Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Thank you again. We're going to take item 23, please.
Speaker 2: Item 23 is communication from Councilman Austin, Councilman Andrews, Vice Mayor Richardson recommendation to request the city manager to work with community stakeholders to identify potential sites in Long Beach for an African American cultural center.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilman Austin.
Speaker 8: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to thank my colleagues, Councilmember Andrews and Vice Mayor Richardson, for signing on this very important item. I also want to thank the many residents who have reached out to me, the community leaders who have reached out to me either through email, personal conversation, text message, jazz over the years. This this is not a brainchild that just popped up overnight. This is something that has been discussed by many people for for quite a long time. And tonight, I think we are finally moving the ball in the agenda forward. Long Beach is known for celebrating its diversity. We have great stories to tell and amazing contributions from many cultures and backgrounds. There are public resources such as the Homeland Cultural Center, private institutions such as the Museum of Latin American Art, or the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum. There are also partnerships between the city and nonprofit organizations as a model such as the Historical Society of Long Beach, which tells many worthwhile stories while housing its collection in a city owned building. As we celebrate Black History Month, this is a great opportunity to start the work toward identifying an African-American cultural center that can educate, that can inspire and gather our community throughout the year. We have American African-American pioneers and trails based blazers in the city from all sorts of pursuits and ventures, including politics, civil rights, the law, education, sports, business, the arts, just to name a few. The city is also rich with some outstanding collections of artifacts, photos and other cultural treasures that don't have a space or place to exhibit these collections or educate future generations. Collections such as the forgotten images tracing more than 200 years of African-American experience with more than 10,000 powerful, powerful artifacts and images. The power of choice. Exhibit a photo exhibit there that stories that provide a stark contrast between choices we make and are very important. The lessons for young people breaking through, lighting the way. A commemoration of some of the black women trailblazers from Long Beach. And recently we saw a 50th anniversary of the EOP Cal State Long Beach exhibit at the Expo Arts Center during our Black History Month celebration. I'd also like to thank the folks here who sat through and came to our celebration earlier, but also who are here to speak this evening. We've also received letters of support from Assembly member Mike Gibson and the NAACP, Long Beach Branch and many others. I'd also like to thank as well the many people who have reached out to me, as I said, as enthusiastic supporters for this item. And that goes beyond the African-American community. There's a lot of support throughout this city for this agenda item, and it's people of all backgrounds who have told me they support this because this is one more way to tell the stories of Long Beach and to provide a hub for culture and arts. It's who we are as a city. So there are many stakeholders in this process and we are asking that the stakeholders be included and involved in this process moving forward. There is and we're asking that people actually reach out to the council offices, my office, the city manager's office and my co-sponsors to be a part of this . This is a dialog that is starting, but it's a dialog that we we intend to move with, with purpose and action, and ask my colleagues to support this first step in the process to request the city manager to work with the community stakeholders to identify potential locations and to start developing options for an African-American cultural arts center . I'm happy to bring this forward and encourage my council colleagues to support this unanimous. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilmember Vice Mayor Richardson.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I know we have a full agenda. So I think Councilman Alston did a good job at opening up and introducing the need for this this conversation to happen. We know that folks have have talked about this for a long time. You know, it's important. It's almost a standard. And African-American resource center take place on a college campus. We all three to all 23 CSU's have African-American Resource Center. USC has African-American resource centers. Our community is significant. It deserves a center to sort of recognize your your pride, your legacy and really be a focal point and a place that folks can call home. So all of those things I support. I want to thank both council members for bringing this forward. And also just say, you know, I think it's good that we're starting off by engaging stakeholders. You know, I can tell you, you know, I've spoke with Mother Dawes. She's had ideas like this for a long time. Spoken with the folks at VIP were going through a long sort of process and a lot of us have been following. So there's a lot of interest, a lot of opportunity here. We should this should be a good, fun process that we can we can all sort of point to in the course of our history. You know, one thing I will say, just a note to city staff. So when we when when the new fire station 12 opened up on Artesia Boulevard, there was interest in doing an RFP to convert the old fire station into housing. And the community stepped up and said, no, we don't. We may not necessarily have an operator today, but work with us and we'll eventually find an operator. And what we have today, it started organically. That's a pun. It started organically. But it's you know, it's a hub for sustainability now, a hub for, you know, there's two there's a teaching farm, there's a zero escape garden there. There's focus on sort of cultural preservation taking place there. And it sort of started it started small. So I'll say as we move forward, we should look at opportunities like that as well. Things that where the city owned some space, that's a burden. We're having a tough time keeping it up and look at how we sort of start organically and sort of free two birds in one key. So, again, thank you, Councilman Austin. Thank you, Councilman Andrews. I encourage the full city council support on this and it obviously has my support. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Vice Mayor Councilman Andrews. Yes, thank you very much. You guys, I'm very proud to add my name to this item because this is a first step on the road to celebrating public. I share Long Beach cultural heritage. I'm looking forward to seeing which sites are under construction. I want to put a challenge out to all of my fellow.
