Dozens notice initially yearly Oscar Grant Day in Oakland with music and local community therapeutic

Dozens of persons gathered Saturday outside the house of Oakland Town Corridor and honored Oscar Grant a working day prior to his birthday with songs, dancing and speeches from household, close friends and community leaders.

The remembrance arrives immediately after the Town Council voted earlier this thirty day period to designate Feb. 27 as Oscar Grant Working day — his birthday. Grant would have been 36. This 12 months, his household and people observed Oscar Grant Working day a working day previously, but prepare to hold activities yearly on his precise birthday, his mom reported.

In 2009, Grant was shot in the back by BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle in the early hrs of New Years’ Working day at the Fruitvale BART Station. His demise spurred nationwide outcry about law enforcement violence, and Mehserle, who said he mistook his gun for a Taser, was eventually convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

“He died in vain,” Rev. Wanda Johnson, Grant’s mother, explained to The Chronicle. “He should really not have died in the way that he died. He ought to not have been shot. But since he was, we will go on to struggle for Oscar’s legacy to are living on.”

Saturday’s function was part of that legacy that Johnson is combating for — a “legacy of appreciate, a legacy of hope and a legacy of peace.”

By Indana