Lateefah Simon

Lateefah Simon

Lateefah Simon is on the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) board.

Lateefah Simon is running for congress in Barbara Lee's district previously worked at the Young Women's Freedom Center (Previously named the Center for Young Women's Development).

About

Bio from 2023:

"Lateefah Simon was first elected to serve District 7 on the BART Board of Directors on November 8, 2016 and was reelected in 2020. She served as President of the BART Board in 2020.

The Seventh District includes Albany (partial), Berkeley (partial), Emeryville, Oakland (partial), El Cerrito (partial), Hercules, Pinole, Richmond, San Pablo, Unincorporated Contra Costa County (partial) and San Francisco (partial).

A nationally recognized advocate for civil rights and racial justice, Lateefah brings over 20 years of executive experience advancing opportunities for communities of color and low-income communities in the Bay Area. She has been the President of the Akonadi Foundation since 2016. That same year—driven by the death of Oscar Grant—she ran and was elected to the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors. Lateefah is also a member of California State University's Board of Trustees and frequently turned to by state officials for strategic advice on policy matters related to racial justice. Lateefah received the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award in 2003—making her the youngest woman ever to receive the award.

Previously, Lateefah served as Program Director at the Rosenberg Foundation—where she launched the Leading Edge Fund to seed, incubate and accelerate bold ideas from the next generation of progressive movement leaders in California. She also held the position of Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. Lateefah also spearheaded San Francisco's first reentry, a highly effective anti-recidivism youth services division under the leadership of then-District Attorney Kamala Harris.

Born legally blind, Lateefah has never driven a car and depends on BART everyday to get to work and take her daughter to school.

Bio from 2010:

Lateefah Simon (born January 29, 1977 in San Francisco) is the president of the Akonadi Foundation and an advocate for civil rights and racial justice. In 2003, she became the youngest woman to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, for her leadership of the Center for Young Women's Development (CYWD) from age 19.

Under San Francisco district attorney Kamala Harris, Simon led the creation of San Francisco's Reentry Division, with Back on Track, an advocacy program for young adults charged with low-level felony drug sales. Simon has been the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and the program director of the Rosenberg Foundation.

She was elected to represent the seventh district on the Bay Area Rapid Transit District board of directors in 2016. Her motivations for running included her reliance on BART, as someone legally blind and unable to drive.

Simon studied social entrepreneurship at Stanford University and public policy at Mills College.

Previously she was executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, is part of a "new wave of African-American civil rights and community leaders. Born and raised in San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood, Simon has advocated tirelessly on behalf of communities of color, youth and women since her teenage years".

She lives in Emeryville, California, with her 13-year-old daughter, Aminah.

Food & Water Action 2024

These candidates have committed to fighting for our shared vision of clean water, trustworthy food, and a livable climate.

Lateefah Simon - California, District 12, Sue Altman - New Jersey, District 7, Luz Rivas - California, District 29, Summer Lee - Pennsylvania, District 12, Josh Riley - New York, District 19, Jan Schakowsky - Illinois, District 9, Ruben Gallego - Arizona, U.S. Senate, Bonnie Watson Coleman - New Jersey, District 15, Ro Khanna - California, District 17, Chris Deluzio - Pennsylvania, District 17, Laura Friedman for Congress - District 30 California.

"We the People"

Maurice Mitchell, Steve Phillips, Ash-Lee Henderson.

Moderated by Lateefah Simon

Lateefah Simon Profiled on Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips

Lateefah Simon featured on Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips April 2024. Show titled: "Lateefah Simon is Taking Up the Baton".

Lateefah Simon was featured on Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips April 2024. Show titled: "Lateefah Simon is Taking Up the Baton".

Steve Phillips: "Welcome to Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips, a color-conscious podcast about politics. I'm your host, Steve Phillips, and when I was a young man, one of my political heroes was Ron Dellums, the congressman from the East Bay of California. He was a champion for peace and justice in Congress and introduced the bill to impose sanctions on the racist nation of South Africa for 14 years in a row until eventually, sanctions actually did pass in 1986, shocking the country and the world, and accelerating the process toward ending apartheid and freeing Nelson Mandela, bringing democracy to that nation. During the 1980s, I met and got to know Barbara Lee as we both worked on Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign before she succeeded Dellums in Congress, representing that seat. Barbara distinguished herself and the importance of that specific congressional seat in her solitary stand against the rush to war in 2001, as millions of progressive people across the country said, 'Barbara Lee speaks for me.' That historic and seminal congressional seat is being vacated by Barbara, and those are mighty big shoes to fill. Fortunately, for progressive people around the world, the leading candidate to succeed Barbara is herself an incredible social justice leader who will carry on the struggle to remake this world. I'm absolutely delighted to be joined today on this podcast by that person. I'm very much looking forward to this conversation, and for that conversation, I'm joined, as always, by my co-host, Sharline Chiang. Hi, Sharline, how are you, and do you want to introduce our guest?

Sharline Chiang: Hey, Steve, I'm doing so great today, and I can't tell you how thrilled I am to talk to our guest today. She's just really one of my favorite people, really, somebody in the world who I admire so much, and to get to talk to her today is just both such an honor and such a joy. And so, with that, I want to introduce Lateefah Simon. She's a nationally recognized advocate for civil rights and racial justice in Oakland and the Bay Area. She's currently running to replace Representative Barbara Lee in Congress. In 2016, following the police murder of Oscar Grant, Simon was elected to the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors, or as we call it here in the Bay, BART, and she served as president of that board. In 2005, she was tapped by then-San Francisco DA Kamala Harris to spearhead 'Back on Track,' which was the city's first youth anti-recidivism program. At the tender age of 26, Lateefah became the youngest woman ever to receive a MacArthur Genius Fellowship, so we've got a real certified genius in the house today, in recognition of her work as executive director of the Young Women's Freedom Center. And in 2020, she was appointed a senior advisor on police reform for California Governor Gavin Newsom. Lateefah has served on numerous boards and committees and has won lots and lots, like Boku Awards, including California State Assembly's Woman of the Year in 2005. And I just want to say, I can't wait to have my t-shirt. The district she's running for is the district I live in, and I can't wait to have one that says, 'Lateefah in the House.' So we are so glad to have... Yeah, I'm saying you can have that one for free. We've got Lateefah in the house right here, and I'm just so stoked, and this is our third time on our podcast. Three times a charm, we love her so much, and Lateefah, welcome. So, so happy to have you here today.