Speaker 8: Members of the Council.
Speaker 1: I know we tend to speak at length about needs for African-American culture centers, but it's time for each of us and each of you, literally, to put your money where your mouth is. I'm. I am prepared to commit $100,000 in one time infrastructure funds to serve as a matching fund for any of my colleagues who claim to be similarly interested in promoting our sheer, yet diverse Long Beach culture. This contribution will be subject to city attorney review and council agenda approval. Now let's get it started. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman. Mongo.
Speaker 5: My neighborhood and I are very excited about this. We have two African-American legends that live on my street alone, and we've kind of had a small talk among a few of us who recognize that as they get older, there will be a place for their their memoirs. And we're really excited and blessed to have this opportunity. Before they.
Speaker 4: Go. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Katherine reports.
Speaker 5: Yes. I want to congratulate the coauthors of this item. I think it's been a great few years where we talk about equity and the VIP conversation had us talking about what does it mean to celebrate the history and the stories of those that have walked through, whether their struggles or celebration or being the first African-American firefighter? And so I think any opportunity that we have to do this is an important one. And I appreciate Councilmember Dee Andrews raising the challenge. I can't just dish out money left and right, but I think it it has us on our toes to be able to say, what are we doing not only with one location, but multiple locations? Is it a historic and location of importance for the African-American community, or is an opportunity for us to have multiple locations so that we can embrace it in our entire city and not just in one area? So I look forward to seeing what comes out of this item. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. And before we do public comment, I just want to just add my strong support. I've been talking to Councilman Austin about this now for certainly a couple of years. And I've obviously been a big supporter of this. I think it's really important. I think I mentioned earlier that the Long Beach celebrate its incredibly diverse and important black history and particularly the work that's happened around civil rights and around the changes that happened in our schools because of so many local heroes within the African-American community. And so I'm I am 100% in and I look forward to working to do whatever we can, raising money, finding the facilities, supporting the community as we build this important new part of our city. And so congratulations to everybody. We'll do public comment and we'll go back to the council. I'm sorry, Counselor Pierce, did you want to jump back in before public comment?
Speaker 5: I just wanted to ask, in the context of the conversations we've already had around preserving the VIP sign just is that are any of these conversations happening together? Are they going to be included as a stakeholder?
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 1: I could just say that.
Speaker 8: I think they they should be involved as a stakeholder in the process. This is but I think this is a somewhat of a different track. This is a African-American cultural arts center. And it's not specific to to.
Speaker 5: Music, to.
Speaker 8: Any organization. Again, there are lots of things that we can celebrate in our community. But again, this is going to be driven by by feedback that we give from stakeholders throughout the city.
Speaker 5: Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Yes. Because I think it's one of the VIP would like to come in and help us with that commitment I just made to make that a cultural center. Thank you. And please, public comment. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Members of the City Council executive staff. My name is Felton Williams. I live in Long Beach and I want to go on record as being in full support of this recommendation. I've spent 20 some odd years in civil rights, 20 years as president of the San Pedro Wilmington, C.P., a year as president of all of Southern Southern Area Conference and ACP and Chair Region one the 11 Western states. This has been a very important issue for so many of us for a number of years. And to see the impact of a cultural center, to celebrate one's culture can have a significant impact on enriching pride and achievement. And for this reason and others, the eventual siting of such a facility is long overdue. My thanks to Councilman Councilperson Austin Andrews and Richardson for your recommendation. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 8: My name is Robert Pete, representing Jesus, giving thanks to Jesus. And I think this is, you know, cool, real cool. I mean, I knew the brothers was going to work it out. Hey, keep on doing like Willy had said, you know, work it out. And so, you know, hey, it's long overdue. And I like that. What you said about the VIP. We need to make that a historical thing. You know, get a museum going around and not just, I mean, have understanding on how that stuff goes, have understanding on the psychology of how we got to live. We got to be three different people, you know, and people need to understand that we got to be the work person. We can be ourself, and then we got to be that hood person. So all that goes up in here, we got to have that. So all this being said, this is very good. And I heard what Ms.. Pierce said. You know, we're going to see we're going to see us as always. We're going to see when it comes to black folks stuff. But then I heard you mention, oh, let me put this on you. I heard you mentioned we can't just fork out. Well, how you been forking out to illegal aliens? You everything for them.
Speaker 1: Mr. P, we've got to make sure we talk about this.
Speaker 8: I Excuse me. I'm talking about exactly what she said. I'm rebutting it so I can talk about that. She said I'm talking about it. So Miss Karl Marx. So no, we ain't with that. No communism. Black folks going get something. We ain't going to communism. So you can have us under the gun, going to the gulags. So we're going to get equal rights. We got equal rights first already. We're going to get that first. And and you're going to say we're going to see what we're going to do. I'm not going use hassling the brother. I was in here all day and trying to get people on him. Why she was already under the gun by being black. And you want to go, Karl Marx. So, you know, kill all that. We're going to see. We're going to see. I like what you say, man. Thank you for backing it, you know. Oh, but what's the pressure on her to get rid of her? And that's all.
