Alameda County Moves Ahead With Reparations Plan for Displaced Russell City Residents

Former residents of Russell City may receive reparations payments after the Alameda County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved three-quarters of a million dollars in redress funds for people who were forced out of their homes and businesses when officials bulldozed the community in the early 1960s.

Supervisors Elisa Márquez and Nate Miley, earlier this month, announced a proposal to earmark nearly a million dollars for the fund. The board’s vote this week agreed to allocate $750,000 to the pool in recognition of the county’s role in the displacement of former Russell City residents.

The city of Hayward pledged an additional $250,000 to the new fund as part of its justice initiative, bringing the total to $1 million.

“The destruction of Russell City is an atrocity that cannot be undone,” Márquez said during the board meeting. “The displacement of homes, businesses and livelihoods represents a profound injustice that continues to affect former residents, including the elders who are still alive and living in Alameda County today, as well as their descendants.”

Russell City, an unincorporated neighborhood of about 1,400 people near the Hayward Shoreline, was a cultural and residential haven for Black and Latino families in the years following World War II. It was known for its thriving small business sector and its vibrant clubbing and art scene.

Because the city was unincorporated, however, it also lacked essential city services such as sewage, plumbing and electricity. When residents turned to local officials for assistance, they were repeatedly denied. Instead, officials used the conditions to declare Russell City a “blight” on the surrounding communities.

In the early 1960s, Alameda County and the city of Hayward began seizing property in the area through eminent domain as part of a plan to turn the neighborhood into an industrial park. By 1966, the beloved neighborhood was bulldozed to the ground.

More than a thousand residents were displaced from their homes, forced to rebuild their lives at a time when racist policies like redlining and racial steering made it extremely difficult for Black and brown people to relocate.

Márquez acknowledged the role county officials played in the destruction of the community, adding that the funds are a recognition of the pain they inflicted on former residents and the suffering that continues to the present day.

In 2021, following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the national reckoning it sparked, Hayward issued a formal apology for its culpability in the takeover of Russell City. It launched the Russell City Reparative Justice Project the following year.

“It signals to the community that the city of Hayward acknowledges what happened and is willing to take steps forward to apologize … and to make good on something that was so terribly wrong,” said Mayor Mark Salinas.

While Hayward officials didn’t issue eviction notices themselves, the city still benefited from the acquisition of Russell City and helped secure investors and developers, Salinas said, adding that it’s time to acknowledge the harm they caused.

“I hope cities begin to look at and evaluate their own histories in relation to families of color and neighborhoods of color,” he said. “Things don’t just happen out of thin air. People meet, people plan and people build. That’s where institutional racism and discrimination manifest.”

Alameda County Supervisor David Haubert, who allocated $100,000 to the redress fund from his office, said he hopes that the money will allow families to “move forward.”

“This doesn’t completely address and redress all of the harms which are long-lasting, which are traumatic, and yet at the same time, I think it is very symbolic in terms of going beyond the apology,” Haubert said.

With the funds secured, the next step for officials is to determine eligibility requirements, identify which families lived in Russell City and figure out a process for disbursement, Salinas said. According to the Board of Supervisors’ proposal, direct payments will be provided to former residents who had their property seized by the county and annexed into Hayward.

Do you have more questions about the Russell City reparations fund? Read KQED’s explainer here.

KQED’s Brian Krans contributed to this report.