. tonight on a second look. >> a bay area television pioneer. we look back at historic crew of velda davis. from the protests of the 60s to the black panthers, all straight ahead on a second look. good evening. this is a second look. for most of a half century one woman has had a front row seat to history. in the process made history herself. velda davis was the first black female news anchor on the west

coastn. her years at channels 4, 5 and 9 witnessed and reported the people, events and struggles that shaped our area and the nation. now she has written a book about her personal and professional journey. it's called never in my wildest dreams. she stopped by to talk act her book and life and we start where she starts in the book in the 60s where the bay area was often in the vortex of those turbulent times. >> some called the 60's a time of revolution. protesters in the streets and across the campuses and a popular rap said the revolution would not be on the television. but it was, and one of those who brought the images of turmoil from the streets to the living rooms was velda davis, television reporter.

>> during the years -- i call acute protests there were so many things, stop the draft, stop the war, give me black studies, third world, liberation front, all the ethnic group studies and it was just a very turbulent time. >> these were just students who were angry about all kinds of things. tuition, everything was up in the air. the feeling was from at least the left press that the corporate world could have made a difference in all of this, they could have pressured the government, could have joined the idea of the left instead of arming itself on the right and opposing it. >> save our college! >> until these demonstrations

and other acts ended i will continue my policy of asking police help to maintain the security of the campus. >> don't let them take them man. >> calm down. >> we can riot took. >> they knew they weren't immune to violence from the protesters or from the police. >> they really didn't like the media. they thought they showed them unfairly. what else can you do if you have a helmeted police officer with a club hitting heads to the degree that you can hear the crack? it affects you. the drama of a student throwing a rock isn't nearly as visual or impactful and for the police officers that is what they were avoiding, the rocks throws, pieces of concrete, whatever students threw at them. it was mostly verbal, the names they called were hurtful.

i under stood both sides of it. >> save our cam us. she stood her ground and got her story. >> once you realized they closed down the student union, you can't leave the square you have no idea what is if store and the governor had told his deputy that i want this stopped by any means necessary. you couldn't get out. you were locked into the space. you just had to stay there and take it. >> the law enforcement officers were attacked by the mob over run, a number of them isolated by squads of mobsters who tromped on them, stomped them. >> only one time did i really feel fearful and that was the time when the governor ordered in military helicopters to

bring a particularly viral kind of type tear gas in that did burn the skin and the eyes pretty badly. >> these officers were afraid. they were really being hurt. you can't let a free zone where anybody can do what they want. it's the united states. you have to enforce the law. the police were charged with doing that. >> there is something about witnessing unrest at home that changes hour perspective when you see it elsewhere. >> when we look now at student protests around the world and you see almost the same images it's hard to think about their being that much anger and passion in our own country that we actually had to take those steps to really quiet people. >> still to come, she remembers the black panthers and offers candid comments about two leaders. and how within day changed

her mind about robert f kennedy.

. tonight we continue the conversation with velda davis who released a book act her life in television news here in the bay area. during the unrest of the 60s she covered a group that found its roots in the city where she grew up, that group was the black panthers. here again is craig he aps. >> in the days of the 60s, a home grown group sprang up from the streets of oakland. militant, they were the black panthers. >> it's hard when people are at war and that's what happened in oakland. the panthers were at war with authorities. the sheriff's department, police department, any department of authority and the fbi at that time had targeted them as a group that was considered to be one of the most dangerous in america. >> the black panther party

doesn't attack anyone but we will use self-defense in the event that it's necessary. >> they sent a clear message. they would not hesitate to use violence if they found it necessary in their fight for freedom and equality. and in 1967 to reinforce that they executed a bold demonstration in the very halls of power. with an armed march to the assembly chamber in the state capitol building. >> i have these black panthers up here with guns on the second floor. >> velda davis covered that story for kpix. >> we didn't have a camera there that day. we didn't have any idea they were going to show up. we had to play catch up on that story. so they told -- i guess people who they felt would not betray the surprise of it. >> you place me under arrest? are you putting me under arrest. >> the conflict was at times