Speaker 1: That talk to her about to make.
Speaker 8: Sure her get her out, you know?
Speaker 1: Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 8: Good evening.
Speaker 1: My name is Ethan Robinson, Senior.
Speaker 8: Thank you. This honorable, esteemed body. I'm here as a stakeholder. I'm a deputy city attorney with the city of Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: I work right here in the Long.
Speaker 8: Beach courthouse as a prosecutor. But I'm the immediate past bosses of Rio Iota chapter, Long Beach of Omega sci fi fraternity boss list being the president. There are a lot of African-American organizations that work hand in hand with this community, want to work more hand in hand with this community to effectuate a change. One of the things you need is a facility such as this so that people of all creeds and all nationalities and all cultures can come and be fed so they can know that the plight of the African-Americans speaks to what you were talking about earlier with these truckers. All of these have commonalities and time is now. We are in a crazy. Society is really going through a tough change. So this has value. The timing is right. What you are doing is excellent. So on behalf of a stakeholder, I hope that we are allowed to sit at the table to contribute, to participate, to help effectuate change, to find locations or a location. And I started with locations plural, because I like the concept of having it spread throughout, not just a single pocket, but where you can go to multiple places and be fed some of the culture of the people that are integral to this community. Thank you very much. On behalf of my organization, the brothers of Omega SA five fraternity, Long Beach. We're here to serve. We're ready to make something happen. Call us. We'll be there.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Thank you. My name is.
Speaker 8: Like I said before, Reverend Leon would. And I'm a resident of Long Beach.
Speaker 1: And I want to thank.
Speaker 8: You very, very much.
Speaker 1: Councilman Austin, Cosmo Richardson, Hospital, Andrews and the rest of the Council.
Speaker 8: For this fantastic effort.
Speaker 1: The one thing a cultural center will do in our community.
Speaker 8: It will change the lives of young people.
Speaker 1: What helps a young person become able to be successful said know that they've come from things that are positive and look for the good things in the life that happened before them.
Speaker 8: Many of our young.
Speaker 1: People right now have no clue about what they who they came from, where they came from, or any of the positive things that have happened in the people that they are a part of. And so what you're going to do is change behavior.
Speaker 8: You're also going to give people a sense of pride. And you're going to help out many, many young.
Speaker 1: Youngsters who have not been known to be successful, to become successful. And I also want to say that the day we're about the same.
Speaker 8: Age, we're part of that that old history art way.
Speaker 1: So so thank you very, very much. And I'm and I'm.
Speaker 8: There to help wherever I can in this particular project.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 5: Good evening. My name is actually.
Speaker 4: Gillis, and I am here speaking on behalf of my parents, Sharon and David McLucas, the owners of Forgotten.
Speaker 5: Images, Traveling, Museum.
Speaker 4: And Exhibit. As many of you know, the Forgotten Images Traveling Museum and exhibit provides an authentic and informative journey of the African-American experience in America, from slavery to now with over 10,000 real artifacts. Forgotten Images operates under the premise that your past does not determine who you are. Your past prepares you for who you are to become. One of the missions of forgotten images is to make history real accessible and thought provoking for multicultural audiences.
Speaker 5: Across the United States, primarily school age audiences.
Speaker 4: The exhibit hopes that by bringing people face to face with these historical artifacts and the oral histories they've learned over the years in school and at home, that they will draw inspiration that propels them forward and encourages them to hold respectful dialogs on the African American experience in the United States. We are part Councilman Andrews Richardson in Austin and this amazing feat to bring an African-American cultural center into the city of Long Beach. Outside of our my affiliation to forgotten images, my mother and I are lifelong Long Beach residents.
Speaker 5: We've grown up here.
Speaker 4: And we welcome the opportunity to have one central.
Speaker 5: Place.
Speaker 4: Where African-American culture and the contributions of.
Speaker 5: Local people.
Speaker 4: Are celebrated outside of our sixth district, Martin Luther King Parade, or.
Speaker 5: The Councilman Austin's Black.
Speaker 4: History Month celebration. And so we offer to the council and to these three councilmen our full support in whatever capacity you need us to.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I speak of. Mr. Mayor, City Council, thank you for your time. My name is and I can say I'm a lifelong resident here in Long Beach, as well as a lifelong.
Speaker 6: Resident of.
Speaker 1: The sixth District.
Speaker 6: So, Ms.. Andrews.
Speaker 1: I applaud your bold initiative to put your money where your mouth is. I'm also a very heavy proponent of that same idea. I recently raised a couple thousand dollars to send over a thousand children here in the US state to go see the Black Panther movie. So. I only bring that up to say that, you know, I ain't got to like you, Mr. Andrews, but, you know, you put up 100,000.
Speaker 6: I can put up $5,000 of my own money.
Speaker 1: So when you get along, I can do that. And that's how important I recognize having this African American cultural center here. I like myself. Like many, you know, black people living in the city. See, you know, as the years go by, our presence is diminishing. You know, demographically speaking, we are the biggest outbound residents of the city, meaning that it's mostly people that look like me every year moving out of the city. So it would be nice.
