Our Oakland Eastside Stories

Ms. Cooper narrates her memories when she and her sisters attended the Acorn Woodland School in the 1960's.

This is my journey to Oakland, California from Memphis, Tennessee. As a child living with my father in Tennessee we had a good life. However, my father was a "gangster" involved in lots of illegal activities. My mother who had left him and was living in Oakland, California decided that she needed to get us away from him, but had to do it without him knowing. So she coordinated a kidnapping of me and my two brothers. We knew nothing about it.

Jay Ento remembers the neighborhood she grew up in near 75 Avenue in East Oakland. Mothers Cookie Factory, playing in the park, the fruit trees and agricultural areas near the airport. Everything they needed was close by, and the neighborhood watched out for one another.