Lateefah Simon: I am so happy, literally, it was like coming through the storm, figuratively and literally, to get to you guys because... Well, I listen to this podcast all the time, and Uncle Steve, as many of us call... Yeah, young people of color, I'm not that young anymore, but I once was young, and we just really, really love what y'all are doing. We love the fact that everything that this podcast is about, what Steve, your nomenclature is about, is making sure that we're not ahistorical when we're approaching this thing called politics and justice. So I'm super excited to have this conversation with y'all today.

Well, we're delighted to have you, and so I do want to talk about that a little bit in terms of the place of electoral politics and running for office, right? So, just for our listeners' background, the primary was earlier this month, and you were the top vote-getter, getting 56% of the vote. And Barbara had represented for 26 years one of the most multi-racial, progressive areas in the country, so I talked about its historical lineage of who's represented it. So, I wonder if you could just talk a little bit about because you connected with Barbara recently, in terms of saying she literally handed you the baton in terms of carrying on, but really first, even because your work started really with working with, you know, young women and with girls and then moving into local office. Not a lot of people who are social justice activists see electoral politics as a sphere for doing that kind of work. So, can you talk a bit about your decision to run for office in the first place and then the decision to run for this congressional seat?"

"Uncle Steve, thank you for the question. First of all, the last couple of weeks have been amazing because I've actually gotten to sleep at like 11 o'clock. I decided to run almost a year ago. I launched my campaign on February 28th, and I think I called you February 27th saying like, 'Uncle, I'm running, this is crazy.' And for those of you who don't know, Steve was trained and mentored a lot of young people to get into politics, and you would always say, even after people give, keep calling. So that's, I'm not asking for none, I just want to let you know I'm calling Steve like every other week like, 'Hey Steve,' because you also say in your text that politics cannot be transactional, that we are building not only coalitions, we are building another way of being by saying we are doing this thing to take everyone with us, and I believe that, and a lot of that came from you. So just so you know, next time you call, listen to my message because I'm just giving you good news. I kind of can't believe where we are.

You know, I didn't quit my job to run for office. I even got into philanthropy after so many years of being on the other side of the table, begging people to see the humanity of movement leaders, that what we could do with $25,000 could be more than government could do with $3 million. And I, you know, so much of my work from leading organizations to running the re-entry unit in a DA's office to being a non-lawyer, you remember that, running the lawyers committee to shift their strategies to actually be movement lawyers and not just litigators with a lofty idea of what is possible, which is important, but the hood needs lawyers.

Every institution that I have entered, I've wanted to shift it to meet really the needs of folks who deserve material conditions to be shifted in community. So the idea to run for the BART board, you know, and it was a position that only kind of political knew about after the death, murder of Oscar Grant, you know, us as organizers being in that BART board meeting every other week demanding that the BART do something about these officers, the chief, we had no oversight commission with BART Rapid Transit that has its own Police Department, by the way.

Um, you know, after my husband died and I lost everything, and I will never forget, we were actually in treatment in Washington in the state of Washington when we learned that Meser Lee, the man, the cop who killed Oscar, was actually going to face charges, and we, we talked about it. We talked about it. Kevin's no longer with us, but I remember our conversation so keenly. One, he said, 'I will never ride BART again,' meaning that I'm not going to trust this public institution with my life, and secondly, 'They got them.' They got them for so, for too long did black men, did people of color in this country almost internalize the fact that when we are done wrong by the state, the folks are supposed to protect us, we just knew that life would go on as planned, that no one would be held accountable. So the Meser Lee trial for us at that time was so important.

After Kevin died, and I'm back on public transit as a transit-dependent disabled woman, legally blind woman, it was so much of those conversations when we were in treatment that were bubbling in my throat, that were bubbling in my chest, that I had lost everything, and I needed to do something that was outside of my comfort zone. I've been fighting for justice. I'd been fighting for Kevin. I've been fighting for my babies, but you know, the transit space was now a space I was re-entering as a consumer. Having a husband, even on his damn near deathbed, was driving us to his own appointments. I had lost everything fighting for his life, had a ton of debt, almost a million dollars worth of debt, going all over the country seeking a cure for an incurable cancer, and for the last seven years, what I have seen, even in this, you know, what many would say, a minuscule board that hosts a $2.4 billion dollar budget, um, folks don't get it, but what I've been able to do and see and learn and experience is that I can, with votes, change the lived experience of people in this county."