Speaker 6: That we have some say.
Speaker 1: Some type of permanent residence placed in whatever district. This ends up being somewhere in the city. My family originally came out west from Memphis in the forties. My great grandfather was working Southern Pacific and then.
Speaker 6: He was called out to serve his country in World War.
Speaker 1: Two, fighting and second army going overseas to, you know, protect and uphold the rights of liberty for European people before coming back here, being promised a housing situation in the projects that then became known as Springdale projects on the West Side. Unfortunately, at the time.
Speaker 6: Because of the racial covenant.
Speaker 1: Laws, black people.
Speaker 6: In Long Beach weren't.
Speaker 1: Allowed to live in there, especially guys. But now it's a new day and we are allowed to flourish.
Speaker 6: In this city and, you know.
Speaker 1: Remind people that our contribution to the city is immeasurable, culturally, monetary, otherwise, you know, has the mayor has let people know Snoop Dogg was a, you know, very early influence as well as the rest of the world. So being out, as has been said, you know, this is a good thing and it's much needed. Thank you for putting this in motion. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all you do. And the community as well. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 4: The councilmen, the mayor, the councilmen and the people that really understand and know how important. It would be. It is to have an institution to recognize the contribution that African Americans have made to being and building the whole United States of America. The United States of America was built by African-Americans. And the culture, the history of of of slavery was the economic engine that created the wealth for the United States of America. I attended the dedication of the National Museum of African American History and Culture that in Washington, D.C., I was the guest of our Congressman, Alan Lowenthal. It was one of the most exciting, moving experiences that I've had in my life, being born in Africa town, Alabama, which was the community that was started by the slaves that was brought to the land to the last place in the United States in 1860. There were 12 African-Americans brought to the United States illegally. Slavery have been abolished since 1807. And those people came off that ship, built that little community. It was in L.A. Times earlier in February. So if you go on the Internet and and and plug in Africa down, you will have some history of what African Americans have been doing in this country for the last 500 years. It was wonderful to be a part of something of our history for the last 500 years and for people to recognize it was one of the last museums that was built under the Smithsonian system. And it was it's one of the most beautiful contributions that you can ever see. So I am in support. I will do everything I can. I have built institutions in Long Beach to make things better, where everybody in Long Beach and this would be a good institution for everyone in Longreach to find out about themselves and everybody so they can see how we are all connected together. Africa is a continent where our people came from and we need to make that connection and understand our history and our culture and it's only through a good institutional base. We will have a way of learning and teaching ourselves and our children what we need to know. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Hi, Matt. Houston, California Republic. WC. Oh, I just wanted to bring up some points. I kind of grew up as an army brat, bounced around all over the place, and I actually came to California originally from Texas when I was working on a computer graphics project, which was based largely on Rosa Parks trying to get, you know, and I was chased, you know, had, you know, the the the secret societies around Texas in the South chased me all over Texas, chased me out here. So I learned a few things along the way. One of the things I'd like to bring your attention to is Wired magazine. If you do a search for this best map ever of America's racial segregation. Okay, check that out, if you would. And what they did was they put a different blue dot red on, I can't remember which was for which, but for every person and the census and where they were located. Now, if you take that and you compare that with Los Angeles County's district maps, it matches almost. Exactly. And then if you compare that and you look at it, the African-Americans in LA County are basically kind of all in the center, not along the beach property, you know, where the it it seems kind of like what you would look at if you're looking at a military map of somebody that's getting surrounded, you know. So I think that's something that should be considered. I also like to point out a building called Edificio. And I having compared that with the with the city of Long Beach districts yet because well, I know that it's a once city in L.A. County that's split by two different county districts. It's kind of weird. Interesting. So your unique perspective. So also in Dallas, there was something called a what they did is a pretty neat project called Mockingbird Station. What they did was they put businesses at the bottom and then they put housing at the top. And I would think maybe something like that would be really great. There's a building called Edificio KOPAN and Sao Paulo, Brazil has a record for the most number of units, and it's been standing since 1960. That might be good. Now, if you could imagine this building as a modular structure, so you could build a base with a cultural center, then have small business development and then housing as well , and then take that model. And if you multiply that out, you get a few of those, you got the whole homeless problem solved as well. You drive down, you know, keep the housing. Price is reasonable as well and create an economic powerhouse, I think. And so I think a comprehensive city and county plan is kind of necessary maybe using. And that's something that may maybe through the African-American organizations, would probably be able to pull that together. But I just wanted to throw that out there for you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 4: Mayor Garcia and City Council. My name is Laverne Duncan. I'm the executive director of the Andy Street Community Association. I'm here to speak in support of the African American Cultural Center. Long Beach is a city of diverse peoples and cultures, and we celebrate it in different ways. We celebrated the Pride Parade, Cinco de Mayo, the Cambodian celebrations. We do that. And to me, it means that the city is celebrating its diversity. And it's also a city that unites behind each other when faced with adversity. For the last five years, Dante Street Community Association has sought to educate our residents on the many contributions that African-Americans have made, not only to this community and this city, but to this country. From the brilliant 12 women that was mentioned earlier today to our own Walter Larkin's. Those women contributed much to the city of Long Beach and beyond. But Walter Larkin's was someone from the city of Long Beach who revolutionized the procedure for heart operation. Instead of having to crack and open up crack, open heart, he revolutionized that method and procedure that allows that to happen. I did not find that out until I was doing the research for our Black History Month. So we have a lot to offer here in the city of Long Beach. From the wall of excellence that we have to all of the youth from the Long Beach Unified School District that comes out to share with our city all their gifts and talents. I want to really close by saying that I read this particular quote from Jesse Owens that we all have dreams, and in order to make the dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort. And us coming together as a community, all our organizations coming together to make that effort, I think would be worth it. And I urge this this community, this council, to continue to do that. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 0: Mm hmm.
