After moving into the 1,000-foot building in 2002, she realized she wanted the space to become more than just her home. She initially rented the first floor to tenants, but after they left, she filled it with newspapers, artifacts, and information about the Panthers’ work and community activism. The museum opened to the public in 2021 on Juneteenth, a holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States. The museum's first exhibit was a collection curated by Lisbet Tellefsen, an Oakland- based archivist and collector. This included seven-foot banners and other media from the Panthers' era, which focused on their free breakfast programs and medical clinics. Currently, they display copies of the Black Panthers’ newspaper and other photos and documents from the time. West Oakland’s Black Heritage The neighborhood near Vest’s museum is replete with Black history. There is a nearby statue of Huey Newton and a monument to his life and death, and the museum is near an elementary school with its own small mural dedicated to social and racial justice. West Oakland is a historically Black neighborhood. During segregation, it was one of the few places in the San Francisco Bay Area where Black people were allowed to live. Many families who had relocated Sign Up
“When I sat in meditation, I asked my ancestors for guidance and questions. I was asking them what am I supposed to do, how is this sustainable, how am I going to get out of this? Like, I'm so completely lopsided with this rage and this grief and this sorrow, and their answer back to me was to surround myself with Black joy,” said Vest in an interview with the Film Girls’ Social Archive. The mural is situated in an appropriate part of West Oakland for a celebration of the Black Panthers, as it’s right across the street from where Panther leader Huey Newton was killed and near the Party’s former headquarters on Peralta Street. Building the Museum West Oakland felt like home to Vest, who has an academic background in Black and women’s studies from San Francisco State University and the University of San Francisco. In 1999, she borrowed and raised money from friends and family to purchase the modest home that she has since fashioned into the museum. “I was able to buy it––which is why this mural is so important––because of my community. I had no money, I had two jobs, and I had no credit. I don’t come from a wealthy family or background. I told my community I wanted to buy this house and asked them if they could help me,” says Vest.
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