A Black-led group of Bay Area roller skaters is on a mission to build Panther Skate Plaza, an outdoor rink at West Oakland’s DeFremery Park. Every Thursday, dozens of residents attend the group’s weekly Panther Prowl Skate.
The group formed early in the pandemic in 2020 when residents were eager to get out and skate. While many in the community were new to skating — or hadn’t skated in years, as plaza organizer Donna Norcom Milich told the Oaklandside, skating has been a mainstay in the Black community for decades. “Black skate culture is ginormous. It’s so big. And you would think it doesn’t exist because it isn’t something that’s widely covered,” she said. “It’s huge in African American culture and goes back generations.”
As reported by KGO, the group steadily grew over its first year, and the event became an official city of Oakland Parks and Recreation program in 2022…