00:00:05.176 --> 00:00:10.176
(birds chirping)
(dramatic music)

00:00:28.778 --> 00:00:30.185
(Zenobia sighs)

00:00:30.185 --> 00:00:32.220
- It wasn't the money.

00:00:32.220 --> 00:00:34.320
If they'd have paid them
a million dollars to me,

00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:35.430
that wouldn't have been enough

00:00:35.430 --> 00:00:40.430
because it was that
their dreams were taken.

00:00:42.060 --> 00:00:43.863
And what do you pay for dreams?

00:00:45.570 --> 00:00:47.807
- Yeah, I'm gonna take
them out to the spot

00:00:47.807 --> 00:00:49.410
where Russell City was, and then show them

00:00:49.410 --> 00:00:51.460
what they did to us and what they put up.

00:00:52.620 --> 00:00:54.880
I don't know if the school is still there,

00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:56.280
but the railroad tracks are there.

00:00:56.280 --> 00:00:58.320
But that's it, I don't
remember the church burning

00:00:58.320 --> 00:00:59.850
or anything like that.

00:00:59.850 --> 00:01:01.350
We were probably gone by then.

00:01:02.230 --> 00:01:03.090
- My mom lit the house on fire.

00:01:03.090 --> 00:01:05.800
So that's what happened to the house.

00:01:05.800 --> 00:01:07.800
She was the last one and lit it on fire,

00:01:08.940 --> 00:01:11.010
and watched it burn down.

00:01:11.010 --> 00:01:12.480
- Nobody wanted to leave.

00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:15.603
If it was that bad, why
didn't people wanna leave?

00:01:16.710 --> 00:01:18.278
Why?

00:01:18.278 --> 00:01:19.111
I'm just thinking back,

00:01:19.111 --> 00:01:21.330
if only they would have
listened to the people there,

00:01:21.330 --> 00:01:24.330
is no telling what that
city could have been.

00:01:24.330 --> 00:01:27.674
- I thought once it went
down like it did, that's it,

00:01:27.674 --> 00:01:29.218
nobody's gonna know about it.

00:01:29.218 --> 00:01:30.487
But somewhere, somehow,

00:01:30.487 --> 00:01:34.113
maybe I'm part of that group
that didn't let it die.

00:01:35.490 --> 00:01:36.930
- It's crazy.

00:01:36.930 --> 00:01:37.833
I could see it.

00:01:39.090 --> 00:01:42.727
Remember the front,
remember Nick Malkovich

00:01:42.727 --> 00:01:43.950
remember (indistinct)
remember the pool hall,

00:01:43.950 --> 00:01:47.132
remember of the church,
remember all the store,

00:01:47.132 --> 00:01:48.200
and on and on.

00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:50.055
And because I can see it as I was,

00:01:50.055 --> 00:01:51.542
just like I'm looking at you.

00:01:51.542 --> 00:01:52.375
- [Mimi] What do you see?

00:01:52.375 --> 00:01:53.208
- What do I see?

00:01:55.980 --> 00:01:59.826
A poor city, but a beautiful city.

00:01:59.826 --> 00:02:00.750
If that makes any sense.

00:02:00.750 --> 00:02:05.750
Because to me, there
was a lot of love there.

00:02:06.025 --> 00:02:06.893
There was no prejudice,

00:02:07.766 --> 00:02:09.663
a lot of blacks, a lot of Mexicans,

00:02:10.530 --> 00:02:11.970
and a good number of whites.

00:02:11.970 --> 00:02:13.590
And we were just like one.

00:02:15.188 --> 00:02:17.771
(gentle music)

00:02:28.945 --> 00:02:31.647
- Hm, that's me right here.

00:02:31.647 --> 00:02:33.557
My grandma used to make tamales.

00:02:33.557 --> 00:02:36.330
So I was known in Russell
City as the tamale boy.

