September 17, 2024 • 23 mins
How did a former mayor of Berkeley become a beacon of social justice and community empowerment? Join us as we journey through the impactful life of Gus Newport with our special guest, Damien Durr from DCD Empowerment and the Gus Newport Project. Damien shares his unique personal connection with Gus, detailing their encounters through the Children's Defense Fund and the National Council of Elders. We'll explore Gus's transformative tenure as mayor, where he led Berkeley to become a pioneer in divesting from South Africa and implementing groundbreaking policies like domestic benefits and commercial rent control.
Discover the often overlooked yet monumental contributions Gus made from lecturing at Harvard to leading the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Boston. With insights from social documentary filmmaker Leah Mahan, we delve into the community land trust model that empowered residents through eminent domain and discuss the creation of a documentary capturing this significant journey. You'll also hear about Gus's interactions with notable figures such as Danny Glover and Bernie Sanders and the formation of a nonprofit organization dedicated to sustaining his visionary values.
How does faith intersect with activism? This episode reveals Gus Newport’s enduring commitment to justice, influenced by faith leaders like Vincent Harding and Howard Thurman. We reflect on how a bottom-up theology and the teachings of Jesus shaped Gus’s approach to human dignity, anti-violence, and social issues like gentrification and homelessness. We'll challenge the misconceptions around the civil rights movement, shedding light on the critical roles played by women and unsung heroes. Tune in for a profound discussion on living a faith that promotes justice, mercy, and the well-being of all people, inspired by the unwavering spirit of Gus Newport.
https://dcdempowerment.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joel (00:00):
What if investing in each other could change the world?
I'm Joel Skeen with bizradious,and this is the Mindful
Marketplace.
Welcome back to part two of myconversation with Damian Durr of
DCD Empowerment and the GusNewport Project.
I'm really excited to get todig in with him further here.
(00:22):
If this is your first time,this is the show where we talk
to the business, finance andcommunity leaders who are all
questioning the assumption thatthere's just one bottom line and
also questioning the two-pocketthinking so pervasive in our
economy and in our world.
It's where we learn to reallyconnect our values and our
(00:43):
communities to our businessesand ourselves.
I'm Joel Skeen and I'm justgoing to jump right back in here
with Damien Durer.
I was having a greatconversation with him here on
the first half of the part oneof this episode.
If you didn't get a chance tolisten to that, please go back
and do that.
You're going to hear aboutDamien's story and about his
perspective and what has shapedhis life really, and it's a
(01:06):
really fascinating journey andI'm excited to get to talk with
him today about the Gus NewportProject.
Damien, welcome back into theconversation.
So happy to have you here today.
Damien (01:16):
Thank you, joe, glad to be here.
Joel (01:18):
So Gus Newport, I'm not an expert in the civil rights
movement I would never claim tobe but I knew about some of the
figures that aren't quite aswell-known your James Baldwins,
your Stokely Carmichaels, someof these kind of folks and I
(01:38):
actually got to live in JohnLewis's district for about five
years in Metro Detroit and gotto meet him once and it was just
this great moment.
But I had actually never heardof Gus Newport and I was pretty
astounded at just how central heseemed to be and yet kind of
how overlooked he is.
(01:59):
You actually had a personalrelationship with Gus, is that
right?
Damien (02:03):
Yes, yes, as we said in the previous conversation, based
upon my work with theChildren's Defense Fund, I had
the opportunity to go to theAlex Haley Farm in 2015, as a
result of being drafted byReverend Janet Wolf from
Nashville, tennessee, who wasresponsible for putting our
Nashville CDF team together, andshe's a part of an organization
(02:25):
called the National Council ofElders, and so every year,
biannually, this group of elderswho are former organizers,
faith leaders, activists, laborfolks they get together with
younger organizers, activistsand faith leaders at the Alex
Haley Farm, which is owned bythe Children's Defense Fund.
It's where Alex Haley used tolive.
(02:45):
It's 156 acres in Clinton,tennessee, so it's an
opportunity for, obviously,intergenerational wisdom
exchange and intergenerationalsharing.
And so, 2015, as a result ofworking for CDF, we went to
share and James Lawson, ofcourse, who worked with Dr King,
was a part of the NationalCouncil of Elders and James
Lawson, of course, worked withDr King, was a part of the
(03:05):
National Council of Elders and Iwas doing some ear hustling and
I heard Gus talking about hisrelationship with Malcolm X and,
obviously, because of myfondness and appreciation for
what Malcolm X represented andstill represents, I made my way
over to the table and just beganto engage him in a conversation
, and so, in a very short periodof time, he began to tell me
about his relationship withMalcolm X, adam Clayton, powell
(03:27):
Jr.
And interesting, as you said,joe, he knew James Baldwin.
He also knew Stokely Carmichaeland then, of course, a host of
others, and so once he said thatfor me it was, you know it was
over, because I had never metanyone personally that knew
Malcolm.
So after that conversation, Ibrought him to Nashville,
tennessee, and put together aseries and litany of events that
(03:50):
allowed him to meet differentfaith leaders and young people
and organizers and publicofficials in the city of
Nashville, and so that's how ourrelationship started in 2015.
Joel (04:01):
Yeah, that's incredible.
I guess for those who havenever heard of Gus, what were
his, you know what were thebiggest contributions that he
made to the civil rights era.