Speaker 4: Good evening, Mayor. City Council, city manager, and our community here. My name is Tasha Hunter, and I am a District eight resident. I'm also the president of the Arts Council of Long Beach and director of the Uptown Business Improvement District here in Long Beach. And I just want to say that I'm so happy to hear this conversation happening. It's been something that we've spoken about for a very long time. I know I've been in the ear of Councilman Austin for a long time about what it is that we need here. And I reside in Long Beach, but I'm proud to call myself one of the staples and the builders of Leimert Park. I've culter cultivated my craft as a filmmaker and a writer there for nearly 25 years. And it's a place where I met my mentor, Ben Caldwell, at his community center known as Chaos Network. Coast Network. Yes. Thank you. Here I learn art, filmmaking, the business of art, and establish many strong relationships that still exist present day. We establish the good life. We establish Project Blowed, which is the longest running open mic hip hop workshop in North America. And we created some artists that are now world renowned underground hip hop artists, like two mics, Open Mike Eagle, Medusa, The Visionaries, Jurassic five, and most notably a rapper back then who knew was known as Eve Eva's Ava DuVernay, who was the director of Queen Sugar Selma. She came out of this community center, and though I live in Long Beach now, I believe that an African-American culture center is something that we need here. These are the things that it did for me in Los Angeles. And now that I contribute a lot of my time and effort in my work here, it helped us to expose ourselves, expose our culture. We got to understand our culture and appreciate our culture and our roots and cultivate business ideas and shoot films and photos and study. Our artists are great artists and I believe Long Beach needs this. We deserve it. It is part of our culture. There's so many creative voices here that need to be fostered and nurtured and exposure to not just our children, but all children. We have so much rich talent and I just want to say that it helps us get a step closer to our cross-cultural engagement and our pride. And there's so many talented artists here in Long Beach that I've met just met someone by the name of Professor Oksana Gamboa Cambone, who has. Yes, he deserves a big round of applause. Who has a some. And I've never seen before. And I just met him a couple of weeks ago, just all this beautiful African art, like we said, the MC Lucas's. They have forgotten images and we have Eric Von Brinkley who has RG be our brunch were artists come together to just talk. There's so much rich culture that I've learned just by living in Long Beach for a few years. And I want to say to our council, to our city manager, the city deserves a space and I hope we can have I know a couple of great ideas around town. There's a North Branch library that is currently open and free and available, and I'm sure that there are some other great spots for this location. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. The next speaker, please. I think you're getting the honorable mayor and council people. Malcolm Bennett, I'll be brief. A business owner here in Long Beach, any African-American business owner for over 44 years. And we're here to support this. I had an opportunity over the weekend to be at the Kinsey Collection, which has one of the largest African-American art and collections in Los Angeles. And they are partnering up with organizations like this is not only is about art and culture, but it's about history and learning where you come from and where where you're going. And I think, as it was said earlier, I also I am a charter member of the African-American Museum in D.C. and I certainly encourage everyone to to attend that if they have an opportunity. So here to offer our support and to Councilman D, our company is also offer our financial support. And we have our general manager here, Ivy Goosby, who has been a resident, a business owner since birth in this community. So our company has been a part of the fabric of this community. So we certainly support this. We think it will be a great addition to the city and thank the council people and support is for this and we have our full support. Thank you, Nick. Speaker, please.
