Talk of the Town: How do you imagine West Oakland looked before the BART Station and the Post Office were built?

The “Lower Bottoms,” also known as the “Prescott” neighborhood, is a specific part of West Oakland, a historically Black neighborhood in Oakland. Seventh Street, or the 7th Street Corridor, runs through the Lower Bottoms and was once a hotspot for artists, scholars, and activists. West Oakland was considered a “Harlem of the West” because of its vibrant jazz and blues scene. Artistic greats like Tina Turner, Lou Rawls, Maya Angelou, and B.B King, among others, came to West Oakland.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the various government agencies used eminent domain to take land from residents and businesses to build the Main Post Office on 7th Street and the West Oakland BART Station. The elevated tracks and freeways split the neighborhood and displaced many Black residents to other parts of West Oakland, including the Acorn towers and other housing projects.

Today, the Lower Bottoms has been impacted by decades of gentrification, over-policing, underfunding, and the ever-growing issue of homelessness. 

I asked residents in the Lower Bottoms, “How do you imagine West Oakland looked before the BART Station and Post Office were built?”

Dunenka Saleh

“A Black Mecca”

Dunenka Saleh, Lower Bottoms 

Skipper Reed

“Land, dirt, more houses and Less Industrialization. There used to be a Church’s Chicken down here.”

Skipper Reed, Lower Bottoms 

DeAngelo “D Nok” Lemmons 

“Good beautiful thriving black neighborhood. A lot of people don’t know it was a lot of people over here. Asian people, Latino population, working class people. The Black folks were a little more televised. It was a thriving Black community. Still is today.”

DeAngelo “D Nok” Lemmons, Lower Bottoms

How do you imagine West Oakland looked before the BART Station and the Post Office were built?