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"content": "\u003cp>Just down from Hayward Regional Shoreline Park, is a power plant called “Calpine – Russell City Energy Center.” It’s the only thing still named for the town that was once here — a vibrant home to about 1,400 people. By all accounts it was the place to be on a Saturday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hayward-ca.gov/discover/news/feb17/russell-city-and-blues\">Named for a Gold Rush era teacher named Joel Russell,\u003c/a> Russell City was founded in 1853, but it didn’t start booming until World War II when many people seeking work in nearby factories moved to town. Because Russell City was unincorporated, it became a haven for Black and Latino families who had difficulty buying property in other parts of the Bay Area due to racist real estate policies like racial covenants and redlining. In Russell City, there was room to build and people often tended a few animals and planted big gardens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was also home to several blues clubs and a thriving music scene. Famous musicians like Etta James, Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker played there, letting loose and enjoying the freedom of playing for Black audiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pZKYxmxlak\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Russell City people, they sang in church, they know harmonies,” explained Ronnie Stewart, Executive Director of West Coast Blues Society. Stewart didn’t grow up in Russell City, but he’s become obsessed with documenting its contribution to music history. “They know music. And (musicians would) go there because it’s a challenge. If you can get past Russell City, you can get past Carnegie Hall, you know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11922190\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11922190\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RussellCity_RonnieStewart_02072022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man stands in the middle of the railroad tracks wearing a stylish suit jacket with pink shirt and tie, fedora, and black and white shoes.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RussellCity_RonnieStewart_02072022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RussellCity_RonnieStewart_02072022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RussellCity_RonnieStewart_02072022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RussellCity_RonnieStewart_02072022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RussellCity_RonnieStewart_02072022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ronnie Stewart, Executive Director and founder of the West Coast Blues Society, stands on railroad tracks that cross Winton Avenue, dividing Hayward from Russell City, on Feb. 7, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Former Russell City residents remember it as a loving place, but also one with deplorable living conditions. Because it was unincorporated, the town didn’t have any city services — no sewage, plumbing or electricity. Residents petitioned Alameda county and Hayward to bring these services to their community, but were repeatedly denied. Instead, the county used the conditions to declare Russell City “a blight,” justifying the use of eminent domain to seize properties and pay the owners far less for their land and homes than they were worth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time someone would move from a home, it would immediately be burned down,” said former Russell City resident, Gloria Bratton Sanders Moore. “It was cheaper to burn everything, easier to just burn it down rather than wait for eminent domain. And in the end, they just came in and bulldozed everything anyway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11897843/decades-after-cultural-genocide-residents-of-a-bulldozed-community-get-apology-from-hayward\">By 1966, Russell City residents had been forced out of their homes\u003c/a> and the close-knit community was scattered to the winds. Displaced families once again faced predatory lenders, racial steering and redlining as they tried to find homes and rebuild their lives elsewhere. Hayward annexed the land where Russell City once stood and opened a massive industrial park that’s still there today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, many cities started looking more critically at their own discriminatory pasts. A spate of official apologies soon followed — \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/us/antioch-california-sundown-town-chinese-immigrants.html\">first Antioch\u003c/a> and San Jose for their treatment of Chinese Americans, then Hayward. On November 16, 2021 \u003ca href=\"https://www.hayward-ca.gov/discover/news/nov21/hayward-city-council-issues-formal-apology-city%E2%80%99s-role-racial-discrimination-0\">Hayward officially apologized for evicting and burning people out of their homes,\u003c/a> as well as for the long-term adverse impacts on their ability to own property and build wealth. Now the city is working on a proposal to make amends to former Russell City residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We spoke with several people who grew up in Russell City about what made the place so special. They told us stories of a place where people supported and loved each other. Many are angry about how their families were treated and would like to see Hayward do more than apologize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11922180\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://haywardareahistory.pastperfectonline.com/photo/27113B70-E744-4C70-8442-236472418400\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11922180\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Aerial-Russell-City-sized.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photo from above showing an airport runway next to a small town of about twelve blocks.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1571\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Aerial-Russell-City-sized.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Aerial-Russell-City-sized-800x655.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Aerial-Russell-City-sized-1020x835.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Aerial-Russell-City-sized-160x131.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Aerial-Russell-City-sized-1536x1257.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aerial view of Russell City tucked up against the Hayward airport circa 1948. \u003ccite>((Courtesy of the Hayward Area Historical Society))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“We had horrid living conditions, but we had beautiful people who lived there, people who loved you and looked out for one another. We planted our own gardens, we picked our own food. We had chickens, we had hogs. You know, there was always the stench because, you know, from the hog ranches and animals just being everywhere….All kinds of people lived in Russell City. And you know, it was a Blues mecca, and people who lived there loved it and they loved each other. And I only wish that we had been able to develop the land and live there forever.” – Gloria Moore\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11922182\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://haywardareahistory.pastperfectonline.com/photo/A692B3F4-B7B3-407F-8070-243438430695\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11922182\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/houses-Russell-City-sized.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photo of a small house with paper siding, a pile of tires out front, a dusty yard and a for sale sign.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1434\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/houses-Russell-City-sized.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/houses-Russell-City-sized-800x598.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/houses-Russell-City-sized-1020x762.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/houses-Russell-City-sized-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/houses-Russell-City-sized-1536x1147.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A small home with paper siding as well as a plywood roof. On the outside of the home is a sign that reads ‘For Sale’. Circa 1953. \u003ccite>((Courtesy of the Hayward Area Historical Society))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“My father, his family is from Louisiana. And you know, it was really rough back then. My grandmother, his mother, had to leave Louisiana to save her son’s life. There was a mob kind of thing going on, you know. So she took all of her sons and moved to California, never went back. When she came to California, she moved to San Francisco into the Fillmore District. She was pushed out of there. Again, same kind of situation, and she landed in Russell City. My mom, she lived with her grandparents, who moved from Oklahoma. And they landed in West Oakland. And they too were pushed out from West Oakland because they put that freeway in there, the 980. And they landed in Russell City as well.” – Marian Johnson\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Additional Reading\" link1=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11897843/decades-after-cultural-genocide-residents-of-a-bulldozed-community-get-apology-from-hayward,A Deep Dive on Russell City\" link2=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations,KQED's Reparations Coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Hayward did nothing about the streets, so the streets were always pitted. And in the summer it was hard to drive over. And in the winter it was hard to drive over! It was just mud. (My dad) kind of formed the improvement club. And he was the one that was leading the fight for the electricity for the streets. And they (fought for years over access to) water.” – Rudy Brooks\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11922181\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11922181\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Halloween-Russell-City-sized.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photo of about fifty children and several adults walking next to a road and a field. The children are dressed up as if for Halloween.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1311\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Halloween-Russell-City-sized.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Halloween-Russell-City-sized-800x546.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Halloween-Russell-City-sized-1020x696.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Halloween-Russell-City-sized-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Halloween-Russell-City-sized-1536x1049.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A large group of students lined up walking on the side of a paved road away from the Russell School building. The students are wearing various costumes for Halloween circa 1952. \u003ccite>((Courtesy of the Hayward Area Historical Society))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“The music. You could you hear it, whether you were a fan of it or not. The pig farm(s) were no more than one block away. And sometimes they did escape on top of that. You know, they got their roaming around town.” – Sam Nava\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11922191\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11922191\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS53556_014_RussellCity_SamNava_02072022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"An older Latino couple sits on a couch laughing. The man has his arm around his wife.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS53556_014_RussellCity_SamNava_02072022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS53556_014_RussellCity_SamNava_02072022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS53556_014_RussellCity_SamNava_02072022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS53556_014_RussellCity_SamNava_02072022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS53556_014_RussellCity_SamNava_02072022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sam Nava, 82, sits next to his wife Juanita at their home in Hayward on Feb. 7, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“My grandmother never threw anything away. In fact, I have a little black purse and I started looking in it. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, look at this. This is our history right here. This is a copy of a check that they sent my grandmother and grandfather that was like two thousand two hundred and fifty.’ So everybody got that amount. But my grandmother held out because she knew it was wrong. And there’s a letter that I have that they sent her threatening her, telling her, ‘If you don’t sign by Friday, then you won’t get anything at all.'” – Toni Wynn\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11922192\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://haywardareahistory.pastperfectonline.com/photo/27ABD657-7F4A-4CED-8C60-050604742935\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11922192\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Property-Russell-City-sized.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photograph of several wooden buildings including a home, a large shed or garage and several small structures.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Property-Russell-City-sized.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Property-Russell-City-sized-800x653.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Property-Russell-City-sized-1020x833.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Property-Russell-City-sized-160x131.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Property-Russell-City-sized-1536x1254.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Russell City home circa 1950. \u003ccite>((Courtesy of the Hayward Area Historical Society))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“I’m speaking for my grandparents who are no longer here, I’m speaking for my father, who is no longer here, and I would be doing them a disservice if I didn’t do as much as they did to get back what they purchased. Legally. And the more information I got, the more I saw the injustice, the more I saw that because of what you did. Our great grandparents weren’t able to do what other families outside of our culture were able to do. Build wealth and equity. From home ownership, from land ownership.” – Marian Johnson\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“We’re looking for, you know, some kind of restoration or restorative justice to reclaim our wealth that was taken away from us.” – Gloria Moore\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Former Russell City residents describe the joy and hardship of living in the unincorporated community in the 1950s before Alameda county and the city of Hayward used eminent domain to force them off their land.",
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"title": "Remembering Russell City: A Thriving East Bay Town Razed by Racist Government | KQED",
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"headline": "Remembering Russell City: A Thriving East Bay Town Razed by Racist Government",
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"subhead": "Former Residents Reminisce About A Loving Community Destroyed",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Just down from Hayward Regional Shoreline Park, is a power plant called “Calpine – Russell City Energy Center.” It’s the only thing still named for the town that was once here — a vibrant home to about 1,400 people. By all accounts it was the place to be on a Saturday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hayward-ca.gov/discover/news/feb17/russell-city-and-blues\">Named for a Gold Rush era teacher named Joel Russell,\u003c/a> Russell City was founded in 1853, but it didn’t start booming until World War II when many people seeking work in nearby factories moved to town. Because Russell City was unincorporated, it became a haven for Black and Latino families who had difficulty buying property in other parts of the Bay Area due to racist real estate policies like racial covenants and redlining. In Russell City, there was room to build and people often tended a few animals and planted big gardens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was also home to several blues clubs and a thriving music scene. Famous musicians like Etta James, Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker played there, letting loose and enjoying the freedom of playing for Black audiences.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/8pZKYxmxlak'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/8pZKYxmxlak'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“Russell City people, they sang in church, they know harmonies,” explained Ronnie Stewart, Executive Director of West Coast Blues Society. Stewart didn’t grow up in Russell City, but he’s become obsessed with documenting its contribution to music history. “They know music. And (musicians would) go there because it’s a challenge. If you can get past Russell City, you can get past Carnegie Hall, you know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11922190\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11922190\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RussellCity_RonnieStewart_02072022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man stands in the middle of the railroad tracks wearing a stylish suit jacket with pink shirt and tie, fedora, and black and white shoes.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RussellCity_RonnieStewart_02072022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RussellCity_RonnieStewart_02072022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RussellCity_RonnieStewart_02072022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RussellCity_RonnieStewart_02072022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RussellCity_RonnieStewart_02072022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ronnie Stewart, Executive Director and founder of the West Coast Blues Society, stands on railroad tracks that cross Winton Avenue, dividing Hayward from Russell City, on Feb. 7, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Former Russell City residents remember it as a loving place, but also one with deplorable living conditions. Because it was unincorporated, the town didn’t have any city services — no sewage, plumbing or electricity. Residents petitioned Alameda county and Hayward to bring these services to their community, but were repeatedly denied. Instead, the county used the conditions to declare Russell City “a blight,” justifying the use of eminent domain to seize properties and pay the owners far less for their land and homes than they were worth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time someone would move from a home, it would immediately be burned down,” said former Russell City resident, Gloria Bratton Sanders Moore. “It was cheaper to burn everything, easier to just burn it down rather than wait for eminent domain. And in the end, they just came in and bulldozed everything anyway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11897843/decades-after-cultural-genocide-residents-of-a-bulldozed-community-get-apology-from-hayward\">By 1966, Russell City residents had been forced out of their homes\u003c/a> and the close-knit community was scattered to the winds. Displaced families once again faced predatory lenders, racial steering and redlining as they tried to find homes and rebuild their lives elsewhere. Hayward annexed the land where Russell City once stood and opened a massive industrial park that’s still there today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, many cities started looking more critically at their own discriminatory pasts. A spate of official apologies soon followed — \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/us/antioch-california-sundown-town-chinese-immigrants.html\">first Antioch\u003c/a> and San Jose for their treatment of Chinese Americans, then Hayward. On November 16, 2021 \u003ca href=\"https://www.hayward-ca.gov/discover/news/nov21/hayward-city-council-issues-formal-apology-city%E2%80%99s-role-racial-discrimination-0\">Hayward officially apologized for evicting and burning people out of their homes,\u003c/a> as well as for the long-term adverse impacts on their ability to own property and build wealth. Now the city is working on a proposal to make amends to former Russell City residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We spoke with several people who grew up in Russell City about what made the place so special. They told us stories of a place where people supported and loved each other. Many are angry about how their families were treated and would like to see Hayward do more than apologize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11922180\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://haywardareahistory.pastperfectonline.com/photo/27113B70-E744-4C70-8442-236472418400\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11922180\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Aerial-Russell-City-sized.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photo from above showing an airport runway next to a small town of about twelve blocks.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1571\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Aerial-Russell-City-sized.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Aerial-Russell-City-sized-800x655.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Aerial-Russell-City-sized-1020x835.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Aerial-Russell-City-sized-160x131.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Aerial-Russell-City-sized-1536x1257.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aerial view of Russell City tucked up against the Hayward airport circa 1948. \u003ccite>((Courtesy of the Hayward Area Historical Society))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“We had horrid living conditions, but we had beautiful people who lived there, people who loved you and looked out for one another. We planted our own gardens, we picked our own food. We had chickens, we had hogs. You know, there was always the stench because, you know, from the hog ranches and animals just being everywhere….All kinds of people lived in Russell City. And you know, it was a Blues mecca, and people who lived there loved it and they loved each other. And I only wish that we had been able to develop the land and live there forever.” – Gloria Moore\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11922182\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://haywardareahistory.pastperfectonline.com/photo/A692B3F4-B7B3-407F-8070-243438430695\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11922182\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/houses-Russell-City-sized.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photo of a small house with paper siding, a pile of tires out front, a dusty yard and a for sale sign.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1434\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/houses-Russell-City-sized.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/houses-Russell-City-sized-800x598.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/houses-Russell-City-sized-1020x762.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/houses-Russell-City-sized-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/houses-Russell-City-sized-1536x1147.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A small home with paper siding as well as a plywood roof. On the outside of the home is a sign that reads ‘For Sale’. Circa 1953. \u003ccite>((Courtesy of the Hayward Area Historical Society))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“My father, his family is from Louisiana. And you know, it was really rough back then. My grandmother, his mother, had to leave Louisiana to save her son’s life. There was a mob kind of thing going on, you know. So she took all of her sons and moved to California, never went back. When she came to California, she moved to San Francisco into the Fillmore District. She was pushed out of there. Again, same kind of situation, and she landed in Russell City. My mom, she lived with her grandparents, who moved from Oklahoma. And they landed in West Oakland. And they too were pushed out from West Oakland because they put that freeway in there, the 980. And they landed in Russell City as well.” – Marian Johnson\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Hayward did nothing about the streets, so the streets were always pitted. And in the summer it was hard to drive over. And in the winter it was hard to drive over! It was just mud. (My dad) kind of formed the improvement club. And he was the one that was leading the fight for the electricity for the streets. And they (fought for years over access to) water.” – Rudy Brooks\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11922181\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11922181\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Halloween-Russell-City-sized.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photo of about fifty children and several adults walking next to a road and a field. The children are dressed up as if for Halloween.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1311\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Halloween-Russell-City-sized.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Halloween-Russell-City-sized-800x546.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Halloween-Russell-City-sized-1020x696.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Halloween-Russell-City-sized-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Halloween-Russell-City-sized-1536x1049.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A large group of students lined up walking on the side of a paved road away from the Russell School building. The students are wearing various costumes for Halloween circa 1952. \u003ccite>((Courtesy of the Hayward Area Historical Society))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“The music. You could you hear it, whether you were a fan of it or not. The pig farm(s) were no more than one block away. And sometimes they did escape on top of that. You know, they got their roaming around town.” – Sam Nava\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11922191\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11922191\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS53556_014_RussellCity_SamNava_02072022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"An older Latino couple sits on a couch laughing. The man has his arm around his wife.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS53556_014_RussellCity_SamNava_02072022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS53556_014_RussellCity_SamNava_02072022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS53556_014_RussellCity_SamNava_02072022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS53556_014_RussellCity_SamNava_02072022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS53556_014_RussellCity_SamNava_02072022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sam Nava, 82, sits next to his wife Juanita at their home in Hayward on Feb. 7, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“My grandmother never threw anything away. In fact, I have a little black purse and I started looking in it. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, look at this. This is our history right here. This is a copy of a check that they sent my grandmother and grandfather that was like two thousand two hundred and fifty.’ So everybody got that amount. But my grandmother held out because she knew it was wrong. And there’s a letter that I have that they sent her threatening her, telling her, ‘If you don’t sign by Friday, then you won’t get anything at all.'” – Toni Wynn\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11922192\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://haywardareahistory.pastperfectonline.com/photo/27ABD657-7F4A-4CED-8C60-050604742935\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11922192\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Property-Russell-City-sized.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photograph of several wooden buildings including a home, a large shed or garage and several small structures.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Property-Russell-City-sized.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Property-Russell-City-sized-800x653.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Property-Russell-City-sized-1020x833.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Property-Russell-City-sized-160x131.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/Property-Russell-City-sized-1536x1254.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Russell City home circa 1950. \u003ccite>((Courtesy of the Hayward Area Historical Society))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“I’m speaking for my grandparents who are no longer here, I’m speaking for my father, who is no longer here, and I would be doing them a disservice if I didn’t do as much as they did to get back what they purchased. Legally. And the more information I got, the more I saw the injustice, the more I saw that because of what you did. Our great grandparents weren’t able to do what other families outside of our culture were able to do. Build wealth and equity. From home ownership, from land ownership.” – Marian Johnson\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“We’re looking for, you know, some kind of restoration or restorative justice to reclaim our wealth that was taken away from us.” – Gloria Moore\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California has a task force to study reparations for Black people — the first statewide body of its kind in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve been covering what reparations could mean for California, who would be eligible, and the reparative conversations around other communities who’ve been historically mistreated by the state — from Indigenous communities to Asian Americans. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">Check out our full reparations coverage here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Now, we want to hear from you.\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Do you have a story to share? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Have you traced your lineage to those enslaved in the United States? Have you or someone you know been harmed by anti-Black racism in the state? What’s your vision for reparations in California?\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump to: \u003ca href=\"#howshare\">How will we use the words you share with us?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Share your thoughts, or your story, in the comment box below. Tell us everything and anything you’d like us to know. You could talk about:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Your own family’s history, or that of your community\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>What you think of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11909471/unpacking-reparations-eligibility-in-california\">current plans for who’d be eligible for reparations in California\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>What you would like to see from the repair and redress process in California?\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>What questions do you have about reparations in California?\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Prefer to email instead? Email KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/otisrtaylorjr?lang=en\">Otis R. Taylor Jr.\u003c/a> at \u003ca href=\"mailto:otaylor@kqed.org\">otaylor@kqed.org\u003c/a>. You can also send us a Direct Message on Instagram: we’re \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kqednews/\">@KQEDNews\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Share your story\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfEoMWxWxpbPyKWC90xKjf7ZEnik_LCPEBEi3-cEbTwLq6uHw/viewform?embedded=true\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"howshare\">\u003c/a>How will we use the words you share with us?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>We know these conversations may be hard or painful, and we’re grateful for your trust in us. We ask for your email address in the form above because KQED may reach out to you to request to share your words online in a kqed.org article, or to see whether you might be interested in having your voice heard on KQED Public Radio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We won’t publish or use your words without getting in touch with you first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if we don’t reach back out to you, what you submit will make \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">our reporting on reparations\u003c/a> stronger, and help us decide what to cover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California has a task force to study reparations for Black people — the first statewide body of its kind in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve been covering what reparations could mean for California, who would be eligible, and the reparative conversations around other communities who’ve been historically mistreated by the state — from Indigenous communities to Asian Americans. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">Check out our full reparations coverage here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Now, we want to hear from you.\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Do you have a story to share? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Have you traced your lineage to those enslaved in the United States? Have you or someone you know been harmed by anti-Black racism in the state? What’s your vision for reparations in California?\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump to: \u003ca href=\"#howshare\">How will we use the words you share with us?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Share your thoughts, or your story, in the comment box below. Tell us everything and anything you’d like us to know. You could talk about:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Your own family’s history, or that of your community\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>What you think of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11909471/unpacking-reparations-eligibility-in-california\">current plans for who’d be eligible for reparations in California\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>What you would like to see from the repair and redress process in California?\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>What questions do you have about reparations in California?\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Prefer to email instead? Email KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/otisrtaylorjr?lang=en\">Otis R. Taylor Jr.\u003c/a> at \u003ca href=\"mailto:otaylor@kqed.org\">otaylor@kqed.org\u003c/a>. You can also send us a Direct Message on Instagram: we’re \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kqednews/\">@KQEDNews\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Share your story\u003c/h2>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe\n src='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfEoMWxWxpbPyKWC90xKjf7ZEnik_LCPEBEi3-cEbTwLq6uHw/viewform?embedded=true?embedded=true'\n title='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfEoMWxWxpbPyKWC90xKjf7ZEnik_LCPEBEi3-cEbTwLq6uHw/viewform?embedded=true'\n width='760' height='500'\n frameborder='0'\n marginheight='0' marginwidth='0'>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"howshare\">\u003c/a>How will we use the words you share with us?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>We know these conversations may be hard or painful, and we’re grateful for your trust in us. We ask for your email address in the form above because KQED may reach out to you to request to share your words online in a kqed.org article, or to see whether you might be interested in having your voice heard on KQED Public Radio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We won’t publish or use your words without getting in touch with you first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if we don’t reach back out to you, what you submit will make \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">our reporting on reparations\u003c/a> stronger, and help us decide what to cover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]L[/dropcap]uvVon Brown approached the microphone toward the end of the reparations listening session on May 28 in Oakland, exactly two weeks to the day since a white supremacist gunman walked into a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and started shooting Black people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown wanted to talk about her family and their lives on the Monterey Peninsula, the place she’s thought of as home for most of her life, the place she no longer recognizes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her mother was raised in Pacific Grove, one of three cities that make up the peninsula, which juts from California’s Central Coast like an unattached puzzle piece.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just a lot of Black history that’s here, not only in Monterey County, but all over California,” Brown told me last week, the day California’s Reparations Task Force released \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/reports\">its first report\u003c/a>. “It’s not preserved anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nine-member task force — the first statewide body in the country to study institutional and systemic anti-Black racism, a wretchedness spawned from the horrors of chattel slavery — made several recommendations in the nearly 500-page report. Racism in this country is linked to income inequality, education inequality, mass incarceration and the widening racial wealth gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what the task force says is needed to achieve racial equity in California: housing grants, state-backed mortgages, higher pay and free health care, for starters. The preliminary recommendations included the establishment of an agency to address past and potential future harms, and to assist people in filing eligibility claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the task force \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11909471/unpacking-reparations-eligibility-in-california\">voted in favor of lineage-based reparations\u003c/a>, limiting eligibility to descendants of enslaved people or of free Black people living in the country in the 19th century. The group will release a comprehensive reparations plan next summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Reparations in California\" link1=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2022/02/RiCLandingPageGraphic-1020x574.png\"]Days before the report was released, inside the California Ballroom — a $300-an-hour art deco space used for weddings, conferences and family reunions on Franklin Street — the listening session, one of several planned this summer, was sparsely attended, with about four dozen people and as many more watching the livestream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was expecting a scene reminiscent of the movement to secure reparations for people of Japanese descent incarcerated during WWII, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906015/how-japanese-americans-in-the-bay-area-are-carrying-forward-the-legacy-of-reparations\">for three days people testified in a packed auditorium\u003c/a> at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, as my colleague Annelise Finney reported in February, marking the 80th year of the executive order that forced people, many American citizens, to abandon their jobs, schools and homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this listening session was muted in comparison because, like the task force, which could produce a model for countrywide reparations, an argument must first be presented because the totality of America’s racist history isn’t taught in schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The road to racial equity in America starts in California, which entered the union as a free state in 1850.