Speaker 4: Good evening. I'm Max Fildes and I'm so happy to see this item being brought forth. Some of you may be familiar with Village Treasures. It's an African import shop here in the second district, and I'm also associated with the African Study Group, Long Beach. We focus on the beginning of the story in Africa and we hope to be a significant part of this effort. So we are very happy to do whatever we can to make this come into fruition. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 4: Good evening on this wonderful African American Heritage Month. Thank you so much for this opportunity to come before you. My name is Zachary Ingrid Thomas. I'm here today because as a youth, I was interested in learning about our culture in the city of Long Beach, about that fought through the first Miss Black Beauty of Long Beach pageant , which at the age of 18, I had the opportunity to be crowned. And there never was another pageant. So I'm still the queen. But the important thing tonight is that at that time, I was a young person who was at the crossroads. Many things was happening in my family. My mother had a stroke. I was just at ten, lost her memory completely, her voice. Divorce happened in our family. I had a sister with cerebral palsy, a brother who had been in Norwalk, and another one that was on the verge of being a gang banger who became known as animal on the streets. But because of the Community Improvement League, who actually produced the pageant in 1970, I was able to learn about my history and culture. And as a result of that, I began to study it. And I had an opportunity to develop a production called Queens of the Now Now that has been able to travel throughout the United States and Africa. In addition to that, there are many other contributions that we have had an opportunity to participate in, such as our program premiered in 1981 with the Black Women's Forum, which is Congress Congresswoman MAXINE Waters. In 1984, we were invited to Morehouse College for the first Nile Valley Conference in 1986, when 1000 African-Americans journey to Africa. We were the U.S. cultural ambassadors presenting at that time. In 1988, we became the African Imagery Consultants for Disney World's Ms.. Collegian African American Pageant. And in 1999, we actually established a festival of African royalty at the Pyramid at California State University, Long Beach, where we invited in over 30,000 K-through-12 students. 500 students were trained to perform and 100 student receive service learning or part time jobs. And we also awarded our first scholarship. So there are a lot of different things that we've been able to do as a result of being introduced to our culture. And we want that to continue for our children today. And having a designated space is the most important thing that you can do, because while it's honorable to be able to travel around nationally, internationally, to come back home and not have a home is very disheartening. So I appreciate what you're doing here today. We look forward to working with you. And I am located at your West Facility Center as a city of Long Beach community partner, and we look forward to working with you. And before I go, there are two people here that I really want to acknowledge because they have put their money where their mouth is in regards to a cultural center, ever since I have known them. And that's Femi and Macksville. Could you please stand? Please stand. Please stand. Stand up. They have been doing this for years, right here in this city. When you see African dancers around town, that's them. When you see the village treasures, that's them. When you see so much work that's going on here, it is. Those people right there.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. I'm going to close the speakers list. So I think I have this the folks that are in line right now. And I'm going to close the speakers list. Go ahead.
Speaker 8: My name is Ahmed Safia. I've been a resident of Long Beach since I was. The United States Navy brought me here when I was 18 years old. An observation that I made when I arrived is that the current councilman at that time, Emmett Sullivan. If your gas or water was turned off. And it was a mother with children. You had to.
Speaker 1: Contact.
Speaker 8: Two community people so they could call the councilmen to get their water turned back on or the children would do without upon making that observation. I said, this is kind of a plantation. I don't like it. So I engineered. To get the current councilman at that time, Emmett Sullivan, to resign because he was attending two meetings as a county commissioner and the city council seat and getting paid for both of them. When I brought it up to the city council that same day, he was in L.A. and asked him was he getting paid? And they said yes. He resigned two days later. What this did was create the opportunity. For the late Jim Wilson. Being selected through the community forms that we have had to become the first African-American councilman. That had to be created. I am current chairman of the Long Beach community, approvingly immediate past president of Long Beach Branch and ACP Vice President. 100 black men of Long Beach and Retired Civil Service Commissioner. I want to say that. You counsel men who have come together to bring this item forward.
Speaker 1: To create.
Speaker 8: An all American African American cultural center. That educates everyone. Who can be in the dark and limited on their thinking and not understanding all who have made this fabric a strong material for this country to be what it is and to continuing being made and being made strong for all of us to live here. And I will close with that and say, God bless America.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 4: Good evening, mayor garcia and council members. I'm Griselda Suarez, director of the Arts Council for Long Beach. And I'm here in support of this recommendation for the city manager to work with community stakeholders and identify a site for the African-American Cultural Center. As an Arts Council, we advocate for many arts centers in a city. There are many cities around the country that use our libraries. They use armories. They used underutilized parks centers in order to connect residents and visitors to the culture of their city. And here in Long Beach, we have a very rich culture. Long Beach has a great downtown center, and this would allow for us to take our residents and visitors to another part of our city that's also full of culture and richness and diversity. Long Beach has many black artists and performers that have not only impacted our city, but the country and the world. Cultural centers are a social asset that can encourage all residents to not only be creative, but also appreciate creativity. In addition to creativity, it is known that cultural centers and art centers also make a thriving economy for the neighborhoods and for the cities that they're in. It's a really it's an integral part of any cultural planning. And so with this, I really support and encourage you to look for sites that many of many, as you have heard tonight, have already been working for, are currently doing work in the communities. And they just need a space and that is lacking. Creating the space will have will have an impact on many generations because if a child or a young person is taught about culture, then they become cultural appreciators, cultural makers, and they become the art to audiences that we need all over the city of Long Beach to have a vibrant arts and cultural program and also a very welcoming arts and cultural scene in Long Beach. So thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. And the four folks that we have in line, our last speakers, please.
