The Rainbow Sign was an African-American cultural center in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

, that operated from 1971 to 1977. Future

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice ...

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well ...

frequently attended the center as a child, and described it as influential on her. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' stated that "Rainbow Sign was a little bit of everything to the black community.... The space provided discounted meals to children, staged concerts for

Nina Simone Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, ...

and held book signings for

Maya Angelou Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and ...

and

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was aw ...

Background

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

'' characterized Rainbow Sign as ''Slate'' also stated that Rainbow Sign had been "brainstormed into existence" by Mary Ann Pollar, who took the center’s name from the verse of a spiritual ("God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water the fire next time!"), a verse also alluded to by

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

in his book ''

The Fire Next Time ''The Fire Next Time'' is a 1963 non-fiction book by James Baldwin, containing two essays: "My Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation" and "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region of My Mind". Th ...

'' (1963). Pollar "envisioned an art gallery, cultural center, meeting place, and restaurant. She scoured Oakland and Berkeley for a property to suit her purpose and finally settled on a dilapidated funeral home on Grove Street (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Way) in Berkeley." Rainbow Sign was the site of a 1971 gathering that led to the founding of

Black Women Organized for Political Action Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA) was founded in 1968 in California after branching off from the Bay Area Women for Dellums, a group of 12 politically active women who were involved in fundraising for Ron Dellums run for congressio ...

(BWOPA). On its website, BWOPA states that "In April 1971, WOPA omen Organized for Political Actionput out a call for women who were interested in political action and over 350 women convened at what then was the Bay Area's black culture center, 'The Rainbow Sign' to form what is now known as Black Women Organized for Political Action."

Influence on Kamala Harris

, who was elected to be

in November 2020, has mentioned that Rainbow Sign was influential on her as a child. Reporting on her 2019 announcement in Oakland, California of her campaign for president, The ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' stated that "Harris infused her speech with her biography.... The stage was five miles from the yellow duplex where she grew up and four miles from Rainbow Sign, a black cultural center where she went as a young girl to cook, dance and hear prominent black leaders." In describing how Harris' mother

Shyamala Gopalan Gopalan Shyamala (December 7, 1938 – February 11, 2009) was a biomedical scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, whose work in isolating and characterizing the progesterone receptor gene stimulated advances in breast biolog ...

"surrounded er daughterswith Black role models and immersed them in Black culture", the ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'' mentioned Harris' frequent attendance at Rainbow Sign, described as "a former Berkeley funeral home that was transformed into a vibrant Black cultural center." In her memoir, '' The Truths We Hold'', Harris stated that her mother, her sister, and herself

References

External links

"Kamala Harris and the Rainbow Sign"
(26:29, podcast,

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

, on Youtube) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rainbow Sign, The History of Berkeley, California Culture of Berkeley, California Politics of the San Francisco Bay Area African-American organizations African-American culture 1971 establishments in California 1977 disestablishments in California Cultural organizations based in the San Francisco Bay Area