Black August: Remembering, Reclaiming and Recommitting

A Message from Chris Chatmon, Founder & CEO, Kingmakers of Oakland

As August comes to a close and our young people return to classrooms across Oakland and beyond, I find myself holding two things at the same time: deep gratitude for the opportunity to do this work and deep reverence for those whose struggle made our work possible.

August carries particular meaning in our community because it is Black August.

Black August emerged from California’s prison system in 1979 as a solemn commemoration honoring Black freedom fighters and political prisoners whose lives, sacrifices, and resistance helped illuminate the continuing struggle for freedom and self-determination. The month holds particular remembrance for Jonathan Jackson, who was killed on August 7, 1970, and George Jackson, who was killed at San Quentin on August 21, 1971. It also invites us to study a much longer lineage of resistance from the Haitian Revolution to struggles against incarceration, racial violence, oppression, and injustice here in the United States.

Black August is not simply something we acknowledge on the calendar.

It asks something of us.

Traditionally, Black August has been observed through fasting, study, discipline, reflection, political education, and collective action. Several members of our Kingmakers of Oakland team participated in fasting this month as a way of holding sacred space for those who sacrificed before us and recommitting ourselves to the responsibilities we carry today.

For me, remembrance must always lead to responsibility.

We honor the freedom fighters who came before us not simply by speaking their names, but by asking what their struggle requires of us now. What does liberation look like in a kindergarten classroom? What does freedom look like for a 15-year-old Black boy trying to discover who he is while the media and algorithms are constantly telling him who the world expects him to be? What does self-determination mean when a young King walks into a recording studio, animation lab, classroom, boardroom, or college campus and understands that he belongs there?

Those questions live at the heart of Kingmakers of Oakland.

Our work has always been about more than programs. We are working to transform the conditions surrounding Black boys, to help heal the fish while treating the toxic ecosystem. That means creating educational spaces where our Kings experience belonging, cultural affirmation, wellness, rigor, creativity, brotherhood, and unconditional love.

It means our Jegna work placing culturally grounded educators and aspiring Black male early elementary educators closer to our youngest learners. It means young people entering KOO Labs and discovering that their music, animation, filmmaking, fashion, storytelling, entrepreneurship, and imagination are not extracurricular to their education, they are pathways to agency, economic opportunity, healing, and power.

It means our Kings participating in The Fellowship Initiative and Kingmakers Club having spaces where academic achievement can sit alongside cultural identity, emotional wellness, leadership, joy, and brotherhood.

And this fall, I am especially grateful that young people and families can continue accessing many of these opportunities free of charge.

That matters.

There are brilliant young people throughout our community whose access to opportunity should never be determined by whether their family can afford the price of admission. Every young person deserves spaces that help them discover their gifts, develop their skills, expand their imagination, and see possibilities for themselves that they may not yet know exist.

To every donor, partner, educator, parent, caregiver, mentor, volunteer, staff member, and community member who makes that possible: thank you.

Your investment allows us to put resources directly into the hands of young people. More importantly, it allows us to surround them with people who see their brilliance.

Reclaiming the Feed

That question of who gets to tell the stories of Black boys is also at the center of a project I am incredibly honored to be part of.

In Spring 2027, Dr. Antonio L. Ellis and Dr. Pedro Noguera will release The Triumph of Black Boys: Reclaiming Joy, Genius, & Belonging in Schools as part of the Multicultural Education Series. I am grateful to Dr. Ellis and Dr. Noguera for inviting me to contribute a chapter to this important volume.

My chapter, “Reclaiming the Feed: Black Boys, Algorithms, and Agency,” examines how Black boys are learning, leading, creating, and healing within the digital ecosystems surrounding them; music, animation, gaming, social media, artificial intelligence, podcasts, online communities, and emerging technologies.

Too often, schools treat these spaces as distractions.

I believe they can become texts.

Drawing from the work of Kingmakers of Oakland, KOO Labs Design Center and Production House, and the voices captured through The Griots of Oakland, the chapter explores what happens when Black boys move from being the subjects of other people's narratives to becoming authors, designers, producers, technologists, storytellers, and architects of their own narratives.

The algorithms our young people encounter every day are not neutral. They can reinforce harmful narratives about Black boyhood, but our Kings are also demonstrating that technology can be reclaimed as a space for joy, resistance, imagination, vulnerability, connection, and self-definition.

That is why the conversation about artificial intelligence cannot only be about the technology.

It must also be about Ancestral Intelligence.

Who are we? What wisdom do we carry? What values will guide what we build? How do we ensure that technology strengthens human connection instead of replacing it? And how do we prepare our young people not merely to consume the future, but to design it?

Brotherhood, Fatherhood and the Conversations Ahead

I also want to express my appreciation to Kellen Smith and the 3 Monarchs Fashion House family for inviting me into their fatherhood podcast conversation. Fatherhood, mentorship, identity, and intergenerational responsibility are deeply connected to our work at Kingmakers of Oakland, and I am grateful for spaces where Black men can speak openly about the responsibility and blessing of helping raise the next generation.

Kellen has also opened conversations around potential technology and artificial intelligence collaborations, including digital literacy, tools for students and families, parent education, and professional learning for educators. I appreciate his instinct to think of Kingmakers of Oakland as a partner as these possibilities develop. These are exactly the kinds of multicultural, intergenerational, and cross-sector relationships we believe are necessary as technology continues reshaping the world our children inherit.

To Our Kings: Have a Powerful School Year

As our families begin another school year, I want our young people to hear this clearly:

You are not entering school as an empty vessel waiting to be filled.

You arrive carrying history.

You arrive carrying culture.

You arrive carrying imagination.

You arrive carrying the dreams, sacrifices, prayers, lessons, and love of generations who came before you.

You are brilliant.You are beautiful.You possess innate greatness.

Our responsibility as adults is to build environments worthy of that greatness.

So, as we close Black August and step fully into the fall, may we remember those who paved the road before us. May we honor them through disciplined action. May we continue creating spaces where Black boys experience joy, genius, healing, belonging, creativity, agency, and love.

And may we enter this school year understanding that liberation is not only something we inherit from our ancestors.

It is something we are responsible for building for those who come next.

With Black Love and gratitude,

Chris Chatmon

Founder & CEO

Kingmakers of Oakland