Damien (04:11):
Well, you know, joe, you asked me about, we've talked
about, obviously about theFishing Differently conference,
and what I realized about Gus'slife is that Gus kind of always
had fished differently.
He was originally fromRochester, new York.
First act of advocacy was whenhe was in the second grade.
He saw someone being bullied.
He stepped in between them andthe bully, and he would go on to
(04:36):
later explain to me how he feltabout seeing and witnessing
what he viewed obviously as aninjustice.
And even as a young personright, he realized that that
would obviously kind of move himinto where he would become.
And so the values that healways said undergirded him is
that he had a grandmother thattook him to see Paul Robeson and
Marian Anderson when he wasyoung.
He had a grandmother who wouldopen up their house and of
(04:58):
course his mother and fatherwere present, but she would open
up their house and would makesure that the community met the
teachers that would be teachingtheir children.
And so he said, his life to agreat degree had been shaped by
what he did understand at thatpoint.
Well, he saw it as belovedcommunity in terms of making
sure that children and adultswould have what they would need
(05:20):
to ultimately flourish.
And so he talked about how thatshaped his understanding of how
he valued and viewed people.
And though he would obviouslyget connected with Malcolm, he
would ultimately move intoleadership and become the former
two term mayor of Berkeley,california.
And so, based upon how he wasshaped in his childhood, when he
(05:40):
then became a public official,he was intentional about making
sure that all residents wouldhave the rights that they
deserved, and so, while he wasthe mayor of Berkeley, berkeley
was the first city to divestfrom South Africa under his
mayoral ship.
Berkeley was the first city inthe United States with domestic
benefits under his mayoral ship.
(06:01):
Under his mayoral ship,berkeley was the first city to
have a commercial rent controlonly akin to something that New
York had done during Vietnam.
So so his values as it pertainsto how do you make policy that
(06:26):
really reflects the needs of thepeople and that takes into
consideration the needs of allpeople?
And so one quick story thatreally undergirds, I think, his
leadership when we interviewedhis daughter, his daughter said
she remembered being in citycouncil meetings with him
sitting on his lap, because sheknew how to read when she was
very young, and so if she had aquestion for him while he's the
mayor leading the city councilmeeting.
She would ask him and she saidhe would recline, you know,
remove himself maybe fromengaging dialogue, respond
directly to her question andthen go back to the meeting.
(06:47):
And what Gus said is that, well, I believe that if the
decisions that we are going tomake in this room are going to
affect the life of my daughter,why should my daughter be
present in this space?
So that's, that's just a smallstory that kind of reflects how
he understood and how hecommitted himself to making sure
(07:08):
that they took intoconsideration.
How are these decisions goingto affect the tender age, the
teenage, the young adult age,the middle age and the very age
living in this community?
Joel (07:19):
There's an indigenous saying that says when we make
decisions, we shouldn't justmake them thinking about
ourselves, obviously, but alsonot just our children, but we
should actually be thinkingabout seven generations out from
now and I think, whether it'sin business or it's in faith or
it's in community, in any way,having that longterm approach is
it's.
(07:39):
It's something that seems sosimple and so obvious, yet so
often never even thought of oreven completely ignored.
If it does get get brought up,Obviously, Gus has had.
You know, Mr Newport has hadsuch a huge impact in this world
and you've actually gone on towork to create a documentary and
(08:01):
kind of a library and a projectcommemorating and, you know,
preserving his life and his work.
Tell us about how that came tobe.
Damien (08:11):
Well, when I went to visit him in 2018, because
obviously, as you just heard,just hearing about the
uniqueness of his life he hadbeen told by students across the
country and different peoplethat he should make a
documentary and that, or that heshould write a book, and so
obviously I echoed thosesentiments tremendously.
So when I went to visit him in2018, he took me to meet Leah
(08:35):
Mahan, who was a socialdocumentary filmmaker who he had
met when he was lecturing atHarvard in the 80s, and so she
heard him at a lecture she hadjust been doing some work on
Eyes on the Prize she went upand introduced herself, and so
at that time, he was theexecutive director of the Dudley
Street Neighborhood Initiativein Boston.
Director of the Dudley StreetNeighborhood Initiative in
Boston.
(08:55):
And the Dudley StreetNeighborhood Initiative is the
first and only nonprofit in theUnited States to get eminent
domain using the community landtrust model.
So he had just became theexecutive director when they had
gotten eminent domain, and soLeah ended up doing a
documentary on that communityand that process, that that
(09:16):
narrated how they got him in adomain and then what they
created in terms of the W StreetNeighborhood Initiative, and
she recorded the whole processof that transformation, and Gus
made sure that he bought thecamera equipment and got her
into the, got her into thecommunity.
So once he introduced me to herover the years, we began to just
(09:37):
kind of do some get some B-rollfootage of him as he went
across the country.
His best friend is Danny Glover.
He's good friends with BernieSanders, so we captured
different moments with himmoving around the country,
speaking and engaging with Dannyand with others, and so as a
result of COVID, that was thefirst time that he was in a
(09:59):
central location for that, asmany of us right for that long
period of time, and so duringCOVID we were able to record
about 32 interviews with peoplefrom his unique journey, and so
that gave us a greaterunderstanding of how other
people obviously understood hisleadership and what his
leadership had meant to theirlives, and that's a and it's a
(10:20):
wide range of personalities thatwe had the opportunity to
interview, and so we then endedup creating a nonprofit that
would ultimately also serve toshare his values to share his
values, and the story is justobviously kind of the lead but
his values, of how he understoodleadership, how he empowered
young people and how he reallycommitted himself to trying to
make a better world.
