“I am going for a grant to study the relationship of German Turners with Black People. I would like you, Ed, to help get this grant. ROSAMONDPRESS.COM Janke and Turner Vigilantes
Janke and Turner Abolitionists | Rosamond Press
Above is my first post made on Feb. 25. Ed Howard had just told me he saw the new Black Panther movie. I told my fellow historian on Feb. 24 I was going for a grant. Here is Cynthia’s book on Belmont published in 2014. She must have found my family history on the internet. She says there is no competition, but she was Gaslighting me. I made copies of our posts – and caught her mentally torturing’ me, accursing me of abusing her. I have seen her act before.
Belmont (Images of America): McCarthy, Cynthia Karpa: 9781467131353: Amazon.com: Books
The oppression of my family history in the Belmont Historical Society I believe is racially motivated. My first posts were about Turnverein Germans, and Forty-Eighters who founded the Republican Abolitionist Party and fought Confederate Traitors to free slaves. This is the main reason I got in trouble because the white folks of Belmont want their city to remain a white enclave, and not have a direct descendant of the founder if Belmont, put his history in my back pocket -to do with it what I will. This is a new brand of Fascism, where any white sympathizer of black causes, is MARKED as a undesirable, their history erased, and then they are publicly SHAMED? What kind of attorney will hand my suit? This is hardly the kind of treatment one would expect when asked to contribute your history.
I came to the Belmont Historical Society via my friend, Ed Howard, and my therapist who treated ne for PTSD. I promised to start promoting myself. I have been promoting Ed Howard’s history of Oakland because we were born in Oakland. The four Presco Children were raised by a black maid who took Christine home with her to share her with her three sisters who had been maids in mansions in Mississippi. Then came the call for ship workers in Marin.
I posted Rosamond’s painting ‘Lena And Her Sister’s and it was taken down. Ed’s brother was going to drive me to the Naval cemetery to see my parents who served. My two siblings went over to the dark side when a outsider bought my families creative legacy, and they did not tell me my father was dead, and, my other was dying, My brother is a racist neo-Nazi who also descends from Carl Janke and William Stuttmeister, two men who lived in Belmont. I thought I would establish my history on a Belmont site, and then apply for several grants, that would help Ed and I preserve the history of Oakland, and our families. Is this the history Bemont wants….
Politically Incorrect Iconoclast (mbpresco.blogspot.com)
I began to wonder if racism was their motive when after I posted on my famous sister, then on our cousin, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, I got no response. It was hard to believe. THEY did not want these famous white people backing black people – especially when they are kin to my family members they captured, and made them THEIR prisoners. They took my posts and information – HOSTAGE!
Above is Liz Taylor in the movie Sandpipers. She looks just like the great granddaughter of Augustus Janke. I am convinced THEY were going to rip-off much of my posts, write another book, and laugh all the way to te bank. I can hear them sniggering as they used facebook for racist purpose’s.
John Presco’
President: Royal Rosemond Press
Ed Howard
Yesterday at 2:37 PM · STRONG SUPPORTThanks to all of you for the strong support in establishing the tradition of recognizing the history of Oakland’s Black Pioneers in the West Oakland (WOS) film of the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s.From now on, on the last Thursday of February’s Black History month all can view the WOS film with family, friends and others so that our Oakland Black History will live on forever.Save this link for the WOS film and you can view the film anytime during the year.http://westoaklandstories.org/stories-spotlights/. WE MUST TAKE PART IN “NO NEGATIVE SPEAK” with each other.SHAREEd HowardChief Executive DirectorWest Oakland Stories Positive Feeling Movement Org.
Greg Let’s go forward, What need I do? “I am going for a grant to study the relationship of German Turners with Black People. I would like you, Ed, to help get this grant.
Wed 7:52 PM
You sent February 24 at 7:52 PM
Words get grants.
Ed sent February 24 at 7:54 PM
You the word smith, give me directions and also let me see what you are writing for the grant.
You sent February 24 at 7:57 PM
I just made contact with 3 people at Buck foundation just to see if I am encouraged to submit a grant. I worry that I am too radical for everyone
Ed sent February 24 at 8:00 PM
That’s no problem, you write and I submit. Just send me all the qualifying information.
You sent February 24 at 8:08 PM
I left a message and sent e-mail to Jonathan Logan. Scroll down to bottom of this page. https://www.marincf.org/buck-family-fund-grants
Murder of a Black Muralist
Posted on February 19, 2018 by Royal Rosamond Press
I was going to Oakland until I found a news article about the murder of my friend. Then I read about the death of a muralist.
