#oakland-history

#oakland-history

Louise Pearl's one-woman show Pass the Nails and Shame The Devil recounts the experience of her family's ordeal building their own house amid Oakland's 1980s crack epidemic as her strong-willed, Louisiana-born mother and gather a motley crew of men to make this dream home into a reality.

One member of the fire crew died, crushed by the overturned truck, and seven firefighters were injured, along with scores of passengers on the streetcar. An old tree in front of the playground was demolished but probably prevented the car from plowing full into the playground yard where many children were playing, the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported. A Berkeley woman, Cecelia Gollum, was credited with saving children in the playground by blowing her whistle when she saw the crash occurring.

"It was about faith in action," Thompson, who is now the church's senior pastor, told The Oaklandside. "It wasn't just about belief, it wasn't just about church attendance, but that to be a Christian meant you ought to be doing something to make the world better."

"Initially, I was just documenting her story for myself. At a certain point, I realized it was a story that should be made public,"