So you know, Uncle, from decreasing the Youth Fair to reorganizing how our police department works, you remember when I was campaigning for an ambassador force? Now it's like everybody wants ambassadors. People laughed at me, but I knew that people who were poor, who were having the worst days of their lives, they deserved an intervention that didn't include a gun in a badge. Right? It, it actually, we actually have to get folks in situations where they can get care and not be criminalized. While law enforcement is extremely important to the conversations about how we move, and I've done that, you know, I've done accountability, affordability, and accessibility work. So when Miss Lee called me and just told me she was running for the United States Senate and reminded me that when I was in her class, uh, she was my professor at Mills where I used to bring my oldest daughter on the weekends to that five-hour class that Barbara would fly out too every Friday night so she could teach on Saturdays, she reminded me. She said, 'Te, you remember that?' Well, I said one day I would retire from the house, and I asked the students in the class who would run for Congress. She reminded me that I raised my hand while it was a factious conversation. She just, she didn't endorse me at that time, didn't say you need to run. She said, 'I think you need to talk to your family. That these positions don't come by, you're a fighter, they don't come by, but once in a lifetime.' So that's why I'm running, and I worked hard, harder than I think I've ever worked in my life, with a day job and a 12-year-old and trying to marry my daughter off, and my oldest was completing law school, and I said, 'This is actually possible. This is possible.' And I called folks who were thought of to be candidates in this race, and I said, 'Will you support me?' So no, I didn't clear the field. I had developed coalitions years prior with Libby Scha and Nancy Skinner and Buffy Wix and Mia. We didn't sure, we didn't agree on everything politically, but we had developed a sisterhood as women in politics. And so here I am, I did win 56% of the vote in a nine-person race, which folks have told me is like very, very odd. We've got a lot of coalition. This seat, as per your intro, should not be held by a liberal Democrat. We need someone like Barbara, you know, like Mr. Dellums, who's going to put their whole life on the line for our people. So I don't really have a choice. I'm going to do that work. I got to do it. We deserve it. We deserve all that's been put into to me, all the political education, all the resourcing, all the different spaces that I've been in from the ground to prisons to philanthropy to local government."

"I do believe I'm suited to fight those Republicans and some of the Democrats. Thank you first of all. The story about that moment where your husband was having to drive himself, then him saying he's not going to take BART again, and yet after he passed, you being someone again, I don't know if listeners heard this because you said it so quickly, but you are legally blind, so you're transit dependent, and for you, and many, it is not an option to not take public transit, and you chose to fight for people to have the best possible transit and safety experience as possible in our community. So I just really want to make that really clear to listeners, and you helping to connect the DTs with telling that story just really helped me even though you've told me that. I've heard that story from you before, just really brought it home again like why that was so meaningful for you, and that was your entryway into becoming a public servant. And again, District 12 is a district that you're running for, and it's a district that I live in, by the way, and I'm a proud resident of it, and just thrilled. It is the second bluest house district in the country according to the Cook Political Report, and I wanted to let people know again that some of your key endorsements have come from, you know, pretty significant endorsers, Governor Newsom, obviously, you mentioned Rep. Lee and State Attorney General Becerra. You've also been endorsed by EMILY's List, these organizations that endorse and have very winning records of those who they've backed. EMILY's List, Higher Heights for America, which backs African-American women candidates, and labor groups such as California Working Families Party and SEIU, as Steve mentioned. And you mentioned you gained 56% of the vote in the primary earlier this month, that you had said was odd, but when you were saying about your history of how much work you put in, and you are one of the hardest working people I know, I don't even know how you do it, but that's how you got that 56% of the vote.

By the way, Democratic Jennifer Tran came in second with the most votes at 15%, so my question is, how are you and your team then gearing up for the general election? You can't really take anything for granted, ever. Our lives are really on the line in this election. I have, over the last, you know, five days, done 16 events, and I've been working on my day job in the morning and at night. I believe that we will win, but so much of how I'm looking at this election is both locally and nationally. It's about both my on-the-groundwork here to convince us to turn out for my race but also for the Democratic Party and for local races here. You know, I just met with the Deltas, and they had a big huge convention with like a thousand people in the room. These are black women who are committed to social action. It's a C3, but for me, what is so important is that everywhere I am, especially locally, I want to be out every single day on the ground, at doors, at community meetings. I am tabling tomorrow at the flea market; I hope it doesn't rain to talk about the development opportunities in South Berkeley for black people who have been pushed out for the last 50 years. I have like so many messages, but one of the messages that I have for folks who are involved in politics is that we have a sinister beast that is coming from the Trump administration, the post-Trump administration, from the Trump campaign, but also in the revert of progressivism in the Bay Area. Like, we are going to become Orange County very, very soon.

This idea that we can revert back, you know, to even my good friends who are in government, to a 1980s failed policy strategy about how we deal with poverty, addiction, and crime. I was at the Niagara Movement dinner the other night, and there were some of those folks in the audience, and it's like, we don't have to tear each other apart. We just actually have to be very honest with each other. You're wrong. We love each other, but you're wrong. So for me, it is continuing to be steadfast, even in this moment of what modern sort of the modernization of progressivism in the Bay Area, knowing that we have big fights to fight in DC. We know what those are, and also, we have a politic to keep centered here in the Bay Area. We know real strategies to solve these old problems; we just got to curtail our folks to get in line to do the right thing. So, I am gonna have an amazing ground game. I still have endorsements to get, and you know, I have another 500,000 people to talk to. Yes, I'm going to win. I need to support, you know, again, the Biden-Harris campaign. There are campaigns in red and purple states that I promised Leader Jeff that I was going to be on the ground with him. He gave me an hour of his time a couple of weeks ago and asked my adult daughter to join the meeting. His staff called me. I said, 'We hear you have a daughter in DC.' I'm making relationships in DC so that my transition with Miss Lee's office is amazing. I'm working hard because our people deserve it, right? Our people deserve it. We need to be in the House."

Kamala Harris Discussion: Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips

Lateefah Simon featured on Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips August 2020 to discuss Kamala Harris. Show titled: "The Kamala Harris We Know".

Lateefah Simon was featured on Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips August 20, 2020. Show titled: "The Kamala Harris We Know".

