Lowriders roll through Richmond and San Pablo to celebrate sobriety and unity

Chrome gleamed and engines rumbled through the streets of Richmond and San Pablo on Sunday as dozens of lowriders, motorcycles, and custom cars joined a cruise with a message of sobriety, peace, and unity.

The event, called Lowriders for Peace, Unity and Sobriety, was organized by the United Urban Warrior Society’s Richmond chapter along with Left Side Printing. For years, organizers have hosted sobriety walks, but this year, they said the community needed something different.

“This is about lowriders who have had issues with drugs and alcohol, and they’ve decided those things no longer have a place in their life,” said Mike Kinney, national vice president of the United Urban Warrior Society. “We’re celebrating sobriety by showing up in force with cars, trucks, bikes, and motorcycles to tell the community there’s another way forward.”

Kinney, who has been sober for more than two decades after abusing alcohol for 21 years, said he hopes the cruise inspires young people to avoid the cycles of addiction. “Back in the day, we were hell,” Kinney said. “Now this is an important way of giving back.”

Among the featured speakers was longtime Richmond resident and recovery advocate Antwon Cloird, who spoke openly about his past struggles with addiction. For 35 years, Cloird battled substance use in Richmond, living under the alter ego “29 Seconds.”

“In recovery, we talk about how the disease changes who you are,” Cloird said. “We wear masks, we become chameleons, adapting to every situation just to get one more. Recovery is not just about drugs, it’s about behavior. Once we change our behavior, God does the rest.”

He tied that message to Richmond’s history, recalling the devastation of the crack epidemic in the 1980s.

“You gotta understand how Richmond was,” Cloird said. “It was mass incarceration because of the drugs, the use, and the selling. Forty years later, those who survived got their lives together, got good jobs, got clean, and now they have families, cars, and fellowship. That’s what you see here today.”

Cloird said the cars themselves are a symbol of transformation. “We used to use all our money for our addiction. Now we use it for our passion, these cars,” he said. “Every man deserves a second chance and a first-class life. This is living, not just existing.”

The cruise drew car clubs from across the Bay Area, including the Black Lowriders Association, which has chapters in San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Richmond.

The event carried special meaning for Darryl “Popeye” McCornell, president of Richmond’s chapter of the association. Born and raised in the city, McCornell said his love for lowriding goes back more than 50 years.

“My first experience with low riding was in 1972 or 73, when I was nine,” McCornell recalled. “My uncles used to put regular car batteries in the trunk with a hydraulic pump off a U-Haul truck. It could go up, but then I had to pull the string to let it down.”

He said the Richmond club remains unique in its history. “We’re the only Black low rider club in Richmond, and it’s still around,” he said. “But we unite, we collaborate with all the rider clubs, not just low riders, but Corvette clubs and whatever club is doing something for the city and for the community.”

For McCornell, the cruise was also about reshaping perceptions. “Lowriding used to be looked at as gang-related, but that’s all gone,” he said. “We’re older, wiser, and now it’s about a beautiful lifestyle we want to pass on to our kids.”

“Richmond was a featured lowrider community in the 70s,” Cloird said. “Now it’s a fellowship of Blacks, Mexicans, Whites, Asians, bikers, trucks, and cars all coming together in unity. That’s what recovery looks like.”

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