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1849, delegates met in Monterey to draft the state’s constitution, declaring California a free state where “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated.” California’s first governor, the repugnant racist Peter Hardeman Burnett, sanctioned campaigns to exterminate Indigenous populations. He also wanted to block Black people from entering the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It didn’t work out that way, but Black people have still had a hard row to hoe in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 20th century, Black people arrived on the Monterey Peninsula as fieldworkers, putting down roots in Pacific Grove. Brown’s grandmother was part of the Great Migration of Black folks fleeing Jim Crow-era lynchings and white mob violence in Arkansas and other southern states. Brown said her family — aunts, uncles and cousins — lived on the same street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11916047\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11916047\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS56289_037_KQED_OaklandReparationsListeningSession_05282022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman looks towards the camera while holding a card standing in front of a microphone\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS56289_037_KQED_OaklandReparationsListeningSession_05282022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS56289_037_KQED_OaklandReparationsListeningSession_05282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS56289_037_KQED_OaklandReparationsListeningSession_05282022-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS56289_037_KQED_OaklandReparationsListeningSession_05282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS56289_037_KQED_OaklandReparationsListeningSession_05282022-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">LuvVon Brown speaks during a reparations listening session at the California Ballroom in Oakland on May 28, 2022. Brown spoke about her family and their lives on the Monterey Peninsula, a place she no longer recognizes. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fort Ord, an Army base overlooking Monterey Bay that closed in 1994, drew Black families from around the country, with many, including Brown’s mother, settling in Seaside. Many areas of Monterey County, like Carmel and Del Rey Oaks, were off-limits because of restrictive housing covenants that barred Black people from owning property in certain areas, Brown said, citing “African Americans of Monterey County,” a history of the county by Jan Batiste Adkins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>History is about all that’s left of the robust Black life that once thrived in the county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like when you go back there now, it’s completely different,” said Brown, 34, who believes that providing land should be a reparations priority. “It’s almost like every trace of the Black community is almost gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/seaside-ca/home-values/\">median home price in Seaside\u003c/a>, according to Zillow, an online real estate marketplace, is almost $800,000. Now a sales representative for a human resources management company, Brown graduated from Seaside High School in 2005. She then moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Many in her family, including her mother, followed, unable to sustain the high cost of living on the California coast. In the course of her lifetime, Brown has seen Black wealth evaporate in Seaside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just doesn’t feel like home because all of the families that grew up there are gone,” said Brown, who moved to the Bay Area during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area, while racially diverse, remains deeply segregated, according to analyses by researchers at UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute. In \u003ca href=\"https://belonging.berkeley.edu/most-segregated-cities-bay-area-2020\">an October 2021 report\u003c/a> titled “The Most Segregated Cities and Neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area,” researchers, using 2020 Census data, found “that the Bay Area is significantly more segregated than it was in 1970, 1980, or even 1990,” and said that eight of the nine counties “are more segregated as of 2020 than they were in 1970, and 7 of the 9 are more segregated in 2020 than they were in 1980.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11878403 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-21-at-8.36.32-PM-e1624333298534.png']Oakland is home to six of the 10 most segregated Black neighborhoods in the Bay Area, neighborhoods that were established because of racist housing covenants and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/lowdown/18486/redlining\">redlining\u003c/a>, the racist housing policy started during the New Deal that determined the loan-worthiness of neighborhoods across the country for government-backed mortgages using color-coded maps. If an area was redlined, more than likely that’s where Black people lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Oakland, Black neighborhoods were torn apart, houses and businesses demolished, to make room for the interstate highways that connected white, suburban homeowners to the cities they fled. The Great Recession, sparked in part by the foreclosure crisis 14 years ago, caused the median net worth of Black households nationally to drop 43%, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession/\">2014 report by the Pew Research Center\u003c/a>, a nonpartisan think tank that conducts public opinion polling, demographic research and content analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many Black people just can’t afford to live in the cities they think of as home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://bayareaequityatlas.org/black-pop-bayarea\">Bay Area Equity Atlas\u003c/a>, a tool that tracks racial inequities, found that, on average, Black workers in the Bay Area earn about half of what white men earn. The median wage for Black women workers is $52,000, and Black men make $3,000 more, according to the Atlas, which used 2019 data. White men make $107,000, a figure that’s reinforced by the fact that only 33% of Black high school graduates are college-ready, compared to more than half of white graduates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I reached out to Sarah Treuhaft, vice president of research at PolicyLink, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to advancing economic and social equity, to hear what the data tells us about the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It tells me that structural racism persists in this region. If there was no structural racism, we would not see these differences in earnings by race and gender,” she said. “There is no other reason for them, and we still even see these disparities when we look at people who have the same level of education. So it shows that there is continuing wage discrimination in the labor market and pay discrimination by race.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s education system doesn’t provide equal opportunity, and we see it in the outcomes. Have you ever wondered how it is that 40% of the state’s unhoused population is Black while just 6.5% of the state’s population identifies as Black?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And get this: In Monterey County, the percentage of Black people who were unhoused was more than seven times higher than the county’s Black population, according to \u003ca href=\"https://chsp.org/monterey-and-san-benito-county-homeless-census-reports/\">the county’s 2019 homeless census\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s systemic racism at work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Reparations Coverage' tag='california-reparations']“We know that people of color are more likely to live in communities that do not have well-funded schools and go to school with other low-income families,” Treuhaft said. “That leads to differences in educational outcomes in high school. We really need to address segregation by race and income to get at the root of these issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Black people, who were kidnapped and transported to America, are the only group that hasn’t received reparations for “state-sanctioned racial discrimination, while slavery afforded some white families the ability to accrue tremendous wealth,” Rashawn Ray and Andre M. Perry, two senior fellows at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy and research group, \u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/bigideas/why-we-need-reparations-for-black-americans/\">wrote in an argument for reparations published a month into the pandemic\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In America, we have to admit that the United States was founded on the backs of slave labor that has never been repaid,” Ray, a sociologist, told me in an interview. “And so, collectively, all the research I’ve done suggests that the only way for us to truly heal and get past the stain of racism in America is to provide reparations to descendants of enslaved Black people, as well as to engage in reparations programs in states and specific localities to address housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, Black Californians earned, on average, about $37,000 less than white Californians, according to the Associated Press, which \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-race-and-ethnicity-san-francisco-voter-registration-0cb66f61c4b9f0136c43a17408720d98\">hailed the reparations task force’s report\u003c/a> as a “watershed moment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s save the lofty declarations for when Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill that grants reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California's Reparations Task Force could produce a model for the nation. But amid widening inequities in a state where many Black people can't afford to live in the place they consider home, it's not time to celebrate, writes KQED's Otis Taylor Jr.",
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"title": "No, the Reparations Task Force Report Isn't a 'Watershed Moment.' Action Will Be | KQED",
"description": "California's Reparations Task Force could produce a model for the nation. But amid widening inequities in a state where many Black people can't afford to live in the place they consider home, it's not time to celebrate, writes KQED's Otis Taylor Jr.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">L\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>uvVon Brown approached the microphone toward the end of the reparations listening session on May 28 in Oakland, exactly two weeks to the day since a white supremacist gunman walked into a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and started shooting Black people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown wanted to talk about her family and their lives on the Monterey Peninsula, the place she’s thought of as home for most of her life, the place she no longer recognizes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her mother was raised in Pacific Grove, one of three cities that make up the peninsula, which juts from California’s Central Coast like an unattached puzzle piece.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just a lot of Black history that’s here, not only in Monterey County, but all over California,” Brown told me last week, the day California’s Reparations Task Force released \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/reports\">its first report\u003c/a>. “It’s not preserved anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nine-member task force — the first statewide body in the country to study institutional and systemic anti-Black racism, a wretchedness spawned from the horrors of chattel slavery — made several recommendations in the nearly 500-page report. Racism in this country is linked to income inequality, education inequality, mass incarceration and the widening racial wealth gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what the task force says is needed to achieve racial equity in California: housing grants, state-backed mortgages, higher pay and free health care, for starters. The preliminary recommendations included the establishment of an agency to address past and potential future harms, and to assist people in filing eligibility claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the task force \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11909471/unpacking-reparations-eligibility-in-california\">voted in favor of lineage-based reparations\u003c/a>, limiting eligibility to descendants of enslaved people or of free Black people living in the country in the 19th century. The group will release a comprehensive reparations plan next summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Days before the report was released, inside the California Ballroom — a $300-an-hour art deco space used for weddings, conferences and family reunions on Franklin Street — the listening session, one of several planned this summer, was sparsely attended, with about four dozen people and as many more watching the livestream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was expecting a scene reminiscent of the movement to secure reparations for people of Japanese descent incarcerated during WWII, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906015/how-japanese-americans-in-the-bay-area-are-carrying-forward-the-legacy-of-reparations\">for three days people testified in a packed auditorium\u003c/a> at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, as my colleague Annelise Finney reported in February, marking the 80th year of the executive order that forced people, many American citizens, to abandon their jobs, schools and homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this listening session was muted in comparison because, like the task force, which could produce a model for countrywide reparations, an argument must first be presented because the totality of America’s racist history isn’t taught in schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The road to racial equity in America starts in California, which entered the union as a free state in 1850.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1849, delegates met in Monterey to draft the state’s constitution, declaring California a free state where “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated.” California’s first governor, the repugnant racist Peter Hardeman Burnett, sanctioned campaigns to exterminate Indigenous populations. He also wanted to block Black people from entering the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It didn’t work out that way, but Black people have still had a hard row to hoe in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 20th century, Black people arrived on the Monterey Peninsula as fieldworkers, putting down roots in Pacific Grove. Brown’s grandmother was part of the Great Migration of Black folks fleeing Jim Crow-era lynchings and white mob violence in Arkansas and other southern states. Brown said her family — aunts, uncles and cousins — lived on the same street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11916047\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11916047\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS56289_037_KQED_OaklandReparationsListeningSession_05282022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman looks towards the camera while holding a card standing in front of a microphone\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS56289_037_KQED_OaklandReparationsListeningSession_05282022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS56289_037_KQED_OaklandReparationsListeningSession_05282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS56289_037_KQED_OaklandReparationsListeningSession_05282022-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS56289_037_KQED_OaklandReparationsListeningSession_05282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS56289_037_KQED_OaklandReparationsListeningSession_05282022-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">LuvVon Brown speaks during a reparations listening session at the California Ballroom in Oakland on May 28, 2022. Brown spoke about her family and their lives on the Monterey Peninsula, a place she no longer recognizes. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fort Ord, an Army base overlooking Monterey Bay that closed in 1994, drew Black families from around the country, with many, including Brown’s mother, settling in Seaside. Many areas of Monterey County, like Carmel and Del Rey Oaks, were off-limits because of restrictive housing covenants that barred Black people from owning property in certain areas, Brown said, citing “African Americans of Monterey County,” a history of the county by Jan Batiste Adkins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>History is about all that’s left of the robust Black life that once thrived in the county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like when you go back there now, it’s completely different,” said Brown, 34, who believes that providing land should be a reparations priority. “It’s almost like every trace of the Black community is almost gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/seaside-ca/home-values/\">median home price in Seaside\u003c/a>, according to Zillow, an online real estate marketplace, is almost $800,000. Now a sales representative for a human resources management company, Brown graduated from Seaside High School in 2005. She then moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Many in her family, including her mother, followed, unable to sustain the high cost of living on the California coast. In the course of her lifetime, Brown has seen Black wealth evaporate in Seaside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just doesn’t feel like home because all of the families that grew up there are gone,” said Brown, who moved to the Bay Area during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area, while racially diverse, remains deeply segregated, according to analyses by researchers at UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute. In \u003ca href=\"https://belonging.berkeley.edu/most-segregated-cities-bay-area-2020\">an October 2021 report\u003c/a> titled “The Most Segregated Cities and Neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area,” researchers, using 2020 Census data, found “that the Bay Area is significantly more segregated than it was in 1970, 1980, or even 1990,” and said that eight of the nine counties “are more segregated as of 2020 than they were in 1970, and 7 of the 9 are more segregated in 2020 than they were in 1980.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Oakland is home to six of the 10 most segregated Black neighborhoods in the Bay Area, neighborhoods that were established because of racist housing covenants and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/lowdown/18486/redlining\">redlining\u003c/a>, the racist housing policy started during the New Deal that determined the loan-worthiness of neighborhoods across the country for government-backed mortgages using color-coded maps. If an area was redlined, more than likely that’s where Black people lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Oakland, Black neighborhoods were torn apart, houses and businesses demolished, to make room for the interstate highways that connected white, suburban homeowners to the cities they fled. The Great Recession, sparked in part by the foreclosure crisis 14 years ago, caused the median net worth of Black households nationally to drop 43%, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession/\">2014 report by the Pew Research Center\u003c/a>, a nonpartisan think tank that conducts public opinion polling, demographic research and content analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many Black people just can’t afford to live in the cities they think of as home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://bayareaequityatlas.org/black-pop-bayarea\">Bay Area Equity Atlas\u003c/a>, a tool that tracks racial inequities, found that, on average, Black workers in the Bay Area earn about half of what white men earn. The median wage for Black women workers is $52,000, and Black men make $3,000 more, according to the Atlas, which used 2019 data. White men make $107,000, a figure that’s reinforced by the fact that only 33% of Black high school graduates are college-ready, compared to more than half of white graduates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I reached out to Sarah Treuhaft, vice president of research at PolicyLink, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to advancing economic and social equity, to hear what the data tells us about the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It tells me that structural racism persists in this region. If there was no structural racism, we would not see these differences in earnings by race and gender,” she said. “There is no other reason for them, and we still even see these disparities when we look at people who have the same level of education. So it shows that there is continuing wage discrimination in the labor market and pay discrimination by race.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s education system doesn’t provide equal opportunity, and we see it in the outcomes. Have you ever wondered how it is that 40% of the state’s unhoused population is Black while just 6.5% of the state’s population identifies as Black?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And get this: In Monterey County, the percentage of Black people who were unhoused was more than seven times higher than the county’s Black population, according to \u003ca href=\"https://chsp.org/monterey-and-san-benito-county-homeless-census-reports/\">the county’s 2019 homeless census\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s systemic racism at work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We know that people of color are more likely to live in communities that do not have well-funded schools and go to school with other low-income families,” Treuhaft said. “That leads to differences in educational outcomes in high school. We really need to address segregation by race and income to get at the root of these issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Black people, who were kidnapped and transported to America, are the only group that hasn’t received reparations for “state-sanctioned racial discrimination, while slavery afforded some white families the ability to accrue tremendous wealth,” Rashawn Ray and Andre M. Perry, two senior fellows at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy and research group, \u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/bigideas/why-we-need-reparations-for-black-americans/\">wrote in an argument for reparations published a month into the pandemic\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In America, we have to admit that the United States was founded on the backs of slave labor that has never been repaid,” Ray, a sociologist, told me in an interview. “And so, collectively, all the research I’ve done suggests that the only way for us to truly heal and get past the stain of racism in America is to provide reparations to descendants of enslaved Black people, as well as to engage in reparations programs in states and specific localities to address housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, Black Californians earned, on average, about $37,000 less than white Californians, according to the Associated Press, which \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-race-and-ethnicity-san-francisco-voter-registration-0cb66f61c4b9f0136c43a17408720d98\">hailed the reparations task force’s report\u003c/a> as a “watershed moment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s save the lofty declarations for when Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill that grants reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "whats-a-black-school-worth-in-oakland-grass-valley-elementary-community-braces-for-2nd-closure-in-a-decade",
"title": "What's a Black School Worth in Oakland? Grass Valley Elementary Community Braces for 2nd Closure in a Decade",
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"headTitle": "What’s a Black School Worth in Oakland? Grass Valley Elementary Community Braces for 2nd Closure in a Decade | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Craig Colbert mingles with parents picking up their kids outside Grass Valley Elementary’s front doors. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the school’s community adviser, it’s his job to know students’ families. It helps that he grew up with some of them in this hilly green section of East Oakland, that his own son graduated from the school and that he’s worked here for a decade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He saunters up to idling cars to chat with moms through open windows and offers dads standing on the sidewalk handshakes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What’s up, baby boy,” he says, gripping Steffen Scott Sr.’s hand. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They both played basketball on the Grass Valley outdoor courts as kids. Now, Scott’s fifth grader is in his first year here. At his last school in Union City, there were hardly any Black students in his class, Scott explains, “so he couldn’t really identify with anything.” \u003c/span>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Francis Pearman, education professor, Stanford University\"]‘If these school closures are promoting the further dispossession of communities of color, making them even less likely to retain their historic profile of being Black communities, then there’s broader conversations that need to be had about what these closures mean for the lifeblood of Black neighborhoods.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They’re a lot friendlier here,” Steffen Jr. chimes in. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Grass Valley, Steffen Jr. is surrounded by students who look like him. The comfort of familiarity has translated into greater confidence, Scott says, and he sees the difference in his son’s schoolwork. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Seeing the joy when he walks out that door, it’s everything to me,” Scott says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley, off Golf Links Road near Skyline Boulevard, enrolls the highest share of Black students — 65% — among Oakland Unified School District elementary schools. In February, the school board voted to close it next year as part of a broader downsizing plan that will shutter seven campuses. Black families will be disproportionately affected. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The decision comes less than a year after the board made a remarkable pledge to its Black students by adopting a community proposal that organizers named \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://reparationsforblackstudents.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reparations for Black Students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The plan seeks to address practices, like school closures, that have helped cut the number of Black students in the district from \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dashboards.ousd.org/views/Enrollment/Snapshot?:embed=y&:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">25,400 in 2000-01 \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqcensus/EnrCharterEth.aspx?cds=0161259&agglevel=district&year=2021-22\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">7,400 this year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In the past two decades, Oakland Unified has closed 16 majority-Black schools. That’s left few elementary schools like Grass Valley.\u003c/span>[aside label=\"Reparations in California\" link1=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2022/02/RiCLandingPageGraphic-1020x574.png\"]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the board passed the Reparations for Black Students resolution in March 2021, it excluded one of the campaign’s central demands: that no majority-Black schools be considered for closure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under pressure to address a stubborn structural deficit, the size of which nobody seems to agree on, the board forged ahead. It did so despite the pleas of students, parents and teachers — and despite protest marches, rallies and a weeks-long hunger strike by two teachers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For those that don’t know the power of the word ‘reparations,’ the first part of the definition is a commitment to not cause harm again,” says Pecolia Manigo Awobodu, who chairs the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ousd.org/reparations\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is charged with implementing the reparations work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The story of this campaign is not an easy one to tell,” she continues. “It’s a story of, how do you really get a system to address its lack of commitment to the education of Black students? And how do you do it in such a way that even when there is resistance, you’re still capable of making some levels of progress?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley Elementary opened in 1953 as a set of portable classrooms with 100 students before a permanent school was built for the rapidly growing area. Throughout the 1960s, newspaper ads for nearby housing developments enticed buyers with references to the “outstanding” and “wonderful” neighborhood school. \u003c/span>[aside postID=\"news_11904278,news_11906636,news_11911675\" label=\"Related Posts\"]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, teachers have taped up crayon signs in the classroom windows that say “save our school” and “Black Lives Matter.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before Colbert came to Grass Valley, he worked at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, just down the hill, until the district \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandnorth.net/2011/10/27/ousd-board-votes-to-close-five-elementary-schools-at-a-contentious-meeting/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closed it a decade ago\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Mostly Black students enrolled at Marshall, and the reasons district leaders gave for closing it echo those for closing Grass Valley: under-enrollment and poor test scores.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When he was packing up Thurgood Marshall’s archives, Colbert, 49, came across photos of himself as a student there in the ’80s. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I thought about the community, I thought about the kids that went there and how much they loved the school,” he says. “It was a tough deal.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a kid, he’d hitchhike up Golf Links Road after school to play basketball on the school’s courts. Many of the children he grew up with went to school there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, the neighborhoods close to the school were home to a mix of Black and white middle- and upper-middle-class families. Incomes dropped as you went down the hill, as did the share of white residents. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are more Latino and Asian people now, and fewer Black families. Between 2010 and 2020, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://belonging.gis-cdn.net/us_segregation_map/?year=2010&bounds=37.83%2C-121.98%2C37.65%2C-122.27&geoid=06001410000&geo=tract\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">share of Black residents\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the neighborhood surrounding the school dropped from nearly 50% to 37%, according to research from UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Having a school site where Black kids feel really valued and can be themselves is important,” says Paula Mitchell, another Marshall transplant who now runs Grass Valley’s project-based learning program. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Kids play outside at school.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play during recess at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I purposely chose to be in a place where I could teach students that look like me because I didn’t have any Black teachers when I was growing up,” she continues, “and I just know how it would have made me feel differently in my belief in all the things I could do in the world.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About half of Grass Valley’s teachers are Black, compared to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ousddata.org/announcements/fast-facts-2020-21\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">20% district-wide\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, according to school-district data. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think families feel really comfortable sending their children here knowing that we get it,” Mitchell says. “We understand what’s out there in the world and we’re doing our best to hold their kids close.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a recent study, Stanford education professor Francis Pearman \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/school-closures-and-gentrification-black-metropolis\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">found that school closures increased gentrification in Black neighborhoods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In an age where school districts are writing statements and promising policy in ‘defense of Black lives,’ stakeholders must consider how educational policies are contributing to the further perpetuation of the disintegration of Black communities,” Pearman writes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In his research, Pearman has identified a cyclical relationship between school closures and neighborhood change. Closing schools increases the likelihood that Black neighborhoods will gentrify. In turn, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042085919884342\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">gentrification leads to lower enrollment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as families are displaced and new residents opt out of the neighborhood school or don’t have kids to enroll. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If these school closures are promoting the further dispossession of communities of color, making them even less likely to retain their historic profile of being Black communities, then there’s broader conversations that need to be had about what these closures mean for the lifeblood of Black neighborhoods,” Pearman says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On April 11, the ACLU asked Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate Oakland’s closure plan, saying it is discriminatory and violates the rights of of Black students. On April 29, Oakland Unified teachers, including those at Grass Valley, held a one-day strike to protest the closures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colbert leaves his two-story, four-bedroom home in Stockton at 6:30 a.m. to get to Grass Valley’s tree-ringed campus in time for work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I wanted to own my own house,” he says. “But I come here every day, so Oakland is still in my heart.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 10 Grass Valley families live outside the city, according to principal Casey Beckner, but most people leave the school behind when they move. They often leave for the Central Valley. Like Colbert, they’re relocating to become homeowners or looking for cheaper rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pandemic has accelerated the exodus as parents put their kids in independent study or homeschool them. Public school \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/california-k-12-enrollment-plunges-again-falls-below-6-million/670111#:~:text=The%201.8%25%20enrollment%20decline%2C%20on,Covid%20struck%20in%20spring%202020.\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">enrollment plummeted\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> across the state during the pandemic. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912883\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912883\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man and child walk past a multicolored mural of students, a bridge and an eagle.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Colbert watches students during recess at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Grass Valley staff blame the Thurgood Marshall closure for driving families away, too. As they tell it, transplanting the Marshall community to Grass Valley created a chain reaction of instability. The principal got burned out and left, then some teachers started chafing at the new administrator’s approach. As teachers left, more families followed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Once you start a cycle of people leaving, then you have an open door,” Colbert says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Enrollment has declined at Grass Valley four years in a row, leaving the school with 198 students. District staff say that’s too small to make the school financially sustainable. For the past 15 years, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/DQ/EnrTimeRptSch.aspx?cYear=2012-13&Level=School&cName=Grass+Valley+Elementary&cCode=6001879&dCode=0161259\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">state records\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> show the school’s enrollment has hovered around 250 students, dipping as low as 177 and rising to 285 at its peak. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If one school doesn’t have enough students to generate the money to cover its costs, it hurts the whole system, says school board director Clifford Thompson, whose district includes Grass Valley. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We have to use the money that [a bigger] school has generated in order to keep this other school afloat,” he says. “It’s a hard decision, but how long can you do that? It’s been done for several years, and now it’s time to really bite the bullet.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">District staff have pointed out that Oakland Unified operates more schools than many larger districts in the state. They say having more teachers per student than these other districts hasn’t translated into academic gains for students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thompson sees an upside to larger schools. He’d like to see Oakland’s elementary schools enroll about 400 students each. The former principal, who returned to teaching in Richmond a few years ago, says having multiple teachers for each grade allows educators to learn from each other, grow and innovate. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of Grass Valley’s teachers and staff who came from Marshall are wary of the district’s vision of a system improved through economization. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912881\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912881\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a face mask sits in a classroom with two children using multicolored blocks.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Tammy Coleman works with students on an activity at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Tammy Coleman’s classroom, the small numbers are a blessing. Typically, she’s had 25 or 26 students, and as many as 30. This year, she has only 18 in her combined first and second grade class, the fewest she’s ever had. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s grateful to be able to give students more individualized support as they get readjusted to the classroom after more than a year of distance learning. She says some second graders, who didn’t know the alphabet when they started the year, are now flourishing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s just a beautiful thing and it’s less stress,” she says. “You can delve into what they need more.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Late one morning, after reading instruction, she makes her way around the classroom, checking in with students who are bent over their notebooks clutching crayons and pencils. The class is studying birds and the students are responding to prompts in their new research journals. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hey, William,” Coleman says, leaning down to get a closer look at her student’s work. “What do you wonder about birds?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How birds fly, period. And how they lay eggs,” Williams says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a lot of research to do!” Coleman says before moving to another student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley’s closure would be her third. All three schools were majority Black. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She spent a decade at Cole Middle School, on 10th Street in West Oakland’s Cypress Village neighborhood, before the district closed it. She then moved to Thurgood Marshall. Based on her 28 years in the classroom, she says what matters most is individualized support. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The kids come in needing so much and it’s hard for one person to give them all that they need,” Coleman says. “Are you going to close the achievement gap by shoving them into a larger school with larger class sizes, teachers they don’t know?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When a group of local Black organizers began gathering community input to shape an agenda for improving Black students’ experiences in schools, stopping closures quickly became a priority. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“One of the reasons why it rang so true for us to name the campaign Reparations for Black Students is because we saw a trend in this district that majority-Black schools were always targeted for school closures, which meant that the bulk of the pain of that practice lived in Black communities,” Awobodu, an OUSD parent and lead organizer of the reparations project, says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The evidence backs her up, says UC Berkeley professor of education and African American studies Janelle Scott, who’s studying school closures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We know that Black and Latinx students are much more likely to be targeted by school closures,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Chicago closed dozens of schools a decade ago, for instance, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/09/19/heres-one-reason-rahm-emanuel-wont-run-for-reelection-as-chicagos-mayor/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">88%\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of the students affected were Black. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So it’s not a subtle point of evidence,” Scott says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other research finds that school closures are associated with charter school expansion, which can further destabilize district enrollment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Research suggests academic prospects for students whose schools close vary depending on many factors, including the quality of the new school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley’s general education students will be sent to Oakland Academy of Knowledge and Burckhalter Elementary School under Oakland Unified’s plan. The schools are three and four miles away and their academic, racial and socioeconomic profiles are similar to Grass Valley’s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott finds that claims about declining enrollment and cost savings are often used to justify closures, but that the evidence doesn’t actually support the strategy as a cost-savings measure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It sounds kind of persuasive and simple, but the reality is not quite so simple,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s because the costs that can come with shuttering campuses, like facilities improvements needed to accommodate displaced students at receiving schools, can offset potential savings. Closing schools also can contribute to revenue decline by pushing more students out of the district. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When you disrupt communities with school closures, however well-intentioned, many families do look for other options, so you see a relationship between school closures and even further enrollment declines,” Scott says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott met with three Oakland Unified school board members in an effort to better understand their reasoning. They didn’t produce the evidence to persuade her. The takeaway, she says, was, “‘We don’t know what else to do. We know we need to do something.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In slating the closure, the district may have sealed Grass Valley’s fate: Families don’t want to sign up for a school that may not be around after next year, and some parents plan to pull their kids out preemptively. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ericka Njemanze used to be an active Grass Valley parent. She was president of the PTA and a member of the School Site Council. Her second grader and fourth grade twins have been at the school since kindergarten.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912889\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912889\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A child holds up a drawing of a person.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student in Tammy Coleman’s class draws a picture that says ‘Girl Power’ at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I picked Grass Valley because it had a history,” she says. “I heard really good things about the school.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The family doesn’t live far from Grass Valley, but it’s not their neighborhood school. At first Njemanze thought she’d made a good choice, but her feelings have changed. Her kids fell behind during the pandemic, and the fifth grade teachers she was looking forward to for her kids retired. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the harsh light of the closure, the things that bothered her became intolerable. She judged the test scores and wondered where the other professional Black parents were. Why wasn’t there more PTA involvement? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I don’t see the fifth grade teachers taking my kids where they need to be,” says Njemanze, who plans to send her kids to Laurel Elementary next year. “I guess I want to beat the wave. If my kids can transition a little faster, I think that will help my household.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colbert stands at the end of a long lunch table in the schoolyard. On a neon green sheet of poster board, he’s mapped out the fourth grade and fifth grade girls’ arm-wrestling tournament brackets. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last week he held a tournament for the boys, and the girls demanded their own.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This contest isn’t about strength, it’s about stamina and your will to win,” he tells the girls crowded around the table. “If you want to win, you will fix yourself to win. It doesn’t matter how big or small the other person is on the other side.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The girls pair up and lock arms. Their biceps tense as they strain and grit their teeth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Don’t give up,” Colbert says. “Don’t give up.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Teachers and parents grapple with OUSD's decision to close Grass Valley Elementary and the disproportionate impact it will have on Black students.",
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"title": "What's a Black School Worth in Oakland? Grass Valley Elementary Community Braces for 2nd Closure in a Decade | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Craig Colbert mingles with parents picking up their kids outside Grass Valley Elementary’s front doors. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the school’s community adviser, it’s his job to know students’ families. It helps that he grew up with some of them in this hilly green section of East Oakland, that his own son graduated from the school and that he’s worked here for a decade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He saunters up to idling cars to chat with moms through open windows and offers dads standing on the sidewalk handshakes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What’s up, baby boy,” he says, gripping Steffen Scott Sr.’s hand. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They both played basketball on the Grass Valley outdoor courts as kids. Now, Scott’s fifth grader is in his first year here. At his last school in Union City, there were hardly any Black students in his class, Scott explains, “so he couldn’t really identify with anything.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘If these school closures are promoting the further dispossession of communities of color, making them even less likely to retain their historic profile of being Black communities, then there’s broader conversations that need to be had about what these closures mean for the lifeblood of Black neighborhoods.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They’re a lot friendlier here,” Steffen Jr. chimes in. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Grass Valley, Steffen Jr. is surrounded by students who look like him. The comfort of familiarity has translated into greater confidence, Scott says, and he sees the difference in his son’s schoolwork. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Seeing the joy when he walks out that door, it’s everything to me,” Scott says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley, off Golf Links Road near Skyline Boulevard, enrolls the highest share of Black students — 65% — among Oakland Unified School District elementary schools. In February, the school board voted to close it next year as part of a broader downsizing plan that will shutter seven campuses. Black families will be disproportionately affected. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The decision comes less than a year after the board made a remarkable pledge to its Black students by adopting a community proposal that organizers named \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://reparationsforblackstudents.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reparations for Black Students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The plan seeks to address practices, like school closures, that have helped cut the number of Black students in the district from \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dashboards.ousd.org/views/Enrollment/Snapshot?:embed=y&:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">25,400 in 2000-01 \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqcensus/EnrCharterEth.aspx?cds=0161259&agglevel=district&year=2021-22\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">7,400 this year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In the past two decades, Oakland Unified has closed 16 majority-Black schools. That’s left few elementary schools like Grass Valley.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"label": "Reparations in California ",
"link1": "https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the board passed the Reparations for Black Students resolution in March 2021, it excluded one of the campaign’s central demands: that no majority-Black schools be considered for closure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under pressure to address a stubborn structural deficit, the size of which nobody seems to agree on, the board forged ahead. It did so despite the pleas of students, parents and teachers — and despite protest marches, rallies and a weeks-long hunger strike by two teachers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For those that don’t know the power of the word ‘reparations,’ the first part of the definition is a commitment to not cause harm again,” says Pecolia Manigo Awobodu, who chairs the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ousd.org/reparations\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is charged with implementing the reparations work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The story of this campaign is not an easy one to tell,” she continues. “It’s a story of, how do you really get a system to address its lack of commitment to the education of Black students? And how do you do it in such a way that even when there is resistance, you’re still capable of making some levels of progress?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley Elementary opened in 1953 as a set of portable classrooms with 100 students before a permanent school was built for the rapidly growing area. Throughout the 1960s, newspaper ads for nearby housing developments enticed buyers with references to the “outstanding” and “wonderful” neighborhood school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, teachers have taped up crayon signs in the classroom windows that say “save our school” and “Black Lives Matter.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before Colbert came to Grass Valley, he worked at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, just down the hill, until the district \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandnorth.net/2011/10/27/ousd-board-votes-to-close-five-elementary-schools-at-a-contentious-meeting/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closed it a decade ago\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Mostly Black students enrolled at Marshall, and the reasons district leaders gave for closing it echo those for closing Grass Valley: under-enrollment and poor test scores.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When he was packing up Thurgood Marshall’s archives, Colbert, 49, came across photos of himself as a student there in the ’80s. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I thought about the community, I thought about the kids that went there and how much they loved the school,” he says. “It was a tough deal.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a kid, he’d hitchhike up Golf Links Road after school to play basketball on the school’s courts. Many of the children he grew up with went to school there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, the neighborhoods close to the school were home to a mix of Black and white middle- and upper-middle-class families. Incomes dropped as you went down the hill, as did the share of white residents. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are more Latino and Asian people now, and fewer Black families. Between 2010 and 2020, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://belonging.gis-cdn.net/us_segregation_map/?year=2010&bounds=37.83%2C-121.98%2C37.65%2C-122.27&geoid=06001410000&geo=tract\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">share of Black residents\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the neighborhood surrounding the school dropped from nearly 50% to 37%, according to research from UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Having a school site where Black kids feel really valued and can be themselves is important,” says Paula Mitchell, another Marshall transplant who now runs Grass Valley’s project-based learning program. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Kids play outside at school.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play during recess at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I purposely chose to be in a place where I could teach students that look like me because I didn’t have any Black teachers when I was growing up,” she continues, “and I just know how it would have made me feel differently in my belief in all the things I could do in the world.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About half of Grass Valley’s teachers are Black, compared to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ousddata.org/announcements/fast-facts-2020-21\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">20% district-wide\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, according to school-district data. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think families feel really comfortable sending their children here knowing that we get it,” Mitchell says. “We understand what’s out there in the world and we’re doing our best to hold their kids close.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a recent study, Stanford education professor Francis Pearman \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/school-closures-and-gentrification-black-metropolis\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">found that school closures increased gentrification in Black neighborhoods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In an age where school districts are writing statements and promising policy in ‘defense of Black lives,’ stakeholders must consider how educational policies are contributing to the further perpetuation of the disintegration of Black communities,” Pearman writes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In his research, Pearman has identified a cyclical relationship between school closures and neighborhood change. Closing schools increases the likelihood that Black neighborhoods will gentrify. In turn, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042085919884342\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">gentrification leads to lower enrollment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as families are displaced and new residents opt out of the neighborhood school or don’t have kids to enroll. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If these school closures are promoting the further dispossession of communities of color, making them even less likely to retain their historic profile of being Black communities, then there’s broader conversations that need to be had about what these closures mean for the lifeblood of Black neighborhoods,” Pearman says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On April 11, the ACLU asked Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate Oakland’s closure plan, saying it is discriminatory and violates the rights of of Black students. On April 29, Oakland Unified teachers, including those at Grass Valley, held a one-day strike to protest the closures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colbert leaves his two-story, four-bedroom home in Stockton at 6:30 a.m. to get to Grass Valley’s tree-ringed campus in time for work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I wanted to own my own house,” he says. “But I come here every day, so Oakland is still in my heart.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 10 Grass Valley families live outside the city, according to principal Casey Beckner, but most people leave the school behind when they move. They often leave for the Central Valley. Like Colbert, they’re relocating to become homeowners or looking for cheaper rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pandemic has accelerated the exodus as parents put their kids in independent study or homeschool them. Public school \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/california-k-12-enrollment-plunges-again-falls-below-6-million/670111#:~:text=The%201.8%25%20enrollment%20decline%2C%20on,Covid%20struck%20in%20spring%202020.\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">enrollment plummeted\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> across the state during the pandemic. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912883\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912883\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man and child walk past a multicolored mural of students, a bridge and an eagle.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Colbert watches students during recess at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Grass Valley staff blame the Thurgood Marshall closure for driving families away, too. As they tell it, transplanting the Marshall community to Grass Valley created a chain reaction of instability. The principal got burned out and left, then some teachers started chafing at the new administrator’s approach. As teachers left, more families followed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Once you start a cycle of people leaving, then you have an open door,” Colbert says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Enrollment has declined at Grass Valley four years in a row, leaving the school with 198 students. District staff say that’s too small to make the school financially sustainable. For the past 15 years, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/DQ/EnrTimeRptSch.aspx?cYear=2012-13&Level=School&cName=Grass+Valley+Elementary&cCode=6001879&dCode=0161259\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">state records\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> show the school’s enrollment has hovered around 250 students, dipping as low as 177 and rising to 285 at its peak. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If one school doesn’t have enough students to generate the money to cover its costs, it hurts the whole system, says school board director Clifford Thompson, whose district includes Grass Valley. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We have to use the money that [a bigger] school has generated in order to keep this other school afloat,” he says. “It’s a hard decision, but how long can you do that? It’s been done for several years, and now it’s time to really bite the bullet.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">District staff have pointed out that Oakland Unified operates more schools than many larger districts in the state. They say having more teachers per student than these other districts hasn’t translated into academic gains for students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thompson sees an upside to larger schools. He’d like to see Oakland’s elementary schools enroll about 400 students each. The former principal, who returned to teaching in Richmond a few years ago, says having multiple teachers for each grade allows educators to learn from each other, grow and innovate. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of Grass Valley’s teachers and staff who came from Marshall are wary of the district’s vision of a system improved through economization. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912881\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912881\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a face mask sits in a classroom with two children using multicolored blocks.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Tammy Coleman works with students on an activity at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Tammy Coleman’s classroom, the small numbers are a blessing. Typically, she’s had 25 or 26 students, and as many as 30. This year, she has only 18 in her combined first and second grade class, the fewest she’s ever had. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s grateful to be able to give students more individualized support as they get readjusted to the classroom after more than a year of distance learning. She says some second graders, who didn’t know the alphabet when they started the year, are now flourishing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s just a beautiful thing and it’s less stress,” she says. “You can delve into what they need more.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Late one morning, after reading instruction, she makes her way around the classroom, checking in with students who are bent over their notebooks clutching crayons and pencils. The class is studying birds and the students are responding to prompts in their new research journals. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hey, William,” Coleman says, leaning down to get a closer look at her student’s work. “What do you wonder about birds?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How birds fly, period. And how they lay eggs,” Williams says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a lot of research to do!” Coleman says before moving to another student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley’s closure would be her third. All three schools were majority Black. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She spent a decade at Cole Middle School, on 10th Street in West Oakland’s Cypress Village neighborhood, before the district closed it. She then moved to Thurgood Marshall. Based on her 28 years in the classroom, she says what matters most is individualized support. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The kids come in needing so much and it’s hard for one person to give them all that they need,” Coleman says. “Are you going to close the achievement gap by shoving them into a larger school with larger class sizes, teachers they don’t know?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When a group of local Black organizers began gathering community input to shape an agenda for improving Black students’ experiences in schools, stopping closures quickly became a priority. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“One of the reasons why it rang so true for us to name the campaign Reparations for Black Students is because we saw a trend in this district that majority-Black schools were always targeted for school closures, which meant that the bulk of the pain of that practice lived in Black communities,” Awobodu, an OUSD parent and lead organizer of the reparations project, says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The evidence backs her up, says UC Berkeley professor of education and African American studies Janelle Scott, who’s studying school closures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We know that Black and Latinx students are much more likely to be targeted by school closures,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Chicago closed dozens of schools a decade ago, for instance, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/09/19/heres-one-reason-rahm-emanuel-wont-run-for-reelection-as-chicagos-mayor/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">88%\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of the students affected were Black. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So it’s not a subtle point of evidence,” Scott says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other research finds that school closures are associated with charter school expansion, which can further destabilize district enrollment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Research suggests academic prospects for students whose schools close vary depending on many factors, including the quality of the new school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley’s general education students will be sent to Oakland Academy of Knowledge and Burckhalter Elementary School under Oakland Unified’s plan. The schools are three and four miles away and their academic, racial and socioeconomic profiles are similar to Grass Valley’s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott finds that claims about declining enrollment and cost savings are often used to justify closures, but that the evidence doesn’t actually support the strategy as a cost-savings measure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It sounds kind of persuasive and simple, but the reality is not quite so simple,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s because the costs that can come with shuttering campuses, like facilities improvements needed to accommodate displaced students at receiving schools, can offset potential savings. Closing schools also can contribute to revenue decline by pushing more students out of the district. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When you disrupt communities with school closures, however well-intentioned, many families do look for other options, so you see a relationship between school closures and even further enrollment declines,” Scott says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott met with three Oakland Unified school board members in an effort to better understand their reasoning. They didn’t produce the evidence to persuade her. The takeaway, she says, was, “‘We don’t know what else to do. We know we need to do something.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In slating the closure, the district may have sealed Grass Valley’s fate: Families don’t want to sign up for a school that may not be around after next year, and some parents plan to pull their kids out preemptively. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ericka Njemanze used to be an active Grass Valley parent. She was president of the PTA and a member of the School Site Council. Her second grader and fourth grade twins have been at the school since kindergarten.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912889\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912889\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A child holds up a drawing of a person.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student in Tammy Coleman’s class draws a picture that says ‘Girl Power’ at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I picked Grass Valley because it had a history,” she says. “I heard really good things about the school.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The family doesn’t live far from Grass Valley, but it’s not their neighborhood school. At first Njemanze thought she’d made a good choice, but her feelings have changed. Her kids fell behind during the pandemic, and the fifth grade teachers she was looking forward to for her kids retired. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the harsh light of the closure, the things that bothered her became intolerable. She judged the test scores and wondered where the other professional Black parents were. Why wasn’t there more PTA involvement? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I don’t see the fifth grade teachers taking my kids where they need to be,” says Njemanze, who plans to send her kids to Laurel Elementary next year. “I guess I want to beat the wave. If my kids can transition a little faster, I think that will help my household.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colbert stands at the end of a long lunch table in the schoolyard. On a neon green sheet of poster board, he’s mapped out the fourth grade and fifth grade girls’ arm-wrestling tournament brackets. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last week he held a tournament for the boys, and the girls demanded their own.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This contest isn’t about strength, it’s about stamina and your will to win,” he tells the girls crowded around the table. “If you want to win, you will fix yourself to win. It doesn’t matter how big or small the other person is on the other side.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The girls pair up and lock arms. Their biceps tense as they strain and grit their teeth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Don’t give up,” Colbert says. “Don’t give up.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SChf58zYwo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reparations discussion in California is largely centered on how best to repair the continued harm faced by Black communities as a direct result of centuries of white supremacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indigenous peoples are experiencing their own reparations movement. They are demanding truth and reconciliation from the systems responsible for committing mass genocide, and forcibly removing their ancestors from their homelands.[aside label=\"Reparations in California\" link1=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2022/02/RiCLandingPageGraphic-1020x574.png\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Indigenous-led environmental, cultural and political movement \u003ca href=\"https://landback.org/\">Land Back\u003c/a> aims to place Indigenous land back into Indigenous hands. For many Indigenous communities, reclaiming sovereign rights and decision-making power over stolen lands offers cultural stability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Learn more about this movement and its potential benefits to all in the Above the Noise episode \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SChf58zYwo\">Land Back: The Indigenous Fight to Reclaim Stolen Lands\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cheyenne Bearfoot is a Chiricahua Apache photographer and media creator with a background in film and digital media. Her personal work emphasizes decolonizing media via the digital space by calling attention to issues that continue to affect Indigenous peoples today. She is currently an engagement producer for KQED’s YouTube series Above the Noise.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Indigenous-led environmental, cultural and political movement \u003ca href=\"https://landback.org/\">Land Back\u003c/a> aims to place Indigenous land back into Indigenous hands. For many Indigenous communities, reclaiming sovereign rights and decision-making power over stolen lands offers cultural stability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Learn more about this movement and its potential benefits to all in the Above the Noise episode \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SChf58zYwo\">Land Back: The Indigenous Fight to Reclaim Stolen Lands\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cheyenne Bearfoot is a Chiricahua Apache photographer and media creator with a background in film and digital media. Her personal work emphasizes decolonizing media via the digital space by calling attention to issues that continue to affect Indigenous peoples today. She is currently an engagement producer for KQED’s YouTube series Above the Noise.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>As California’s Reparations Task Force — the first statewide body created to study the harmful and residual effects of slavery in the United States — moves toward creating legislation around reparations, musicians in the Bay Area like Kev Choice, as well as many others across the country, are using their art to make the case for compensating descendants of enslaved people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://kevchoice.wordpress.com/about/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Choice\u003c/a> says the topic of reparations has been on his mind for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Kev Choice, Bay Area musician\"]‘We need to use our music to help amplify the voices of the people who have been fighting for this for a long time — the legislators, the community activists.’[/pullquote]But it’s only been in recent years that the Oakland-based hip-hop and jazz artist has used the word explicitly in his music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyGsNUMsfwU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel\u003c/a>,” a song that heavily references Public Enemy, the rap group that shined a spotlight on the exploitation of Black recording artists and called for reparations on the 1990 album “\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_a_Black_Planet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fear of a Black Planet\u003c/a>,” Choice raps: “I’m thinking ’bout solutions, reparations, housing and education.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyGsNUMsfwU\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug4tefu-SCg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">No Worries\u003c/a>” contains an urgent demand for payment: “When the government write them checks/Add reparations while the ink wet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The conversations that have been happening nationwide politically have sparked me to include that word specifically,” Choice, who wrote both of the above songs in 2020, told KQED. “I’m saying, ‘OK, maybe this is a possibility. So let me speak it into existence.’ The more we speak things into existence, the more possibility they are going to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug4tefu-SCg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The call for reparations is nothing new in popular music, particularly in hip-hop, a genre that has been documenting inequities since its birth almost a half century ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Reparations in California\" link1=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2022/02/RiCLandingPageGraphic-1020x574.png\"]“We need to use our music to help amplify the voices of the people who have been fighting for this for a long time — the legislators, the community activists,” said Choice. “How can I use my music to support those who are on the front lines of this battle?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Hip-hop leads the charge\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrFOb_f7ubw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">By the Time I Get to Arizona\u003c/a>,” Public Enemy’s 1991 protest anthem against the Arizona governor’s decision to cancel Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the song reaches its climax when rapper Chuck D demands reparations: “A piece of the pick, we picked a piece of the land that we’re deserving now/Reparation, a piece of the nation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrFOb_f7ubw\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://afamstudies.yale.edu/people/daphne-brooks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daphne A. Brooks\u003c/a>, a Yale University professor who was raised in the Bay Area, described hip-hop as a “deeply fruitful and prolific space” to present the case for reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hip-hop is fluid enough to be able to capture the immediacy and the intimacies of our everyday lives and, in particular, Black working-class people’s everyday lives,” said Brooks, a professor of music, African American studies, American studies and women’s, gender and sexuality studies. “And because of that, it’s a useful scaffold to critique the ways in which we think about race and sociopolitical structures of power, and how Black people operate within and against those sociopolitical structures of power.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDMtaIcrfQ0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not all hip-hop tracks focused on demanding reparations use that actual word. Songs like Saul Williams’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDMtaIcrfQ0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">List of Demands\u003c/a>,” released in 2004, are as explicit in their call for the U.S. government to pay Black people damages as any of the more than 950 songs that show up when you type “reparations” into the search box on lyrics websites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuAWTZ5jPxY\">You Owe Me\u003c/a>,” a 1999 single exploring the power dynamics of sex through images of slavey and money, Nas raps, “Yeah, owe me back like you owe your tax/Owe me back like 40 acres to Blacks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuAWTZ5jPxY\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reference to “40 acres” is shorthand for \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Field_Orders_No._15\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Special Field Order 15\u003c/a>, the military order issued in 1865 by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, which arranged for 400,000 acres of property confiscated from Confederate landowners to be redistributed to emancipated Black families in 40-acre plots. President Andrew Johnson, an enslaver, quickly overturned the order after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by a Confederate sympathizer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concept of 40 acres — or 40 acres and a mule — has become a particularly powerful way of talking about reparations — not just in songs, but also in American pop culture. It’s the name of filmmaker Spike Lee’s \u003ca href=\"https://40acres.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">production company\u003c/a>. Choice said the slogan was written across many T-shirts and sweatshirts when he was growing up in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLmj4_ZciYU\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11909471,news_11906054,news_11818409\" label=\"Related Posts\"]Many songs about reparations have been fueled by America’s broken promise, from Oscar Brown Jr.’s 1965 proto-rap spoken-word track “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLmj4_ZciYU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forty Acres and a Mule\u003c/a>” to, a little over half a century later, T.I.’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UylWdBjvzHI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">40 Acres\u003c/a>,” released in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Forty acres and a Mueller/I spent my reparations on the jeweler,” the song’s chorus begins before ending with, “40 acres and a mule, 40 acres and a mule/These n— actin’ f—’ fools, for 40 acres and a mule.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Artists working in other musical genres also have contributed to the reparations repertoire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UylWdBjvzHI\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Released two years ago on June 19 to celebrate Juneteenth — now a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people — Beyoncé’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJT1m1ele00\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Black Parade\u003c/a>” named Black activists and her mother before calling for reparations: “Curtis Mayfield on the speaker/Lil’ Malcolm, Martin, mixed with momma Tina/Need another march, lemme call Tamika/Need peace and reparation for my people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJT1m1ele00\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reggae artist Damian Marley’s pungent 2001 song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqXumJdfI8I\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Educated Fools\u003c/a>” demands that colonial forces stand trial for the evils committed “until dem send di reparation dollars/Warning to all di political scholars/Political thieves and political liars.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqXumJdfI8I\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBG3Uc_D5ac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Time for Reparations\u003c/a>,” released in 2021 by the Grammy Award-winning R&B-and-soul ensemble Sounds of Blackness, has a hypnotic chorus with one of the most insistent messages of any song on the topic released in recent years: “Time for reparations/Right now time for reparations,” the group repeats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBG3Uc_D5ac\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While hip-hop may be the most prominent musical genre in this country today, Choice said it’s important for the call for reparations to be heard across other genres to ensure as broad an audience hears it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m able to get into these spaces where I’m bringing with me the values, the energy, the mindset, the issues of my community,” said Choice, who has collaborated with the Oakland and San Francisco symphonies, as well as the SFJAZZ Center, among other local institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How explicit calls for reparations emerged\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There’s currently little scholarship on the specific topic of reparations in music. Academics interviewed for this story said they think of it as a strand within the larger field of Black music studies. A line from the hip-hop tracks of today that explicitly reference reparations can be traced to older songs that speak to the deep-rooted wrongs committed against Black people in this country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ25-U3jNWM\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Songs from the civil rights era like Nina Simone’s 1964 song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ25-U3jNWM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mississippi Goddam\u003c/a>” and 19th-century spirituals, such as the anonymously published “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfbpsmbxE2c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">No More Auction Block for Me\u003c/a>,” protest racial inequality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“‘No More Auction Block’ seems, to me, very much in line with this broader genealogy of popular representations of bondage,” said \u003ca href=\"https://english.columbia.edu/content/shana-l-redmond\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shana Redmond\u003c/a>, a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, who has written extensively about music. “Because the song really is about the sale of people and entire futures, and this is why we’re owed a debt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfbpsmbxE2c\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area musician \u003ca href=\"https://www.samorapinderhughes.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Samora Pinderhughes\u003c/a>, who’s currently working on a doctorate in music at Harvard University, makes a similar case for placing tracks like Curtis Mayfield’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1xmXOP3lhM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">If There’s a Hell Below, We’re All Gonna Go\u003c/a>” and Tupac Shakur’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW--IGAfeas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Keep Ya Head Up\u003c/a>” in the tradition of reparations songs. He also includes many of the tracks on his own recently released album, “\u003ca href=\"https://samorapinderhughes.bandcamp.com/campaign/grief\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Grief\u003c/a>,” because the songs present a clear case for why Black Americans need reparations in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think they point back to these systemic issues that would be at the heart of what a real reparations conversation would look and sound and actually be like to me,” Pinderhughes said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s challenging to pinpoint when artists began to call out the need for reparations explicitly. The earliest songs KQED found date back to Gil Scott-Heron’s 1970 track “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVoDV3icbgc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Who’ll Pay Reparations on My Soul\u003c/a>,” which asks how the cost of racism in America can be accounted for. A request for historical sources from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Library of Congress’s Music Division\u003c/a> was still pending at the time of publishing of this article.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVoDV3icbgc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The turning point was Gil Scott-Heron putting the word ‘reparations’ front and center,” Redmond, of Columbia, said. “The kinds of access points and community investments that he’s speaking to in that piece were already in circulation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los Angeles-based composer, producer and vintage vinyl buff \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Younge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adrian Younge\u003c/a> said the lack of songs explicitly referencing the concept of reparations before the 1960s can be explained by the fact that Black Americans in previous generations were fighting for other things, like the right to live in certain neighborhoods, attend certain schools and eat at certain restaurants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were other forms of injustice that seemed a lot more immediate and within reach than reparations,” Younge said. “I mean, how are you going to ask for reparations when you can’t even drink out of the same water fountain? It’s baby steps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Accordingly, the first great wave of songs explicitly addressing reparations came during the 1990s and 2000s by artists like Shakur, Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy, Kanye West and Lil Wayne. Many of these tracks highlighted the problems underpinning the need for reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS6OB2W1oRI\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Help me raise my Black nation, reparations are due/It’s true, caught up in this world I took advantage of you,” Shakur raps, from the perspective of a Black man in jail writing a love letter to a Black woman, in the 1996 song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS6OB2W1oRI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">White Man’z World\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of these artists who came of age as Gen Xers recognized that the next battlefront was being able to reckon with the afterlives of slavery — the ongoing catastrophe of Black subjugated life not having fully repaired, let alone ultimately addressed, the fiscal and sociopolitical problems linked to slavery,” said Brooks, of Yale. “These artists were standing on the scaffolding of civil rights and Black Power struggles, creating a space in their music to talk about these material and existential problems affecting Black life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And reparations becomes just one of the ways to try and address that emergency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the time of the publication of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Case for Reparations\u003c/a>,” \u003ca href=\"https://ta-nehisicoates.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ta-Nehisi Coates\u003c/a>’s landmark 2014 essay in The Atlantic, songs about reparations blossomed anew, with artists like Nipsey Hussle, Jay-Z and others fueling the debate around the topic with their music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Coates is part of a broader kind of collective movement thinking in a multifaceted way about all of the different terms of repair that Black folks deserve,” Brooks said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the more recent songs, which gained an even greater urgency because of the Black Lives Matter movement, go beyond the question of why reparations should be paid to Black Americans to also address the how and the when.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXmfYM6dSFg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nipsey Hussle’s 2018 song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXmfYM6dSFg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dedication\u003c/a>” makes it clear that time has run out on waiting:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>How long should I stay dedicated?\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>How long ’til opportunity meet preparation?\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>I need some real n— reparations\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Before I run up in your bank just for recreation\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his 2013 song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofIduVOyoDE\">40 Acres\u003c/a>,” Pusha T makes it clear he wants land:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>No change of heart, no change of mind\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>You can take what’s yours, but you gon’ leave what’s mine\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>I’d rather die, than go home\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>I’d rather die, than go home\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>And I ain’t leaving without my 40 acres.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofIduVOyoDE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In “Rebel,” Choice says reparations should take the form of equity in housing, health care, education and other social structures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it has to be more than just, ‘Here is a certain dollar amount,’” Choice told KQED. “Because it’s bigger than money. It’s the ability to live, sustain and uplift these communities that have been harmed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choice said he plans to write more songs about reparations, but he’s not the only Bay Area artist with this intention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910752\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11910752 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55175_MG_6703-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man with shoulder-length locks wearing a white undershirt and white pants hitched to below his knees, with tattoos on both arms, both hands, his back and the contours of his face, leans against one red sports car inside a garage, with his left leg (and a black-sneakered foot) propped on a second red sports car, whose door is open. He looks directly at the camera. Beyond the cars in the half-dark, shelves are visible, some empty and some holding what might be cleaning supplies or extra food supplies.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55175_MG_6703-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55175_MG_6703-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55175_MG_6703-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55175_MG_6703-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55175_MG_6703-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nef the Pharaoh \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In an interview with KQED, \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nef_the_Pharaoh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nef the Pharaoh\u003c/a> also expressed this desire. But even though the 27-year-old, Vallejo-based rapper is the creator of political songs like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohHtt0ue9ZA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Still I Rise\u003c/a>,” released in 2019, he said he’s been struggling to figure out how to make the subject of reparations resonate with his mostly teenage fan base.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He almost created a reparations-themed project titled “Forty Acres and a Mule,” but changed his mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt like my listeners weren’t ready to pay attention to the topic,” he said. “And that was my fault.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nef said it’s on artists like himself to make their fans pay attention. “We’ve got to give way more people game,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to “40 Acres and a Playlist” on \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5mG1JXeLPHQTazI9gmgCyi\">Spotify\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/40-acres-and-a-playlist/pl.u-PDb44ZVTLEmpvME\">Apple Music\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://open.spotify.com/embed?uri=spotify%3Aplaylist%3A5mG1JXeLPHQTazI9gmgCyi\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Corey Antonio Rose contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "As California's Reparations Task Force continues to push for reparations legislation, musicians in the Bay Area and across the country are using their art to further the cause.",
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"title": "'I Ain't Leaving Without My 40 Acres': How Musicians Have Called for Reparations | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As California’s Reparations Task Force — the first statewide body created to study the harmful and residual effects of slavery in the United States — moves toward creating legislation around reparations, musicians in the Bay Area like Kev Choice, as well as many others across the country, are using their art to make the case for compensating descendants of enslaved people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://kevchoice.wordpress.com/about/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Choice\u003c/a> says the topic of reparations has been on his mind for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘We need to use our music to help amplify the voices of the people who have been fighting for this for a long time — the legislators, the community activists.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But it’s only been in recent years that the Oakland-based hip-hop and jazz artist has used the word explicitly in his music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyGsNUMsfwU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel\u003c/a>,” a song that heavily references Public Enemy, the rap group that shined a spotlight on the exploitation of Black recording artists and called for reparations on the 1990 album “\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_a_Black_Planet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fear of a Black Planet\u003c/a>,” Choice raps: “I’m thinking ’bout solutions, reparations, housing and education.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/YyGsNUMsfwU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/YyGsNUMsfwU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Meanwhile, the song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug4tefu-SCg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">No Worries\u003c/a>” contains an urgent demand for payment: “When the government write them checks/Add reparations while the ink wet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The conversations that have been happening nationwide politically have sparked me to include that word specifically,” Choice, who wrote both of the above songs in 2020, told KQED. “I’m saying, ‘OK, maybe this is a possibility. So let me speak it into existence.’ The more we speak things into existence, the more possibility they are going to happen.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/ug4tefu-SCg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/ug4tefu-SCg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The call for reparations is nothing new in popular music, particularly in hip-hop, a genre that has been documenting inequities since its birth almost a half century ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"link1": "https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We need to use our music to help amplify the voices of the people who have been fighting for this for a long time — the legislators, the community activists,” said Choice. “How can I use my music to support those who are on the front lines of this battle?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Hip-hop leads the charge\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrFOb_f7ubw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">By the Time I Get to Arizona\u003c/a>,” Public Enemy’s 1991 protest anthem against the Arizona governor’s decision to cancel Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the song reaches its climax when rapper Chuck D demands reparations: “A piece of the pick, we picked a piece of the land that we’re deserving now/Reparation, a piece of the nation.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/zrFOb_f7ubw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/zrFOb_f7ubw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://afamstudies.yale.edu/people/daphne-brooks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daphne A. Brooks\u003c/a>, a Yale University professor who was raised in the Bay Area, described hip-hop as a “deeply fruitful and prolific space” to present the case for reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hip-hop is fluid enough to be able to capture the immediacy and the intimacies of our everyday lives and, in particular, Black working-class people’s everyday lives,” said Brooks, a professor of music, African American studies, American studies and women’s, gender and sexuality studies. “And because of that, it’s a useful scaffold to critique the ways in which we think about race and sociopolitical structures of power, and how Black people operate within and against those sociopolitical structures of power.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/zDMtaIcrfQ0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/zDMtaIcrfQ0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Not all hip-hop tracks focused on demanding reparations use that actual word. Songs like Saul Williams’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDMtaIcrfQ0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">List of Demands\u003c/a>,” released in 2004, are as explicit in their call for the U.S. government to pay Black people damages as any of the more than 950 songs that show up when you type “reparations” into the search box on lyrics websites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuAWTZ5jPxY\">You Owe Me\u003c/a>,” a 1999 single exploring the power dynamics of sex through images of slavey and money, Nas raps, “Yeah, owe me back like you owe your tax/Owe me back like 40 acres to Blacks.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/WuAWTZ5jPxY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/WuAWTZ5jPxY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The reference to “40 acres” is shorthand for \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Field_Orders_No._15\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Special Field Order 15\u003c/a>, the military order issued in 1865 by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, which arranged for 400,000 acres of property confiscated from Confederate landowners to be redistributed to emancipated Black families in 40-acre plots. President Andrew Johnson, an enslaver, quickly overturned the order after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by a Confederate sympathizer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concept of 40 acres — or 40 acres and a mule — has become a particularly powerful way of talking about reparations — not just in songs, but also in American pop culture. It’s the name of filmmaker Spike Lee’s \u003ca href=\"https://40acres.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">production company\u003c/a>. Choice said the slogan was written across many T-shirts and sweatshirts when he was growing up in Oakland.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/vLmj4_ZciYU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/vLmj4_ZciYU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Many songs about reparations have been fueled by America’s broken promise, from Oscar Brown Jr.’s 1965 proto-rap spoken-word track “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLmj4_ZciYU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forty Acres and a Mule\u003c/a>” to, a little over half a century later, T.I.’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UylWdBjvzHI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">40 Acres\u003c/a>,” released in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Forty acres and a Mueller/I spent my reparations on the jeweler,” the song’s chorus begins before ending with, “40 acres and a mule, 40 acres and a mule/These n— actin’ f—’ fools, for 40 acres and a mule.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Artists working in other musical genres also have contributed to the reparations repertoire.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/UylWdBjvzHI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/UylWdBjvzHI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Released two years ago on June 19 to celebrate Juneteenth — now a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people — Beyoncé’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJT1m1ele00\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Black Parade\u003c/a>” named Black activists and her mother before calling for reparations: “Curtis Mayfield on the speaker/Lil’ Malcolm, Martin, mixed with momma Tina/Need another march, lemme call Tamika/Need peace and reparation for my people.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/EJT1m1ele00'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/EJT1m1ele00'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Reggae artist Damian Marley’s pungent 2001 song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqXumJdfI8I\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Educated Fools\u003c/a>” demands that colonial forces stand trial for the evils committed “until dem send di reparation dollars/Warning to all di political scholars/Political thieves and political liars.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/PqXumJdfI8I'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/PqXumJdfI8I'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBG3Uc_D5ac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Time for Reparations\u003c/a>,” released in 2021 by the Grammy Award-winning R&B-and-soul ensemble Sounds of Blackness, has a hypnotic chorus with one of the most insistent messages of any song on the topic released in recent years: “Time for reparations/Right now time for reparations,” the group repeats.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/KBG3Uc_D5ac'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/KBG3Uc_D5ac'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>While hip-hop may be the most prominent musical genre in this country today, Choice said it’s important for the call for reparations to be heard across other genres to ensure as broad an audience hears it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m able to get into these spaces where I’m bringing with me the values, the energy, the mindset, the issues of my community,” said Choice, who has collaborated with the Oakland and San Francisco symphonies, as well as the SFJAZZ Center, among other local institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How explicit calls for reparations emerged\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There’s currently little scholarship on the specific topic of reparations in music. Academics interviewed for this story said they think of it as a strand within the larger field of Black music studies. A line from the hip-hop tracks of today that explicitly reference reparations can be traced to older songs that speak to the deep-rooted wrongs committed against Black people in this country.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/LJ25-U3jNWM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/LJ25-U3jNWM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Songs from the civil rights era like Nina Simone’s 1964 song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ25-U3jNWM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mississippi Goddam\u003c/a>” and 19th-century spirituals, such as the anonymously published “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfbpsmbxE2c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">No More Auction Block for Me\u003c/a>,” protest racial inequality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“‘No More Auction Block’ seems, to me, very much in line with this broader genealogy of popular representations of bondage,” said \u003ca href=\"https://english.columbia.edu/content/shana-l-redmond\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shana Redmond\u003c/a>, a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, who has written extensively about music. “Because the song really is about the sale of people and entire futures, and this is why we’re owed a debt.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/SfbpsmbxE2c'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/SfbpsmbxE2c'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Bay Area musician \u003ca href=\"https://www.samorapinderhughes.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Samora Pinderhughes\u003c/a>, who’s currently working on a doctorate in music at Harvard University, makes a similar case for placing tracks like Curtis Mayfield’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1xmXOP3lhM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">If There’s a Hell Below, We’re All Gonna Go\u003c/a>” and Tupac Shakur’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW--IGAfeas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Keep Ya Head Up\u003c/a>” in the tradition of reparations songs. He also includes many of the tracks on his own recently released album, “\u003ca href=\"https://samorapinderhughes.bandcamp.com/campaign/grief\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Grief\u003c/a>,” because the songs present a clear case for why Black Americans need reparations in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think they point back to these systemic issues that would be at the heart of what a real reparations conversation would look and sound and actually be like to me,” Pinderhughes said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s challenging to pinpoint when artists began to call out the need for reparations explicitly. The earliest songs KQED found date back to Gil Scott-Heron’s 1970 track “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVoDV3icbgc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Who’ll Pay Reparations on My Soul\u003c/a>,” which asks how the cost of racism in America can be accounted for. A request for historical sources from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Library of Congress’s Music Division\u003c/a> was still pending at the time of publishing of this article.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/QVoDV3icbgc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/QVoDV3icbgc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“The turning point was Gil Scott-Heron putting the word ‘reparations’ front and center,” Redmond, of Columbia, said. “The kinds of access points and community investments that he’s speaking to in that piece were already in circulation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los Angeles-based composer, producer and vintage vinyl buff \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Younge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adrian Younge\u003c/a> said the lack of songs explicitly referencing the concept of reparations before the 1960s can be explained by the fact that Black Americans in previous generations were fighting for other things, like the right to live in certain neighborhoods, attend certain schools and eat at certain restaurants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were other forms of injustice that seemed a lot more immediate and within reach than reparations,” Younge said. “I mean, how are you going to ask for reparations when you can’t even drink out of the same water fountain? It’s baby steps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Accordingly, the first great wave of songs explicitly addressing reparations came during the 1990s and 2000s by artists like Shakur, Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy, Kanye West and Lil Wayne. Many of these tracks highlighted the problems underpinning the need for reparations.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/lS6OB2W1oRI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/lS6OB2W1oRI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“Help me raise my Black nation, reparations are due/It’s true, caught up in this world I took advantage of you,” Shakur raps, from the perspective of a Black man in jail writing a love letter to a Black woman, in the 1996 song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS6OB2W1oRI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">White Man’z World\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of these artists who came of age as Gen Xers recognized that the next battlefront was being able to reckon with the afterlives of slavery — the ongoing catastrophe of Black subjugated life not having fully repaired, let alone ultimately addressed, the fiscal and sociopolitical problems linked to slavery,” said Brooks, of Yale. “These artists were standing on the scaffolding of civil rights and Black Power struggles, creating a space in their music to talk about these material and existential problems affecting Black life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And reparations becomes just one of the ways to try and address that emergency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the time of the publication of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Case for Reparations\u003c/a>,” \u003ca href=\"https://ta-nehisicoates.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ta-Nehisi Coates\u003c/a>’s landmark 2014 essay in The Atlantic, songs about reparations blossomed anew, with artists like Nipsey Hussle, Jay-Z and others fueling the debate around the topic with their music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Coates is part of a broader kind of collective movement thinking in a multifaceted way about all of the different terms of repair that Black folks deserve,” Brooks said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the more recent songs, which gained an even greater urgency because of the Black Lives Matter movement, go beyond the question of why reparations should be paid to Black Americans to also address the how and the when.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/RXmfYM6dSFg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/RXmfYM6dSFg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Nipsey Hussle’s 2018 song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXmfYM6dSFg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dedication\u003c/a>” makes it clear that time has run out on waiting:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>How long should I stay dedicated?\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>How long ’til opportunity meet preparation?\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>I need some real n— reparations\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Before I run up in your bank just for recreation\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his 2013 song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofIduVOyoDE\">40 Acres\u003c/a>,” Pusha T makes it clear he wants land:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>No change of heart, no change of mind\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>You can take what’s yours, but you gon’ leave what’s mine\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>I’d rather die, than go home\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>I’d rather die, than go home\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>And I ain’t leaving without my 40 acres.