Joel (10:41):
You know, having you on here, haven't you done so much?
You have personal connectionsand you've also obviously done a
lot of studying and you knowresearch on the history of that
time of the civil rightsmovement.
I guess when you think aboutwhether it's from Gus's
perspective or the movement as awhole, do you feel like there's
anything that's like a biggestmisconception, like what's the
(11:01):
biggest misconception that youfeel like is out there about the
civil rights movement and maybeGus's involvement too?
Damien (11:08):
Yeah, that's an interesting question, Joel.
I think oftentimes movements,as we both know, can become so
personality centric that theydon't necessarily take into
consideration, right the broadstroke of people that were
involved and obviously we know,as we mentioned, people like
even a John Lewis or MartinLuther King Right.
They become such large figuresthat they may be and not to
(11:32):
their desire, overshadow themany different people that were
a part of the movement.
Obviously, one of thechallenges that has come up is
obviously the women right thatwere involved in the movement
that possibly did not get thenotoriety that they deserve but
were central right to so, asthey are to the black church, as
they are to our society, thatare central to moving the
movement forward and being boldand being unapologetic about
(11:56):
continuing the fight for justice, and so I think that's that's
one thing.
And then another thing sometimesis, if you say civil rights, if
that's connected maybe just tononviolence, there may be the
misconception that nonviolencewas not a, was not the best
approach to dealing with thechallenges that took place, or
that the misconception is thatnonviolence may be too passive
(12:19):
and nonviolence may be a, mighthave weakness to it, when in
fact those in the movementunderstood nonviolence as a as a
very significantly powerful wayRight To challenge, because the
challenge of not respondingwith evil not responding and
living in fear.
So I think that's a sometimesthat's another, uh,
(12:39):
misconception around themethodologies, right, that were
used, but there were multiplemethodologies, uh, because we're
not monolithic as humans, um,and trying to solve a problem
has to have, as you said, right,avoiding the two-pocket
approach.
So I think those are just someof the things that you hear and
see that are sometimesmisconceptions or just shallow
(13:01):
interpretations of what themovement represented.
Joel (13:04):
Yeah, and I know that Gus Newport passed away not too
long ago.
It was in the last few years.
I'm curious.
You know the world has changeda lot since that time and since
he was mayor at Berkeley.
And you know the world haschanged a lot since that time
and since he was mayor atBerkeley and you know now we're
seeing Berkeley back in the news.
You know I saw that he was oneof the people doing student
protests back in the eightiesaround.
(13:24):
You know African, south Africanapartheid and obviously you
know some things have changed,some things are still the same.
I'm curious if you got to gleanany perspective from him in
those later days of his lifeabout kind of the way the world
is now and what he would like tosee happen and how to go about
that.
Damien (13:44):
Yeah, we obviously would talk multiple times a week and
again the tragic nature of his,of his death, because he was 88
years old and he was stillrunning right um like he was 48
years old.
And so then the family has a umwrongful death lawsuit in san
francisco superior courtcurrently based upon the way in
(14:05):
which um he died.
But he was still seeking to uhchallenge right um the realities
that were taking place and whathe saw right as the moral
bankruptcy that he saw apparentin our world.
And he was the vice presidentto the World Peace Council.
So when you talk about right,his positions on South African
apartheid, he obviously had arelationship with Castro.
(14:27):
He had made Berkeley asanctuary city because, for him,
the values of human dignity asanctuary city because, for him,
the values of human dignity,for him the values of what it
meant to be consideredsignificant and important right,
went beyond that two pocketapproach.
It went beyond the narrow waysin which we try to confine
people to just a very shallowway of understanding their own
(14:51):
humanity.
And so for him, he was stillengaged and involved locally in
terms of politics, in terms ofthe Berkeley, california area,
but he was also still connectedto many different people across
the United States.
He worked with an organizationcalled Project South that was
obviously working against CopCity in Atlanta.
He was he's on Project Southboard.
(15:13):
He was still connected to thenational uh council of elders.
He was still being sought afterum by communities who were
dealing with, obviously,gentrification and, based upon
the work that he had done indublin street, he was obviously
significantly concerned with, uh, the increase in the housing
market.
He always talked abouthomelessness because obviously
living in california right, it'son a whole nother scale.
(15:34):
So he was always concernedabout those not having safe
space, not having opportunity toraise their children in safe
space.
And obviously he was concernedabout violence.
So he was still an advocate of,he was anti-violence, if you
would, and still challenging theways in which policing takes
place in this country.
So he was still speaking tothose issues and looking at the
(15:58):
intersection of those issues andultimately, how does policy
reflect a sense of moral depththat addresses those issues that
ultimately kind of diminishpeople's hope and diminish their
desire to want to live anddesire to want to, you know,
become their best self.
Joel (16:17):
Yeah, you mentioned the intersection.
You know of a lot of differentthings there and I'm curious if
you saw for Gus Newport theintersection you mentioned.