violent. in april 1968 a 90 minute shoot out would leave the first recruit and party treasurer, 17- year-old bobby hunton dead. police said he was armed, the panthers said he was stripped to his underwear to prove he wasn't and officers murdered him. >> we were the only station with a photographer there the night of the shoot and the film stopped for some reason just at the shooting. we were told that the camera broke. >> you believe that? >> in my heart? no. >> she covered the funeral, 2,000 people showed up. >> in the name of power hood and survival remember bobby. [applause] >> we just came from bobby's

funeral and i'm not going to stand up here and make a speech because if you have been listening to white people for four hundred years, they said they were going to do something and haven't done a thing as far as i'm concerned in helping the black man. it's up to the individual to do something. first the government, to give the black man a decent place to live, a decent place to bring up his children. that could have been my son lying there. >> very sad because bobby was a young guy, young -- i think he was a teen, the story was he came out without clothes with his hands up. police officers had a different version of that story. there was a lot of sadness from the community where they grew up. >> that came just six months after another shoot out involving the founder of the

black panthers. as they held daily protests outside the courthouse newton was convicted of killing an oakland police officer with his own weapon during a traffic stop shooting in which newton and another officer were wounded. >> are you saying are you afraid of some kind of until assault by officers while in custody? >> i expect anything out of the gestapo. >> the court of appeals would overturn the conviction and order a new trial. after two mistrials the state would eventually drop the case. velda davis came to know newton. > self taught, couldn't read at one time but taught himself to read and read the best in literature. obviously had a clever mind because people know now how the panthers were able to have guns

was because they would sell copies of chairman's maow cents, buy them 15-cents and sell them to berkeley students for a dollar. >> she also knew the panther's minister of information. >> black people are in no mood to allow this racist power structure to add blood to the blood of the people of the world which is now dripping the fingers of the racists who have plunged the world into a nightmare of misery. >> later he would say he led members of the panther party on an ambush of oakland police officers and that bobby was killed in the shoot out that followed. charged with attempted murder he would jump bail and flee to cuba, then to algeria returning in 1975. >> i was involved in his reentry after running, jumping bail and leaving the country

and was on a vacation and i got a call from his wife saying they wanted to return, they had fear, wanted to put notice that they would becoming back and part of the deal was that afraid they would never get to tell their story. that interview happened then and that when he suggested that the government had been involved in membership of the mischief that was going on in terms of relationships with in the panthers. they didn't want to air it and my co anchor stood with me and we managed to prevail and ron always said he learned his first lesson about what a reporter is supposed to do about debatable material. >> even so she said chiefer was never one of her favorite people. >> i was at a party where he sat there and every time food came around he made kathleen taste it first to make sure it was safe. i could never like a man who a wife -- you know who loved him

dearly having her sample food in a social setting before he would eat it. you know when you really analyze the history of the panthers you will find that it was the women who did the work. >> when we come back velda investigates charges of racism in the oakland police department in the 80's. and later she shares a pain. story about racial discrimination in her own east bay neighborhood.

123450 we continue our look back at the career of velda davis. in 1968 she covered robert kennedy. she said her opinion of him changed during a campaign stop in which she spent time with him talking privately. >> like many i judged him from his days as the attorney general and his response to the efforts in the south, he was pretty hard nosed trying to

protect his brother, didn't want to offend the south and all of that. then later in life he really developed this deep compassion for the poor and the under privileged and i had an opportunity to spend some private time without camera just talking person to person and that was -- it was an experience that i treasure. >> we were in idaho and in a school with 80% indian children and i asked the superintendent if they taught about indian history or culture and it was a famous tribe and -- he said there isn't any history to the tribe. of course that had a huge effect on the children. >> in 1984 she reported on police activities in oakland neighborhoods where people accused police of harassing black citizens. her interview was some police

officers who backed up the citizen's complaints led to an immediate angry response from then oakland police chief george hart. vern hawkins. >> angry officers responded to the report in which a number of people charged police use excessive force in dealing black residents. >> . that's nonsense. the investigation was shallow, inept, biased, the station used suggestion, old history in the most obvious forms of staging and editing to try to make their point. >> the report included charges from five black officers in the department. today other black officers said those five are not really representative. >> they are ones that have grievance was the city. they are unhappy with the department for whatever reason. they their views don't even begin to cover those of the department whether black or white. >> the report quoted officers and resident who see the

