By Latanya West, Managing Editor, San Diego Voice & Viewpoint
The purpose of the Saturday, March 15 meeting was to bring BAPACSD members and the community together to ‘bring your issues, bring your concerns” and discuss ‘resources and solutions’ related to the Trump Administration’s sweeping federal job cuts, tariffs leading to consumer price increases, federal cuts to Medicare, and the targeting of DEI programs and policies since the man currently occupying the White House took office. The meeting was held at the Neighborhood House Association at 841 S. 41st Street from 12 pm to 2 pm.
The two-hour meeting opened with a silent prayer for the late Honorable Leon L. Williams and his family, a quick round-the-room introduction of attendees who ranged from BAPAC members to community members, community leaders, and elected officials and their representatives, and then a brief overview of the history of BAPAC San Diego presented by BAPACSD Foundation board member Dr. Abena Bradford, founding member Ken Msemaji, and California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber.
As Dr. Bradford introduced BAPACSD’s founding members, she reminded those in attendance that “Our history is our roots, our rock”. Founding member Mr. Msemjai soon followed with some reflections on the legacy of the organization and its journey to today in fulfilling its mission to “reduce the misery index”.
“We have survived everything from slavery to Reconstruction to the Tulsa Massacre. Black people have survived all of it. We can not surrender,” Msemjai told the standing-room-only crowd.
Weber, whose husband, Judge Daniel Weber, was BAPACSD’s first president, took the audience through the group’s inception in San Francisco and Los Angeles and the local San Diego chapter’s formation in her and her husband’s living room in 1981. BAPAC’s main intent was to support Black elected officials in the newly formed California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) and the California Association of Black Lawyers (CABL) at the local level, as a means to mobilize people locally to get more Black people elected, to support worthy candidates via fundraising and political action to create change at the state and local levels.
It was a call to action that was repeated throughout the afternoon’s meeting.
Assemblymember LaShae Sharp-Collins (District 79) and SDUSD School Board member Sharon Whitehurst-Payne each echoed Secy of State Weber’s call to action, pointing out the dangers ahead for the African American community at all levels of society in the wake of the Trump administration’s attacks on our institutions and Civil Rights.
“Fear is not something we’re born of. We are going to make it!” Whitehurst Payne said to applause.
Weber and Sharp-Collins warned that 50 years of progress are currently being dismantled. Cuts to Voting Rights, Black Studies curricula, housing assistance, medical coverage, Cal Fresh and Cal Works are all in danger and will be felt very soon.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Sharp-Collins said, as she emphasized her work to push for eligibility index increases for Cal Fresh and Cal Works funding with the AB785 bill, her work on the AB766 DEIA bill, and her plan to hold Governor Newsom accountable for continuing support for state DEI initiatives. She handed out the CLBC’s Road to Repair 2025 Priority Bill Package flyer to educate all on upcoming Assembly and Senate bills.
About halfway through the meeting, U.S. Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D–CA 51st District)) arrived. For her part, Jacobs answered questions and gave an overview of the House Democrats’ 4 pronged strategy to fight back against the Republican and Trump Administration’s Project 2025 agenda: Pushback, Oversight, Litigation, and Public Pressure to hold the Trump Administration accountable and on notice. She emphasized ‘showing up and telling your stories’, and ‘explaining to your neighbors’ who don’t follow politics closely what is being done by elected officials who are fighting on their behalf.
Time ran out before the very important BAPACSD agenda items related to Solutions and Resources were fully addressed, but the overall message was a call to action to have your voices heard by either writing your representatives or sending small delegations to the state capital. In our February 20, 2025 issue, this publication previously published all phone numbers and email addresses of San Diego’s state and local representatives to assist the public in doing just that.