You know your faith at thebeginning and coming out of that
but I'm wondering did you seethe intersection of his work in
civil rights and in activism?
How did that intersect with hisfaith?
Damien (16:38):
Yeah, you know what Vincent Harding, who was Martin
Luther King Jr's speechwriter,and Vincent Harding is who
drafted Gus into the NationalCouncil of Elders, and so when
he always would say, whenVincent asked him to be a part
of the National Council ofElders, he would say, saying his
deep, lion-like baritone voice,he said well, you know, vince,
I'm not really into the churchlike that.
And Vincent Harding told him atthat point you know, gus, you
(17:01):
are doing the work the church issupposed to be doing.
And so that became for him, ashe said.
That really did something tohis spirit and really what I
always would say about Gus isthat he was a mystic.
He loved Howard Thurman and ofcourse I'm a big Howard Thurman
fan the pastor of the firstintegrated church, the Church of
the Fellowship of All Peoplesin San Francisco, california,
(17:24):
and so Gus's faith, maybe nothaving a particular
denominational affiliation ormaybe having a particular claim,
he had, what I told him all thetime is, I believe, that his
love for people and I believethat if god is love, gus
reflected such a deep love forpeople.
That is how I saw him live thatinto moving into public policy
(17:48):
and still being involved, um, inchallenging um empire.
Uh, if you will, because his hisfaith, and he was in
relationship with a lot of faithfolks, right as he was
challenging sometimes how theirfaith maybe was more
individualistic than communal,because faith can become so I'm
good, I'm fine, my family isfine.
(18:09):
That doesn't mean that it's anoutward looking faith that says,
like the sign that I used tosee in nashville, all the time
and as people see that sign now,that sign that says drive like
your kids, live here.
Which means what?
Don't just be concerned aboutthe safety of your children, be
concerned about the safety ofall of the young people that are
in this community.
So he lived out of a deep lovefor people, open to all
(18:31):
perspectives, even if hedisagreed vehemently with
somebody's political ideologythat led them to to obviously
(18:52):
making decisions.
He was able to cross the aislein very unique ways and listen
and consider, while while stillbeing unapologetically black and
still being unapologetic aboutwhat he believed.
But he was able to to holddiffering perspectives in
consideration because he was nota categorical thinker and he
wasn't a linear thinker.
Right, he thought about it allas a collective, which is why he
was sought after by multiplegroups, from El Salvador, from
Cuba to Africa, to those whowere of the Jewish faith.
So he had such a wide array ofrelationships because he really
(19:17):
lived, I think, out of a spiritof love for all people.
Joel (19:20):
Yeah, I love that as you're describing kind of his
approach.
It reminds me, I think it's.
I'm a pastor's kid so I shouldprobably know this, but I know
it's in the Old Testament it'sdo justice, love, mercy and walk
yeah.
I'm curious if, if you haveanything that you would expand
(19:43):
on uh, just to close us out hereon on, if that's sparking
anything for you.
Damien (19:47):
Oh well, see, Joe, I know we got to go, so you
shouldn't even went there, butI'll say this very I'll say this
very swiftly since you, sinceyou want to close on a question,
a question like that, and again, it is grounded in a bottom-up
theology, right, there is a wayin which we live in a world and
the ways in which King andothers Fannie Lou Hamer and Ida
(20:08):
B Wells and Mary McLeod Bethunehad a bottom-up theology over
against the world, and we have atop-down, toxic theology, right
, that looks at people maybefrom a perch right Above,
instead of considering.
And when we think about how weunderstand Jesus, jesus
ministered to those who were onthe margins.
If he in fact his narrative is,we understand impoverishment,
(20:30):
but being born under theconditions and circumstances
under which he was born underRoman Empire, conditions and
circumstances under which he wasborn under Roman Empire, but
also born in conditions noprenatal care for Mary, born in
a barn urine, feces, animalfeces, rodent's rat.
So when you talk about, itdoesn't get any more hood, as we
(20:50):
would say, it don't get anymore coming from the mud than
that.
Right and literally right beingborn in the mud.
Right and literally right beingborn in the mud, but yet he
decided when he, when he andagain the fishing differently
concept who he calls.
He calls folks who areuneducated, who are untrained,
who are unproven, and heempowers them right to what
impact.
I came not for those who arewell, I came for those who were
(21:13):
sick, and so what I learned andthis is what I'll close on, what
I learned and what Jesus, Ithink, manifested and I got this
when I was in grad school isthe expansion of how we
understand poverty, and Jesusministered in this way.
I took a class called God,poverty and economy and it
looked at the five spheres ofpoverty economic poverty, being
I have no bread.
(21:33):
Political poverty, being I haveno power.
Bread.
Political poverty, being I haveno power.
Spiritual poverty, being I haveno hope.
Physical poverty, being I'msick and I have no health care.
And cultural poverty, being Ihave no name and I have no
identity.
And the work and ministry ofJesus sought to eradicate all of
those impoverishment.
So when Jesus said that thepoor will be with you always, he
(21:54):
was not just talking about thelack of money.
He was talking about those whodidn't have hope, those who
didn't have access to healthcare, those who did not have a
name and an identity that gavethem a sense of value.
And so for me, and how I think,gus live, and for others I've
been so privileged.
To me, it is understanding thatthe jesus that we talk about,
(22:15):
because when people say jesus,we may not be talking about the
same one.
