Soul City

Uncovered after 50 years, an absorbing and illuminating photographic archive of Black West Oakland in the 1970s.

In 1974 Ken Light, a young underground press photographer recently arrived in California, was encouraged by residents of West Oakland to document daily life in the neighborhood. A white activist building relationships in an eminent Black community, Light was invited into homes and churches, flagged down on the street for impromptu portraits. The resulting images, taken over two years, ended up unpublished and nearly forgotten for half a century. Now made public for the first time in Soul City, they form a stunning and historically important archive of Black urban life in a major American city in the 1970s. These photographs reveal the deep pride running through West Oakland, despite the formidable attempts of local governments and agencies to tear the neighborhood apart. Soul City presents the everyday experiences and emotions of West Oaklanders: hard work, love, determination, resistance, humor, delight. Including over 120 images, and featuring a stirring foreword by celebrated author and longtime Oakland resident Ishmael Reed, Soul City is a deeply absorbing and enlightening contribution to Black history.