Wills, Anita L.

PRESIDENT

Anita Wills comes to the position of President for Stand Up N Do Something with many years of Activism and experience. She was born in Pennsylvania and resides in Northern California. Ms. Wills was raised in a small community in Chester County Pennsylvania. Her maternal ancestors were prominent and her paternal ancestors from South Carolina. She had teachings from both sides about life and how to persevere.

Besides her parents there were 6 siblings Aunts Uncles Cousins and Grandparents. The Community hosted many generations on her mothers side of the family and almost every one (black Native and white) were cousins. Her father, a linguist who spoke and wrote 7 languages made a living working in the Steel Mill. Ms. Will's parents were her first teachers and coming home from school met being grilled about the day's lessons.

But it was her mother who shared the oral history of their ancestors who was most inspiring. As the oldest daughter she was required to work in the kitchen with her mother. It was there washing dishes and preparing dinner that her mother began the stories about the ancestors. These were oral histories passed down which gave life to ancestors who had long ago passed on. Not only did she learn about her ancestors' lives but the unjust society and their oppression. Because of the stories told by her mother Ms. Wills determined to research and document the oral history. It took her 30 years but she was able to unveil much of the history of her African Native and European ancestors.

Ms. Wills is an Activist and a member of Essie Justice Group and a Policy Outreach Leader for Fair Chance for Housing in Oakland Ca. She has been advocating for the release of her son Kerry Baxter Sr., who was Wrongfully Convicted and has been imprisoned for over 20 years. In 2011 her oldest grandson was shot and killed in East Oakland California and that crime has not been solved. The murder of her grandson has not been solved but the circumstances of his killing point to a sinister plot. The murder of her grandson and her subsequent Activism on behalf of murdered black people have taken her all over the country.

She was at Ferguson when the Police Attacked Peaceful Demonstrators in Cleveland at a convening of Movement for Black Lives, In New York, Chicago, and traveled to Cuba. Many of the murders she has protested did not get the headlines and were not videotaped as in the case of her grandson. Her book A Nation of Flaws JustUs in the Homeland is about the Unjust System here in America. As a descendent of Revolutionary War Soldiers War of 1812 Soldiers Civil War Soldiers and World War II soldiers she is keenly aware of the disparities.

The land that her ancestors occupied then owned and worked was taken. She found economically sufficient communities during slavery in Virginia and Pennsylvania but that wealth and land was taken through unjust squatter laws. This is why Ms. Wills has accepted the position of President of Stand Up N Do Something. Each generation betters itself only to be sent back to square one with unjust laws.

Ms. Wills Attended San Jose City College Peralta Community Colleges Cal State East Bay College and Chabot College where she studied Early Childhood Development. She was previously employed as a preschool teacher and Administrative Assistant Positions.