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/ofIduVOyoDE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/ofIduVOyoDE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>In “Rebel,” Choice says reparations should take the form of equity in housing, health care, education and other social structures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it has to be more than just, ‘Here is a certain dollar amount,’” Choice told KQED. “Because it’s bigger than money. It’s the ability to live, sustain and uplift these communities that have been harmed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choice said he plans to write more songs about reparations, but he’s not the only Bay Area artist with this intention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910752\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11910752 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55175_MG_6703-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man with shoulder-length locks wearing a white undershirt and white pants hitched to below his knees, with tattoos on both arms, both hands, his back and the contours of his face, leans against one red sports car inside a garage, with his left leg (and a black-sneakered foot) propped on a second red sports car, whose door is open. He looks directly at the camera. Beyond the cars in the half-dark, shelves are visible, some empty and some holding what might be cleaning supplies or extra food supplies.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55175_MG_6703-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55175_MG_6703-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55175_MG_6703-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55175_MG_6703-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55175_MG_6703-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nef the Pharaoh \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In an interview with KQED, \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nef_the_Pharaoh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nef the Pharaoh\u003c/a> also expressed this desire. But even though the 27-year-old, Vallejo-based rapper is the creator of political songs like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohHtt0ue9ZA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Still I Rise\u003c/a>,” released in 2019, he said he’s been struggling to figure out how to make the subject of reparations resonate with his mostly teenage fan base.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He almost created a reparations-themed project titled “Forty Acres and a Mule,” but changed his mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt like my listeners weren’t ready to pay attention to the topic,” he said. “And that was my fault.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nef said it’s on artists like himself to make their fans pay attention. “We’ve got to give way more people game,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to “40 Acres and a Playlist” on \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5mG1JXeLPHQTazI9gmgCyi\">Spotify\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/40-acres-and-a-playlist/pl.u-PDb44ZVTLEmpvME\">Apple Music\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://open.spotify.com/embed?uri=spotify%3Aplaylist%3A5mG1JXeLPHQTazI9gmgCyi\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Corey Antonio Rose contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Unpacking Reparations Eligibility in California",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reparations in California\u003c/a> is a series of KQED stories exploring the road to racial equity in the state.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:55 p.m. Wednesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a contentious meeting Tuesday, California’s Reparations Task Force decided who would qualify for reparations under any proposals the committee recommends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The broad question the task force was considering: Should reparations be only for descendants of people enslaved in the United States or should reparations be extended to any Black person in the state?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After hours of debate, the nine-member task force voted 5-4 in favor of lineage-based reparations — a decision that has the potential to set precedent and affect other local, state and federal plans for reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Reparations in California\" link1=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2022/02/RiCLandingPageGraphic-1020x574.png\"]“I move that we define the community of eligibility based on lineage determined by an individual being an African American descendant of a chattel-enslaved person or the descendant of a free Black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century,” said task force member Jovan Scott Lewis, chair of UC Berkeley’s geography department, introducing the motion on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Task force Chair Kamilah Moore, who voted in favor of the motion, worried that making eligibility race-based would create fissures in the Black community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Under international law, reparations … is supposed to be a victim-led process and a victim-oriented process,” Moore said at Tuesday’s meeting. “So … with a race-based approach [to reparations eligibility], that is going to aggrieve the victims of the institution of slavery, which are the direct descendants of the enslaved people in the United States.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Task force member Cheryl Grills, who did not support the motion, said lineage-based reparations fail to encompass the full harms of enslavement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Providing reparations only for those who can prove their descendants from enslaved Africans is yet another win for white supremacy because it dismisses and devalues the harms done to African descendants not enslaved here, but who were injured by slavery due to their blackness once they entered the shores of America,” Grills said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/lakitalki/status/1508832379971915785?s=20&t=8HyAz5R5Oou9o9kU65Rv9A\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Eligibility question has loomed for months\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The question of eligibility has loomed over the first-in-the-nation statewide task force since it began meeting in June. The topic also dominated meetings in February, when the task force tabled a decision until taking it up again this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One point of contention: Cash payments are expected to be one part of the reparations proposals, but there are a limited amount of financial resources. The eligibility discussion also has raised questions about lineage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Cheryl Grills, task force member\"]‘If you can’t trace your family ancestry to enslaved Africans, what does that mean, for example, for scores of Black children in the child welfare system who probably can’t trace anything back more than a generation?’[/pullquote]During the January meeting, Secretary of State Shirley Weber — who, while a state legislator, authored AB 3121, the bill that established the task force — shared her intention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an issue not about being Black. It’s an issue of descendants and lineage,” Weber said. “There will be many Black people who do not deserve reparations, but there will be many whose lineage clearly says very strongly that they deserve to have reparations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the February meeting, Moore reminded the task force of the story of \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMUdKpDk8Yg\">Lawrence Lucas\u003c/a>, one of the leaders of the \u003ca href=\"https://justiceforblackfarmers.com/\">USDA Coalition of Minority Employees\u003c/a>, an organization advocating for Black farmers, who testified in October. Many Black farmers, who expected to receive pandemic aid allocated in the American Rescue Plan, have been \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/us/politics/black-farmers-debt-relief.html\">blocked by lawsuits from white farmers\u003c/a> who questioned whether the government could use race to give preferential debt relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They know the land by virtue of them being the descendants of the enslaved,” said Moore, who used the example to argue lineage-based reparations. “Despite that agricultural knowledge that was passed onto them, they’re being refused aid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jovan Scott Lewis echoed Moore’s sentiments on the importance of centering descendants of the enslaved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea here is that we are identifying a kind of central group that has been integral to the development of the United States, who have remained the reference for the abuse suffered by Black people,” he said at the February meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other members spoke of their own personal experience as a way to advocate for an expanded group who could receive reparations — those with lived experience of anti-Black racism, which is, potentially, all Black people in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Task force member Lisa Holder, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, shared a personal story of losing her baby nearly 14 years ago during delivery. She recalled telling her doctors that something was wrong, but having her pleas be ignored.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe I was ignored because I was a young Black woman,” Holder said, emphasizing that when at a hospital or applying for a loan at a bank, people are focused on skin color, not lineage. “No one asked me if my ancestors were enslaved in the United States. All they saw was my black skin.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cheryl Grills wondered how easy it would be to determine lineage, and whether the task force would be excluding people who can’t establish their lineage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you can’t trace your family ancestry to enslaved Africans, what does that mean, for example, for scores of Black children in the child welfare system who probably can’t trace anything back more than a generation?” said Grills, a Loyola Marymount University professor who focuses on racial stress and trauma as well as implicit bias and community healing, at the February meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Reparations Coverage' tag='california-reparations']Hollis Gentry, a genealogy specialist at the National Museum of African American History and Culture Library, said information is sometimes relatively quick to find, while other times it can take a very long time. Gentry began looking at her own family history in 1976 and is still uncovering connections today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The eligibility criteria is going to determine how you approach it,” she said. “If you’re looking at a solely lineage-based approach where they have to establish that they do, in fact, descend from someone who was enslaved, that’s going to require a lot of research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not impossible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century,” a book by A. Kirsten Mullen and William A. Darity Jr., is frequently mentioned in task force meetings. The book suggests that requirements for reparations on the federal level include two aspects of eligibility: tracing an ancestor back to chattel slavery, and self-identifying as Black Negro or African American on the census for 10 to 12 years prior to the reparations program going into effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their two-pronged system is very simplistic, in my view,” said Khansa T. Jones-Muhammad, co-chair for the National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants. Instead, she would like to have a system that acknowledges the harms caused by certain laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Were your ancestors subject to the three-fifths compromise at the United States Constitutional Convention of 1787?” Jones-Muhammad asked. “Were your ancestors subject to the Casual Killing Act or fugitive slave law? Were your ancestors subject to convict leasing and Jim Crow laws? Were they subject to the Great Migration?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants and the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, two organizations Jones-Muhammad has worked with, helped Weber with the language in the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February the members seemed to agree there should be a special consideration for descendants of chattel slavery, as outlined in the bill, but appeared hesitant to make a definitive decision because of the potential impact on other reparations legislation, including HR 40, the federal reparations bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate has repeatedly circled back to who would be eligible to receive cash payments. It’s uncertain how much money would be needed for such an endeavor. The task force has hired a team of economists to make calculations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others have suggested different forms of compensation, such as tax breaks, grant aid and tuition waivers for students. Task force member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a state Assemblymember, felt the committee should be having more expansive discussions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re talking about who’s getting the money,” he said. “We should be talking about how we’re going to take care of our people from this day forward. And how are we going to reverse all the harm? That should be the central question. We’re spending the money before we got it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reparations in California\u003c/a> is a series of KQED stories exploring the road to racial equity in the state.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:55 p.m. Wednesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a contentious meeting Tuesday, California’s Reparations Task Force decided who would qualify for reparations under any proposals the committee recommends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The broad question the task force was considering: Should reparations be only for descendants of people enslaved in the United States or should reparations be extended to any Black person in the state?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After hours of debate, the nine-member task force voted 5-4 in favor of lineage-based reparations — a decision that has the potential to set precedent and affect other local, state and federal plans for reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I move that we define the community of eligibility based on lineage determined by an individual being an African American descendant of a chattel-enslaved person or the descendant of a free Black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century,” said task force member Jovan Scott Lewis, chair of UC Berkeley’s geography department, introducing the motion on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Task force Chair Kamilah Moore, who voted in favor of the motion, worried that making eligibility race-based would create fissures in the Black community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Under international law, reparations … is supposed to be a victim-led process and a victim-oriented process,” Moore said at Tuesday’s meeting. “So … with a race-based approach [to reparations eligibility], that is going to aggrieve the victims of the institution of slavery, which are the direct descendants of the enslaved people in the United States.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Task force member Cheryl Grills, who did not support the motion, said lineage-based reparations fail to encompass the full harms of enslavement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Providing reparations only for those who can prove their descendants from enslaved Africans is yet another win for white supremacy because it dismisses and devalues the harms done to African descendants not enslaved here, but who were injured by slavery due to their blackness once they entered the shores of America,” Grills said.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003ch2>Eligibility question has loomed for months\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The question of eligibility has loomed over the first-in-the-nation statewide task force since it began meeting in June. The topic also dominated meetings in February, when the task force tabled a decision until taking it up again this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One point of contention: Cash payments are expected to be one part of the reparations proposals, but there are a limited amount of financial resources. The eligibility discussion also has raised questions about lineage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>During the January meeting, Secretary of State Shirley Weber — who, while a state legislator, authored AB 3121, the bill that established the task force — shared her intention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an issue not about being Black. It’s an issue of descendants and lineage,” Weber said. “There will be many Black people who do not deserve reparations, but there will be many whose lineage clearly says very strongly that they deserve to have reparations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the February meeting, Moore reminded the task force of the story of \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMUdKpDk8Yg\">Lawrence Lucas\u003c/a>, one of the leaders of the \u003ca href=\"https://justiceforblackfarmers.com/\">USDA Coalition of Minority Employees\u003c/a>, an organization advocating for Black farmers, who testified in October. Many Black farmers, who expected to receive pandemic aid allocated in the American Rescue Plan, have been \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/us/politics/black-farmers-debt-relief.html\">blocked by lawsuits from white farmers\u003c/a> who questioned whether the government could use race to give preferential debt relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They know the land by virtue of them being the descendants of the enslaved,” said Moore, who used the example to argue lineage-based reparations. “Despite that agricultural knowledge that was passed onto them, they’re being refused aid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jovan Scott Lewis echoed Moore’s sentiments on the importance of centering descendants of the enslaved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea here is that we are identifying a kind of central group that has been integral to the development of the United States, who have remained the reference for the abuse suffered by Black people,” he said at the February meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other members spoke of their own personal experience as a way to advocate for an expanded group who could receive reparations — those with lived experience of anti-Black racism, which is, potentially, all Black people in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Task force member Lisa Holder, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, shared a personal story of losing her baby nearly 14 years ago during delivery. She recalled telling her doctors that something was wrong, but having her pleas be ignored.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe I was ignored because I was a young Black woman,” Holder said, emphasizing that when at a hospital or applying for a loan at a bank, people are focused on skin color, not lineage. “No one asked me if my ancestors were enslaved in the United States. All they saw was my black skin.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cheryl Grills wondered how easy it would be to determine lineage, and whether the task force would be excluding people who can’t establish their lineage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you can’t trace your family ancestry to enslaved Africans, what does that mean, for example, for scores of Black children in the child welfare system who probably can’t trace anything back more than a generation?” said Grills, a Loyola Marymount University professor who focuses on racial stress and trauma as well as implicit bias and community healing, at the February meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Hollis Gentry, a genealogy specialist at the National Museum of African American History and Culture Library, said information is sometimes relatively quick to find, while other times it can take a very long time. Gentry began looking at her own family history in 1976 and is still uncovering connections today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The eligibility criteria is going to determine how you approach it,” she said. “If you’re looking at a solely lineage-based approach where they have to establish that they do, in fact, descend from someone who was enslaved, that’s going to require a lot of research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not impossible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century,” a book by A. Kirsten Mullen and William A. Darity Jr., is frequently mentioned in task force meetings. The book suggests that requirements for reparations on the federal level include two aspects of eligibility: tracing an ancestor back to chattel slavery, and self-identifying as Black Negro or African American on the census for 10 to 12 years prior to the reparations program going into effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their two-pronged system is very simplistic, in my view,” said Khansa T. Jones-Muhammad, co-chair for the National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants. Instead, she would like to have a system that acknowledges the harms caused by certain laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Were your ancestors subject to the three-fifths compromise at the United States Constitutional Convention of 1787?” Jones-Muhammad asked. “Were your ancestors subject to the Casual Killing Act or fugitive slave law? Were your ancestors subject to convict leasing and Jim Crow laws? Were they subject to the Great Migration?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants and the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, two organizations Jones-Muhammad has worked with, helped Weber with the language in the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February the members seemed to agree there should be a special consideration for descendants of chattel slavery, as outlined in the bill, but appeared hesitant to make a definitive decision because of the potential impact on other reparations legislation, including HR 40, the federal reparations bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate has repeatedly circled back to who would be eligible to receive cash payments. It’s uncertain how much money would be needed for such an endeavor. The task force has hired a team of economists to make calculations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others have suggested different forms of compensation, such as tax breaks, grant aid and tuition waivers for students. Task force member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a state Assemblymember, felt the committee should be having more expansive discussions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re talking about who’s getting the money,” he said. “We should be talking about how we’re going to take care of our people from this day forward. And how are we going to reverse all the harm? That should be the central question. We’re spending the money before we got it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "it-was-done-before-remembering-reparations-for-japanese-americans-in-the-fight-today",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reparations in California\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a series of KQED stories exploring the road to racial equity in the state.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California is in the process of a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906054/it-means-to-repair-what-you-should-know-about-reparations-for-black-californians\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">first-of-its-kind study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> into reparations for Black Californians.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The process of hashing out reparations can seem daunting. and the U.S. has not fully reckoned with its deepest harms, like enslavement of Black Americans or the genocide of Native Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the U.S. has provided reparations before — namely, for Japanese Americans, who were taken from their homes all over the West Coast and incarcerated during World War 2. Now, \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California’s current reparations task force is modeled, in part, after the commission that studied and recommended reparations for American citizens of Japanese ancestry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, we look back on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906015/how-japanese-americans-in-the-bay-area-are-carrying-forward-the-legacy-of-reparations\">what it took for Japanese Americans in the Bay Area to fight for reparations\u003c/a> — and how that history is linked to the reparations process unfolding right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Guest: \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/sharkfinney\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Annelise Finney\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, KQED reporter\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/35ILats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Episode Transcript \u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC1841573922&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"description": "Reparations in California is a series of KQED stories exploring the road to racial equity in the state. California is in the process of a first-of-its-kind study into reparations for Black Californians. The process of hashing out reparations can seem daunting. and the U.S. has not fully reckoned with its deepest harms, like enslavement of Black Americans or the genocide of Native Americans. However, the U.S. has provided reparations before — namely, for Japanese Americans, who were taken from their homes all over the West Coast and incarcerated during World War 2. Now, California’s current reparations task force is modeled, in part,",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reparations in California\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a series of KQED stories exploring the road to racial equity in the state.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California is in the process of a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906054/it-means-to-repair-what-you-should-know-about-reparations-for-black-californians\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">first-of-its-kind study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> into reparations for Black Californians.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The process of hashing out reparations can seem daunting. and the U.S. has not fully reckoned with its deepest harms, like enslavement of Black Americans or the genocide of Native Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the U.S. has provided reparations before — namely, for Japanese Americans, who were taken from their homes all over the West Coast and incarcerated during World War 2. Now, \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California’s current reparations task force is modeled, in part, after the commission that studied and recommended reparations for American citizens of Japanese ancestry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, we look back on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11906015/how-japanese-americans-in-the-bay-area-are-carrying-forward-the-legacy-of-reparations\">what it took for Japanese Americans in the Bay Area to fight for reparations\u003c/a> — and how that history is linked to the reparations process unfolding right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Guest: \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/sharkfinney\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Annelise Finney\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, KQED reporter\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/35ILats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Episode Transcript \u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC1841573922&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11876194/first-in-the-us-californias-task-force-on-reparations-looks-at-harms-of-slavery\">California launched the first-in-the-nation statewide task force to study reparations for Black people\u003c/a>, with special consideration for descendants of those enslaved in the United States. Even though California entered the union as a slavery-free state in 1850, that didn’t mean slavery didn’t exist here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As gold rush prospectors flooded the state, enslaved Black people were sometimes imported to work in the mines. And even Black people who entered the state free from bondage didn’t always stay free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, California law allowed so-called “slave catchers” to abduct free Black people and take them to slave states, and sanctioned the reenslavement of Black people freed by their enslavers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">we continue to cover the push for reparations\u003c/a>, we’re diving back into the history of the very last case of the enslavement of Black people in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Reparations in California\" link1=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2022/02/RiCLandingPageGraphic-1020x574.png\"]This is the story of California’s last known slavery case, the state’s first Black church and how they converge with the unknown history of a free laundryman named Daniel Blue.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Celebrating California’s first Black church\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“Good morning, St. Andrews,” called out Rev. Philip R. Cousin Jr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a Sunday morning in late January, the church pews at \u003ca href=\"http://standrewsame.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church\u003c/a> were filled with worshipers. Many have been attending St. Andrews — the first African American church on the west coast — for generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“St. Andrew’s is the best kept secret in the entire city of Sacramento,” said Cousin. “We were organized prior to statehood, so that gives us a bit of a foothold here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The church was established in 1850 by free men and former enslaved people who had recently arrived in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first thing that was done was to establish a community,” said Cousin. “And at the center of that community is always a church.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>St. Andrews was founded by Daniel Blue, who was formerly enslaved in Kentucky. He settled in California, made a fortune mining on the Sacramento River, and subsequently opened a laundry. With this wealth, he bought a house next door to California’s pro-slavery governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett. Blue held St. Andrews’ first service in his own basement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11818589\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 286px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11818589\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43194_IMG_6499-qut-800x928.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"286\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43194_IMG_6499-qut-800x928.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43194_IMG_6499-qut-160x186.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43194_IMG_6499-qut-1020x1183.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43194_IMG_6499-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 286px) 100vw, 286px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A portrait of Daniel Blue hanging on the walls of St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church. \u003ccite>(Asal Ehsanipour/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Blue catapulted the church into ground zero for anti-slavery and social justice activism. Out of St. Andrews, Blue and his wife, Lucinda, opened a school for Black, Native American and Asian American children, even soliciting donations from the public when the state refused to fund it. In November 1855, St. Andrews hosted the \u003ca href=\"https://omeka.coloredconventions.org/files/original/e2ddec1776e38c21ee7782d6b4d96eba.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first statewide convention of the California Colored Citizens\u003c/a> to develop strategies for legislation to advance the rights of people of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In Sacramento, St. Andrews was able to pull together a coalition of people of color and say, ‘Look, we can go to the court and demand these rights,’” said Cousin. “‘We can go to the state and demand to be counted as citizens.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the first Black church in California, St. Andrews imbued its anti-slavery values to other African Methodist Episcopal churches around the state. It all started with Daniel Blue, whose influence on California state history was revolutionary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Blue left another indelible, albeit lesser known mark on state history: He freed California’s last known slave.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Discovering California’s last known slavery case\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11818592\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 283px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11818592\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"283\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-1122x1496.jpg 1122w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-840x1120.jpg 840w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-687x916.jpg 687w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-414x552.jpg 414w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-354x472.jpg 354w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The original court records of Daniel Blue’s petition to free Edith from enslavement are located at the Center for Sacramento History. \u003ccite>(Asal Ehsanipour/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Edith was a 12-year-old enslaved girl brought to rural Sacramento from Missouri in 1863. Shortly after, Edith was illegally purchased by Walter Gammon, a local farmer from Tennessee. According to court testimonies, witnesses said Gammon beat the young girl and left her without care or necessary clothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Word of Edith’s plight got back to Blue, who was a leader in Sacramento’s African American community. On Feb. 29, 1864 he filed a writ of habeas corpus in the county court, forcing Gammon to bring Edith to the judge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gammon responded that Edith stayed with him “of her own free will and choice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to Gammon, Blue requested that the judge grant him legal guardianship of Edith. The judge ruled in Blue’s favor, citing the slaveholder had “unlawfully and illegally detained and restrained” Edith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the last known slavery case in California’s history, 15 years after California entered the union as a free state.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The persistence of slavery in California\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“[This story] shows us the persistence of enslavement in California,” said Stacey Smith, an associate professor of history at Oregon State University, who has written extensively on this case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Smith, there is no evidence of how Blue discovered Edith, who was isolated in the rural outskirts of Sacramento. Smith attributes Edith’s freedom to the grapevine networks among local African Americans — like those who attended St. Andrews, which had become the focal point of Black political life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s astounding that African Americans were able to infiltrate the household of Walter Gammon, figure out that Edith was there [as] a slave, figure out that she was being abused, and bring the case to the state courts to liberate her from enslavement,” said Smith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bringing Edith’s case to the courts wouldn’t have even been possible until 1863, because of a law prohibiting African American, Chinese, and Native American testimony in cases involving white defendants and plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Rev. Philip R. Cousin Jr.\"]‘We keep our founders’ heritage alive by keeping the flames burning of what impassioned them, because those values don’t wear out.’[/pullquote]Daniel Blue filed his probate case immediately after the law was lifted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s pretty clear there are Black witnesses who talk about the treatment of Edith under the care of Walter Gammon,” Smith continued. “They probably wouldn’t have been able to testify had that law still been on the books.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Smith, laws like these were not uncommon as California’s pro-slavery legislators used their power to uphold pro-slavery attitudes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California did have a large pro-slavery population,” said Smith. “Pro-slavery southerners made up a surprising number of the immigrants that came overland to mine gold in the Gold Rush.