We're talking about the one whoultimately was lynched by the
government as a result of havingan agenda that gave power to
those who were never supposed tohave it, who gave life to those
who were never supposed to haveit, and because of the life and
the power he gave them, theybegan to what, spread that word,
(22:35):
empower others and challengethe systems that ultimately
created the poverty in the firstplace.
Joel (22:40):
We'll end on that, man.
I love it.
Damien, thank you so much foryour time here today, for you
listening out there.
Make sure to tune into us hereon BizRadio US, as well as all
the podcast services that areout there YouTube, spotify,
itunes, everywhere else.
And, man, until next time, takecare of yourself.
Youtube, spotify, itunes,everywhere else.
And man, until next time, takecare of yourself.
(23:00):
Take care of someone else andremember we are each other.
What if investing in each other could change the world?
I'm Joel Skeen with bizradious,and this is the Mindful
Marketplace.
Welcome back to part two of myconversation with Damian Durr of
DCD Empowerment and the GusNewport Project.
I'm really excited to get todig in with him further here.
(00:22):
If this is your first time,this is the show where we talk
to the business, finance andcommunity leaders who are all
questioning the assumption thatthere's just one bottom line and
also questioning the two-pocketthinking so pervasive in our
economy and in our world.
It's where we learn to reallyconnect our values and our
(00:43):
communities to our businessesand ourselves.
I'm Joel Skeen and I'm justgoing to jump right back in here
with Damien Durer.
I was having a greatconversation with him here on
the first half of the part oneof this episode.
If you didn't get a chance tolisten to that, please go back
and do that.
You're going to hear aboutDamien's story and about his
perspective and what has shapedhis life really, and it's a
(01:06):
really fascinating journey andI'm excited to get to talk with
him today about the Gus NewportProject.
Damien, welcome back into theconversation.
So happy to have you here today.
Damien (01:16):
Thank you, joe, glad to be here.
Joel (01:18):
So Gus Newport, I'm not an expert in the civil rights
movement I would never claim tobe but I knew about some of the
figures that aren't quite aswell-known your James Baldwins,
your Stokely Carmichaels, someof these kind of folks and I
(01:38):
actually got to live in JohnLewis's district for about five
years in Metro Detroit and gotto meet him once and it was just
this great moment.
But I had actually never heardof Gus Newport and I was pretty
astounded at just how central heseemed to be and yet kind of
how overlooked he is.
(01:59):
You actually had a personalrelationship with Gus, is that
right?
Damien (02:03):
Yes, yes, as we said in the previous conversation, based
upon my work with theChildren's Defense Fund, I had
the opportunity to go to theAlex Haley Farm in 2015, as a
result of being drafted byReverend Janet Wolf from
Nashville, tennessee, who wasresponsible for putting our
Nashville CDF team together, andshe's a part of an organization
(02:25):
called the National Council ofElders, and so every year,
biannually, this group of elderswho are former organizers,
faith leaders, activists, laborfolks they get together with
younger organizers, activistsand faith leaders at the Alex
Haley Farm, which is owned bythe Children's Defense Fund.
It's where Alex Haley used tolive.
(02:45):
It's 156 acres in Clinton,tennessee, so it's an
opportunity for, obviously,intergenerational wisdom
exchange and intergenerationalsharing.
And so, 2015, as a result ofworking for CDF, we went to
share and James Lawson, ofcourse, who worked with Dr King,
was a part of the NationalCouncil of Elders and James
Lawson, of course, worked withDr King, was a part of the
(03:05):
National Council of Elders and Iwas doing some ear hustling and
I heard Gus talking about hisrelationship with Malcolm X and,
obviously, because of myfondness and appreciation for
what Malcolm X represented andstill represents, I made my way
over to the table and just beganto engage him in a conversation
, and so, in a very short periodof time, he began to tell me
about his relationship withMalcolm X, adam Clayton, powell
(03:27):
Jr.
And interesting, as you said,joe, he knew James Baldwin.
He also knew Stokely Carmichaeland then, of course, a host of
others, and so once he said thatfor me it was, you know it was
over, because I had never metanyone personally that knew
Malcolm.
So after that conversation, Ibrought him to Nashville,
tennessee, and put together aseries and litany of events that
(03:50):
allowed him to meet differentfaith leaders and young people
and organizers and publicofficials in the city of
Nashville, and so that's how ourrelationship started in 2015.
Joel (04:01):
Yeah, that's incredible.
I guess for those who havenever heard of Gus, what were
his, you know what were thebiggest contributions that he
made to the civil rights era.
Damien (04:11):
Well, you know, joe, you asked me about, we've talked
about, obviously about theFishing Differently conference,
and what I realized about Gus'slife is that Gus kind of always
had fished differently.
He was originally fromRochester, new York.
First act of advocacy was whenhe was in the second grade.
He saw someone being bullied.
He stepped in between them andthe bully, and he would go on to
(04:36):
later explain to me how he feltabout seeing and witnessing
what he viewed obviously as aninjustice.
And even as a young personright, he realized that that
would obviously kind of move himinto where he would become.
And so the values that healways said undergirded him is
that he had a grandmother thattook him to see Paul Robeson and
Marian Anderson when he wasyoung.
He had a grandmother who wouldopen up their house and of
(04:58):
course his mother and fatherwere present, but she would open
up their house and would makesure that the community met the
teachers that would be teachingtheir children.