department as racist and violent. >> the chief has no tolerance for any type of brutality and we know we will be fired officers have been fired who have used to much force. >> some members of the black officer's association said they support the five who came forward. they said the police wouldn't respond to speck charges. >> the chief can't come talk to you about internal affairs, about people record, it's against the law. you know it. >> we continue to wait for anyone to challenge the accuracy of specifics. >> win charge was police had a quota system. >> a written quota system where we were told we would produce 66 different type of violations which included 48 different types of citations

and arrests. >> the department calls that a performance standard, not a quota. the officer has a million dollar suit pending against the city claiming harassment. >> there is no quota system. as far as i know having been many it for more than 28 years there never has been. >> late today the manager said it'll review specific charges but plans no overall investigation of the oakland police department. >> that story was probably one of the most troubling that i have ever done in the end -- you know -- there was truth to that assertion but it involved some oakland police officers coming forward to say things this other officers didn't like and they fought back and they fought back hard. >> this is the story about black and white. >> you have identification? >> about how oakland's mostly white police force aggressively patrols this mostly nonwhite city. it's also a story about fear.

about black citizens caught between their fear of crime and distrust of the police. >> police chief came to the station on monday morning to see the manager to stop the story to make sure it didn't start and air on that monday night's newscast. >> suspect a male black. >> when we come back on a second look where have all the protests gone? we asked why she thinks the activism of the 60's faded.

. we continue, a bay area television news pioneer belva davis. her new book traces her career as the first black female news anchor on the west coast. she talked about one of the most difficult persons of her life, living in a still largely segregated bay area. >> my daughter was in grammer school and they had a brownie troop. it's not a function of the

school itself, parents bring the kinds of things to the school. the group was not accepting girls of color. i had the most difficult time trying to explain this to this small child and when her retort how come i can't be a brownie, i'm brown? all i could do was let the tears flow. >> in addition to being one of the best known people she has known some of the most celebrated. in our interview with her she told us about keeping a very important secret for one of them, the founder of the gap don fisher. she said that only now with the permission of his widow is she free to reveal he helped her play a critical role in telling men they just like women can develop breast cancer. >> we agreed not to reveal his

identity for a very good reason. he was the founder of the gap stores, don fisher. he was at -- at that time going public with his company. it could have been very damaging to him. >> when it comes to style we have it all. tops and jeans. >> make a difference besides just selling clothes. >> tonight as we look back at her career in bay area television we talked a lot about the activist of the 60's and 70s. in a interview we asked what she as a person who lived through that time and covered so many of the events that defined it thought happened to change that. >> people were just tired of the disruptions, of the marches, of the -- you know all of the chaos that was caused and i think the decisions were not so much based on that people didn't favor giving more jobs, say to minorities or feeding the poor, it's just they want aid quiet period.

so we turned to the me period where everybody was in it for themselves. that was considered popular. >> although she never worked here at ktvu her husband did. bill moore was the news photographer at channel 2 starting in the 60's and working his way up to be chief photographer. when he retired in 1996 she helped give him a royal sendoff and bob reported on bill's last day here. >> whether the story is a quake, fire, flood or interview bill moore is always the same, calm and confident, rerelaxed. in his 28 years with us nobody has ever seen him panic or heard him race his voice. bill moore is part of our blood and bone, a pioneer, the first black cameraman in the bay area. >> what are you going to do? >> nervous today.

>> yeah? >> i'm leaving a place i like. i'm leaving friends i like. it's not like it's someplace you aren't tired of being. i can't think of one person that's not a good friend. >> he is married to another pioneer, belvda davis, they are the first family in television news. here is a measure of the affection he creates. our news director who normally can't be force at gun point to go on camera got up to say a few words. >> few weeks ago when i was writing his memo that you all got, one of the department heads came up to me and asked if it was going to be hard to rereplace him and i said it'll be impossible. >> after the retirement party belvda took him home in a limo. >> 28 wonderful years. >> way to go. >> that's it for this week's

second look. thank you for watching.

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