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of these Southerners brought enslaved people to work in the mines. To protect the rights of slaveholders, California enacted its own version of the Fugitive Slave Act, which prohibited enslaved people from escaping their masters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>White Californians were perhaps uninterested in establishing slavery in California, according to Smith. Rather, they sought to maintain slaveholder rights while eliminating competition for economic advancement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The West really was meant to be a paradise for free white workers,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, white legislators enacted \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/hs/im/didyouknow1.asp\">a series of laws\u003c/a> to suppress the advancement of people of color. A vast majority of African Americans in California were manual laborers. Many of them drove carts, painted fences, or were domestic servants. Most were unable to buy land or ascend socially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daniel Blue, on the other hand, accomplished both. Known as “Uncle Daniel,” the former slave became a well-respected figure in the Sacramento community. Admired by people from all backgrounds, Blue used his unprecedented influence to champion not only other African Americans, but all people of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Daniel Blue’s enduring legacy\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At the Center for Sacramento History, archivist Kim Hayden pulled out a leatherbound newspaper from the dusty archives. She was looking for Daniel Blue’s obituary, titled “An Old Man Gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The obituary begins: “Daniel Blue, a colored citizen known to all the people of Sacramento and who died suddenly this week in the eighty ninth year of his age, was one of the most familiar figures on Sacramento streets for over a quarter of a century. He is to be buried tomorrow for Sacramento. And to have said he did not know Uncle Daniel Blue was to argue his ignorance of the city and its people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The obituary described Daniel Blue’s accomplishments, intellect, and how he was beloved by Black and white people alike — but there was no mention of Edith or Blue’s involvement in setting her free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But according to Smith, there is evidence that Edith had a happy ending. The 1870 census listed a woman in Sacramento named Adda, Edith’s nickname. She was 19 years old, the same age Edith would have been. The census said she married an African American man, and they had a one-year-old son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11818602\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11818602\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43197_3781652D-5053-4698-9030-D7833A2993CD-qut-800x568.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43197_3781652D-5053-4698-9030-D7833A2993CD-qut-800x568.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43197_3781652D-5053-4698-9030-D7833A2993CD-qut-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43197_3781652D-5053-4698-9030-D7833A2993CD-qut-1020x724.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43197_3781652D-5053-4698-9030-D7833A2993CD-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">St. Andrews was founded in 1850, several months before California entered the union. The current building is now recognized as a State Historic Landmark.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Edith or Blue’s living descendants weren’t reachable for this story, but it is apparent that Blue’s legacy lives on with St. Andrews and its community of worshippers — even during the coronavirus pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The church has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/st.andrews1850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hosting\u003c/a> virtual bible study and church services every week, after closing its doors due to California’s shelter-in-place order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11790005,news_11789158,news_11701126\" label=\"Related Coverage\"]“We keep our founders’ heritage alive by keeping the flames burning of what impassioned them, because those values don’t wear out,” Cousin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under Cousin’s leadership, the congregation is carrying out Blue’s vision of community, education and social action. Now, he says, the focus is on voting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whatever we do out there is an expression of what we have learned and professed to believe in here,” said Cousin. “We encourage everyone to participate at every level in the life of the community. Certainly that means exercising their right to vote, particularly since that is not a right that has been ours for a very long time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cousin says voting is the antithesis of standing around and waiting for something to happen. Voting is taking action — much like establishing the first Black church in California, or adopting a little girl out of slavery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published on May 16, 2020.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported as part of \u003ca href=\"http://www.goldchainsca.org\">Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California\u003c/a>. The project aims to lift up the voices of courageous African American and Native American individuals who challenged their brutal treatment and demanded their civil rights, inspiring us with their ingenuity, resilience, and tenacity. Gold Chains is a collaboration between KQED, the ACLU of Northern CA, the California Historical Society, Laura Atkins, and the Equal Justice Society.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11876194/first-in-the-us-californias-task-force-on-reparations-looks-at-harms-of-slavery\">California launched the first-in-the-nation statewide task force to study reparations for Black people\u003c/a>, with special consideration for descendants of those enslaved in the United States. Even though California entered the union as a slavery-free state in 1850, that didn’t mean slavery didn’t exist here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As gold rush prospectors flooded the state, enslaved Black people were sometimes imported to work in the mines. And even Black people who entered the state free from bondage didn’t always stay free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, California law allowed so-called “slave catchers” to abduct free Black people and take them to slave states, and sanctioned the reenslavement of Black people freed by their enslavers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">we continue to cover the push for reparations\u003c/a>, we’re diving back into the history of the very last case of the enslavement of Black people in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This is the story of California’s last known slavery case, the state’s first Black church and how they converge with the unknown history of a free laundryman named Daniel Blue.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Celebrating California’s first Black church\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“Good morning, St. Andrews,” called out Rev. Philip R. Cousin Jr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a Sunday morning in late January, the church pews at \u003ca href=\"http://standrewsame.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church\u003c/a> were filled with worshipers. Many have been attending St. Andrews — the first African American church on the west coast — for generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“St. Andrew’s is the best kept secret in the entire city of Sacramento,” said Cousin. “We were organized prior to statehood, so that gives us a bit of a foothold here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The church was established in 1850 by free men and former enslaved people who had recently arrived in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first thing that was done was to establish a community,” said Cousin. “And at the center of that community is always a church.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>St. Andrews was founded by Daniel Blue, who was formerly enslaved in Kentucky. He settled in California, made a fortune mining on the Sacramento River, and subsequently opened a laundry. With this wealth, he bought a house next door to California’s pro-slavery governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett. Blue held St. Andrews’ first service in his own basement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11818589\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 286px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11818589\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43194_IMG_6499-qut-800x928.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"286\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43194_IMG_6499-qut-800x928.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43194_IMG_6499-qut-160x186.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43194_IMG_6499-qut-1020x1183.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43194_IMG_6499-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 286px) 100vw, 286px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A portrait of Daniel Blue hanging on the walls of St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church. \u003ccite>(Asal Ehsanipour/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Blue catapulted the church into ground zero for anti-slavery and social justice activism. Out of St. Andrews, Blue and his wife, Lucinda, opened a school for Black, Native American and Asian American children, even soliciting donations from the public when the state refused to fund it. In November 1855, St. Andrews hosted the \u003ca href=\"https://omeka.coloredconventions.org/files/original/e2ddec1776e38c21ee7782d6b4d96eba.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first statewide convention of the California Colored Citizens\u003c/a> to develop strategies for legislation to advance the rights of people of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In Sacramento, St. Andrews was able to pull together a coalition of people of color and say, ‘Look, we can go to the court and demand these rights,’” said Cousin. “‘We can go to the state and demand to be counted as citizens.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the first Black church in California, St. Andrews imbued its anti-slavery values to other African Methodist Episcopal churches around the state. It all started with Daniel Blue, whose influence on California state history was revolutionary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Blue left another indelible, albeit lesser known mark on state history: He freed California’s last known slave.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Discovering California’s last known slavery case\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11818592\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 283px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11818592\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"283\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-1122x1496.jpg 1122w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-840x1120.jpg 840w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-687x916.jpg 687w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-414x552.jpg 414w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43196_IMG_6478-qut-354x472.jpg 354w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The original court records of Daniel Blue’s petition to free Edith from enslavement are located at the Center for Sacramento History. \u003ccite>(Asal Ehsanipour/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Edith was a 12-year-old enslaved girl brought to rural Sacramento from Missouri in 1863. Shortly after, Edith was illegally purchased by Walter Gammon, a local farmer from Tennessee. According to court testimonies, witnesses said Gammon beat the young girl and left her without care or necessary clothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Word of Edith’s plight got back to Blue, who was a leader in Sacramento’s African American community. On Feb. 29, 1864 he filed a writ of habeas corpus in the county court, forcing Gammon to bring Edith to the judge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gammon responded that Edith stayed with him “of her own free will and choice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to Gammon, Blue requested that the judge grant him legal guardianship of Edith. The judge ruled in Blue’s favor, citing the slaveholder had “unlawfully and illegally detained and restrained” Edith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the last known slavery case in California’s history, 15 years after California entered the union as a free state.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The persistence of slavery in California\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“[This story] shows us the persistence of enslavement in California,” said Stacey Smith, an associate professor of history at Oregon State University, who has written extensively on this case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Smith, there is no evidence of how Blue discovered Edith, who was isolated in the rural outskirts of Sacramento. Smith attributes Edith’s freedom to the grapevine networks among local African Americans — like those who attended St. Andrews, which had become the focal point of Black political life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s astounding that African Americans were able to infiltrate the household of Walter Gammon, figure out that Edith was there [as] a slave, figure out that she was being abused, and bring the case to the state courts to liberate her from enslavement,” said Smith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bringing Edith’s case to the courts wouldn’t have even been possible until 1863, because of a law prohibiting African American, Chinese, and Native American testimony in cases involving white defendants and plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Daniel Blue filed his probate case immediately after the law was lifted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s pretty clear there are Black witnesses who talk about the treatment of Edith under the care of Walter Gammon,” Smith continued. “They probably wouldn’t have been able to testify had that law still been on the books.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Smith, laws like these were not uncommon as California’s pro-slavery legislators used their power to uphold pro-slavery attitudes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California did have a large pro-slavery population,” said Smith. “Pro-slavery southerners made up a surprising number of the immigrants that came overland to mine gold in the Gold Rush.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of these Southerners brought enslaved people to work in the mines. To protect the rights of slaveholders, California enacted its own version of the Fugitive Slave Act, which prohibited enslaved people from escaping their masters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>White Californians were perhaps uninterested in establishing slavery in California, according to Smith. Rather, they sought to maintain slaveholder rights while eliminating competition for economic advancement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The West really was meant to be a paradise for free white workers,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, white legislators enacted \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/hs/im/didyouknow1.asp\">a series of laws\u003c/a> to suppress the advancement of people of color. A vast majority of African Americans in California were manual laborers. Many of them drove carts, painted fences, or were domestic servants. Most were unable to buy land or ascend socially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daniel Blue, on the other hand, accomplished both. Known as “Uncle Daniel,” the former slave became a well-respected figure in the Sacramento community. Admired by people from all backgrounds, Blue used his unprecedented influence to champion not only other African Americans, but all people of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Daniel Blue’s enduring legacy\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At the Center for Sacramento History, archivist Kim Hayden pulled out a leatherbound newspaper from the dusty archives. She was looking for Daniel Blue’s obituary, titled “An Old Man Gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The obituary begins: “Daniel Blue, a colored citizen known to all the people of Sacramento and who died suddenly this week in the eighty ninth year of his age, was one of the most familiar figures on Sacramento streets for over a quarter of a century. He is to be buried tomorrow for Sacramento. And to have said he did not know Uncle Daniel Blue was to argue his ignorance of the city and its people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The obituary described Daniel Blue’s accomplishments, intellect, and how he was beloved by Black and white people alike — but there was no mention of Edith or Blue’s involvement in setting her free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But according to Smith, there is evidence that Edith had a happy ending. The 1870 census listed a woman in Sacramento named Adda, Edith’s nickname. She was 19 years old, the same age Edith would have been. The census said she married an African American man, and they had a one-year-old son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11818602\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11818602\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43197_3781652D-5053-4698-9030-D7833A2993CD-qut-800x568.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43197_3781652D-5053-4698-9030-D7833A2993CD-qut-800x568.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43197_3781652D-5053-4698-9030-D7833A2993CD-qut-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43197_3781652D-5053-4698-9030-D7833A2993CD-qut-1020x724.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/05/RS43197_3781652D-5053-4698-9030-D7833A2993CD-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">St. Andrews was founded in 1850, several months before California entered the union. The current building is now recognized as a State Historic Landmark.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Edith or Blue’s living descendants weren’t reachable for this story, but it is apparent that Blue’s legacy lives on with St. Andrews and its community of worshippers — even during the coronavirus pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The church has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/st.andrews1850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hosting\u003c/a> virtual bible study and church services every week, after closing its doors due to California’s shelter-in-place order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We keep our founders’ heritage alive by keeping the flames burning of what impassioned them, because those values don’t wear out,” Cousin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under Cousin’s leadership, the congregation is carrying out Blue’s vision of community, education and social action. Now, he says, the focus is on voting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whatever we do out there is an expression of what we have learned and professed to believe in here,” said Cousin. “We encourage everyone to participate at every level in the life of the community. Certainly that means exercising their right to vote, particularly since that is not a right that has been ours for a very long time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cousin says voting is the antithesis of standing around and waiting for something to happen. Voting is taking action — much like establishing the first Black church in California, or adopting a little girl out of slavery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published on May 16, 2020.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported as part of \u003ca href=\"http://www.goldchainsca.org\">Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California\u003c/a>. The project aims to lift up the voices of courageous African American and Native American individuals who challenged their brutal treatment and demanded their civil rights, inspiring us with their ingenuity, resilience, and tenacity. Gold Chains is a collaboration between KQED, the ACLU of Northern CA, the California Historical Society, Laura Atkins, and the Equal Justice Society.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "it-means-to-repair-what-you-should-know-about-reparations-for-black-californians",
"title": "'It Means to Repair': What You Should Know About Reparations for Black Californians",
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"headTitle": "‘It Means to Repair’: What You Should Know About Reparations for Black Californians | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated Thursday, May 12\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">Reparations in California\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> is a series of KQED stories exploring the road to racial equity in the state.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Skip straight to: \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#definition\">What’s the definition of reparations?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#taskforce\">Why did California create a task force to study reparations?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#paidbefore\">Have reparations been paid before?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#talkingnow\">Why are we talking about reparations now when slavery ended so long ago?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#needed\">Are reparations needed?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#enterunion\">Didn’t California enter the union as a slavery-free state?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#owed\">What is owed and who is eligible?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#looklike\">What might reparations look like? And how will compensation be granted?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#cities\">Do California cities have their own reparations programs?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#happensafter\">What happens after the task force delivers its recommendations? And how can I participate?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]I[/dropcap] was born and raised in California, and I feel a certain pride to be a product of this state. I’ve even considered getting a tattoo of the California produce sticker, like the neon orange ones from my youth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My mother, who self-identifies as an Italian Jew, grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. She arrived in California in the 1970s as a divorcée with a young child in tow — my brother. My father was raised in a Catholic family in rural Kerala, India. They had a mixed-faith and mixed-race marriage, but they found a home in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My family benefited from government-subsidized housing in Palo Alto, one of the wealthiest cities in the country. My family story and personal trajectory could have been very different had either of my parents been Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the roots of racism run deep in this state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why I’ve been concentrating my reporting on the California Reparations Task Force, a nine-member body created to study and develop reparations proposals for Black Californians, with special consideration for descendants of those enslaved in the United States. The task force, which began conducting meetings in June 2021, is a result of \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB3121\">Assembly Bill 3121\u003c/a>, a bill \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11876194/first-in-the-us-californias-task-force-on-reparations-looks-at-harms-of-slavery\">written by Shirley Weber\u003c/a>, currently California’s secretary of state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11876194 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1920_GettyImages-941502582-1020x574.jpg']Academics, who have studied the various ways in which racism and white supremacy have created lasting inequities in the state, have testified before the task force, as have people who have been affected by that racism. The meetings are creating a necessary archive of California’s history that wasn’t taught in most schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I chose to cover the task force, not only because it’s groundbreaking and its recommendations could potentially serve as a model for the rest of the country, but also because the hearings are deeply moving. There’s a disconnect between who we say we are as Californians and what we do in practice. We should unpack the history of this state and reexamine it in a way that decenters whiteness and the prevailing sanitized version of our history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s important for the future of our aspiring multiracial democracy to set the record straight — and, as Amos Brown, the pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco and vice chair of the task force likes to say, “return to the scene of the crime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The egregious discrimination and racism in California can be traced to the state’s founding. It’s necessary to look at the systems put in place by the state’s “founding fathers” that were designed to allow some to prosper and others to fail. So, when people ask me why I’m so interested in reparations, what I want to ask in return is, “Why aren’t you?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Reparations in California\" link1=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2022/02/RiCLandingPageGraphic-1020x574.png\"]The call for reparations is specifically about race and enslavement, but it touches on basic questions of accountability and fairness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1850, California entered the union as a slavery-free state. Still, \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclunc.org/sites/goldchains/index.html\">the state benefited from the exploitation of enslaved Black and Indigenous people\u003c/a>, as documented by Gold Chains, the ACLU’s exhaustive look at the hidden history of slavery in California. The beauty and promise of the state’s beaches and palm-tree-lined educational institutions contrasts starkly with its ugly past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ongoing ramifications of slavery are seen in the glaring disparities in the criminal justice system and health outcomes. Historical data also shows that \u003ca href=\"https://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/institute-working-papers/income-and-wealth-inequality-in-america-1949-2016\">no progress has been made in reducing wealth inequalities between Black and white\u003c/a> households over the past 70 years, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s coverage of the state’s reparations task force is for anyone who wonders about bigger questions like, why is there a disproportionate number of unhoused Black people? Why are incarceration rates highest for Black people? How do guns make it into Black communities? Why do Black communities lack what’s easily accessible to predominantly white communities?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grocery stores, libraries, restaurants, banks and basic investment are missing in Black communities, many that were formed because of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/lowdown/18486/redlining\">discriminatory redlining policies\u003c/a>. And when investors descend on Black communities, why is it that Black people are displaced?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>History provides context, and yet our education system fails to trace the throughlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906238\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906238\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/SlavesMine.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white image of men holding shovels standing next to a pile of rocks with a horse-drawn wagon in the background\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1722\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/SlavesMine.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/SlavesMine-800x718.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/SlavesMine-1020x915.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/SlavesMine-160x144.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/SlavesMine-1536x1378.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enslaved people work in a California gold mine in 1852. \u003ccite>(Universal Images Group via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Why haven’t Black people been compensated for more than two centuries of enslavement and the subsequent restrictive and discriminatory laws enacted to stifle their progress?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Reparations is an issue, ironically, that’s been used as a divisive issue, but it means to repair relationships — that should be seen as a very positive kind of thing to do,” Charles P. Henry, a professor emeritus of African American Studies at UC Berkeley, told me in an interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless you get an agreement on the basic facts of what happened, and then the acknowledgment of what happened, it’s impossible to move to the next process,” Henry continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you feel any sense of pride and appreciation for this state, and the nation as a whole, then examining California’s history is essential to imagining a more equitable future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I compiled this FAQ to help guide readers through understanding the work of the reparations task force, and how that work fits into the broader local and national conversations. Think of this as a living document, as I’ll be updating this space as the task force progresses.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"definition\">\u003c/a>What’s the definition of reparations?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The term “reparation” comes from “repair.” Scholars often see reparations as a form of redress that can take two forms: restitution or atonement. Restitution is often seen as concrete and monetary, while atonement focuses on the ethical, moral and intangible nature of apology. One without the other wouldn’t fly for true reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Charles P. Henry, professor emeritus of African American Studies, UC Berkeley\"]‘Reparations is an issue, ironically, that’s been used as a divisive issue — but it means to repair relationships.’[/pullquote]In modern reparations discussions, the focus is on three main principles: acknowledgment, redress and closure. For Roy L. Brooks, who provided expert testimony to the task force in September and is the author of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520343405/atonement-and-forgiveness\">Atonement and Forgiveness: A New Model for Black Reparations\u003c/a>,” a return of what has been unjustly taken is an essential element of reparations. In his book, he argues no one should be able to benefit from an injustice, and that victims should be compensated and the harm caused by the injustice removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"taskforce\">\u003c/a>Why did California create a task force to study reparations?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A better question might be, why has it taken so long for the United States to study and develop reparations proposals for ancestors of the enslaved? In the wake of protests after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, Shirley Weber, then a California Assemblymember, authored AB 3121. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill in September 2020, establishing the nine-member task force to examine ways California might provide reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task force is expected to submit a first report to the state Legislature this summer. A final report, which is expected to include recommendations and proposals, will be submitted next summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906229\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906229\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53402_001_KQED_CAReparatioinsTaskForce_01282022-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"screenshot of zoom meeting with participants faces\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53402_001_KQED_CAReparatioinsTaskForce_01282022-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53402_001_KQED_CAReparatioinsTaskForce_01282022-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53402_001_KQED_CAReparatioinsTaskForce_01282022-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53402_001_KQED_CAReparatioinsTaskForce_01282022-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53402_001_KQED_CAReparatioinsTaskForce_01282022-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the California Reparations Task Force listen to public comment during a virtual meeting on Jan. 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"paidbefore\">\u003c/a>Have reparations been paid before?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Yes, but not on the federal or state level for chattel slavery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might’ve heard about “40 acres and a mule” before. It’s the name of Spike Lee’s film production company. Here’s where that comes from: In 1865, Special Field Order No. 15 authorized the distribution of 40-acre parcels of abandoned or confiscated land in the Confederate South to emancipated people. Some were given mules left over from the war — hence, 40 acres and a mule. After President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, the \u003ca href=\"https://americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Racial-Relations-during-Reconstruction_.pdf\">Southern apologist and vice president Andrew Johnson\u003c/a> assumed the presidency. He ordered that all the redistributed land be returned to the original owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the federal level, reparations were awarded by the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 in response to the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry, many of whom were American citizens, during World War II. The legislation authorized a national apology, an education fund and individual payments of $20,000 to each surviving person who was imprisoned. Even earlier, in 1946, the federal government created the Indian Claims Commission to respond to more than 100 years of treaty violations and land theft from Indigenous peoples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11906015 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53414_006_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-1020x680.jpg']Several cities across the country, including Evanston, Illinois, and Asheville, North Carolina, have created reparation programs to address harms committed locally. On the state level, in 2021, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/12/31/california-launches-program-to-compensate-survivors-of-state-sponsored-sterilization/\">allocated financial compensation for survivors of forced sterilization\u003c/a> and acknowledged the wrongful sterilization of thousands of vulnerable people.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"talkingnow\">\u003c/a>Why are we talking about reparations now when slavery ended so long ago?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent racial reckoning, a greater awareness of structural inequities seems to have briefly seeped into the national consciousness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Discussions of systemic inequality and white supremacy gained traction in communities across the country and around the world. In 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/11/18246741/reparations-democrats-2020-inequality-warren-harris-castro\">several Democratic candidates for president issued statements expressing different levels of support for reparations\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charles P. Henry, professor emeritus of African American Studies at UC Berkeley, noted that public opinion polling has shifted generally to more “pro-reparations among Democrats and independents.” But he credits the development of the Black Lives Matter movement and the “embrace of white supremacy by the Trump administration” for amplifying the quest for reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906233\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906233\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS43421_005_KQED_Oakland_GeorgeFloydProtest_05292020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A young Black protester with pink bandana over their faces raises a fist along with other protesters\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS43421_005_KQED_Oakland_GeorgeFloydProtest_05292020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS43421_005_KQED_Oakland_GeorgeFloydProtest_05292020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS43421_005_KQED_Oakland_GeorgeFloydProtest_05292020-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS43421_005_KQED_Oakland_GeorgeFloydProtest_05292020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS43421_005_KQED_Oakland_GeorgeFloydProtest_05292020-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators march in downtown Oakland on May 29, 2020, during a protest over the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"needed\">\u003c/a>Are reparations needed?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Without some kind of policy change and reparations, wealth inequality will continue to grow. Thomas Craemer — a public policy professor specializing in race relations and reparations at the University of Connecticut who \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv2KNh0-_y8\">testified before California’s reparations task force in October\u003c/a> — has done calculations to understand the financial implications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Slavery produced the start-up capital for the rise of the U.S. economy at the exclusive expense of the African Americans who were enslaved,” he said. “Their descendants deserve recognition of this fact through a comprehensive federal reparations program. Whatever California can do to support the call for federal reparations to the African American descendants of the enslaved in the U.S. will be an exercise in the restoration of justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without any interventions, Craemer said the wealth gap could become even more pronounced. Closing the gap in California alone could cost $778.6 billion, Craemer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Has there been federal legislation for reparations for Black Americans?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/11/12/1054889820/a-bill-to-study-reparations-for-slavery-had-momentum-in-congress-but-still-no-vo\">HR 40\u003c/a>, named after the 40 acres promise, is a bill to study reparations on the national level. It was proposed by the late John Conyers Jr., a member of Congress from Michigan, for decades — every year since 1989 until he left office in 2017. In 2018, Sheila Jackson Lee, a member of Congress from Texas, took up the mantle. If passed, HR 40 would establish a 13-person commission to study the effects of slavery and racial discrimination in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"enterunion\">\u003c/a>Didn’t California enter the union as a slavery-free state?