From the description:

In this Episode:

Few people know Kamala Harris like we in the Bay Area do. We discuss Joe Biden’s selection of the former San Francisco district attorney and Oakland native as his running mate. We also hear from one of Kamala’s long-time mentees—another Bay Area political star—Lateefah Simon, who was hired by Kamala 20 years ago despite not having a college degree at the time. Simon, an award-winning nonprofit leader and elected official who is currently president of the Akonadi Foundation where she runs one of the leading racial justice foundations in the country, talks about what it’s like when your mentor becomes the Democratic vice presidential candidate. She also shares how Kamala’s belief in the potential of and encouragement of young women like herself is just one example of her commitment to improving society and the lives of others.

Excerpt:

Steve Phillips: “…few people know Kamala like we in the Bay Area do. I've known Kamala and her sister Maya, Maya's daughter Meena for nearly 20 years now. I've watched her rise in California National politics and partnered with her and her sister on several important political fights.

Sharline Chiang: “…in 2003 Lateefah received the MacArthur Foundation prestigious "genius award" … for her work as the executive director of the Center for Young Women's Development and that's an organization she had run from the time that she was just 19 years old and that Center provided what MacArthur called a distinctive and bold program to guide troubled girls from delinquency and poverty to health and productive adulthoods that work by the way is what brought her to the attention of a junior attorney in the San Francisco district attorney's office that attorney's name was Kamala Harris when Kamala was elected as the district attorney she hired Lateefah and asked her to set up a program for first time offenders…”

Steve Phillips to Lateefah Simon: “You are friends with Stockton mayor Michael Tubbs who was on the podcast with wife Anna Malaika Nti-Asare a few weeks ago. You're also friends with San Francisco supervisor Matt Haney. According to social media, the three of you went bowling a couple years ago and you did not invite me. And I would just like to know who won, was any money wagered and who is the best bowler…”

Lateefah Simon: “…I'm a little older than they are [as] elected officials, but we become family. We become sort of this struggle of public service and you know coming home and…every day we start a text chat at about 6:30 7:30 talking about our day and giving each other advice and laughing. And the bonds that you know we've made over the years have been very special.

Sharline Chiang: “…so Lateefah, you've known Kamala for almost 20 years right…can you tell us how you've come to know her and my understanding she was your mentor, right?

Lateefah Simon: “I met Kamala you know the years…are turning on each other it was either 2002, 2003 um I can't believe how old I am now because I still in my heart feel like a youth organizer and then I realized I have a 24y old kid… she was actually a…deputy City attorney. She had come into San Francisco, and she was working for Louise Renne. And Kamala started a task force on sex trafficking in young women. And she called me one day - I was running a …very small organization in the Tenderloin uh run for by girls who were in systems. And you know this bright eyed - I didn't hadn't met her yet but she was so she talked so fast she said you know… ‘Lateefah, um my name is Kamala Harris and I work for Louise Renne and we're starting a task force and I understand you work with girls on the streets and in jail and I've been a prosecutor and I get the fact that girls in San Francisco and in Oakland are being arrested and charged for being on the street and being trafficked. And so much of my work at that point was going in every single day to 850 and trying to push my way into juvenile hearings to support young women who had been arrested the night before or the week before and were in cages for not only sex trafficking but you know everything you can imagine stealing clothes um being a part of the drug trade and I had never out in the criminal justice system especially someone you know that had a history of prosecution speak that language and I met with her a few days later and I got to say um you know Kamala was like in her early 30s and I thought you know she was an elder at that point. I was in my early 20s. But you know being a girl from San Francisco black girl from San Francisco I never met a young attorney who spoke, and you know who really almost you know she it was I remember talking to her it was almost like she was singing her words about what she wanted to do in San Francisco. And the young women that she felt like she defended as you know a district attorney in Oakland. um as an ADA, [Assistant District Attorney] we slowly you know developed a friendship. And I will never forget the first day that she launched her task force on young women in sex trafficking. She asked me to bring young women to that meeting. And you know, I called girls who I wasn't necessarily I wasn't even employing the girls who I felt like that needed to be there. There was one young woman in particular um who was 14 years old and she would stop by my Center every now and then, but I had her cell phone number I called her. I said I want you to meet this woman there's a black woman who's organizing around the stuff that you know we've been doing political education on the streets about I want want you to meet her. I want you to see her. I walk in with these young women the young woman that I'm speaking of her name was Helen she had the most tragic, most intense story you would ever ever, ever read about think about Kamala not knowing any of those young women she directly went to Helen and held her face and said baby I'm so glad you're here sit with me. And it was really on that day I mean the hell that Helen had been through in her home and on the streets I I I was like wherever that woman goes I want to be there too. There's an instinctual power that Kamala has a force and an understanding having - you know worked with victims for years and years and years -where she saw her and it was that moment, I really trusted her. We worked together for a few more years. She would come by the office every three weeks and do ‘Know Your Rights Trainings’ with the girls. Kamala used to wear Converse. Somebody told me she still does, … she bring her flip chart and uh you know her easel and um she was consistent, and this is before she ran for office. She loved us and we loved her that's how I met her.

Lateefah Simon: “…so it's for you know for me for my daughter, for girls of color for folks who are progressive, folks who are conservative, they have no choice but to look at what America is in that woman. You know, again, a black woman who has two parents with an immigration story. A black woman who went to a public law school. A black woman who chose to you know work in the depths of 850 Bryant which is not an elegant place to try to move structural change.

