Betty Reid Soskin, author, activist, and park ranger, celebrated – The Mercury News

OAKLAND — Activist, author, musician, trailblazer — all words used to describe the late Betty Reid Soskin, a veteran National Park Service ranger whose life was celebrated by loved ones and admirers Sunday.

Park ranger hats lined the stage of the Calvin Simmons Theater at Oakland’s Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, where more than 1,000 people gathered to honor Soskin, who died at age 104 on Dec. 21.

Fame came to Soskin when he became a park ranger at age 85, a role he held for 15 years working at Rosie the Riveter World War II/Home Front National Historic Park. Before taking that job, Soskin helped influence the issues discussed there as a field representative for two congressional members, ensuring that the museum also reflected the lived experiences of black and Asian Americans at the time.

“We at the park knew we were incredibly blessed to have Betty, and we didn’t take her for granted,” said Kelli English, Soskin’s former director at the museum. “Thanks to Betty, we’ve learned to lean in and look for hidden stories beyond the popular narrative.”

Born in Detroit on September 22, 1921, and christened Betty Charbonnet, Soskin grew up in East Oakland, surrounded by a family that had moved west before other African Americans made the same migration during World War II.

Like Soskin, the City was still growing into its own at the time. The three-bedroom house where he and eight others lived was surrounded by swampy wetlands and the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport was just a hanger or two away, according to Soskin’s memoir “Sign My Name to Freedom,” from his blog CBreaux Speaks.

Much of what Soskin saw and experienced throughout his century-long life was chronicled in his blog, from the rapid growth of Richmond during World War II and the 1944 Port Chicago bombing that claimed more than 250 lives, many of them black labor men, to the Civil Rights Movement and modern political upheavals.

“My life changed dramatically after my time with Betty and she inspired me to continue working to ensure that untold stories continue to be told in places where they have been forgotten or silenced in the past,” said Tom Leatherman, superintendent of Pearl Harbor National Memorial and former superintendent of Rosie the Riveter World War II/Home Front National Historic Park.

Music was also the thread of Soskin’s life. He grew up surrounded by it, his father and grandfather were musicians. It was in and out of the Berkeley record store she opened and ran with her first husband, Melvin Reid. It was listed in videos and tapes of his songs and is believed to be the oldest store in California.

An archived video accompanying a recent photo of Soskin performing some of his music during Sunday’s celebration drew a standing ovation, as did a video of former President Barack Obama wishing Soskin a happy 100th birthday.

Soskin did not set out to make history. As was expected of women of her time, Soskin believed she would marry, have children and stay at home, according to her biography. She married first Reid and then Dr. William Soskin, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and raised four children, Rick, Bob, Diara and Dorian.

But Soskin was drawn to community organizing.

His political awakening came when he worked as a secretary for a classified ship workers union in Richmond, where he learned that people, including acquaintances, were flagged when applying for jobs because of perceived ties to communism, he wrote.

Soskin quit his job in the US Air Force after he was transferred to a department where people of color were not allowed to work, it turned out that he was black, which made him unable to move up the ranks even though he was qualified, according to his biography.

“I came out to the US government and told them to push it, and that was the end of it,” Soskin wrote in his book.

Determined not to work under White again, Soskin and Reid opened Reid’s Records in 1945 in a duplex garage they bought in Berkeley. The music store focused on African American music and eventually became a center for community organizing. During the interview, Soskin recounted how he got hired

Deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement, Soskin joined the Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, where he felt welcomed through progressive politics and social action, his son Bob said. He helped raise funds for the Black Panther Party in the 1970s and wrote and performed protest songs about racism, social justice and war.

Soskin and his work have been widely celebrated. She was awarded a presidential medal from President Barack Obama in 2015 and was among the honorees of Glamor Magazine’s 2018 Women of the Year.

His likeness, in his park ranger uniform, is painted on a mural on Richmond’s 23rd Street, and his name is associated with a school building in the West Contra Costa Unified School District.

The community also helped raise nearly $70,000 through 970 donations to cover Soskin’s medical expenses after suffering a stroke while working at the visitor center in 2019.

“You know, mom, her death was a success. Mom wanted to go for a while. She wanted to go, she was ready to go, she went. Mom (squeezed) out all the life that was in that body,” said Soskin’s son Robert Reid. “This is for Miss Betty.”