Tale of Four Murals
Posted on May 6, 2017by Royal Rosamond Press
OAKLAND — A 20-year-old reputed street gang associate exploded in profanity during his arraignment on capital murder charges in an Oakland courtroom, where one of his supporters left chanting “wartime” and another shattered a glass display case with her fist.”
I’m supposed to be in Oakland right now. A black man was going to drive me around and show me some murals. One of them was the one began by Antonio Ramos. I was going to see a film about the first black people of Oakland. A couple of friends had bad feelings about my trip. I was going there dressed like this. If I stood before Ramos’ mural, I would have made a great target. I’m sure Holloway’s gang is lurking about the mural,
I really shook up Sleepy Hollow when I practiced augury before the Ken Kesey mural, and when I filmed Belle at Kesey Square. For doing this, I was harassed, mentally tortured, and my life threatened. No one came to my defense. However, the murderer of a Peace Muralist had at least one supporter who smashed a glass case outside the courtroom, even though he had previously robbed film makers. Is Holloway a beloved Black Anarchist of Oakland? My article about the smashed glass at the Eugene Weekly – got me in a new wave of trouble with the Wiccans of Eugene. Stephanie Kesey unfriended me after I made connections to Erin Sullivan’s lost mural. Then there are the lost Golden West Murals.
I am an artist who is kin to the most famous family of muralists in American history! Garth Benton did murals in the homes of America’s most famous people. Thomas Hart Benton was a very famous muralist. His grandfather was the proponent of The Oregon Trail. Nancy and I lived with the Zorthian sisters in a commune in San Francisco. Their father was inspired by Benton, and his forty two murals, that are now being located and documented. We honor Antonio Ramos and his work.
Someday, other people’s history will be important in the Emerald Valley. It’s all about the Homeless and Ken Kesey. Holloway gave the message to the artists and people of Oakland that he and his thugs run the show. Their needs come first, because life is unfair to them. Artists and Film Makers were taking away from his limelight, the murderous news. He wanted to force everyone to never forget……….THIS IS WAR!
Holloway robbed the news people at this station of their video equipment valued at $60,000 dollars. I own a newspaper. I am the only reporter, and photographer for Royal Rosamond Press. I have posted numerous videos on this blog. Members of SLEEPS launched an attempt to destroy me and my newspaper. I appealed to city officials for help. They chose to believe I was a stalker and degenerate lest Crazy Alley break into their place of work, or, camp on their front lawn. SLEEPS declared war on me. They lost!
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/CityClerk/s/KTOP/index.htm
Ed Howard’s Oakland
Posted on March 9, 2020 by Royal Rosamond Press
Here is my friend Ed Howard. Please help him continue to be the Caretaker of Oakland’s History.
John
Raising Money For a Cause I Care About
Fundraiser for West Oakland Stories Positive Feeling Movement Inc. by Ed Howard ·
InviteShareMore$20 raised of $1,500info-solidEd Howard donated.
About
Want to join me in supporting a good cause? I’m raising money for West Oakland Stories Positive Feeling Movement Inc. and your contribution will make an impact, whether you donate $5 or $500. Every little bit helps. Thank you for your support. I’ve included information about West Oakland Stories Positive Feeling Movement Inc. below.
We are seeking your donations to help West Oakland Stories Positive Feeling Movement, Organization (WOSPFM) to achieve our goal of connecting the world through the stories and “NO NEGATIVE SPEAK” with each other motto that are shared by the elders of our communities. The WOSPFM community is very proud of this project and we are eager to see it succeed. You can be part of that excitement by supporting our elders with a donation.
Ed Howard • March 8, 2020How much would you like to donate?$20$50$100$250OtherBenefiting
West Oakland Stories Positive Feeling Movement Inc.US 501(c)(3) Nonprofit OrganizationWest Oakland Stories Positive Feeling Movement (WOSPFM) is dedicated to getting our community members to practic… See MorePublic Affairs and CommunicationsBased in Stockton, CALearn more at Guidestar.orgReceiving donations from Network for Good within 45-75 days after a donation, depending on enrollment. Learn More
Ed Howard’s Place In Oakland History
Posted on May 12, 2017by Royal Rosamond Press
One of the biggest mistakes of my life was to not walk thru that tunnel to the Oakland Coliseum in 1961 to see Bobby Blue Bland. Bobby was my man. I had made plans to see Ed Howard’s film, but, I got stuck in the middle of ‘The Tunnel of Fear’ and had nothing nice to say about Oakland. I didn’t go. I and my friends feared for my life. I did not mean to tempt fate, but, there it was, lurking in the dark, waiting for me.