00:02:36.330 --> 00:02:37.800
'Cause I had to little wagon,

00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:40.683
I had to go out there
and, "10 cents a piece,

00:02:41.616 --> 00:02:43.830
a dollar, a dozen,

00:02:43.830 --> 00:02:44.910
a dollar, a dozen."

00:02:44.910 --> 00:02:46.230
All the kids be playing ball,

00:02:46.230 --> 00:02:49.326
and I'm out there pulling a
little wagon, selling tamale.

00:02:49.326 --> 00:02:50.430
Ooh, that used to bother me.

00:02:50.430 --> 00:02:51.690
I know there'd be houses now

00:02:51.690 --> 00:02:53.866
where there's teenage girls there,

00:02:53.866 --> 00:02:55.486
you know, and they're making fun.

00:02:55.486 --> 00:02:56.821
"Hey, here comes the "tamalero"

00:02:56.821 --> 00:02:57.810
Here comes the tamale boy, right?

00:02:57.810 --> 00:02:59.492
We didn't have nothing.

00:02:59.492 --> 00:03:00.870
You don't have it, you don't miss it.

00:03:00.870 --> 00:03:01.860
Everybody was equal.

00:03:01.860 --> 00:03:04.375
Color of skin did not mean nothing.

00:03:04.375 --> 00:03:06.958
(gentle music)

00:03:11.099 --> 00:03:13.920
- When it started raining,
mud was all we used to play.

00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:15.540
Me and the kids and my mom and dad,

00:03:15.540 --> 00:03:17.488
when they were outside so

00:03:17.488 --> 00:03:20.460
we used to get out there and
play in the mud and the rain,

00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:22.230
big holes in the street.

00:03:22.230 --> 00:03:24.660
And it was holes all in our ceiling.

00:03:24.660 --> 00:03:27.391
And the water would come down,

00:03:27.391 --> 00:03:30.390
and my mom would try to get
bowls and buckets and put there.

00:03:30.390 --> 00:03:32.040
Well, it was funny to us kids,

00:03:32.040 --> 00:03:34.110
'cause we had never
experienced anything like that.

00:03:34.110 --> 00:03:35.043
We from the city.

00:03:36.510 --> 00:03:38.673
I never went hungry a day.

00:03:39.510 --> 00:03:41.490
I never went thirsty a day.

00:03:41.490 --> 00:03:46.311
I had a friend live way down
by where they raised pigs.

00:03:46.311 --> 00:03:48.120
We used to go over there
and line up on the fence,

00:03:48.120 --> 00:03:50.160
wait for the hogs to come by.

00:03:50.160 --> 00:03:51.600
We'd jump and just ride it,

00:03:51.600 --> 00:03:54.060
fall off sometime in the
mud, but we didn't care.

00:03:54.060 --> 00:03:57.423
We'd get up, line up again
so we can have another time.

00:03:58.686 --> 00:04:01.050
We had all the cherries, all the apricots,

00:04:01.050 --> 00:04:05.088
all the string beans, all
the currents that we wanted.

00:04:05.088 --> 00:04:06.806
Everybody out there, mostly parents,

00:04:06.806 --> 00:04:08.906
didn't have to pay nothing for that stuff.

00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:14.343
- Chickens, pigs, what else do we have?

00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:18.667
- Oh, goodness gracious, rabbits.

00:04:18.667 --> 00:04:20.104
- We had lots of rabbits.

00:04:20.104 --> 00:04:23.553
And dad would remind us to
never make pets out of them.

00:04:24.496 --> 00:04:26.596
"I told you not to make pets outta them.

00:04:26.596 --> 00:04:27.646
We have to eat them."

00:04:28.728 --> 00:04:31.747
I mean, she was a teenager
when we were out there, so-

00:04:34.110 --> 00:04:36.017
- And so were you.

00:04:36.017 --> 00:04:37.377
(Betty laughs)

00:04:37.377 --> 00:04:40.503
- But you were older.

00:04:41.340 --> 00:04:43.976
- A couple of years older,

00:04:43.976 --> 00:04:46.350
than you.
- Oh, five years older.

