Joanna Bennett

My Grandfather was a member of the Black Panther Party in San Francisco in the 60’s. I believe that Black Americans need an organized community of fearless activists to combat the strong resurgence of open racism we are seeing today and will continue to see during the coming Trump Administration. The city of Santa Rosa, California, where I currently reside has a small but growing African American community and I feel we need more support and alliances to deal with the racism in this area. There are a significant amount of white supremacists and white supremacists organizations in the neighboring counites and I believe the physical and financial well being of our people is in danger. I feel motivated to help. There is about 175,000 people in this city and about 3,100 Black Americans. There is one predominantly black neighborhood in the city as well. I believe I can recruit at least 1,000 people with time. Our community is in danger and they understand that. And I believe that as the cities in the Bay Area become more expensive and crime becomes more of a problem we will see even more immigration of Black Americans into this city since it is significantly cheaper here and only an hour away from San Francisco. I have some knowledge of law and have been able to successfully defend myself in court in a self defense case. I believe our people in this area need more allies, education and legal resources to be able to withstand the racism and lack of police justice I’m seeing in the area.