This story was told by Rayshonda “Sunshine” McLemore to Kyonda Trass in an interview. It has been lightly edited for length.
I’m naturally a people person and always have been. As a kid, my mom used to say I was “too damn friendly” because I was always hugging people. I love hard and I love for real. I also understand that everyone has a story, and we don’t always know what a person has dealt with. A simple smile can change someone’s whole day. Sometimes I smile just to stop myself from crying.
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My birth name is Rayshonda but I go by Sunshine. My father was from Richmond and my mother was from Oakland, so I grew up in both cities. I attended Maxwell Park, Emerson elementary and Frick junior high school in Oakland before going to De Anza High School in Richmond, where I lived in the St. Johns apartments on Macdonald Avenue with my grandmother.
Living in Richmond inspired me in so many ways. Like other teenagers during those years, I spent a lot of time at local parks and community centers. The Fourth Street park, Nevin Center, Martin Luther King Community Center and Nicholl Park were some of our favorite places to hang out. There were lots of Black-owned businesses in the city and people were family oriented. It was a nice place to be.
I also spent a lot of time around the local motorcycle club community. Several of my family members were in the original 4 Horsemen MC and my godmother and aunt were some of the first women to ride and service, or lend support to, the Road Runners MC.
Although I have fond memories of growing up in Richmond, my community and I experienced a lot of difficulties firsthand, like youth gun violence and children losing parents to gun violence. We’d always take it upon ourselves to pool our resources and throw events for community members going through those things, to make sure they had access to resources like food, clothing and school supplies. So that’s what I saw growing up: the community stepping up to help each other.
This community mindset has continued into my adult life. I’ve spent much of my time working in the music and entertainment sector, included mentoring and managing local artists, many of whom are survivors of domestic violence. As a survivor myself, I’ve found that supporting these women has helped me to heal and cope with my own trauma.
I was abused for years, starting in 2004 when I moved to New York with my then husband. I didn’t come right out and tell people it was happening at first. He was a pastor, and I would go to church with him regularly like nothing was happening; I’d put my makeup on and go along with my day. I was very young. He was 20 years my senior, and I’d known him since I was a child. He was physically and emotionally abusive.
“As a survivor myself, I found that mentoring these women helped me to heal and cope with my own trauma from those experiences.”
People are quick to say it’s easy to walk away, but it’s not. I tried to leave several times but kept getting pulled back in. I stayed for the stability his finances provided. We had a son, and I wanted him to grow up well taken care of. I regret that it took me so long to leave. Once I finally did, I never looked back. But it wasn’t my last experience with domestic violence. After moving back to Richmond in 2007, I entered another abusive relationship that endured until 2011 when my abuser died in a car accident.
It was while moving forward from that experience in the Bay Area that I discovered my passion for music and entertainment, and it opened many doors for me: I went on to manage a record label called R Label Inc. with its CEO, the platinum producer Freeman “Free Jack” Williams; I was the casting and set manager for “Bay Lawz,” a film about street life in Oakland and Richmond; and I later became a radio personality for Hot Rush Radio, a satellite station in Las Vegas. That led to me being recognized as a promoter of the year and top brand ambassador in Las Vegas by Soul Central Magazine, and getting more work as a promoter and VIP host.
Eventually, I started dating again and ended up marrying a member of the 4 Horsemen Bay Area MC. This strengthened my connections with other members of the club, and I went on to do a lot of PR and event planning work as an honorary member with The Lady 4’s MC, which is also a nonprofit.
We give back to the community in many, many ways. For example, we host an annual event called “Giving You Your Flowers” to honor cancer survivors and memorialize those who’ve lost the fight. The mother of the club’s vice president lived with cancer for many years before it took her life, and that’s how we came up with the idea of giving people their flowers, while they’re still with us.
This year marked our third annual event, a brunch fundraiser for the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Foundation and the UCSF Cancer Foundation. We got a bunch of sponsors and people who donated clothes and gifts and set up a “shop for free” area with those items. When the survivors came in, we handed out bouquets. We have guest speakers, because sometimes when you go through these battles, you need to be uplifted. Some of the attendees have had cancer multiple times — we have one survivor who beat it 10 times. We’re committed to raising awareness, so we also host an annual breast cancer event in October.
We also organize toy and backpack drives every year for families in need, and host a big fundraiser event called The Harley Hop to support people who’ve been hurt in motorcycle accidents, which is sponsored by Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys and Harley Davidson.
I personally founded an event with the club called Ladies Night Bike Night that highlights Black women business owners and creates a safe and comfortable space for women to participate in bike culture, which tends to have a negative reputation. It’s a chance for women to network and table their products or services. There’s karaoke and dancing, and if anyone has a birthday or special occasion happening around that time, we always make space to celebrate them.
“There’s a lot that goes on in our community that doesn’t always make it to the news or social media.”
Just last month, after five years on the set, the Lady 4’s MC Bay Area made the big decision to lay down their colors — to turn in club badges and vests — and reconvene as The Lady’z. Moving forward we’ll continue to host our events, support the biker community and give back to those in need, under that name. Grounded in sisterhood, we will continue to do God’s work together.
That includes our Bike Nights, which will take place at The New H Lounge in Vallejo, where I currently work. I like to describe it as an upscale indoor and outdoor venue for all music genres and demographics. The event features Richmond celebrity DJ Taz Haynes, the owner and CEO of Night n Day Entertainment Group, and happens on the first and third Wednesday of every month from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
I love giving back to my community by doing this type of work because I enjoy helping others. But it also helps me keep positivity going in my own life.
A few years into my most recent journey in Richmond, tragedy hit my family, and it hit us hard. Over the span of 11 months, I lost both of my parents to homicides. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to deal with. On top of that, my daughter, who lives in Las Vegas, is dealing with a life-threatening illness. So I’m going back and forth between here and there to be at her bedside.
My club brothers and sisters have had my back and my front the entire way through, and I try to keep myself busy and surrounded by love. I enjoy writing, traveling and leaning on sisterhood. My son and grandson live in New York and I travel there to visit them. Protecting my peace is a top priority, but it’s hard because I’m still healing. I pray to god every day, all day.
There’s a lot that goes on in our community that doesn’t always make it to the news or social media, so our club is always checking community boards and staying connected with local advocates and county officials to see where there’s a need for our support. It’s so hard right now in California — people are working and still not making enough to afford the cost of living. We just have to keep stepping up, and helping each other.