Steve Phillips [on hearing the news that Kamala Harris was selected for VP]: “…I was just thinking that …at this point in time right where I have cell phones of three people who are potentially could have been vice president…I was out doing my doing my run when the decision came in… My uh watch my Garmin watch is tied to my phone, and I started getting these text messages. …The first one was from Emmy (Emmy Ruiz?) whose come and worked with us. And so I thought it probably was about VP but I didn't know what it said. Then I got one from my running buddies um Laura Brady and then Natalie Vu …but they text me about all kinds of stuff all the time …then my dad called ‘oh this must be VP’ right so but I couldn't stop to look I me I didn't want to what was the point of stopping I finished my run anyway, so I had this like half mile of suspension. So for me I think it was it was a lot of … complicated set of emotions and I think that now I've had some time to process and watch it all play itself out. And frankly since especially since these backstories have come out in the Washington Post New York Times about how the decision was made and how close we came to having yet another all-white ticket, I've been able to actually get some more perspective on it. So… it's worth dwelling on for a moment… I mean a woman person of color finally desegregating that office that has been whites only for 200 plus years so that in itself is very important and we really do need to stop and celebrate that.

Steve Phillips: “…it reminds me of the story when Kamala ran for uh district attorney they put out a mailer and then on one side of the mailer they had picture of and on that front every single person who had been district attorney of San Francisco black and white picture of every single person, every single person had been a white man, and then you turn it over and there's this big color photo of Kamala and … the contrast and that's really what we're having you know with her uh moving up to this next level. So there's that - that's the historic nature. Second is the political, strategic significance of this. And then again seeing how they almost went you know Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan was very much in the mix and … Biden really kind of wanted to choose her - what that would have meant in terms of the democratic strategy you have to go get the suburban whites in the Midwest and that's the way the Democrats have always done it. But by choosing Kamala, it's explicitly acknowledging, empowering and embracing the New American Majority. And so, as a strategic direction, that's very significant.

Now it's you know really I mean it's tragic period right that George Floyd was murdered but that it took a racial reckoning of the type that we had to force the party to be able to take this step. But what did Michelle Obama say in her speech to the convention? ‘It is what it is.” …So my reflection then … in this in terms of winning this [2020 presidential] election that it's a very smart tactical pick…I mean you're exciting people of color and black folks without overly alarming moderates, right? People started hearing about Karen Bass going to Cuba and all this stuff. They were like ‘Oh wait we didn't quite know she was that left’ and so they didn't give doesn't give the right-wing a lot of fodder to go after and so it's a tactical matter between now and November. And it's a tight rope right to be in politics, to be able to both inspire people of color without overly scaring white people. ...I dealt with that running for office and so it's a difficult balancing act. On that front, I think they actually did very well and you're seeing it in the increased polls, you're seeing in the money that's flowing into the campaign. So I definitely think that it was smart in that in that regard.

Steve Phillips: “…I've been doing all this work in the and we're going to talk about this in a future podcast episode about the extent and ferocity of the right-wing attempt to destroy this election. And then I've been asking who's doing all the work to counter that? Who on the Democratic side? And everyone keeps coming back to with the single best most comprehensive detailed effort is what Fair Fight and Stacey Abrams are doing…So I just think that Stacey is of another order in terms of methodical, strategic long-term thinking that has been like distinctive. And then you know we've worked very closely with her, so the really the prospect of being able to partner with her on a long-term strategic plan in this country was very exciting. But I had like come to terms with other articles were saying we talk about the last podcast it's like well doesn't seem like she's going to be in the final mix. I've made my peace with it. Stacey will be governor in 2022. We'll take it from there, but then I got word Monday that she was more in the mix than I thought. And so I was all like. ‘oh maybe Stacey really could actually [win]’ so my hopes got back up again. And so then it took me a while once it came out to kind of uh so there was a little bit of disappointment with that.

Sharline Chiang: “… Lateefah, I wanted to hear from you I know you had a forceful defense of her record in a letter to the editor in the New York Times last year. And I'll share just a bit of what you wrote in that letter. You called Kamala a ‘progressive prosecutor’. You said ‘she became a prosecutor to give the job a perspective it's sorely lacked: a voice for the voiceless and vulnerable and that's what she did’. And so I wanted to ask you to just share a bit more about what you see what you think of that criticism and what you've seen in terms of Kamala being a reformer.

Lateefah Simon: “…yeah you know …20 years ago when I met Kamala and when she told me initially that she was going to run for the District Attorney's seat in San Francisco. You know I had been working with young women under um - now the late Terence Hallinan when he was the district attorney. … I knew that most of the young women that I was going to see every single week on Thursday in Ventura, which was a youth prison for girls in California. All the girls from around the state were sent there to that one facility. … I knew what was happening in that District Attorney's office. But it wasn't until I came to work at the DA's office I went to go work in that Belly of the Beast under Kamala Harris, who convinced me that it made sense for us to do some retooling of a broken system….you (speaking of Kamala) are responsible for every single action of every single person in your organization. And I seen Kamala over the years talk about that dichotomy - … is when you when you step up, you take responsibility... mistakes [are] going to be made. But my role in that office … it was a closeup role and seeing the tinkering and the things that we could do you know to shift some of that madness, shift some of the internalized racism that was everywhere, as internal in terms of the actual institution. When we started back on track there were lawyers in the office who had been there for 20 - 25 years um and they would make mockery of the work that we were doing. I had heard in elevators and in the hallways white attorneys saying things about the elected DA that were horrific um and racist and sexist. But that woman stood it out. … But 20 years ago, no one in any elected District Attorney's office was talking about creating antidotes for the drug war except for Kamala Harris. And frankly she's been one of the most progressive senators that you know that body has ever seen. And so we talk about “evolution and learning” [but Kamala was] 36 when she came 36-37 when she came in that office and her evolution to me when she told me she was running for Senate, she was like ‘you know these laws don't work’. …She’s like ‘Lateefah, we have to start writing the laws.’ And …if you think of Kim Foxx, if you think of Stephanie Morales who's a DA in Port Smith, Virginia - I want those women to run for higher office, understanding and knowing that systems are broken, and we need their voices. We need Kamala's voice.

