DOROTHY PETE AT 90
MATRIARCH OF BLACK BERKELEY FAMILY MARKS 90TH BIRTHDAY
From the Berkeley Daily Planet Newspaper
Dorothy Pete at her 90th Birthday Celebration at Geoffrey's Inner Circle in Oakland
One of the great modern California folk myths
is that African-Americans did not show up west of the Sierra Nevadas until the opening
of work for black folk at the World War II shipyards. In fact, African-Americans
were migrating into the state in signifi cant numbers as early as the mid-19th century,
and in the East Bay had formed a stable, diverse, and well-defined community by the
turn of the last century. One of the survivors of that pre-World War II black community÷Berkeley
native Dorothy Reid Pete÷ce lebrated her ninetieth birthday last week.
The event was held in Oakland at Geoffreyâs Inner Circle, the establishment of Dorothy
Peteâs youngest son, local businessman Geoffrey Pete.
A portion of Dorothy Peteâs family originally came to California from Virginia during
the turmoil immediately preceding the Civil War, when plantations were being broken
up and families and servants shipped out of the South in anticipation of the bloody
battles soon to come. Her great-grandfather, William Henry Galt, was h onored by
a California governor for his work with the state militia in helping to keep California
out of the Confederacy.
Other members of Peteâs family were active in significant California and national
events. One of her grandfathers, Edward Parker, is listed in the Great Register of
San Francisco County Voters as having registered to vote on April 15, 1870, the first
day African-Americans were allowed to vote under the protection of the 15th Amendment.
A great-cousin, Berkeley native William Patterson, was the leading black member of
the U.S. Communist Party during the 1930s and 1940s, and wrote the 1951 petition
delivered by Paul Robeson to the United Nations charging the United States with genocide
against the African-American people.
Dorothy Pete was born in Berkeley in 1914, the ninth of 13 children of Tom Reid Sr.
and Virginia Parker Reid. Three of her younger sisters÷Florence Lewis (the widow
of former lightheavyweight champion John Henry Lewis), Maybelle Allen, and Hazel
Huff÷are all still living.
The Reid family grew up in South Berkeley, living on both California and Oregon streets.
Like most East Bay African-American families of the early 20th century, much of their
recreation and social life centered around Berkeleyâs San Pablo Playground, where
national Negro League teams often came to play and give exhibitions on Saturdays
and Sundays.
One of Dorothy Peteâs brothers, Charles Reid, was an accomplished semi-professional
baseball player and a longtime recreation director at Shields Park i n North Richmond,
later named Shields-Reid Park in his honor. Another brother, Paul Reid, was a cofounder
(with cousin Mel Reid) of Reidâs Records on Sacramento Street, one of the oldest
still-existing black businesses in Berkeley. Paul Reid was also a no ted radio gospel
deejay. After his death he was honored by the City of Berkeley as a South Berkeley
Pioneer, with a banner with his image placed along Adeline Street.
Dorothy Reid Pete graduated from Berkeley High School, worked as a secretary at the
the n-segregated Linden Branch of the Berkeley YWCA, and later integrated the downtown
YWCA as a staff worker. She married Herman Pete, a star athlete from Alameda, and
moved to Oakland after living in Berkeley for several years. They had two other sons
besi des Geoffrey: Gregory, a journalist and counselor, and Dennis, who had an early
career with both the Black Panther Party and briefly as a defensive back with the
Oakland Raiders, and has since become a church youth counselor on the east coast.
[From the March 9, 2004 issue of the Berkeley Daily Planet newspaper, Berkeley, California. Written by J. Douglas Allen-Taylor.]