Remembering A Friend

Last week, the court sentenced the murderers of Chauncey Bailey. Chauncey, a local newspaper reporter and editor, was a friend of mine. His name and phone numbers are still in my cell phone because sometimes you just don’t want to erase those last vestiges. Here in San Leandro, you might not have known Chauncey but his work influenced our community.

The reports announced that both defendants charged in the murders of Chauncey Bailey and two other men were sentenced to consecutive life terms without parole. Bailey was killed while walking to work in Oakland on August 2, 2007. At the time of his death he was working on a story about the demise of a once prominent African American owned business and its supporting organization. In short, this is why he was killed.

At the San Leandro City Council meeting on Sept. 4, 2007, I read the following comments into the record.

“Why Chauncey’s murder matters to all of us (in San Leandro)….

Chauncey interviewed me on his Soul Beat television program shortly after my historic appointment to the City Council in 1998, thus putting into the journals of video history a part of San Leandro’s story.

He was the writing coach of a former San Leandro City Hall reporter while she was covering City Hall in the mid-2000s.  So through his coaching and editing, he gave shape to the stories that were told about San Leandro in the mass media.

He was a co-founder of New America Media with Sandy Close, an organization whose goals are to give voice in the ethnic and diverse media outlets. (At the time, Council member Souza had recently attended a workshop put on by New America Media for elected officials.)

There are a dozen or so black-owned newspapers on the West Coast… and quiet as it is kept, one of them, The Globe, to which Chauncey was a contributor, is published here in San Leandro. Just like the San Leandro Times, it provides coverage of community stories that may not otherwise have an outlet.

In this era of just a handful of companies owning all the Bay Area media outlets, at the time of his death, he was the editor of an independent African American owned newspaper, The Post. A newspaper that gives voice and dares to go off the track of the major media outlets, thus bringing to light to stories, issues and concerns that may not be told otherwise.

Chauncey was connected to this city in ways we did not even know: through its people and its stories."

Chauncey was a community reporter. Through his writing, through his video presentations he chronicled our lives and gave voice to causes, issues and events. I miss his voice and maybe that is why I still keep his phone numbers.