Mary Ann Pollar and Electra Price were friends for so long that they were like sisters. Or as Price said in an interview: “it feels like I’ve always known her.”
In addition to serving on the board at Rainbow Sign, Price lived just around the corner from Pollar, and the two were always in and out of each others’ houses. Often times, Price recalled with a laugh, she would skip some of the events at Rainbow Sign and and simply show up to the afterparty at the Pollars’ house in Oakland.
Through the 1970s, the charismatic and vivacious Price worked as director for Community Relations in the Oakland School District and functioned as what she jokingly refers to as “the poor man’s ombudswoman.” She gained a reputation as a “troublemaker” and “crazy-maker,” in her words.
Like Mary Ann Pollar, Electra Price was part of the vanguard redefining what it meant to be a Black woman. The two joyfully rejected the limitations placed upon them and forged ahead, “doing what needed to be done.”
In 1974, Price ran for the Oakland school board. Even though she never expected to win, she felt that her campaign would make it that much easier for the next Black woman who took the same initiative.