Steve Phillips: So I want to ask you about that um l in terms of the this question of evolution has come up and it was interesting to me watch but again having been elected official having been uh you know African-American elect official in a city where still you know most of the voters were white and even then I was practicing law right I remember feeling like I would get up and I'd be like I want to wear a like a flashy tie or something but I'm all like you're already gonna be a black man stepping into a courtroom that's already challenging…..

Lateefah Simon: “…when I say ‘evolution’ as it relates to now Senator Harris Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris - I believe that that woman stepped into that role eyes of blazing. And the natural evolution of one in their career to understand politics to understand what you can and cannot do in systems… she has broken every barrier every barrier and you know I think of Stacey and I think of Barbara Lee and I think of Karen and I mean there's so many others of these structures and these systems were developed in contradiction to black women being able to lead…

Kamala Harris (clip played): “… what our communities have known for generations which is the discriminatory implementation and enforcement of the laws and and the need therefore to reform these systems and also hold account those who abuse these systems and who engage in the kind of conduct that caused that man to die needlessly (referring to George Floyd).

Working Families Party

In 2024 Lateefah Simon was the Working Families Party endorsed candidate for U.S. House, District 12, California.

Our Revolution

In 2024 Our Revolution endorsed Lateefah Simon .

The Collective PAC

The Collective PAC endorsed Lateefah Simon's 2024 Congressional campaign.

Banko Brown Vigil

Lateefah Simon at Banko Brown Protest

Lateefah Simon attended a vigil for Banko Brown, after she was shot and killed during an alleged burglary at a San Francisco Walgreens. Banko Brown worked at the Young Women's Freedom Center, which "hosted the event".

Attendees included Xavier Davenport, Lateefah Simon, John Ferrannini, Krea Gomez, Julia Arroyo, Amos C. Brown of Third Baptist Church, Socorro Moreland.

Our Revolution endorsement 2020

Background

At age 15, Simon joined the Center for Young Women's Development (CYWD), first as a volunteer and then as a staff member, working to provide homeless, low-income and incarcerated young women with the tools they needed to transform and rebuild their lives. At 19, Simon was appointed Executive Director of CYWD, becoming one of the youngest leaders of a social service agency in the country.

During her 11-year tenure, CYWD grew into an organization with a $1.2 million budget, serving approximately 3,500 women per year and hiring more than 250 women. CYWD also worked to impact public policy at the state and local levels, expanding its violence prevention work to include rights education for California juvenile offenders and advocating for firearm policy reform in San Francisco. Simon soon became a nationally recognized advocate for juvenile and criminal justice reform, and also focused her organizing efforts around poverty, reproductive and immigrant rights and GLBT issues.

Alicia Garza connection

Lateefah Simon is very close friends with Alicia Garza.

Matt Haney comrades

Van Jones, Alicia Garza, Lateefah Simon at Matt Haney for School Board Event August 4, 2016.

Hired by Kamala Harris

In 2005, Simon went to workfor San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, who quickly became her mentor and selected her to run Back on Track.

Kamala Harris tasked Simon to lead the Office's Reentry Services division, a new initiative that created a citywide public/private partnership with numerous agencies and implemented new ways to prevent former offenders from returning to a life of crime. Simon helped launch and oversaw successful programs such as Changing the Odds and Back on Track, which combine close supervision for offenders with educational and employment opportunities. Now a national model for similar programs in local prosecutors' offices, Back on Track has reduced the recidivism rate for the population it serves to less than 10 percent.

Lateefah Simon, Kamala Harris, 2016

A high-school dropout, Lateefah Simon was working full time at Taco Bell as a teenager, had a baby at age 19 and was on probation for shoplifting before things started to turn around.

While on probation, she was referred to a nonprofit called the Center for Young Women's Development, which provided jobs, training, classes, books and other services to girls and young women on the streets and in the criminal justice system.

Lateefah Simon became so involved and motivated by the plight of San Francisco’s struggling young women that she started going toBoard of Supervisors meetings every Tuesday to ask what the city was doing to help young women on the fringes. Her passion and intelligence caught the attention of city leaders, including then-Supervisor Tom Ammiano and Kamala Harris, who at the time was a young attorney for the city.

The center’s board was so impressed by Simon’s efforts they named her executive director when Simon was just 19 years old. She was suddenly in charge of a staff of 10 and a $750,000 annual budget.

Harris helped guide her through those years, Simon said.

“She just changed my life. She was tough as nails. She said to me, ‘You need to be excellent. … So first off, you need to go to college,’ “ Simon recalled.

Simon enrolled at Mills College in Oakland, taking classes nights and weekends while working full time at the center and raising her daughter. She eventually graduated with a bachelor’s degree in public policy.

Meanwhile, Harris — who by then had become San Francisco’s district attorney — asked Simon to help start a program to help nonviolent, first-time, low-level drug offenders get jobs, enroll in school, attend parenting classes and otherwise improve their lives before they became embroiled in the revolving door of the criminal justice system.

“Our goal was to get people off the street. How do you do that? Turned out it was easy — you just ask them what they need,” Simon said. “Housing? A bank account? A job? Therapy? A gym membership, so you can take better care of yourself? We could help them get those things.”

Simon and her colleagues would go to court hearings and try to intercept young men and women as they met with a judge. In the one-year program, offered as an alternative to jail, offenders would take mandatory parenting classes, regular drug tests, job training workshops and other steps designed to help them “transition to a crime-free life,” Harris wrote in the Huffington Post.

If they completed the program, their felony charges would be dropped.

