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Black Liberation Walking Tour (BLWT) – a Black History, Art, and Culture tour of a historic West Oakland neighborhood.
When most people think of Black history in the United States, they typically imagine the history of the American South, New York City’s Harlem, and Washington, D.C. This guided walking tour in Oakland, California, shares over 100 years of Black history in the American West, from the West Coast’s Civil Rights Movement and the Great Migration, to present-day stories of Oakland residents.
The Black Liberation Walking Tour (BLWT) is a community-led cultural asset map celebrating Hoover-Foster’s multi-generational Black history and culture. A project of the West Oakland Cultural Action Network (WOCAN), the BLWT captures oral histories to document the lives, art, and the culture of long-time residents, historical figures, and rapidly disappearing former Black cultural spaces.
Tour stops include the former site of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, which was the spiritual home of the local Black Panther Party; a former home of Delilah Beasley, one of the first Black women journalists to write for major American newspapers, and the former home of C.L. Dellums, vice-president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) and a central figure of the West Coast Civil Rights Movement.
