Welcome to Oakland Wiki's Black History Month-themed editathon! Below you will find articles created and updated, special announcements (including news from a special genealogy event held at the African American Museum and Library attended by Oakland Wiki volunteers), and fun historical facts discovered throughout the day! 

Articles created and updated

 

Neat history

  • Discovered that Wilhelmine W Yoakum was the first woman elected to the Oakland City Council! (This information is not readily available online - I discovered it while digitizing a July 1988 City Council election history from a typewritten folder from the City Clerks' office: "Elections 1852 to the Present, City of Oakland," which is only available in the Oakland History Room. Gene helped verify that she was indeed the first woman elected.)

Announcements

  • On Sat. Feb. 9, 2013, Oakland Wiki volunteers attended an open house at the African American Museum and Library. Highlights included a talk on best practices for preserving historic materials in different media (books, photos, film/video, audio) by archivist Shawn, an art exhibit by Milton510, an exhibit on black history in the East Bay, and more. The museum had photos of unidentified individuals from their archive on a table and was asking patrons if they could identify any of the people in the photos (one woman was overheard on the phone saying "They have my grandmother and my aunt!"). Additionally, there was a video playing of a fashion show held at the Museum in 2010 of the designer Henry Delton Williams, a major Motown designer. The Museum has an archive of Mr. Williams' designs, and the designer himself was present at the event!
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