And so he said, his life to agreat degree had been shaped by
what he did understand at thatpoint.
Well, he saw it as belovedcommunity in terms of making
sure that children and adultswould have what they would need
(05:20):
to ultimately flourish.
And so he talked about how thatshaped his understanding of how
he valued and viewed people.
And though he would obviouslyget connected with Malcolm, he
would ultimately move intoleadership and become the former
two term mayor of Berkeley,california.
And so, based upon how he wasshaped in his childhood, when he
(05:40):
then became a public official,he was intentional about making
sure that all residents wouldhave the rights that they
deserved, and so, while he wasthe mayor of Berkeley, berkeley
was the first city to divestfrom South Africa under his
mayoral ship.
Berkeley was the first city inthe United States with domestic
benefits under his mayoral ship.
(06:01):
Under his mayoral ship,berkeley was the first city to
have a commercial rent controlonly akin to something that New
York had done during Vietnam.
So so his values as it pertainsto how do you make policy that
(06:26):
really reflects the needs of thepeople and that takes into
consideration the needs of allpeople?
And so one quick story thatreally undergirds, I think, his
leadership when we interviewedhis daughter, his daughter said
she remembered being in citycouncil meetings with him
sitting on his lap, because sheknew how to read when she was
very young, and so if she had aquestion for him while he's the
mayor leading the city councilmeeting.
She would ask him and she saidhe would recline, you know,
remove himself maybe fromengaging dialogue, respond
directly to her question andthen go back to the meeting.
(06:47):
And what Gus said is that, well, I believe that if the
decisions that we are going tomake in this room are going to
affect the life of my daughter,why should my daughter be
present in this space?
So that's, that's just a smallstory that kind of reflects how
he understood and how hecommitted himself to making sure
(07:08):
that they took intoconsideration.
How are these decisions goingto affect the tender age, the
teenage, the young adult age,the middle age and the very age
living in this community?
Joel (07:19):
There's an indigenous saying that says when we make
decisions, we shouldn't justmake them thinking about
ourselves, obviously, but alsonot just our children, but we
should actually be thinkingabout seven generations out from
now and I think, whether it'sin business or it's in faith or
it's in community, in any way,having that longterm approach is
it's.
(07:39):
It's something that seems sosimple and so obvious, yet so
often never even thought of oreven completely ignored.
If it does get get brought up,Obviously, Gus has had.
You know, Mr Newport has hadsuch a huge impact in this world
and you've actually gone on towork to create a documentary and
(08:01):
kind of a library and a projectcommemorating and, you know,
preserving his life and his work.
Tell us about how that came tobe.
Damien (08:11):
Well, when I went to visit him in 2018, because
obviously, as you just heard,just hearing about the
uniqueness of his life he hadbeen told by students across the
country and different peoplethat he should make a
documentary and that, or that heshould write a book, and so
obviously I echoed thosesentiments tremendously.
So when I went to visit him in2018, he took me to meet Leah
(08:35):
Mahan, who was a socialdocumentary filmmaker who he had
met when he was lecturing atHarvard in the 80s, and so she
heard him at a lecture she hadjust been doing some work on
Eyes on the Prize she went upand introduced herself, and so
at that time, he was theexecutive director of the Dudley
Street Neighborhood Initiativein Boston.
Director of the Dudley StreetNeighborhood Initiative in
Boston.
(08:55):
And the Dudley StreetNeighborhood Initiative is the
first and only nonprofit in theUnited States to get eminent
domain using the community landtrust model.
So he had just became theexecutive director when they had
gotten eminent domain, and soLeah ended up doing a
documentary on that communityand that process, that that
(09:16):
narrated how they got him in adomain and then what they
created in terms of the W StreetNeighborhood Initiative, and
she recorded the whole processof that transformation, and Gus
made sure that he bought thecamera equipment and got her
into the, got her into thecommunity.
So once he introduced me to herover the years, we began to just
(09:37):
kind of do some get some B-rollfootage of him as he went
across the country.
His best friend is Danny Glover.
He's good friends with BernieSanders, so we captured
different moments with himmoving around the country,
speaking and engaging with Dannyand with others, and so as a
result of COVID, that was thefirst time that he was in a
(09:59):
central location for that, asmany of us right for that long
period of time, and so duringCOVID we were able to record
about 32 interviews with peoplefrom his unique journey, and so
that gave us a greaterunderstanding of how other
people obviously understood hisleadership and what his
leadership had meant to theirlives, and that's a and it's a
(10:20):
wide range of personalities thatwe had the opportunity to
interview, and so we then endedup creating a nonprofit that
would ultimately also serve toshare his values to share his
values, and the story is justobviously kind of the lead but
his values, of how he understoodleadership, how he empowered
young people and how he reallycommitted himself to trying to
make a better world.
Joel (10:41):
You know, having you on here, haven't you done so much?
You have personal connectionsand you've also obviously done a
lot of studying and you knowresearch on the history of that
time of the civil rightsmovement.
I guess when you think aboutwhether it's from Gus's
perspective or the movement as awhole, do you feel like there's
anything that's like a biggestmisconception, like what's the
(11:01):
biggest misconception that youfeel like is out there about the
civil rights movement and maybeGus's involvement too?