The program, called Back on Track, was immediately successful. Those who graduated from Back on Track had only a 10 percent recidivism rate, compared with 70 percent for those not enrolled in the program. It was also a bargain for taxpayers: The public pays about $5,000 for each participant, compared with the $50,000 or so it costs to keep a person incarcerated for a year.

The program has since been adopted in cities across the U.S., and was hailed as a model by outgoing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Harris credited the program’s success to Simon’s energy and imagination.

Harris endorses Simon

Lateefah Simon November 2, 2015

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has been an invaluable mentor to me and will make an incredible U.S. Senator. Her endorsement means the world.

"Lateefah Simon has devoted her life’s work to helping the poor, the disadvantaged, and those trapped in the cycle of our criminal justice system. While working with me during my tenure as district attorney of San Francisco, she led my office’s work to create 'Back on Track,’ nationally recognized program that helped divert low-level offenders away from lives of crime and toward productive futures. She is a tremendous asset to the state of California and a champion for justice, equality and dignity.” – Attorney General Kamala D. Harris

Kamala Harris stumps for Lateefah Simon

Kamala Harris hugs Lateefah Simon

From John Wildermuth SFGate November 5, 2016;

If you are unaware that California is about to elect a new U.S. senator Tuesday, you aren’t going to find out about it from state Attorney General Kamala Harris.

Harris, the front-runner in the race to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer, made a stop in San Francisco Friday to give a brief street-corner speech where she barely mentioned herself or her campaign. And she certainly didn’t talk about Orange County Rep. Loretta Sanchez, her challenger in the Democrats-only showdown.

Instead, Harris spoke only about the importance of the election.

Candidates up and down the ballot “are making decisions that affect our lives, like whether we can afford to get from home to work,” Harris said in front of the Embarcadero BART Station on Market Street, giving a nod to Lateefah Simon, a candidate for the BART Board of Directors.

Young leftist officials

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Kaniela Ing, Lateefah Simon, Jane Kim, Meena Harris, Matt Haney, Kevin Killer.

Lawyers Committee

In 2009, Lateefah Simon was appointed executive director of the Lawyers' Committee, which champions the legal rights of people of color, poor people, immigrants and refugees, with a special commitment to African Americans. Through litigation, policy advocacy and direct service programs, for more than 40 years the Lawyers' Committee has worked with thousands of pro-bono attorneys to advance the civil and human rights of underserved communities.

Awards/service

A MacArthur "Genius" Fellow, Simon has received numerous awards, including the Jefferson Award for extraordinary public service in 2007. She was named "California Woman of the Year" by the California State Assembly in 2005, and also has been recognized by the Ford Foundation, the National Organization for Women, the Women’s Foundation of California and Girls, Inc. She has spoken at the United Nations, before the United States Senate and at countless trainings and conferences around the country. Simon has served on the Board of Directors of the Women's Foundation of California, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Northern California.

Youth Empowerment Center

In the early 2000s Lateefah Simon served on the Board of Directors of the Oakland based Youth Empowerment Center.

Officers were Harmony Goldberg, President, Van Jones, Secretary Adam Gold, Treasurer Cindy Wiesner, Director, Lateefah Simon, Director

For the 2003 financial year Youth Empowerment Center officers were Harmony Goldberg, Chair/Program Director, Cindy Wiesner, Secretary, Adam Gold, Treasurer Jason McBriarty, Director, Lateefah Simon, Director, Rona Fernandez, Executive Director.

Joining Rosenberg

The Rosenberg Foundation announced October 27, 2011 the appointment of nationally recognized civil rights leader Lateefah Simon as Director of the Foundation’s California’s Future initiative, a strategic effort to change the odds for women and children in the state.

“Lateefah Simon has advocated on behalf of disadvantaged communities since her teenage years,” said Timothy P. Silard, president of the Rosenberg Foundation. “California faces critical choices on a number of urgent issues, from criminal justice reform to immigrant rights. Advocates and policy makers must seize this moment to ensure that all of our state’s communities and residents, including women and children, have access to the fair and equitable opportunities they need to thrive. We are delighted to have a civil rights activist of Lateefah Simon’s caliber and experience on board to move this initiative forward.”

In this new position, Simon will help manage and build the Foundation’s portfolio of grants aimed at supporting innovative strategies that can spur policy advocacy, communications, and constituency-building. As part of California’s Future, together with the Women’s Foundation of California, the Foundation has launched a campaign to reduce the incarceration rates of women in California’s prisons and jails. The Foundation also is partnering with Futures without Violence to prevent children’s exposure to violence and trauma, and create a network of services for child victims. To advance California’s Future, Simon will lead the Foundation’s efforts to identify and support emerging leaders and build new coalitions in California, with a particular focus on underserved regions of the state. She will join the Rosenberg Foundation on November 1.

“I’m honored to join Rosenberg and have the opportunity to advocate on a statewide level for the end of policies and practices that marginalize disadvantaged communities, over-incarcerate women, and neglect the needs of children exposed to violence,” said Simon. “I am particularly looking forward to collaborating with Rosenberg’s allies and grantee partners to transform California’s criminal justice system’s impact on women and children.”

A longtime advocate for juvenile and criminal justice reform, Simon most recently served as the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to joining the Lawyers’ Committee, Simon led the creation of the reentry services division at the San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris' Office, implementing new programs to prevent former offenders from returning to a life of crime. At age 19, Simon was appointed executive director of the Center for Young Women's Development in San Francisco, an organization that helps low-income, formerly incarcerated young women transform and rebuild their lives. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Jefferson Award for extraordinary public service. She was named “California Woman of the Year” by the California State Assembly, and also has been recognized by the Ford Foundation and the National Organization for Women. She has spoken at the United Nations, before the United States Senate, and at numerous trainings around the country.