00:04:46.350 --> 00:04:49.143
Five years older, okay.
- Okay.

00:04:50.290 --> 00:04:51.123
- Okay.

00:04:51.123 --> 00:04:55.980
- You're over here catching
us in the last two,

00:04:55.980 --> 00:04:58.533
three years, feeling sorry.

00:04:59.483 --> 00:05:02.220
For myself, I do, because of
the way I'm moving around,

00:05:02.220 --> 00:05:06.653
and the weight I put
on, I'm facing reality.

00:05:06.653 --> 00:05:09.270
I feel, I try to hide when I'm walking.

00:05:09.270 --> 00:05:11.033
I hide so much.

00:05:11.033 --> 00:05:13.350
You know, I stay in that
room all day working,

00:05:13.350 --> 00:05:15.090
just so I don't have to be in public,

00:05:15.090 --> 00:05:17.247
walking around the way I do.

00:05:17.247 --> 00:05:19.415
I have to sneak into
the, I don't go nowhere.

00:05:19.415 --> 00:05:20.663
I used to go to football games, baseball,

00:05:21.867 --> 00:05:24.336
'cause I can't land

00:05:24.336 --> 00:05:25.446
I go from here to that tree,

00:05:25.446 --> 00:05:28.163
and I gotta there be something
over there that I can sit on.

00:05:30.154 --> 00:05:30.987
But that's time.

00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:33.660
Wait till I see this one next.

00:05:37.434 --> 00:05:38.393
That's me and Juanita,

00:05:38.393 --> 00:05:41.853
when I was about 17, she's about 16,

00:05:43.470 --> 00:05:45.920
many years, many years.

00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:47.820
61 years, and I finally realized that.

00:05:53.691 --> 00:05:54.833
Never took the tracks over there.

00:05:56.033 --> 00:05:58.283
- You had no business going in the tracks.

00:05:59.201 --> 00:06:01.290
- I was just telling Juanita,
that's where the store was at.

00:06:01.290 --> 00:06:02.673
A couple of palm trees,

00:06:03.810 --> 00:06:08.550
and what used to be an old
motel with like a fourplex now,

00:06:08.550 --> 00:06:10.323
where that arches are over there.

00:06:11.517 --> 00:06:16.050
And the famous country
club, right about there,

00:06:16.050 --> 00:06:19.056
about 100 feet right there.

00:06:19.056 --> 00:06:21.639
(gentle music)

00:06:31.623 --> 00:06:32.880
- It was a tight-knit community.

00:06:32.880 --> 00:06:34.470
We never locked the doors.

00:06:34.470 --> 00:06:36.390
We all pretty much knew each other.

00:06:36.390 --> 00:06:38.880
So if you got in trouble at school,

00:06:38.880 --> 00:06:41.520
and I had aunts and uncles

00:06:41.520 --> 00:06:44.370
that lived from school on the way home,

00:06:44.370 --> 00:06:47.100
you wouldn't wanna stop there
because you get one beating,

00:06:47.100 --> 00:06:49.650
and then you go to stop at
another relative's house,

00:06:49.650 --> 00:06:51.120
you get a beating there.

00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:53.754
And then when you got home,
when your mother got home,

00:06:53.754 --> 00:06:54.921
you get another beating.

00:06:54.921 --> 00:06:56.027
When your mother gets home,

00:06:56.027 --> 00:07:00.420
she says, "Go outside, break
off a branch of that tree,

00:07:00.420 --> 00:07:02.354
and bring it in here."

00:07:02.354 --> 00:07:03.810
And she wasn't gonna start
a fire with it either.

00:07:03.810 --> 00:07:06.303
So you pretty much had
to stay outta trouble.

00:07:07.305 --> 00:07:09.192
I had a stepfather that
drank scotch and milk,

00:07:09.192 --> 00:07:10.863
but that was his drink.

