population nearly quintupled during the 1940s. Tens of thousands of African Americans fled the Jim Crow-era South to work in East Bay shipyards like Moore Dry Dock Company. The backlash to this boom laid the foundation for decades of entrenched inequality and discriminatory housing patterns. This episode explores the rise of one of one of Oakland’s biggest industrial operations ever – and the aftermath of its demise.

Featuring interviews with:

-Dorothy Lazard, librarian at Oakland Library History Room

-Ron Moore, son of Moore Dry Dock Company co-owner

-Marilynn S. Johnson, author of “The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War II”

If you want to get a copy of the Long Lost Oakland map, you get it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eastbayyesterday/long-lost-oakland/posts/2137822

When the Cypress Freeway collapsed during the Loma Prieta earthquake, many Oakland residents risked their own lives to rescue victims trapped in the ruins. In this episode, a collaboration with Snap Judgement, Raven Roberts shares his memories of what it was like to live through that disaster – and the traumatizing aftermath. Raven’s story reveals that even though West Oakland has changed dramatically since the freeway came down, many long-time residents still carry deep scars from the quake.

This story was co-produced by Snap Judgement -- an Oakland-based, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast. To listen to their amazing catalogue of stories, visit: http://snapjudgment.org/

Snap Judgement on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/snapjudgment

Extra thanks to Eliza Smith, Mark Ristich and Glynn Washington for giving “East Bay Yesterday” a platform on Snap Judgement and Davey Kim the incredible sound design!