Ed said he snuck into the Oakland and Paramount theatres. Was it to see that strange introduction of the movie ‘House of Usher’? I believe Roger Coreman appeared on stage to warn us we might suffer heart attacks. They had a cable coming down from the balcony on which slid a skeleton. This film is of historic significance.
So, here is the Tunnel of Racial Fear. If a white boy went down in there, a black boy would cut you ear to ear with a razor. The whole design was a set-up. Blacks didn’t go down there unless they scare a white, who will freak out – and go crazy on them! After encircling the Oakland Coliseum with fast roads, they stuck that tunnel in so you could leave the beautiful safe shore of Lake Merritt, and go to thy doom. Of course me and my best friend, Bill Arnold, found many good reasons to go down in that tunnel – late at night.
“As artists, we are obligated to go where normal people fear to go!”
And, there it is, the ‘Oakland Bohemian Motto’. Were there such a thing as a Black Bohemians? Ed said he was one of the first Oakland Lowriders. But, he became a designer, an artist of sorts. In this photograph you see the tunnel, and the apartment where the Black Panthers lived in a penthouse. Huey knew about the Beats. He studied history. Being innovative was a big part of the New Oakland Cool. We crossed lines. We crashed through barriers. Our history is one of the most culturally interesting experiences the world has ever seen. The Black Panther exhibit at the Oakland Museum was the most viewed show, ever, and was held over for – an encore!
http://www.ktvu.com/news/black-history-month/233427712-story
In building courage to go see Bobby, I put on his music and pictured myself going thru that tunnel, with my head held high. I was fifteen. I closed my eyes and made a movie of me emerging from the tunnel, I go down a path of trees to the entrance. Against the wall, hundreds of black folks are lined up to buy a ticket. As one, they see this young white boy walking towards them. I can hear the discussion. The whispers of acceptance go up and down the line. How cool is this guy?
“Did he walk thru the tunnel of fear to get here? Or, did his mommy drop him off?”
“He came to hear Bobby. Leave him alone!”
“How cool is that?”
And, I take my place in the Great Endeavor, the New pertinence. A year later I do a painting of the tunnel, with me walking into it. I render a painting titled ‘The Wall’. I am walking towards a group of young people standing at the base of a wall. We got to live, to dream! There was some amazing dialogue born of our collective fear. I hope we get the crux of it down, before we pass on, because, we told it like it…….is!
I just got off the phone with Christine. In 1967, we lived in a big Victorian on 13th. Street and Webster. She was Peter Shapiro’s lover, the lead guitarist for ‘The Loading Zone’ who mingled with members of The Tower of Power. I asked Chris if she knew Lenny Williams. She was not sure. But she knew Lenny Pickett who directed the Saturday Night Live band. She told me about Malcom and Willy, and Steve Kupka dropping off his cats to live with us. Chris was a good friend of Bill Graham whom I am writing a blog about.
https://rosamondpress.com/2017/03/31/malcom-and-willy/
The Judge who heard our case against the Boston Mafia, got the drop on two prisoners lowering themselves down from the Oakland Courthouse jail that you see at the end of Scary Tunnel. Real shit happened in Oakland. Real people did real things.
I was the Artist in residence. My studio was next to the sound room. One Sunday afternoon, as I am applying colors to my seascape, I hear Linda Tillery’s audition. Old blues guys begin dropping by for a jam.
https://rosamondpress.com/2014/09/04/defying-the-boston-mafia-2/
Jon Presco
https://kakakiki1.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/things-you-dont-know-about-ed-howard/
http://kakakiki.blogspot.com/2006/
A fixture of the nightclub scene rides off into the sunset. Will there be an encore?
Lee Hildebrand, Special to The Chronicle
Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, July 24, 2007
https://www.youtube.com/embed/AeT0zEGAf6I?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparenthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvPFb9itTN0
As Jay Payton scurried around Bates Hall Sunday evening, conversing with old friends and making sure the show was running smoothly, much as he had in Bay Area nightclubs for the past half-century, he paused briefly to cut a few steps alongside couples line dancing the electric slide to the throbbing grooves of Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” Hip problems may have forced Payton, who launched a career as a tap dancer at Harlem’s Apollo Theater in 1947, to drop hoofing from his act some years back, but the spirits were simply too high for his feet to fail him at that moment.
