The first edition of the '' Express '' was published in October 1978 , during Governor Jerry Brown 's first stint as governor of California . The '' Express '' was an independent publication at the time and its first editor was veteran journalist John Raeside ; 1978 also saw the passage of Proposition 13 and the election of Oakland 's first African-American mayor , Lionel Wilson . During the 1980s , the paper covered the rise and fall of Oakland drug lords Felix Mitchell and Mickey Moore , the closure of the Keystone Berkeley nightclub , and student protests at UC Berkeley that urged the regents to divest from apartheid South Africa . In 1989 , the '' Express '' reported extensively on the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the collapse of the Cypress Structure on I-880
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
East Bay Express