Speaker 4: My name is Phyllis Venable. And as you know earlier, I'm chair of the Long Beach from both the sister cities. But I'm here in another light right now. First of all, I would like to acknowledge being a divine nine Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Like to acknowledge my my my fellow Greeks who are here tonight to support this effort. So if you would stand the Greeks in the audience who are who came to support this, I know some of them have left, but we all do support this tremendously. I work for the city for 18 years and I personally served on two teams that worked on ethnically based centers like this was a great experience. Neither of those were African-American. But one of the things that creating this kind of center does and one of the things that doing this kind of effort produces is that people it goes beyond the walls. I know you build an edifice, but it goes far beyond the walls of the center itself. Gives people, especially young people, courage. It gives them courage to dispel. If somebody tells them that an apple is a banana, it it gives them power that that that comes from just the not just just knowledge. And one of the things about these kinds of centers is that they allow people to find their own truth. And that's something that's really important in this world today. I heard somebody mention Jesse Owens, and a lot of people don't know that Jesse Owens was born James Cleveland Owens and his family moved to the north and he was enrolled in school and teacher asked him his name, having a heavy Southern accent. He said, Jesse Owens and Digital. He said, Jesse, the rest is history. So those not just Long Beach, but just African-American culture in general is something that. We need in this city and every city needs and every ethnic group needs. So I appreciate your support and I know that it will happen. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker But.
Speaker 4: Thank you. As I was looking around the room, I try to glance into the face of every white person who was sitting here. This kind of thought. How that going against them? How's that? How are they hearing all this tonight? I think I'm tired of this. I don't want. How do we have to hear another black thing? And I understand. I understand. I. I'm going to not cry right now, but I'm going to say. That there are very many there are a lot of African-Americans, black people, colored folk in this city who understand if you feel that way. And we forgive you. We're not taking that to heart. Personally, I have long since come to understand that the slave people who hold some of my relatives are not here. They are not my battle. What you white people are having to deal with now is that some of your forefathers left this for you to clean up . And it's on your plate now. You can't get away from it. You're going to have to bring your children in. You're going to have to invite some black people in to your house. You're going to have to bridge the gaps some more. This. This is nothing. This is.
Speaker 1: Minuscule.
Speaker 4: To the work that is before you. And I pray for you. And I believe. Many other people will be praying for you that you meet this challenge that God has put before you because it is Him who is done it. But you do have to make up for the pain and suffering that we have kind of spoke. That's who you're looking at now. But I am an Indian, French, Jewish person by birth. But you're looking at me as a black woman and not having to make up for something that your relatives did and you can't get away from it. If you work for the ports, if you work if you work for the upper echelons of the city, I am saying to you by invitation and permission, you need to give in to this thing. You give in to that thing. You will help eliminate and get rid of some of the hatred that sits in our DNA. That being, that would make you turn your back and cross the street just because you saw a black person approaching you and you don't even know who they are. Send your checks to this thing and let's clean it up.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Assad. Next speaker, please. Wow. The last two speakers. Yes.
Speaker 4: Okay. Good evening. I was here for the nuisance abatement. And now I'm going to speak on this. Lydia. Holly. My address is on file. And I wanted to say thank you, Councilman Andrews and Councilman Austin and Councilman Richardson, for what you're doing. This is certainly an outgrowth of the conversations that took place about four or five years ago, I guess four years ago with the African American convening that we had initiated. And out of that convening was the state of Black Long Beach report that Dr. Alex Norman and myself co-writers of that report and presented to the community. So I pulled it up and I wanted just to share something really quick with you. Black Heritage in Long Beach. The heritage of black people in Long Beach has long has been well documented in a publication by editors Aaron Il de and of the late Indira Hale Tucker in association with the African American Heritage Society of Long Beach. In their book, The Heritage of African-Americans in Long Beach, Volume 126 Day In traced the history back to 1900 when the U.S. Census on nonwhites listed 22 African-Americans living in Long Beach. What follows is a chronology of the events they discovered in their research of public records, books, newspaper articles, etc.. The 22 were listed in our document. So this cultural arts center is in memory of them. The youngest was four years old. The oldest was 56. The earliest came in 1853 and the latest was 1886. So it gives me great pleasure to stand before you city council. And it's not about the overrepresentation of African-American males in prison. It's not about, well, those cracker box housing seats are long beats that I'm not really happy about. But all of the things that have come since. It gives me great pleasure to stand with a big smile on my face. That is this? Yes. Finally, we're being able to recognize who we are as a city and as a people. And for you demand and Andrew's mommy knows you forever. Central Long Beach was where I was born. For you. Councilman Austin eighth District represents Bixby, where my great auntie was a live in person with a woman who lived on a Virginia road. And I used to go with her on the weekends and stay the weekends with her. Yes. And for you, Councilman Richardson, you represent the neighborhood where my home is located. So each of you bring something to me personally, but it also shows that I, as a resident, a daughter of the city and a resident of the city, bring something to this to this experience, too. So for the 22 original black residents of Long Beach, thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. And our last speaker.