00:07:11.730 --> 00:07:13.290
As soon as you cross the railroad tracks,

00:07:13.290 --> 00:07:15.390
was a street we lived on.

00:07:15.390 --> 00:07:18.270
My father was a auto mechanic.

00:07:18.270 --> 00:07:22.830
He had a auto shop next to a gas station.

00:07:22.830 --> 00:07:25.710
There was a store across the street,

00:07:25.710 --> 00:07:27.933
a gas station next to the auto shop.

00:07:29.168 --> 00:07:30.990
- And then I remember the old store right

00:07:30.990 --> 00:07:32.490
as soon as you cross the railroad tracks,

00:07:32.490 --> 00:07:34.540
that old store that used to sell tamales.

00:07:35.580 --> 00:07:37.230
Remember those tamales?

00:07:37.230 --> 00:07:38.644
- [Lita] No.

00:07:38.644 --> 00:07:41.520
- What about grandpa working
the railroad tracks over there?

00:07:41.520 --> 00:07:45.450
- [Lita] Well, grandpa
was one big lazy man.

00:07:45.450 --> 00:07:48.120
Grandpa was tall, he was six feet tall.

00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:51.596
And God, I don't know how
much he must have weighed.

00:07:51.596 --> 00:07:52.830
He was big.

00:07:52.830 --> 00:07:56.024
He didn't work long
because grandpa didn't know

00:07:56.024 --> 00:07:56.940
how to speak English,

00:07:56.940 --> 00:07:59.040
much less write.
- Oh.

00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:01.473
Remember grandma with her goose,

00:08:02.414 --> 00:08:05.430
that goose would protect
grandma, like a police dog.

00:08:05.430 --> 00:08:06.570
- [Lita] Unbelievable, but true.

00:08:06.570 --> 00:08:08.550
- That goose would squeak and squawk

00:08:08.550 --> 00:08:11.760
and come snapping at us
every time we went by it.

00:08:11.760 --> 00:08:14.850
But anyways, and then
that's about all I remember.

00:08:14.850 --> 00:08:16.500
There was Santucci, the farmers,

00:08:16.500 --> 00:08:18.461
the hog ranch, I remember,

00:08:18.461 --> 00:08:21.183
us climbing the pig hills
to play king of the hill.

00:08:22.200 --> 00:08:23.033
- [Lita] Yeah.
- And I remember,

00:08:23.033 --> 00:08:26.472
getting all the food, the throwaway,

00:08:26.472 --> 00:08:28.150
like cupcakes, old cupcakes
and stuff like that.

00:08:28.150 --> 00:08:30.319
- [Lita] Yeah.
- Would get those things.

00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:32.610
(Leonard laughs)

00:08:32.610 --> 00:08:34.440
- [Lita] We were not the only ones.

00:08:34.440 --> 00:08:35.961
- And my grandma used

00:08:35.961 --> 00:08:37.170
to have a little green purse like this,

00:08:37.170 --> 00:08:38.700
stacked away in there in her stuff.

00:08:38.700 --> 00:08:41.280
And I pulled a picture
outta there one time,

00:08:41.280 --> 00:08:43.380
side shot of a picture,

00:08:43.380 --> 00:08:45.450
to me, it was Pancho Villa.

00:08:45.450 --> 00:08:47.250
And I thought, "Well, wait a minute,

00:08:48.930 --> 00:08:51.660
this here sure looks
like Pancho Villa here.

00:08:51.660 --> 00:08:53.880
And what's it doing in my grandma's?"

00:08:53.880 --> 00:08:57.368
And that picture never came up no more.

00:08:57.368 --> 00:08:58.946
You gotta remember, all this is happening

00:08:58.946 --> 00:09:00.030
in a little tiny house with two bedrooms

00:09:00.030 --> 00:09:01.080
and eight kids in it.

00:09:02.280 --> 00:09:05.250
Our grandfather is Pancho Villa.

00:09:05.250 --> 00:09:07.620
I went through high school and work,

00:09:07.620 --> 00:09:09.870
never bringing it up
because of the danger.