Damien (11:08):
Yeah, that's an interesting question, Joel.
I think oftentimes movements,as we both know, can become so
personality centric that theydon't necessarily take into
consideration, right the broadstroke of people that were
involved and obviously we know,as we mentioned, people like
even a John Lewis or MartinLuther King Right.
They become such large figuresthat they may be and not to
(11:32):
their desire, overshadow themany different people that were
a part of the movement.
Obviously, one of thechallenges that has come up is
obviously the women right thatwere involved in the movement
that possibly did not get thenotoriety that they deserve but
were central right to so, asthey are to the black church, as
they are to our society, thatare central to moving the
movement forward and being boldand being unapologetic about
(11:56):
continuing the fight for justice, and so I think that's that's
one thing.
And then another thing sometimesis, if you say civil rights, if
that's connected maybe just tononviolence, there may be the
misconception that nonviolencewas not a, was not the best
approach to dealing with thechallenges that took place, or
that the misconception is thatnonviolence may be too passive
(12:19):
and nonviolence may be a, mighthave weakness to it, when in
fact those in the movementunderstood nonviolence as a as a
very significantly powerful wayRight To challenge, because the
challenge of not respondingwith evil not responding and
living in fear.
So I think that's a sometimesthat's another, uh,
(12:39):
misconception around themethodologies, right, that were
used, but there were multiplemethodologies, uh, because we're
not monolithic as humans, um,and trying to solve a problem
has to have, as you said, right,avoiding the two-pocket
approach.
So I think those are just someof the things that you hear and
see that are sometimesmisconceptions or just shallow
(13:01):
interpretations of what themovement represented.
Joel (13:04):
Yeah, and I know that Gus Newport passed away not too
long ago.
It was in the last few years.
I'm curious.
You know the world has changeda lot since that time and since
he was mayor at Berkeley.
And you know the world haschanged a lot since that time
and since he was mayor atBerkeley and you know now we're
seeing Berkeley back in the news.
You know I saw that he was oneof the people doing student
protests back in the eightiesaround.
(13:24):
You know African, south Africanapartheid and obviously you
know some things have changed,some things are still the same.
I'm curious if you got to gleanany perspective from him in
those later days of his lifeabout kind of the way the world
is now and what he would like tosee happen and how to go about
that.
Damien (13:44):
Yeah, we obviously would talk multiple times a week and
again the tragic nature of his,of his death, because he was 88
years old and he was stillrunning right um like he was 48
years old.
And so then the family has a umwrongful death lawsuit in san
francisco superior courtcurrently based upon the way in
(14:05):
which um he died.
But he was still seeking to uhchallenge right um the realities
that were taking place and whathe saw right as the moral
bankruptcy that he saw apparentin our world.
And he was the vice presidentto the World Peace Council.
So when you talk about right,his positions on South African
apartheid, he obviously had arelationship with Castro.
(14:27):
He had made Berkeley asanctuary city because, for him,
the values of human dignity asanctuary city because, for him,
the values of human dignity,for him the values of what it
meant to be consideredsignificant and important right,
went beyond that two pocketapproach.
It went beyond the narrow waysin which we try to confine
people to just a very shallowway of understanding their own
(14:51):
humanity.
And so for him, he was stillengaged and involved locally in
terms of politics, in terms ofthe Berkeley, california area,
but he was also still connectedto many different people across
the United States.
He worked with an organizationcalled Project South that was
obviously working against CopCity in Atlanta.
He was he's on Project Southboard.
(15:13):
He was still connected to thenational uh council of elders.
He was still being sought afterum by communities who were
dealing with, obviously,gentrification and, based upon
the work that he had done indublin street, he was obviously
significantly concerned with, uh, the increase in the housing
market.
He always talked abouthomelessness because obviously
living in california right, it'son a whole nother scale.
(15:34):
So he was always concernedabout those not having safe
space, not having opportunity toraise their children in safe
space.
And obviously he was concernedabout violence.
So he was still an advocate of,he was anti-violence, if you
would, and still challenging theways in which policing takes
place in this country.
So he was still speaking tothose issues and looking at the
(15:58):
intersection of those issues andultimately, how does policy
reflect a sense of moral depththat addresses those issues that
ultimately kind of diminishpeople's hope and diminish their
desire to want to live anddesire to want to, you know,
become their best self.
Joel (16:17):
Yeah, you mentioned the intersection.
You know of a lot of differentthings there and I'm curious if
you saw for Gus Newport theintersection you mentioned.
You know your faith at thebeginning and coming out of that
but I'm wondering did you seethe intersection of his work in
civil rights and in activism?
How did that intersect with hisfaith?
Damien (16:38):
Yeah, you know what Vincent Harding, who was Martin
Luther King Jr's speechwriter,and Vincent Harding is who
drafted Gus into the NationalCouncil of Elders, and so when
he always would say, whenVincent asked him to be a part
of the National Council ofElders, he would say, saying his
deep, lion-like baritone voice,he said well, you know, vince,
I'm not really into the churchlike that.
And Vincent Harding told him atthat point you know, gus, you
(17:01):
are doing the work the church issupposed to be doing.
And so that became for him, ashe said.
That really did something tohis spirit and really what I
always would say about Gus isthat he was a mystic.