Speaker 4: Good evening. It's a blessing to be here. Our mayor and council man and council women. My name is Dr. Chandra Salam, and I am the CEO of the African American History and Culture Foundation, a public charity here in the city. I want to first say I got my civic involvement by our ladies here in the audience. We celebrated her 90th birthday, Miss Dale Clinton Kingston, in 1966. She said, elected me to be the president of the mayor's youth council and brought me into this kind of environment. I am a semi-retired educator from Long Beach Unified School District, and this is my 13th year of taking students abroad to see the kind of facility that we are trying to establish this evening. I take students basically to historical sites and historical colleges as well, and we are embarking upon our trip this spring break, April 4th through the ninth. But we've taken them to the Atlanta King Center several times, to the Memphis Civil Rights Museum and the Lorraine Motel, to the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum across from the 16th Street Baptist Church, where the four young girls were killed. And we've taken them to Baltimore to the Great Blacks in Wax Museum. We are scheduled to take them to the latest Smithsonian, the African-American History and Culture Museum in Washington, D.C., this spring break. So I am definitely in support of this. I thank you for your efforts. It is something that bailing out many, many others have dreamed about and wanted to see here. We've gone all over the world. Yes, we do want our own physical place where forgotten images don't have to move around and different things.
Speaker 1: That are already.
Speaker 4: Very rich in our culture here. So thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Hope to be.
Speaker 4: Involved. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilmember Shipowner. Thank you. And I'd like to thank Vice Mayor Richardson and Councilman Austin and Councilmember de Andrews for bringing this item forward. I'd like to respond to a couple of items, some of the comments made at the podium and also to the Andrew's challenge to fund this facility. Earlier tonight, we honored the first African-American firefighter who was hired in 1962. And it's significant because that was two years prior to the 64 Civil Rights Act. But five years prior to that, the student body at Pauley High School, which I believe at the time was probably 90% non-African-American, elected their very first African-American student body president. And that was our esteemed colleague, the Andrews. And and just a little icing on that cake. I think he was also student.
Speaker 6: Body president.
Speaker 1: Of Roosevelt.
Speaker 6: Elementary and Franklin Junior High.
Speaker 1: So when I quote that statistic, I'm very proud of Long Beach and what those students did in the fifties. And here Deandra is 60 years later, pledging $100,000 to this facility. So what I like to do is to pledge my full support and financial support for recognition of Dean Andrews in the facility. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilman Austin. Vice Mayor Richardson.
Speaker 6: Thank you. I just wanted to chime in and just acknowledge two things. So, one, I heard the person recommend the North Library, and if there's a way, I know it's a bunch of North Palm Beach residents here, and I think it makes a lot of sense. Right now, it's the temporary site of the winter shelter. But we could look, you know, as entire community about, you know, I don't know what the status is today, but if there's a way to make that work as some sort of a local heritage center, I like the idea a lot. The second thing I would say is that I think I think, look, obviously, from a financial standpoint, I'm going to support this angels in the details. Right. I want to see I want to see where this goes. I want to see that there are people who will step up to operate it, help raise money for this. So all the challenge that I would say wouldn't be to the council. I think it's a challenge to the community. Step up and help us identify the resources to make this happen. So that's what I would that's what I would say. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Vice mayor of council. Going to go back to some brass analogies. You want me to first go to the.
Speaker 8: It's okay. And actually, the vice mayor actually took my point. I was going to also extend the challenge to the community and the stakeholders who who want to see this happen. I want to just say that many I appreciated the public comments. Many of our elders and people I have a great deal of respect for came forth and spoke this evening and many more at home watching and supporting this this effort, I think, and to to my council colleague, Mr. Andrews, who is a legend in his own right, it is an honor to to serve with him and to to to work with him on a daily basis. I want to accept your challenge, but I'm not going to commit to $100,000 quite yet. We're going to I'd like to see this community go big and, you know, to, you know, in terms of development dollars to that that will it will take to get this off the ground to sustain it. You know, I think we need to be talking, you know, at least seed money of about $1.5 million in private donations as well as community support moving forward. And so that's the challenge I want to put forward in itself. Sounds like we got $100,000 started up front. So thank you very much. 505 So and I had a question for the city manager. There is no timeline for this to come back. Would it be possible for a report to come back within 90 days? Certainly. All right. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilman Austin. Again.
Speaker 5: Constable Pearce keeps moving around back here. I also just wanted to echo and clarify my support for the item and also challenging our community to to step up. But that my office as well will follow lead from those that are taking this on from all the elders and those that have committed themselves to this community long before I moved here. I look forward to taking your lead and supporting in any way possible. So again, congratulations on tonight.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. With that, we do have a motion any second on the floor. Thank you all for coming out. Please cast your votes.
Speaker 2: But vice mayor, which is in motion carries.
Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you very much. Let me go ahead and do this. If the spokesman for public comment is Mr. Goodhew here. Is Anna Christianson here? Please come forward.
Recommendation to request City Manager to work with community stakeholders to identify potential sites in Long Beach for an African American Cultural Center that can serve as a hub for cultural and art exhibits.