“Lateefah Simon is a California leader of incredible stature and a well-deserved reputation for her comprehensive understanding of the issues faced by the many minority communities that together comprise the California majority, and the connections between those issues,” said Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel of MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Steering Committee Co-Chair for the California Civil Rights Coalition. “She will bring strength, wisdom, and tremendous spirit to the Rosenberg Foundation as it expands its unmatched efforts as California’s most venerable, longtime supporter of minority causes. Civil rights and immigrant rights will be helped immensely by Lateefah’s work at Rosenberg.”

Comrades

Mary Ratcliff, October 3, 2015.

Alicia Garza, Mary Ratcliff, Willie Ratcliff and Lateefah Simon at Black Media Appreciation Night 2015 on Sept. 12 at San Francisco's African American Art & Culture Complex -- see you there next year! Photo by Malaika H. Kambon.

Stand for Solutions

As part of her Stand for Solutions series, Jane Kim will be joined by former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Lateefah Simon, California State University Trustee and candidate for District 7 BART Board Director, and David Talbot, best selling author and founder/former editor-in-chief of Salon, to hear how we can improve housing, transportation and urban planning to make our cities work for every family. Join us!

Tues. August 30, 6:30-8:30pm, Mission High School Auditoriumn3750 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94114 .

Building Black Political Power

Beyond Impact II: The Importance of 501(c)(4) Funding in Dismantling Mass Incarceration, July 12, 2017.

Building Black Political Power

• Lateefah Simon, Akonadi Fondation (Moderator)
• Taina Vargas-Edmond, Initiate Justice
• Jessica Byrd, Three Point Strategies, Movement for Black Lives Action Fund
• Alicia Garza, Black Futures Lab, National Domestic Workers Alliance
• Nicole Boucher, California Donor Table

Democracy in Color podcast

The Democracy in Color podcast, hosted by Aimee Allison, features today’s best and brightest political political leaders, strategists and thinkers of the New American Majority. We’ve featured Senator Cory Booker; Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal; San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim, Stockton, California Mayor Michael Tubbs; BART Director Lateefah Simon; writer Eric Liu; #Goodmuslimbadmuslim co-host Tanzila Ahmed; New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb, and writers Rebecca Solnit and Jeff Chang, among many others. Ellen McGirt, editor of Fortune magazine’s raceAhead, calls it: "The smartest podcast on race I've found in ages. Listen and grow.".

Democratic Convention/Democracy in Color

Steve Phillips July 25, 2016

The fierce Lateefah Simon, incoming President of Akonadi Foundation, BART Board candidate, MacArthur Genius, and all around awesome woman was in the house — in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rose Pak Democratic Club 2016 voter guide

• Jane Kim
• Victor Hwang
• Sandra Fewer
• Aaron Peskin
• Norman Yee
• Hillary Ronen
• Lateefah Simon
• Stevon Cook
• Matt Haney
• Mark Sanchez
• Rafael Mandelman
• Alex Randolph
• Tom Temprano

“What do you have to lose?"

Hundreds of U.S. Representative Barbara Lee’s constituents gathered in East Oakland Aug. 2017, for a town hall meeting she hosted with the theme, “What do you have to lose? The Impacts of Trump on African Americans.”

Panelists included Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League; state Assemblymember Tony Thurmond and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Director Lateefah Simon. Angela Glover Blackwell of PolicyLink moderated the discussion.

“You remember that during the campaign, Donald Trump said to the black community, ‘What do you have to lose?’ Well, we have to look at what we are losing,” Lee said.

She cited the Congressional Black Caucus’ response – “In no way are you going to take us back. We’re going to fight, resist, and move forward.”

Picking up on that theme, Morial – a former mayor of New Orleans – highlighted risk areas the Trump administration’s policies pose for African Americans, all people of color, and “all people who love justice in 21st century America.” Citing the Urban League’s annual report, The State of Black America, Morial called attention to profound inequities in health, housing, education and social justice.

Voter suppression is the number one risk posed by the Trump administration, said Morial, followed by efforts to strip health care away from millions of people, and the assault on the federal budget.

“The battle we are in today is not a political battle; it is a moral battle,” he said. “We must ‘stay woke,’ we must act.”

The “War on Drugs” has had profoundly destructive consequences over the last four decades, BART Director Simon said. “One trillion has gone to over 20 million arrests and convictions since 1977, within the drug paradigm.”

Simon warned of the great danger posed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ declaration that he will double down on the war against drugs. Millions of dollars are being spent on “caging people and nothing on healing them,” she told the audience,” adding, “We do have power; we have to continue to be the moral conscience of that power.”

“Our state is spending $5 billion per year to incarcerate people in private prisons, run by people who are profiting from the suffering of our families and our loved ones,” California Assemblymember Tony Thurmond, D-Richmond told the crowd. “We need to get to a place of prevention and re-entry. Let’s educate, not incarcerate.” Thurmond introduced Assembly Bill 43 earlier this year. AB 43 would tax private prisons and spend the resulting revenue on programs shown to prevent incarceration, including universal preschool and after-school programs.

While African Americans experience the disproportionately high rates of incarceration, Thurmond said, AB 43 will benefit everyone. “Trump is out to hurt not only African Americans, he’s out to hurt everybody. We have to stay connected and fight for everyone.”

Other area elected officials participating included Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.

Black Futures Lab Strategic Advisors

Black Futures Lab Strategic Advisors, April 24 2018;

We have an amazing team of advisors and thought partners that help us shape our strategies.

• Lateefah Simon - Akonadi Foundation
• Melissa Harris-Perry - Anna Julia Cooper Center/Wake Forest University
• Anthony Thigpenn - California Calls
• Rashad Robinson - Color of Change
• Heather McGhee - Demos
• Tracy Sturdivant - Make it Work
• Tim Silard - Rosenberg Foundation