He loved Howard Thurman and ofcourse I'm a big Howard Thurman
fan the pastor of the firstintegrated church, the Church of
the Fellowship of All Peoplesin San Francisco, california,
(17:24):
and so Gus's faith, maybe nothaving a particular
denominational affiliation ormaybe having a particular claim,
he had, what I told him all thetime is, I believe, that his
love for people and I believethat if god is love, gus
reflected such a deep love forpeople.
That is how I saw him live thatinto moving into public policy
(17:48):
and still being involved, um, inchallenging um empire.
Uh, if you will, because his hisfaith, and he was in
relationship with a lot of faithfolks, right as he was
challenging sometimes how theirfaith maybe was more
individualistic than communal,because faith can become so I'm
good, I'm fine, my family isfine.
(18:09):
That doesn't mean that it's anoutward looking faith that says,
like the sign that I used tosee in nashville, all the time
and as people see that sign now,that sign that says drive like
your kids, live here.
Which means what?
Don't just be concerned aboutthe safety of your children, be
concerned about the safety ofall of the young people that are
in this community.
So he lived out of a deep lovefor people, open to all
(18:31):
perspectives, even if hedisagreed vehemently with
somebody's political ideologythat led them to to obviously
(18:52):
making decisions.
He was able to cross the aislein very unique ways and listen
and consider, while while stillbeing unapologetically black and
still being unapologetic aboutwhat he believed.
But he was able to to holddiffering perspectives in
consideration because he was nota categorical thinker and he
wasn't a linear thinker.
Right, he thought about it allas a collective, which is why he
was sought after by multiplegroups, from El Salvador, from
Cuba to Africa, to those whowere of the Jewish faith.
So he had such a wide array ofrelationships because he really
(19:17):
lived, I think, out of a spiritof love for all people.
Joel (19:20):
Yeah, I love that as you're describing kind of his
approach.
It reminds me, I think it's.
I'm a pastor's kid so I shouldprobably know this, but I know
it's in the Old Testament it'sdo justice, love, mercy and walk
yeah.
I'm curious if, if you haveanything that you would expand
(19:43):
on uh, just to close us out hereon on, if that's sparking
anything for you.
Damien (19:47):
Oh well, see, Joe, I know we got to go, so you
shouldn't even went there, butI'll say this very I'll say this
very swiftly since you, sinceyou want to close on a question,
a question like that, and again, it is grounded in a bottom-up
theology, right, there is a wayin which we live in a world and
the ways in which King andothers Fannie Lou Hamer and Ida
(20:08):
B Wells and Mary McLeod Bethunehad a bottom-up theology over
against the world, and we have atop-down, toxic theology, right
, that looks at people maybefrom a perch right Above,
instead of considering.
And when we think about how weunderstand Jesus, jesus
ministered to those who were onthe margins.
If he in fact his narrative is,we understand impoverishment,
(20:30):
but being born under theconditions and circumstances
under which he was born underRoman Empire, conditions and
circumstances under which he wasborn under Roman Empire, but
also born in conditions noprenatal care for Mary, born in
a barn urine, feces, animalfeces, rodent's rat.
So when you talk about, itdoesn't get any more hood, as we
(20:50):
would say, it don't get anymore coming from the mud than
that.
Right and literally right beingborn in the mud.
Right and literally right beingborn in the mud, but yet he
decided when he, when he andagain the fishing differently
concept who he calls.
He calls folks who areuneducated, who are untrained,
who are unproven, and heempowers them right to what
impact.
I came not for those who arewell, I came for those who were
(21:13):
sick, and so what I learned andthis is what I'll close on, what
I learned and what Jesus, Ithink, manifested and I got this
when I was in grad school isthe expansion of how we
understand poverty, and Jesusministered in this way.
I took a class called God,poverty and economy and it
looked at the five spheres ofpoverty economic poverty, being
I have no bread.
(21:33):
Political poverty, being I haveno power.
Bread.
Political poverty, being I haveno power.
Spiritual poverty, being I haveno hope.
Physical poverty, being I'msick and I have no health care.
And cultural poverty, being Ihave no name and I have no
identity.
And the work and ministry ofJesus sought to eradicate all of
those impoverishment.
So when Jesus said that thepoor will be with you always, he
(21:54):
was not just talking about thelack of money.
He was talking about those whodidn't have hope, those who
didn't have access to healthcare, those who did not have a
name and an identity that gavethem a sense of value.
And so for me, and how I think,gus live, and for others I've
been so privileged.
To me, it is understanding thatthe jesus that we talk about,
(22:15):
because when people say jesus,we may not be talking about the
same one.
We're talking about the one whoultimately was lynched by the
government as a result of havingan agenda that gave power to
those who were never supposed tohave it, who gave life to those
who were never supposed to haveit, and because of the life and
the power he gave them, theybegan to what, spread that word,
(22:35):
empower others and challengethe systems that ultimately
created the poverty in the firstplace.
Joel (22:40):
We'll end on that, man.
I love it.
Damien, thank you so much foryour time here today, for you
listening out there.
Make sure to tune into us hereon BizRadio US, as well as all
the podcast services that areout there YouTube, spotify,
itunes, everywhere else.
And, man, until next time, takecare of yourself.
Youtube, spotify, itunes,everywhere else.
And man, until next time, takecare of yourself.
(23:00):
Take care of someone else andremember we are each other.
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