After several children attending the nearby Santa Fe Elementary School were killed and many injured by motorists at this intersection, the demand for a traffic signal by the Anti-Poverty Law Center and the Black Panther Party began in June, 1967. However, the Oakland City Council notified the community that a traffic signal would be erected no sooner than late 1968.
Rather than allowing another death in the interim, a small cadre of armed Black Panthers stopped motorists and personally escorted children across the busy intersection. No further automobile-related deaths or injuries occurred at this location, and installation of the traffic signal began on August 1, 1967.
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