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When California became a state in 1850, enslaved people had already been imported to the state. The ACLU’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclunc.org/sites/goldchains/podcast/index.html\">Gold Chains podcast\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/task-force-meeting-materials-0921-part3.pdf\">testimony\u003c/a> to the state’s reparations task force from Stacy L. Smith, a USC professor and founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, provide an in-depth look at this early history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11905371 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/CA-capitol-building-1020x574.jpg']Smith’s testimony detailed how California’s early state government protected the institution of slavery and severely restricted Black people’s civil rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California’s state constitution proclaimed that “neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated in this State,” little was done to stop the violent exploitation of enslaved people.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"owed\">\u003c/a>What is owed?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There are many different calculations used to determine what the cost of labor would be in today’s terms. Some include calculations for unpaid wages, the purchase prices of human property or the land promised to the formerly enslaved. National estimates range from \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/12/slavery-reparations-cost-us-government-10-to-12-trillion.html\">$10 trillion\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"https://magazine.uconn.edu/2020/06/15/the-new-reparations-math/#\">$14 trillion\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who will be eligible?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>During the February meeting, the task force \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11909471/unpacking-reparations-eligibility-in-california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">voted 5-4 in favor of lineage-based reparations\u003c/a> — a decision that has the potential to set precedent and affect other local, state and federal plans for reparations. The definition of the community of eligibility is “based on lineage determined by an individual being an African American descendant of a chattel-enslaved person or the descendant of a free Black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century,” said task force member Jovan Scott Lewis, chair of UC Berkeley’s geography department, who introduced the motion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the task force has not yet determined what the formula for proving lineage will be. The criteria outlined by the authors of “From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century,” A. Kirsten Mullen and William A. Darity Jr., provides one model. Darity, a professor of public policy and economics at Duke, and Mullen, a writer and folklorist, suggest eligibility on a federal level be based on two factors: American citizens should establish that they had at least one enslaved ancestor after the formation of the republic, and they would have to prove they self-identified as Black or African American at least 12 years before a reparations program.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who has testified to California’s reparations task force?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As of February, over 30 people have provided their expertise. Some names that might be familiar include the following (click a name to watch their testimony):\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NRosq_2GCE\">Isabel Wilkerson\u003c/a>, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Warmth of Other Suns” and “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUE91a3cf_c\">Mehrsa Baradaran\u003c/a>, UC Irvine law professor and author of “The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap“\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/670990780?embedded=false&source=video_title&owner=5065180\">Safiya U. Noble\u003c/a>, internet studies scholar and professor of gender studies and African American studies at UCLA\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/vRtsUTLhqbc\">William Spriggs\u003c/a>, economics professor at Howard University and chief economist for the AFL-CIO\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/t72wzjJnIBo\">Rucker Johnson\u003c/a>, professor of public policy in the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/uEaNq95dXHk\">Daina Ramey Berry\u003c/a>, chair of the history department at the University of Texas at Austin\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao5any6D97c\">Darrick Hamilton\u003c/a>, professor of economics and urban policy at the New School for Social Research\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>A full list of those who have testified \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/meetings\">is available on the California Department of Justice website\u003c/a> under each meeting date.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"looklike\">\u003c/a>What might reparations look like?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kamilah Moore, the chair of California’s reparations task force, told KQED in a recent interview that reparations could look like direct payments, subsidies for free mental health care and other forms of restitution such as the return of land, similar to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11891836/a-black-family-got-their-beach-back-and-inspired-others-to-fight-against-land-theft\">case of Bruce’s Beach\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11891836 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/brucebeach_npr146-a9c2f203ff6c47e533d385d9548763cc026c8fc0-1020x764.jpg']Reparations might also take the form of policy changes in policing and sentencing. People who have testified before the task force have brought up education subsidies, support for genealogy studies, reinvestment and funding for archiving and preserving arts and culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How will compensation be granted?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The task force is working with a team of economists to decide how to compensate descendants of enslaved people and what financial models will be used to come up with a number. Many advocates and scholars believe that it would be best to have a federal reparations process instead of multiple separate state and local initiatives for the purpose of compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"cities\">\u003c/a>Do California cities have their own reparations programs?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some cities have established programs and committees to examine reparatory justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>San Francisco\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe San Francisco Board of Supervisors established the 15-member \u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/public-body/african-american-reparations-advisory-committee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee\u003c/a> in December 2020. The advisory committee holds public meetings on the second Monday of the month and submitted its \u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/sites/default/files/2022-01/AA%20Reparations%20Advisory%20Committee%20-%20December%202021%20Update%20FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first report\u003c/a> in December 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Berkeley\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe Berkeley City Council voted in March 2022 to allocate $350,000 for a consultant to design and implement a reparations process. The consultant is tasked with holding symposiums for the public about the generational wealth gap, barriers to economic mobility and systemic racism. They will also work with the community to make policy recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel it in my DNA. I feel like the people before me … whose bones are in the ground are humming right now,” said City Council member Ben Bartlett, who authored the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bartlett hopes to have someone in place before 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hayward\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nIn 2021, the Hayward City Council apologized for the harms from the real estate and banking industry against African Americans and other people of color. The Hayward Community Services Commission also created a list of 10 steps the city could take to address historical racism. Hayward’s formal apology to Russell City residents and their descendants was spurred by the actions of residents like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11897843/decades-after-cultural-genocide-residents-of-a-bulldozed-community-get-apology-from-hayward\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Artavia Berry, chair of the Hayward Community Services Commission\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are other local initiatives in Oakland, Alameda County, Compton and San Diego. Some argue that programs like Stockton’s universal basic income effort provide a form of reparatory justice. But since UBI programs are not specifically targeted toward descendants of enslaved people, they don’t meet the full definition of both restitution and atonement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Is there a local initiative in your community or city you would like to share? Let us know: Lsarah@kqed.org\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"happensafter\">\u003c/a>What happens after the task force delivers its recommendations?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It will be up to the Legislature to decide whether or not to implement policy change or act upon the recommendations from the task force.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who gets to participate?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There are a few different ways to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898258/how-to-participate-in-californias-reparations-task-force-meetings\">get involved\u003c/a>, such as watching meetings online and participating in public comment. But there’s also a bigger push to hear from African Americans in California through listening sessions across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, the state reparations task force, in partnership with the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, will begin conducting sessions to hear from individuals. The session logistics are still being worked out, but the basic goal is to hear from California’s diverse Black communities about how the legacy of slavery has affected their lives and how they’d like to see California work to make it right.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How do I stay informed?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By watching this space, of course. You also can keep an eye on the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, a statewide coalition of organizations and one of the anchor organizations working with the task force, to stay informed about upcoming events and listening sessions. California’s Department of Justice \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/meetings\">shares information from each meeting\u003c/a>, including meeting materials with a detailed agenda.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated Thursday, May 12\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">Reparations in California\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> is a series of KQED stories exploring the road to racial equity in the state.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Skip straight to: \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#definition\">What’s the definition of reparations?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#taskforce\">Why did California create a task force to study reparations?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#paidbefore\">Have reparations been paid before?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#talkingnow\">Why are we talking about reparations now when slavery ended so long ago?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#needed\">Are reparations needed?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#enterunion\">Didn’t California enter the union as a slavery-free state?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#owed\">What is owed and who is eligible?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#looklike\">What might reparations look like? And how will compensation be granted?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#cities\">Do California cities have their own reparations programs?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#happensafter\">What happens after the task force delivers its recommendations? And how can I participate?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp> was born and raised in California, and I feel a certain pride to be a product of this state. I’ve even considered getting a tattoo of the California produce sticker, like the neon orange ones from my youth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My mother, who self-identifies as an Italian Jew, grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. She arrived in California in the 1970s as a divorcée with a young child in tow — my brother. My father was raised in a Catholic family in rural Kerala, India. They had a mixed-faith and mixed-race marriage, but they found a home in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My family benefited from government-subsidized housing in Palo Alto, one of the wealthiest cities in the country. My family story and personal trajectory could have been very different had either of my parents been Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the roots of racism run deep in this state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why I’ve been concentrating my reporting on the California Reparations Task Force, a nine-member body created to study and develop reparations proposals for Black Californians, with special consideration for descendants of those enslaved in the United States. The task force, which began conducting meetings in June 2021, is a result of \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB3121\">Assembly Bill 3121\u003c/a>, a bill \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11876194/first-in-the-us-californias-task-force-on-reparations-looks-at-harms-of-slavery\">written by Shirley Weber\u003c/a>, currently California’s secretary of state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Academics, who have studied the various ways in which racism and white supremacy have created lasting inequities in the state, have testified before the task force, as have people who have been affected by that racism. The meetings are creating a necessary archive of California’s history that wasn’t taught in most schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I chose to cover the task force, not only because it’s groundbreaking and its recommendations could potentially serve as a model for the rest of the country, but also because the hearings are deeply moving. There’s a disconnect between who we say we are as Californians and what we do in practice. We should unpack the history of this state and reexamine it in a way that decenters whiteness and the prevailing sanitized version of our history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s important for the future of our aspiring multiracial democracy to set the record straight — and, as Amos Brown, the pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco and vice chair of the task force likes to say, “return to the scene of the crime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The egregious discrimination and racism in California can be traced to the state’s founding. It’s necessary to look at the systems put in place by the state’s “founding fathers” that were designed to allow some to prosper and others to fail. So, when people ask me why I’m so interested in reparations, what I want to ask in return is, “Why aren’t you?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The call for reparations is specifically about race and enslavement, but it touches on basic questions of accountability and fairness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1850, California entered the union as a slavery-free state. Still, \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclunc.org/sites/goldchains/index.html\">the state benefited from the exploitation of enslaved Black and Indigenous people\u003c/a>, as documented by Gold Chains, the ACLU’s exhaustive look at the hidden history of slavery in California. The beauty and promise of the state’s beaches and palm-tree-lined educational institutions contrasts starkly with its ugly past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ongoing ramifications of slavery are seen in the glaring disparities in the criminal justice system and health outcomes. Historical data also shows that \u003ca href=\"https://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/institute-working-papers/income-and-wealth-inequality-in-america-1949-2016\">no progress has been made in reducing wealth inequalities between Black and white\u003c/a> households over the past 70 years, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s coverage of the state’s reparations task force is for anyone who wonders about bigger questions like, why is there a disproportionate number of unhoused Black people? Why are incarceration rates highest for Black people? How do guns make it into Black communities? Why do Black communities lack what’s easily accessible to predominantly white communities?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grocery stores, libraries, restaurants, banks and basic investment are missing in Black communities, many that were formed because of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/lowdown/18486/redlining\">discriminatory redlining policies\u003c/a>. And when investors descend on Black communities, why is it that Black people are displaced?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>History provides context, and yet our education system fails to trace the throughlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906238\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906238\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/SlavesMine.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white image of men holding shovels standing next to a pile of rocks with a horse-drawn wagon in the background\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1722\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/SlavesMine.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/SlavesMine-800x718.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/SlavesMine-1020x915.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/SlavesMine-160x144.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/SlavesMine-1536x1378.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enslaved people work in a California gold mine in 1852. \u003ccite>(Universal Images Group via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Why haven’t Black people been compensated for more than two centuries of enslavement and the subsequent restrictive and discriminatory laws enacted to stifle their progress?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Reparations is an issue, ironically, that’s been used as a divisive issue, but it means to repair relationships — that should be seen as a very positive kind of thing to do,” Charles P. Henry, a professor emeritus of African American Studies at UC Berkeley, told me in an interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless you get an agreement on the basic facts of what happened, and then the acknowledgment of what happened, it’s impossible to move to the next process,” Henry continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you feel any sense of pride and appreciation for this state, and the nation as a whole, then examining California’s history is essential to imagining a more equitable future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I compiled this FAQ to help guide readers through understanding the work of the reparations task force, and how that work fits into the broader local and national conversations. Think of this as a living document, as I’ll be updating this space as the task force progresses.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"definition\">\u003c/a>What’s the definition of reparations?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The term “reparation” comes from “repair.” Scholars often see reparations as a form of redress that can take two forms: restitution or atonement. Restitution is often seen as concrete and monetary, while atonement focuses on the ethical, moral and intangible nature of apology. One without the other wouldn’t fly for true reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In modern reparations discussions, the focus is on three main principles: acknowledgment, redress and closure. For Roy L. Brooks, who provided expert testimony to the task force in September and is the author of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520343405/atonement-and-forgiveness\">Atonement and Forgiveness: A New Model for Black Reparations\u003c/a>,” a return of what has been unjustly taken is an essential element of reparations. In his book, he argues no one should be able to benefit from an injustice, and that victims should be compensated and the harm caused by the injustice removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"taskforce\">\u003c/a>Why did California create a task force to study reparations?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A better question might be, why has it taken so long for the United States to study and develop reparations proposals for ancestors of the enslaved? In the wake of protests after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, Shirley Weber, then a California Assemblymember, authored AB 3121. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill in September 2020, establishing the nine-member task force to examine ways California might provide reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task force is expected to submit a first report to the state Legislature this summer. A final report, which is expected to include recommendations and proposals, will be submitted next summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906229\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906229\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53402_001_KQED_CAReparatioinsTaskForce_01282022-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"screenshot of zoom meeting with participants faces\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53402_001_KQED_CAReparatioinsTaskForce_01282022-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53402_001_KQED_CAReparatioinsTaskForce_01282022-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53402_001_KQED_CAReparatioinsTaskForce_01282022-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53402_001_KQED_CAReparatioinsTaskForce_01282022-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53402_001_KQED_CAReparatioinsTaskForce_01282022-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the California Reparations Task Force listen to public comment during a virtual meeting on Jan. 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"paidbefore\">\u003c/a>Have reparations been paid before?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Yes, but not on the federal or state level for chattel slavery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might’ve heard about “40 acres and a mule” before. It’s the name of Spike Lee’s film production company. Here’s where that comes from: In 1865, Special Field Order No. 15 authorized the distribution of 40-acre parcels of abandoned or confiscated land in the Confederate South to emancipated people. Some were given mules left over from the war — hence, 40 acres and a mule. After President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, the \u003ca href=\"https://americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Racial-Relations-during-Reconstruction_.pdf\">Southern apologist and vice president Andrew Johnson\u003c/a> assumed the presidency. He ordered that all the redistributed land be returned to the original owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the federal level, reparations were awarded by the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 in response to the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry, many of whom were American citizens, during World War II. The legislation authorized a national apology, an education fund and individual payments of $20,000 to each surviving person who was imprisoned. Even earlier, in 1946, the federal government created the Indian Claims Commission to respond to more than 100 years of treaty violations and land theft from Indigenous peoples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Several cities across the country, including Evanston, Illinois, and Asheville, North Carolina, have created reparation programs to address harms committed locally. On the state level, in 2021, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/12/31/california-launches-program-to-compensate-survivors-of-state-sponsored-sterilization/\">allocated financial compensation for survivors of forced sterilization\u003c/a> and acknowledged the wrongful sterilization of thousands of vulnerable people.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"talkingnow\">\u003c/a>Why are we talking about reparations now when slavery ended so long ago?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent racial reckoning, a greater awareness of structural inequities seems to have briefly seeped into the national consciousness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Discussions of systemic inequality and white supremacy gained traction in communities across the country and around the world. In 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/11/18246741/reparations-democrats-2020-inequality-warren-harris-castro\">several Democratic candidates for president issued statements expressing different levels of support for reparations\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charles P. Henry, professor emeritus of African American Studies at UC Berkeley, noted that public opinion polling has shifted generally to more “pro-reparations among Democrats and independents.” But he credits the development of the Black Lives Matter movement and the “embrace of white supremacy by the Trump administration” for amplifying the quest for reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906233\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906233\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS43421_005_KQED_Oakland_GeorgeFloydProtest_05292020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A young Black protester with pink bandana over their faces raises a fist along with other protesters\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS43421_005_KQED_Oakland_GeorgeFloydProtest_05292020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS43421_005_KQED_Oakland_GeorgeFloydProtest_05292020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS43421_005_KQED_Oakland_GeorgeFloydProtest_05292020-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS43421_005_KQED_Oakland_GeorgeFloydProtest_05292020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS43421_005_KQED_Oakland_GeorgeFloydProtest_05292020-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators march in downtown Oakland on May 29, 2020, during a protest over the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"needed\">\u003c/a>Are reparations needed?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Without some kind of policy change and reparations, wealth inequality will continue to grow. Thomas Craemer — a public policy professor specializing in race relations and reparations at the University of Connecticut who \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv2KNh0-_y8\">testified before California’s reparations task force in October\u003c/a> — has done calculations to understand the financial implications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Slavery produced the start-up capital for the rise of the U.S. economy at the exclusive expense of the African Americans who were enslaved,” he said. “Their descendants deserve recognition of this fact through a comprehensive federal reparations program. Whatever California can do to support the call for federal reparations to the African American descendants of the enslaved in the U.S. will be an exercise in the restoration of justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without any interventions, Craemer said the wealth gap could become even more pronounced. Closing the gap in California alone could cost $778.6 billion, Craemer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Has there been federal legislation for reparations for Black Americans?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/11/12/1054889820/a-bill-to-study-reparations-for-slavery-had-momentum-in-congress-but-still-no-vo\">HR 40\u003c/a>, named after the 40 acres promise, is a bill to study reparations on the national level. It was proposed by the late John Conyers Jr., a member of Congress from Michigan, for decades — every year since 1989 until he left office in 2017. In 2018, Sheila Jackson Lee, a member of Congress from Texas, took up the mantle. If passed, HR 40 would establish a 13-person commission to study the effects of slavery and racial discrimination in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"enterunion\">\u003c/a>Didn’t California enter the union as a slavery-free state?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When California became a state in 1850, enslaved people had already been imported to the state. The ACLU’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclunc.org/sites/goldchains/podcast/index.html\">Gold Chains podcast\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/task-force-meeting-materials-0921-part3.pdf\">testimony\u003c/a> to the state’s reparations task force from Stacy L. Smith, a USC professor and founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, provide an in-depth look at this early history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Smith’s testimony detailed how California’s early state government protected the institution of slavery and severely restricted Black people’s civil rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California’s state constitution proclaimed that “neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated in this State,” little was done to stop the violent exploitation of enslaved people.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"owed\">\u003c/a>What is owed?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There are many different calculations used to determine what the cost of labor would be in today’s terms. Some include calculations for unpaid wages, the purchase prices of human property or the land promised to the formerly enslaved. National estimates range from \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/12/slavery-reparations-cost-us-government-10-to-12-trillion.html\">$10 trillion\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"https://magazine.uconn.edu/2020/06/15/the-new-reparations-math/#\">$14 trillion\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who will be eligible?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>During the February meeting, the task force \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11909471/unpacking-reparations-eligibility-in-california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">voted 5-4 in favor of lineage-based reparations\u003c/a> — a decision that has the potential to set precedent and affect other local, state and federal plans for reparations. The definition of the community of eligibility is “based on lineage determined by an individual being an African American descendant of a chattel-enslaved person or the descendant of a free Black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century,” said task force member Jovan Scott Lewis, chair of UC Berkeley’s geography department, who introduced the motion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the task force has not yet determined what the formula for proving lineage will be. The criteria outlined by the authors of “From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century,” A. Kirsten Mullen and William A. Darity Jr., provides one model. Darity, a professor of public policy and economics at Duke, and Mullen, a writer and folklorist, suggest eligibility on a federal level be based on two factors: American citizens should establish that they had at least one enslaved ancestor after the formation of the republic, and they would have to prove they self-identified as Black or African American at least 12 years before a reparations program.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who has testified to California’s reparations task force?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As of February, over 30 people have provided their expertise. Some names that might be familiar include the following (click a name to watch their testimony):\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NRosq_2GCE\">Isabel Wilkerson\u003c/a>, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Warmth of Other Suns” and “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUE91a3cf_c\">Mehrsa Baradaran\u003c/a>, UC Irvine law professor and author of “The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap“\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/670990780?embedded=false&source=video_title&owner=5065180\">Safiya U. Noble\u003c/a>, internet studies scholar and professor of gender studies and African American studies at UCLA\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/vRtsUTLhqbc\">William Spriggs\u003c/a>, economics professor at Howard University and chief economist for the AFL-CIO\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/t72wzjJnIBo\">Rucker Johnson\u003c/a>, professor of public policy in the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/uEaNq95dXHk\">Daina Ramey Berry\u003c/a>, chair of the history department at the University of Texas at Austin\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao5any6D97c\">Darrick Hamilton\u003c/a>, professor of economics and urban policy at the New School for Social Research\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>A full list of those who have testified \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/meetings\">is available on the California Department of Justice website\u003c/a> under each meeting date.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"looklike\">\u003c/a>What might reparations look like?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kamilah Moore, the chair of California’s reparations task force, told KQED in a recent interview that reparations could look like direct payments, subsidies for free mental health care and other forms of restitution such as the return of land, similar to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11891836/a-black-family-got-their-beach-back-and-inspired-others-to-fight-against-land-theft\">case of Bruce’s Beach\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Reparations might also take the form of policy changes in policing and sentencing. People who have testified before the task force have brought up education subsidies, support for genealogy studies, reinvestment and funding for archiving and preserving arts and culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How will compensation be granted?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The task force is working with a team of economists to decide how to compensate descendants of enslaved people and what financial models will be used to come up with a number. Many advocates and scholars believe that it would be best to have a federal reparations process instead of multiple separate state and local initiatives for the purpose of compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"cities\">\u003c/a>Do California cities have their own reparations programs?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some cities have established programs and committees to examine reparatory justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>San Francisco\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe San Francisco Board of Supervisors established the 15-member \u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/public-body/african-american-reparations-advisory-committee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee\u003c/a> in December 2020. The advisory committee holds public meetings on the second Monday of the month and submitted its \u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/sites/default/files/2022-01/AA%20Reparations%20Advisory%20Committee%20-%20December%202021%20Update%20FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first report\u003c/a> in December 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Berkeley\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe Berkeley City Council voted in March 2022 to allocate $350,000 for a consultant to design and implement a reparations process. The consultant is tasked with holding symposiums for the public about the generational wealth gap, barriers to economic mobility and systemic racism. They will also work with the community to make policy recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel it in my DNA. I feel like the people before me … whose bones are in the ground are humming right now,” said City Council member Ben Bartlett, who authored the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bartlett hopes to have someone in place before 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hayward\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nIn 2021, the Hayward City Council apologized for the harms from the real estate and banking industry against African Americans and other people of color. The Hayward Community Services Commission also created a list of 10 steps the city could take to address historical racism. Hayward’s formal apology to Russell City residents and their descendants was spurred by the actions of residents like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11897843/decades-after-cultural-genocide-residents-of-a-bulldozed-community-get-apology-from-hayward\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Artavia Berry, chair of the Hayward Community Services Commission\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are other local initiatives in Oakland, Alameda County, Compton and San Diego. Some argue that programs like Stockton’s universal basic income effort provide a form of reparatory justice. But since UBI programs are not specifically targeted toward descendants of enslaved people, they don’t meet the full definition of both restitution and atonement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Is there a local initiative in your community or city you would like to share? Let us know: Lsarah@kqed.org\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"happensafter\">\u003c/a>What happens after the task force delivers its recommendations?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It will be up to the Legislature to decide whether or not to implement policy change or act upon the recommendations from the task force.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who gets to participate?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There are a few different ways to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898258/how-to-participate-in-californias-reparations-task-force-meetings\">get involved\u003c/a>, such as watching meetings online and participating in public comment. But there’s also a bigger push to hear from African Americans in California through listening sessions across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, the state reparations task force, in partnership with the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, will begin conducting sessions to hear from individuals. The session logistics are still being worked out, but the basic goal is to hear from California’s diverse Black communities about how the legacy of slavery has affected their lives and how they’d like to see California work to make it right.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How do I stay informed?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By watching this space, of course. You also can keep an eye on the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, a statewide coalition of organizations and one of the anchor organizations working with the task force, to stay informed about upcoming events and listening sessions. California’s Department of Justice \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/meetings\">shares information from each meeting\u003c/a>, including meeting materials with a detailed agenda.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "how-japanese-americans-in-the-bay-area-are-carrying-forward-the-legacy-of-reparations",