00:09:09.870 --> 00:09:12.390
My grandma told my dad, "Don't repeat it

00:09:12.390 --> 00:09:15.090
'cause it's revolution,
there's two sides."

00:09:15.090 --> 00:09:16.710
She said, "Don't tell nobody,

00:09:16.710 --> 00:09:19.159
'cause then you and your family,

00:09:19.159 --> 00:09:21.360
they could get revenge on you
for whatever you might say."

00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:23.940
- People of Russell City,

00:09:23.940 --> 00:09:27.191
it didn't matter what,
where you came from,

00:09:27.191 --> 00:09:31.380
what nationality you were, we
just was a happy community.

00:09:31.380 --> 00:09:33.125
Don't get me wrong,

00:09:33.125 --> 00:09:36.300
we had some things out
there that happened.

00:09:36.300 --> 00:09:38.415
I'm not gonna get there yet.

00:09:38.415 --> 00:09:40.832
(children playing)

00:09:49.197 --> 00:09:53.820
- We had only one little
house with one bedroom,

00:09:53.820 --> 00:09:56.880
and the one bathroom
with the little kitchen,

00:09:56.880 --> 00:09:58.880
and how you gonna put nine people there?

00:10:00.818 --> 00:10:03.930
But he had a big, they
called them the chicken coop.

00:10:03.930 --> 00:10:06.153
And so he put us there,

00:10:07.161 --> 00:10:11.460
and my dad put some strings
inside that chicken coop,

00:10:11.460 --> 00:10:13.200
and hang curtains.

00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:15.750
And then he put a couple of hoses outside,

00:10:15.750 --> 00:10:17.894
so we could take a shower.

00:10:17.894 --> 00:10:19.860
We went to the bathroom in outhouses.

00:10:19.860 --> 00:10:21.810
And my mother being a teacher back there,

00:10:21.810 --> 00:10:24.670
she says, "My kids are not gonna do that."

00:10:24.670 --> 00:10:29.670
She had to kneel and wash,
by hand, seven people.

00:10:29.790 --> 00:10:31.747
You know, there's seven of us,

00:10:31.747 --> 00:10:34.260
plus my mom and dad,
nine people's clothes,

00:10:34.260 --> 00:10:37.140
and her hair just turned gray right away.

00:10:37.140 --> 00:10:39.390
Yeah, yeah, I remember.

00:10:39.390 --> 00:10:41.370
We came here and we had nothing,

00:10:41.370 --> 00:10:42.633
you know, being poor.

00:10:49.638 --> 00:10:51.600
I think I was around 15 years old,

00:10:51.600 --> 00:10:55.263
and I came down with an
infection in my throat.

00:10:56.100 --> 00:10:59.670
My mom and dad didn't have
$10 to take me to the doctor.

00:10:59.670 --> 00:11:03.210
Since we had migrated in 1956,

00:11:03.210 --> 00:11:05.583
this was about 1958.

00:11:06.666 --> 00:11:08.550
When you migrate from other countries,

00:11:08.550 --> 00:11:12.270
you sign documentation that
you're not gonna be a burden

00:11:12.270 --> 00:11:15.460
by asking for public help.

00:11:15.460 --> 00:11:17.010
And my father honored that for who he was.

00:11:17.010 --> 00:11:19.500
My mom used to iron shirts
for our next door neighbor.

00:11:19.500 --> 00:11:21.390
So she would pay my mom 10 cents

00:11:21.390 --> 00:11:24.930
for an iron-starched shirt to iron.

00:11:24.930 --> 00:11:26.670
So in order to get $10,

00:11:26.670 --> 00:11:29.400
it took my mother a
week to iron 100 shirts

00:11:29.400 --> 00:11:32.700
at 10 cents a piece to
take me to the doctors.

00:11:32.700 --> 00:11:35.100
The doctor kind of felt bad for me.

