Street Soldiers Radio: A Street Soldier Becomes a Political Leader

Street Soldiers Radio catches up with Tamisha Walker as she helps to serve Antioch and Alive & Free alum, Michael Gibson, who highlights a new EMT program, City EMT, in San Francisco.

Editor’s Note: Dr. Joseph Marshall, host of Street Soldiers Radio on 106 KMEL, interviewed Tamisha Walker, Executive Director of Safe Return Project and newly elected City Council Member for Antioch, CA, about her campaign. It has been condensed and edited for clarity

Dr. Marshall:

We have a very, very special guest, Madam city council woman Tamisha Walker. First of all, congrats. Let’s just start there. Congratulations! You are now a city council person in Anitoch, California. Her first job as the president and director of the Safe Return Project in Richmond, California. Let’s just jump right into this new thing that she has taken on. And I got to ask you what made you want to run for political office?

Tamisha Walker:

I didn’t want to run and I think a lot of people don’t understand when I say it takes a lot for me to consider myself in that space, just because being on the front line is where I feel the most free and being in the community. And I hate red tape and bureaucracy. And when I’ve seen some change as possible for our people, I just do not like negotiating with politicians. It’s been a couple years now having conversations about my next level of leadership and activism and, you know, I thought about philanthropy, but then I was like, no. Then just started talking to a lot of women like Lateefah Simon and women who are really leading amazing organizations who ran for office to represent people who don’t have a voice in those places. And just having these deep conversations with other black women who ran and were successful and even women who ran and didn’t win. But what were like, the run was the win, just by inspiring other folks. So I pulled my papers and I filed the day before the deadline. 

I was, I actually was telling myself “I’m waiting for somebody progressive to emerge that I can support”. Richard, who is a good friend of mine, he always was like, why not YOU? I was like, nobody progressive is stepping up. And folks was like, cause you haven’t pulled your papers yet! I wasn’t going do it. And then I had a young man shot up the street from my house and nobody on the city council mentioned the shooting. And then I knew that I needed to do this. And so I knew it was going to be hard, but I knew I needed to do it.

Antioch has diversity now. There’s about a little over a 100,000 in population. What happened was that this city grew seemingly overnight and the local government has still hasn’t caught up. And so it’s been a big challenge for people of color, black people, poor people documented and undocumented families out here to really participate in democracy. I’m trying to figure it all out at this point. 

Dr. Marshall: 

What was the campaign strategies?

Tamisha Walker:

I feel so corny because I was saying “Walker: the Right Choice for Change”. I was doing fundraising events, I was saying “every dollar literally makes change”. It was fun and it was totally run by volunteers. I didn’t have any money. I had to take from my savings to start the campaign. I wouldn’t say I’m a no-name obviously, but you know, in the political world, you’re considered a no name if you run up against incumbents. We had all my friends from Richmond who were happy to support. We did the best we could. I got up there and knocked on doors and talked to people and asked people what they wanted. That was our thing, the right choice for change and moving forward. And I had some battles around my record, but they were small. I was a little concerned about the police associations, but I think just being in public about my history and my record over the last 10 years, it wasn’t like I had anything to hide. There were no rocks to overturn, so I could just be honest with the community. We did tea time with Tamisha every Friday at 10:00 AM, where we brought on partners and community members to talk about possible solutions and models. It was an amazing experience,

Dr. Marshall:

I called tonight’s show, A Street Soldier Becomes a City Council Member, a politician. We know you and your history, but maybe some of the folks watching don’t. Can you share the work you’ve been doing the past 10 years with the Safe Return Project? 

Tamisha Walker:

I came home from incarceration in the summer of 2009 and just kind of struggled a little bit, trying to get my bearings and re-entry and got a great opportunity to become a part of the Safe Return Project. Then for the last 10 years, as a co-founder I’ve been hyper-focused on ending mass incarceration and mass criminalization of black people and poor people and communities impacted by criminalization and justice, and also really having great opportunities to heal from past experience. We do participatory action research. We do policy advocacy, leadership development for frontline communities impacted by the criminal legal system. It’s amazing cause we’ve been able to do all of this work from Richmond, but we have been nationally recognized for some of our policies, for reducing barriers for folks. A lot of what we launched with the fellowship was leadership development with help from Alive & Free.

When I left my first training with you Doc, I was still sick. I couldn’t be out in the community, helping people when I needed to get well. And just really thinking about how do we do frontline leadership mobilization, organizing and healing and not healing being last but first. That’s been what we really hyper-focused on over the last 10 years. Just so you know Doc, my cousins still bring it up when I first came on your show with Safe Return years ago. I said publicly that I would tell on people if they came to my house and they committed a crime, I’m telling. I ain’t going back for nobody. I had to be honest with myself and my family. We partnered with Alive & Free and have been able to train our folks tothink about the decisions that we make and the opportunities that if you make the wrong decision, , it doesn’t just impact you. And so that has been a great thing for us. Safe Return Project turned 10 years old in October. And I raised my first 1 million dollars as a first time director!

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