"title": "How Japanese Americans in the Bay Area Are Carrying Forward the Legacy of Reparations",
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"headTitle": "How Japanese Americans in the Bay Area Are Carrying Forward the Legacy of Reparations | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">Reparations in California\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> is a series of KQED stories exploring the road to racial equity in the state.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, Donald Tamaki sat in an empty auditorium at Golden Gate University in San Francisco flipping through pages of a photo album until he found what he was looking for.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Donald Tamaki, member, California Reparations Task Force\"]‘For those who think that the current reparations effort for Black Americans is a pipe dream, that it’s impossible, I remind them that, actually, it was done before.’[/pullquote]From underneath the clear page protector, an image of his mother’s face beamed up at him. By her side in the photo are two of her grandchildren. One holds a letter and the other a white paper check from the United States government for $20,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamaki’s parents were among the estimated \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/research/japanese-americans/redress\">82,000 Japanese Americans who received reparations\u003c/a> more than three decades ago for the mass incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II. It was in this auditorium, in 1981, that Tamaki’s father testified in front of a commission established to explore reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month marks the 80th year since Japanese Americans living on the West Coast were imprisoned, beginning in 1942. The U.S. government claimed that the wartime incarceration was necessary to prevent sabotage and spying following the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the displacement of people of Japanese ancestry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906161\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906161\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53419_010_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A finger pointing to a photo of a women in an album.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53419_010_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53419_010_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53419_010_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53419_010_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53419_010_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Don Tamaki, a member of the California Reparations Task Force, points to a photo of his mother in an album compiled by his parents, documenting the 1981 Japanese American reparations movement. Below the photo is a check for $20,000 that his parents received as reparation for the injustice inflicted on them during World War II. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The incarceration was the result of a racist hysteria in a country that still hasn’t reckoned with its long history of racism. In California, there were \u003ca href=\"https://maps.densho.org/sitesofshame/?facilityCategories=WRA%7CEAIS%7CHawaii&farDestVisible=true&farPreVisible=true&farSelectedCamp=&lat=37.2875&layers=exclusion%20orders%7Csos-facilities&lng=-117.6780&selectedFamily=&zoom=5.078681400972185\">23 sites\u003c/a> where Japanese people, many of whom were American-born citizens, including Tamaki’s parents, were imprisoned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than three decades since his mother received some compensation and an apology for the injustices she suffered, Tamaki, a senior attorney at San Francisco law firm Minami Tamaki LLP, is working on another reparations movement, this time for Black Californians. Tamaki, 70, is a member of California’s Reparations Task Force, the nine-member group appointed to study the issue and recommend proposals to address the systemic marginalization and oppression of Black people in California since the state’s founding in 1850.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born and raised in Oakland, Tamaki is the only non-Black member of the task force. He said his parents’ incarceration was connected to white supremacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The entrenchment of white supremacy in this country’s institutions and laws has handcuffed the experience of Black people in America since the first enslaved Africans were delivered to Virginia’s shores in 1619.[aside label=\"Related Coverage\" tag=\"japanese-american-internment\"]“Every person of color has been impacted by it, but some groups certainly worse than others and none more persistently and as long and horrifically, I think, as African Americans,” said Tamaki, who was appointed to the task force by Gov. Gavin Newsom. “The Japanese American incarceration that my family faced was simply just a permutation and was an offshoot of that system that permitted it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both born and raised in the Bay Area, Tamaki’s parents — his father, Minoru, and his mother, Iyo — were in their early 20s when Pearl Harbor was bombed. In the aftermath of the attack, law enforcement officials raided Japanese American communities along the West Coast, ordering curfews for residents and arresting community leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minoru’s family removed anything from their home that appeared Japanese, burning family photos and wall hangings containing calligraphy. Iyo’s family found hate mail slipped under the door of the family’s tailoring shop in West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minoru and Iyo, along with nearly 8,000 Bay Area residents of Japanese ancestry, were required to report to a detention center at Tanforan Racetrack, a horse-racing facility in San Bruno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minoru’s family closed the hotel they owned in San Francisco’s Japantown, handing the keys to an acquaintance, who was Black, to keep safe. Minoru stopped attending pharmacology classes at UC Berkeley. Japanese people were told to pack only essentials — something to sleep on, eating utensils, cups and plates — for Tanforan, and they weren’t given any information on how long they’d be incarcerated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minoru, Iyo and their families slept in hastily converted horse stalls for months before being sent 700 miles away to the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah. They were not allowed to return home for three years. At the end of the war, Minoru’s family settled in Oakland and reopened their hotel across the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s current reparations task force is modeled, in part, after the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, the body that studied and recommended reparations for Japanese Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906167\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906167\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man posing in a hall.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Donald Tamaki, a member of the California Reparations Task Force, outside Golden Gate University in San Francisco on Feb. 1, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Commission members traveled around the country to gather testimony from people who experienced wartime incarceration. For the three days the commission was in the Bay Area in 1981, public hearings were held in Golden Gate University’s auditorium, during which \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/JA-Reparations-Finney-Minoru-Tamaki-CWRIC-Testimony.mp3\">Minoru shared his story of imprisonment\u003c/a> and how it affected his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamaki, then a young lawyer, wasn’t able to see his father’s testimony on the third day because he was working to overturn the conviction of Fred Korematsu, a Japanese American man from Oakland who had resisted incarceration. Korematsu claimed the exclusion of a specific racial group from the West Coast was unconstitutional. The 1942 conviction was formally vacated in 1983.[aside postID=news_11905371 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/CA-capitol-building-1020x574.jpg']“I didn’t view it as being particularly historic at the time,” Tamaki said of his father’s testimony, during his first trip back to the auditorium since the hearings. “It was a defining moment in my own parents’ lives. Up to that point, they had never talked about what had happened. After this, they began to speak out and open up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the reparations movement, it was common for people who’d been through incarceration to keep quiet about what they endured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Culturally speaking, one Japanese tradition is the tradition of gaman. Gaman, loosely translated, means you endure hardship,” Tamaki said. “You don’t say anything about it. You deal with it and you just suck it up, basically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamaki said it was also a form of survival in a society dominated by white supremacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of these folks who were put in concentration camps when the war ended returned to the very communities that exiled them in the first place,” Tamaki said. “And so the way of dealing with it was to not talk about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906166\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906166\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman standing in a garden.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naomi Kubota Lee outside her home in Mill Valley on Jan. 27, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1981, Naomi Kubota Lee, then a UC Berkeley undergraduate student, was the co-chair for the San Francisco branch of the \u003ca href=\"https://ncrr-la.org/about.html\">National Coalition for Redress/Reparations\u003c/a>, a Japanese American grassroots organization that organized people to testify at the commission hearings. Lee’s parents and grandparents were incarcerated at Topaz with Tamaki’s parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee keeps an archive from the hearings, filled with transcripts of testimony and handbills, stored in three rows of filing boxes in a studio in her Mill Valley home. She remembers sitting in the audience, surrounded by other Japanese Americans, listening to people describe their experiences, in some cases, for the very first time. The rapt audience cheered for the speakers, while also weeping with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really quite an emotional process when I reopen and read some testimonies here and there,” Lee said. “I can actually remember the people. Their voices come back into my thinking. There’s a healing thing about being heard, being listened to finally. It wasn’t just for the commissioners.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill granting reparations passed on Aug. 4, 1988. The package included $20,000 for each survivor, a letter of apology from President George H.W. Bush and a federal grant program to fund public education projects about Japanese American incarceration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It gave me a sense that it really honored my ancestors,” Lee said. “I think that’s the first feeling I had — happiness for them. Maybe not happiness, but just that it reversed the terrible silence surrounding the camps and what they had to live through.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906159\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A women looks through an album.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naomi Kubota Lee looks through her archive of documents and photos relating to the Japanese American redress and reparations movement, at her home in Mill Valley on Jan. 27, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In total, just over two-thirds of the people incarcerated received monetary reparations. Many, like Lee’s grandparents, passed away before they could receive a payment. While the checks didn’t repay Japanese Americans for what was lost, Lee said the money provided recognition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamaki said it was being viewed as an American — deserving of an apology and compensation — that mattered most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s the problem for all people of color, this concept that you’re a perpetual foreigner, you’re not a real American,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the way Black Americans organized during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s that galvanized Japanese Americans to demand reparations, according to Tamaki.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We grew up not knowing who we were. Racism becomes so pervasive that it’s normal. We saw ourselves as second-class citizens,” he said. “It wasn’t until the Black civil rights movement that our community, my father included, and others began to realize that this is not normal. This is not the way it should be. And I think that motivated him to testify.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906160\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906160\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53339_046_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Someone holding a black-and-white photo of a family.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53339_046_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53339_046_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53339_046_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53339_046_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53339_046_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naomi Kubota Lee looks at photos of her family from when they were imprisoned at the Topaz concentration camp during WWII. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This summer, the task force Tamaki is part of will host listening sessions across the state, in partnership with UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. Black Californians are invited to share how the legacy of slavery has affected their lives and what kinds of reparations would be meaningful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For those who think that the current reparations effort for Black Americans is a pipe dream, that it’s impossible, I remind them that, actually, it was done before,” Tamaki said. “It’s going to take all of us to change this country. It can’t be done by Black people alone.”[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "More than three decades since Japanese Americans in California received a formal apology and some degree of compensation for injustices they suffered during World War II, some are advancing another reparations movement — this time for Black Californians.",
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"title": "How Japanese Americans in the Bay Area Are Carrying Forward the Legacy of Reparations | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">Reparations in California\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> is a series of KQED stories exploring the road to racial equity in the state.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, Donald Tamaki sat in an empty auditorium at Golden Gate University in San Francisco flipping through pages of a photo album until he found what he was looking for.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘For those who think that the current reparations effort for Black Americans is a pipe dream, that it’s impossible, I remind them that, actually, it was done before.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>From underneath the clear page protector, an image of his mother’s face beamed up at him. By her side in the photo are two of her grandchildren. One holds a letter and the other a white paper check from the United States government for $20,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamaki’s parents were among the estimated \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/research/japanese-americans/redress\">82,000 Japanese Americans who received reparations\u003c/a> more than three decades ago for the mass incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II. It was in this auditorium, in 1981, that Tamaki’s father testified in front of a commission established to explore reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month marks the 80th year since Japanese Americans living on the West Coast were imprisoned, beginning in 1942. The U.S. government claimed that the wartime incarceration was necessary to prevent sabotage and spying following the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the displacement of people of Japanese ancestry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906161\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906161\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53419_010_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A finger pointing to a photo of a women in an album.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53419_010_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53419_010_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53419_010_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53419_010_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53419_010_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Don Tamaki, a member of the California Reparations Task Force, points to a photo of his mother in an album compiled by his parents, documenting the 1981 Japanese American reparations movement. Below the photo is a check for $20,000 that his parents received as reparation for the injustice inflicted on them during World War II. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The incarceration was the result of a racist hysteria in a country that still hasn’t reckoned with its long history of racism. In California, there were \u003ca href=\"https://maps.densho.org/sitesofshame/?facilityCategories=WRA%7CEAIS%7CHawaii&farDestVisible=true&farPreVisible=true&farSelectedCamp=&lat=37.2875&layers=exclusion%20orders%7Csos-facilities&lng=-117.6780&selectedFamily=&zoom=5.078681400972185\">23 sites\u003c/a> where Japanese people, many of whom were American-born citizens, including Tamaki’s parents, were imprisoned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than three decades since his mother received some compensation and an apology for the injustices she suffered, Tamaki, a senior attorney at San Francisco law firm Minami Tamaki LLP, is working on another reparations movement, this time for Black Californians. Tamaki, 70, is a member of California’s Reparations Task Force, the nine-member group appointed to study the issue and recommend proposals to address the systemic marginalization and oppression of Black people in California since the state’s founding in 1850.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born and raised in Oakland, Tamaki is the only non-Black member of the task force. He said his parents’ incarceration was connected to white supremacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The entrenchment of white supremacy in this country’s institutions and laws has handcuffed the experience of Black people in America since the first enslaved Africans were delivered to Virginia’s shores in 1619.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Every person of color has been impacted by it, but some groups certainly worse than others and none more persistently and as long and horrifically, I think, as African Americans,” said Tamaki, who was appointed to the task force by Gov. Gavin Newsom. “The Japanese American incarceration that my family faced was simply just a permutation and was an offshoot of that system that permitted it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both born and raised in the Bay Area, Tamaki’s parents — his father, Minoru, and his mother, Iyo — were in their early 20s when Pearl Harbor was bombed. In the aftermath of the attack, law enforcement officials raided Japanese American communities along the West Coast, ordering curfews for residents and arresting community leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minoru’s family removed anything from their home that appeared Japanese, burning family photos and wall hangings containing calligraphy. Iyo’s family found hate mail slipped under the door of the family’s tailoring shop in West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minoru and Iyo, along with nearly 8,000 Bay Area residents of Japanese ancestry, were required to report to a detention center at Tanforan Racetrack, a horse-racing facility in San Bruno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minoru’s family closed the hotel they owned in San Francisco’s Japantown, handing the keys to an acquaintance, who was Black, to keep safe. Minoru stopped attending pharmacology classes at UC Berkeley. Japanese people were told to pack only essentials — something to sleep on, eating utensils, cups and plates — for Tanforan, and they weren’t given any information on how long they’d be incarcerated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minoru, Iyo and their families slept in hastily converted horse stalls for months before being sent 700 miles away to the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah. They were not allowed to return home for three years. At the end of the war, Minoru’s family settled in Oakland and reopened their hotel across the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s current reparations task force is modeled, in part, after the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, the body that studied and recommended reparations for Japanese Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906167\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906167\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man posing in a hall.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53448_038_KQED_ReparatioinsTaskForce_DonTamaki_02012022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Donald Tamaki, a member of the California Reparations Task Force, outside Golden Gate University in San Francisco on Feb. 1, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Commission members traveled around the country to gather testimony from people who experienced wartime incarceration. For the three days the commission was in the Bay Area in 1981, public hearings were held in Golden Gate University’s auditorium, during which \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/JA-Reparations-Finney-Minoru-Tamaki-CWRIC-Testimony.mp3\">Minoru shared his story of imprisonment\u003c/a> and how it affected his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamaki, then a young lawyer, wasn’t able to see his father’s testimony on the third day because he was working to overturn the conviction of Fred Korematsu, a Japanese American man from Oakland who had resisted incarceration. Korematsu claimed the exclusion of a specific racial group from the West Coast was unconstitutional. The 1942 conviction was formally vacated in 1983.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I didn’t view it as being particularly historic at the time,” Tamaki said of his father’s testimony, during his first trip back to the auditorium since the hearings. “It was a defining moment in my own parents’ lives. Up to that point, they had never talked about what had happened. After this, they began to speak out and open up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the reparations movement, it was common for people who’d been through incarceration to keep quiet about what they endured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Culturally speaking, one Japanese tradition is the tradition of gaman. Gaman, loosely translated, means you endure hardship,” Tamaki said. “You don’t say anything about it. You deal with it and you just suck it up, basically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamaki said it was also a form of survival in a society dominated by white supremacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of these folks who were put in concentration camps when the war ended returned to the very communities that exiled them in the first place,” Tamaki said. “And so the way of dealing with it was to not talk about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906166\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906166\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman standing in a garden.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53324_030_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naomi Kubota Lee outside her home in Mill Valley on Jan. 27, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1981, Naomi Kubota Lee, then a UC Berkeley undergraduate student, was the co-chair for the San Francisco branch of the \u003ca href=\"https://ncrr-la.org/about.html\">National Coalition for Redress/Reparations\u003c/a>, a Japanese American grassroots organization that organized people to testify at the commission hearings. Lee’s parents and grandparents were incarcerated at Topaz with Tamaki’s parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee keeps an archive from the hearings, filled with transcripts of testimony and handbills, stored in three rows of filing boxes in a studio in her Mill Valley home. She remembers sitting in the audience, surrounded by other Japanese Americans, listening to people describe their experiences, in some cases, for the very first time. The rapt audience cheered for the speakers, while also weeping with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really quite an emotional process when I reopen and read some testimonies here and there,” Lee said. “I can actually remember the people. Their voices come back into my thinking. There’s a healing thing about being heard, being listened to finally. It wasn’t just for the commissioners.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill granting reparations passed on Aug. 4, 1988. The package included $20,000 for each survivor, a letter of apology from President George H.W. Bush and a federal grant program to fund public education projects about Japanese American incarceration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It gave me a sense that it really honored my ancestors,” Lee said. “I think that’s the first feeling I had — happiness for them. Maybe not happiness, but just that it reversed the terrible silence surrounding the camps and what they had to live through.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906159\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A women looks through an album.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53332_038_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naomi Kubota Lee looks through her archive of documents and photos relating to the Japanese American redress and reparations movement, at her home in Mill Valley on Jan. 27, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In total, just over two-thirds of the people incarcerated received monetary reparations. Many, like Lee’s grandparents, passed away before they could receive a payment. While the checks didn’t repay Japanese Americans for what was lost, Lee said the money provided recognition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tamaki said it was being viewed as an American — deserving of an apology and compensation — that mattered most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s the problem for all people of color, this concept that you’re a perpetual foreigner, you’re not a real American,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the way Black Americans organized during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s that galvanized Japanese Americans to demand reparations, according to Tamaki.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We grew up not knowing who we were. Racism becomes so pervasive that it’s normal. We saw ourselves as second-class citizens,” he said. “It wasn’t until the Black civil rights movement that our community, my father included, and others began to realize that this is not normal. This is not the way it should be. And I think that motivated him to testify.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11906160\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11906160\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53339_046_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Someone holding a black-and-white photo of a family.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53339_046_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53339_046_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53339_046_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53339_046_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53339_046_KQED_NaomiKubotaLee_01272022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naomi Kubota Lee looks at photos of her family from when they were imprisoned at the Topaz concentration camp during WWII. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This summer, the task force Tamaki is part of will host listening sessions across the state, in partnership with UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. Black Californians are invited to share how the legacy of slavery has affected their lives and what kinds of reparations would be meaningful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For those who think that the current reparations effort for Black Americans is a pipe dream, that it’s impossible, I remind them that, actually, it was done before,” Tamaki said. “It’s going to take all of us to change this country. It can’t be done by Black people alone.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>When we look at the California of today, so much of who we are is because of the Gold Rush. It’s true that people flooded into the state after gold was found in 1848, and that there were opportunities here for some fortune-seekers. But there are darker parts of that history we don’t often hear about. Some of those gold-seekers came from the South and brought enslaved people with them to mine for gold in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I find it very interesting that we don’t know any of this part of California’s history,” said Bay Curious listener Doug Spindler. “And yet this is so big and so important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doug came across some of this information while researching the Gold Rush era and California’s recognition of statehood soon after. California entered the union in 1850 as a “free state.” The \u003ca href=\"https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibitions/artifact/first-constitution-california-1849\">state constitution says\u003c/a>: “Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated in this State.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what’s on paper is not the reality of what happened here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California was filling up with gold-seekers, a Civil War about slavery was brewing in the United States, and 3,000 miles wasn’t enough distance to keep California out of the dispute. Some of California’s first leaders built their wealth by exploiting the labor of enslaved people. At the constitutional convention, many argued that California shouldn’t allow Black people into the state at all. There were fears that they would compete with white people for jobs — and win. While those voices didn’t prevail, early state legislators showed their sympathy to the South in other ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act — a law that required white people living in free states to help catch and re-enslave people living in freedom. Many free states fought against the mandate. Not California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Learn More About Slavery in California\" link1=\"https://www.aclunc.org/sites/goldchains/podcast/,ACLU's Gold Chains Podcast\" link2=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations,KQED's Reparations Coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California did the opposite,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101887335/reparations-task-force-sheds-light-on-history-of-slavery-in-california\">said Stacey L. Smith, professor of history at Oregon State University\u003c/a>. “Not just cooperating with the Fugitive Slave Act, the federal one from 1850, but \u003ca href=\"https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/pacific-bound-california-s-1852-fugitive-slave-law/\">passing its own 1852 Fugitive Slave Act that essentially was a supplement to that federal act\u003c/a> and pledged that the state would help the federal government do everything it could to help protect slave holders and not freedom seekers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Supreme Court ruled that enslavers who came to California before it became a state — and thus was not technically a free state yet — should have the right to reclaim their human property.[aside label=“Learn More About Slavery in California” link1=“https://www.aclunc.org/sites/goldchains/podcast/,ACLU's Gold Chains Podcast” link2=“https://www.kqed.org/reparations,KQED's Reparations Coverage”]Smith’s book, “Freedom’s Frontier: California and the Struggle Over Unfree Labor, Emancipation, and Reconstruction,” traces California’s history of supporting enslavers and how that legacy set the stage for its brutal treatment of other ethnic groups, particularly Native Americans and Chinese immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='news_11906054']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even after the Civil War ended and President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, California’s representatives to Congress fought against new legislation to give rights to the formerly enslaved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California legislators really opposed the 14th and 15th amendments,” Smith said. The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to Black people and the 15th gave them the right to vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are all of these concerns among whites in California that Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans were going to get new rights, new legal protections and the right to vote under the 14th and 15th amendments,” Smith said. “California was among some of the few states that really fought Reconstruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legacy of California’s early sympathy with the South and a litany of early laws that ensured people of color would have little to no power in the state are still being felt in the racial disparities we see today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith, along with other Californians who have lived experience of this deep-seated inequality, have been testifying to \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121\">California’s Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans\u003c/a>. The task force is specifically looking at the history of chattel slavery in California and how the state could formally apologize and make amends. The task force has been meeting since the summer of 2021 and plans to make an initial report to the legislature in the summer of 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED has been following the work of the task force closely and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations\">will continue to report on the testimony and recommendations presented there\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
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},
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"id": "baycurious",
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"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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},
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},
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},
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"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"order": 8
},
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},
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"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"order": 1
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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}
},
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"meta": {
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"source": "WNYC"
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
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