Dressed in their clubgoing finest, some 200 fellow entertainers, former club owners, friends, family and fans gathered at the East Oakland banquet hall for a dinner/dance that doubled as a celebration of Payton’s 60th anniversary in show business and his retirement party. Health concerns, however, did not cause Payton, who remains lean and limber at 81, to decide to throw in the towel. Economics were the key issue. For the first time since his 1954 arrival in the Bay Area, the Asheville, N.C.-born entertainer can find no steady work as an emcee and comedian.“We haven’t got one decent black club in the whole Bay Area,” Payton said prior to the event. The presence Sunday of four of his former employers – Esther Mabry of Esther’s Orbit Room, Ruthie Labee of Ruthie’s Inn, Ed Howard of Ed Howard’s Place and Irvin “Dusty” Williams of Jimmie’s Entertainment Complex – drove his point home. None remain in the club business, with the exception of Mabry, who still runs her restaurant and bar on Seventh Street in West Oakland. She presented major R&B attractions such as Lowell Fulson, Charles Brown and Al Green in the 1960s and early ’70s, before her former property became a post office parking lot, but her present location is too small for live entertainment.
Also among those assembled were vocalists Lenny Williams, Terrible Tom, Camille LaVah and the Hartfield Brothers, guitarist Marvin Holmes and comedian Finney Mo – remnants of a Bay Area African American club scene that thrived before disco began putting a damper on live R&B, and hip-hop finally buried what was left of it.
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Payton was the Godfather of Bay Area R&B, the glue that held the scene together, particularly during the 29 years (1968-97) that he produced an annual event called the Top Star Awards at Bimbo’s 365 Club, the Claremont Hotel and other venues. It served as a counterbalance to the better-known Bay Area Music Awards, or Bammies, which in its formative years largely ignored R&B.
Williams, who won his first Top Star Award in the early ’70s as a member of Tower of Power and later was named entertainer of the year, was Sunday’s featured attraction. Even before he hit the stage, women in the audience were singing, “oh, oh, oh, oh,” the highly sensual signature line from his 1978 hit ” ‘Cause I Love You.” He reprised the part during a performance of “Somebody Else,” a tune from his latest CD that he sang over an oddly syncopated track. He followed it with a soaring rendition of Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me,” backed by the Brummels, a 10-member R&B band that’s been around for 35 years. Bassist James Nelson, the Brummels’ leader, doubled as the evening’s DJ, spinning a variety of soul oldies and even one Louisiana zydeco tune, to which those dancers who knew how were two-stepping.
Four winners of 1968 Top Star Awards were in attendance: Holmes, the Hartfield Brothers, Finney Mo and Payton himself. Named Top Dancer, Payton was careful to point out that he did not pick the winners himself, but that they were tabulated from ballots mailed to entertainers, club owners, promoters, booking agents and artist managers.
Like Payton, Finney Mo is a dancer, comedian, emcee and sometime singer – an all-around old-school entertainer. “You couldn’t just be in one bag,” said Finney, 75, who got his first California gig with Payton’s help in 1955. “You had to be versatile or the agents wouldn’t hire you.”
Payton made his Bay Area debut in 1954 as member of the Rovers, a vocal group that recorded for Music City Records in Berkeley. Soon, he was appearing as a dancer at the It Club, a striptease joint in El Cerrito. By the late ’50s, he was serving as the emcee at Facks 2 on Bush Street in San Francisco, where he appeared on bills with such mainstream acts as Billy Eckstine, Dorothy Dandridge, Della Reese, Johnny Mathis and the Hi-Los. During the ’60s, he was a fixture at such African American clubs in Oakland as Esther’s, the Showcase and the Sportsman, sharing stages with the likes of Redd Foxx, B.B. King, Lou Rawls and the Whispers. In the mid-’70s, he hosted a weekly television show on KEMO, Channel 20, called “Soul Is” and for six months replaced his childhood idol, dancer Harold Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers, in Jon Hendricks’ “Evolution of the Blues” at the On Broadway Theater in San Francisco. For 16 years, until it closed in April 2006, Payton was the house emcee at Jimmie’s in Oakland.
“There’s more to being an emcee than introducing the artists,” he said. “Anybody can introduce an artist. If you’re an emcee, you handle the show. If something happens, you can fill in. Say, if a drummer breaks his drums, the show stops. But an emcee can go out there and hold the attention of people till he gets his drums fixed, and then you can turn it right back over to the band. You don’t lose that flow.”
Some in attendance Sunday doubted his seriousness about retiring. Indeed, as he watched couples dancing to the Brummels’ oldies, Payton was overheard remarking that there is still an audience for that type of music – if only he could find a club in which to do it.
Rosamond Press 
Reblogged this on Rosamond Press and commented:
Here are posts I made on the Belmont History facebook. https://rosamondpress.com/2021/03/01/blatant-racism-in-belmont/?fbclid=IwAR09R7OKdsd3utOzjs62wCXr4ON3nflmd4IrNBecT4cYJtBCUs58GkC6IsQ