00:11:35.100 --> 00:11:39.300
I could tell by the way he
exclaimed like, "Oh my God,"

00:11:39.300 --> 00:11:40.560
or something to that effect

00:11:40.560 --> 00:11:43.020
that I was going to lose my hearing

00:11:43.020 --> 00:11:47.130
because my audio nerves
had been damaged so bad.

00:11:47.130 --> 00:11:48.090
So that was that.

00:11:48.090 --> 00:11:51.630
And there came a time where I realized

00:11:51.630 --> 00:11:54.840
that I was reading people's
lips to understand,

00:11:54.840 --> 00:11:56.130
and I would stare at people

00:11:56.130 --> 00:11:59.310
because that helped me to understand them.

00:11:59.310 --> 00:12:00.870
And I didn't know that the birds

00:12:00.870 --> 00:12:04.080
that I used to see at the
window, they were chirping.

00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:07.080
I didn't know that the water
in the sink was making noise.

00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:08.909
When I took a shower,

00:12:08.909 --> 00:12:11.070
a lot of the water was really
making noise, you know?

00:12:11.070 --> 00:12:14.580
A lot of these noises
that we take for granted,

00:12:14.580 --> 00:12:16.083
I never heard them.

00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:20.982
(gentle music)

00:12:47.435 --> 00:12:50.460
- Our house, it was two bedrooms,

00:12:50.460 --> 00:12:53.595
a living room, and the kitchen.

00:12:53.595 --> 00:12:56.100
And later my father built a third bedroom,

00:12:56.100 --> 00:12:58.020
and he expanded the kitchen.

00:12:58.020 --> 00:12:59.403
So we had a dining room,

00:13:00.263 --> 00:13:02.605
then we had eucalyptus in the back,

00:13:02.605 --> 00:13:05.173
so there's lots and lots
of eucalyptus around.

00:13:05.173 --> 00:13:07.200
There were, I think, the acacia trees.

00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:11.610
My parents, my mother was 21,

00:13:11.610 --> 00:13:15.453
and my father was about 24, 25.

00:13:16.350 --> 00:13:19.140
They were young parents.

00:13:19.140 --> 00:13:22.983
I know that was my father's forever home

00:13:22.983 --> 00:13:24.090
that he wanted to be there,

00:13:24.090 --> 00:13:26.045
'cause he had just got in.

00:13:26.045 --> 00:13:28.163
It only took him four years to pay it off.

00:13:28.163 --> 00:13:29.880
And only my father worked,
my mother didn't work.

00:13:29.880 --> 00:13:33.570
So they were really
planning for their future.

00:13:33.570 --> 00:13:38.283
And what can I say?

00:13:39.989 --> 00:13:42.572
(gentle music)

00:14:00.866 --> 00:14:02.910
- We lived on Russell Road at the time,

00:14:02.910 --> 00:14:05.310
which is now Winton Avenue.

00:14:05.310 --> 00:14:08.100
There was the dump,

00:14:08.100 --> 00:14:11.283
there was the junkyard across from there.

00:14:12.136 --> 00:14:14.190
There was the dairy, there
was the Hayward Shoreline,

00:14:14.190 --> 00:14:16.530
there was Leslie Salt Mills.

00:14:16.530 --> 00:14:21.530
But we also had a great school,
Russell Elementary School.

00:14:21.787 --> 00:14:23.100
We had incredible teachers.

00:14:23.100 --> 00:14:24.720
And we had a librarian,

00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:27.840
probably about a 400 square foot library.

00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:32.340
And Mrs. Nigrin had a huge
house next to the library.

00:14:32.340 --> 00:14:36.810
And oftentimes, she would
invite us in to have tea

00:14:36.810 --> 00:14:38.490
or just sit and talk.

00:14:38.490 --> 00:14:41.940
And she had all of these
National Geographic magazines.

00:14:41.940 --> 00:14:44.610
And I think that's where I
developed my love for travel,

00:14:44.610 --> 00:14:47.090
was at that library,

00:14:47.090 --> 00:14:50.716
because Mrs. Nigrin was always
exposing us to the world.

00:14:50.716 --> 00:14:53.299
(gentle music)

00:14:55.578 --> 00:14:57.600
The orchestra, I played tenor sax.

00:14:57.600 --> 00:14:58.830
I was horrid.

00:14:58.830 --> 00:15:01.080
Oh, I was just awful.

00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:05.730
And as a kid, we also had a singing group.

00:15:05.730 --> 00:15:08.223
We were called The Five Capris.

00:15:09.097 --> 00:15:14.097
♪ Yes, I love you so more than you know ♪

00:15:17.490 --> 00:15:21.428
♪ Well, that's my baby ♪

00:15:21.428 --> 00:15:22.830
♪ I wanna ♪

00:15:22.830 --> 00:15:24.843
- [Betty] Go ahead,
sing, the best you can.

00:15:26.377 --> 00:15:29.508
♪ He went out one night ♪

00:15:29.508 --> 00:15:32.306
♪ And he started to fight ♪

00:15:32.306 --> 00:15:35.966
♪ But I love him so ♪

00:15:35.966 --> 00:15:38.869
♪ and I never let him go ♪

00:15:38.869 --> 00:15:41.149
♪ Oh yes ♪

00:15:41.149 --> 00:15:42.155
- And then they'd say.

00:15:42.155 --> 00:15:46.283
♪ Oh, oh yes, that's my baby ♪

00:15:46.283 --> 00:15:49.187
♪ I love you so ♪

00:15:49.187 --> 00:15:52.412
♪ More than you know ♪

00:15:52.412 --> 00:15:55.495
(gentle piano music)

00:16:18.357 --> 00:16:20.790
- The roots of Russell City is deep.

00:16:20.790 --> 00:16:23.070
We have to understand our roots.

00:16:23.070 --> 00:16:27.071
We have to understand where
we coming from, the war years.

00:16:27.071 --> 00:16:28.530
We had Todd Shipyard, Moore Shipyard,

00:16:28.530 --> 00:16:30.390
Kaiser Shipyard, Vallejo Shipyards.

00:16:30.390 --> 00:16:31.560
So as a matter of fact,

00:16:31.560 --> 00:16:34.440
my mother met my father
at Todd's Shipyard,

00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:36.333
that's down there by Fifth Avenue.

00:16:37.380 --> 00:16:39.000
She was a journeyman welder.

00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:40.320
She was a Rosie the Riveter.

00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:42.715
And they would put a harness on her,

00:16:42.715 --> 00:16:45.412
and she'd go, "They'd have a
big old sheet of like the size

00:16:45.412 --> 00:16:46.590
of a big sheet of plywood.

00:16:46.590 --> 00:16:48.180
And they'd lower the sheet and her down

00:16:48.180 --> 00:16:49.350
in the bottom of the ship.

00:16:49.350 --> 00:16:51.720
And they would tell her, 'Don't look down.

00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:53.336
'cause they didn't clean it out too good.

00:16:53.336 --> 00:16:55.350
You might see a finger or arm or a leg.

00:16:55.350 --> 00:16:57.981
Just don't look down, just weld.'"

00:16:57.981 --> 00:16:58.814
And they were working 24-hour shifts.

00:16:58.814 --> 00:17:01.230
So they was ships in and out, in and out.

00:17:01.230 --> 00:17:04.536
An average day for her is 12, 15 hours.

00:17:04.536 --> 00:17:06.840
The whole notion of coming to California

00:17:06.840 --> 00:17:10.290
in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas,

00:17:10.290 --> 00:17:14.840
they making two dollars a
day, three dollars a day.

00:17:14.840 --> 00:17:17.100
And out here, they is paying
four, five dollars an hour

00:17:17.100 --> 00:17:18.690
at the shipyards, are you kidding?

00:17:18.690 --> 00:17:20.932
Four and five dollars a week?

00:17:20.932 --> 00:17:22.080
You know, so they jumped at it.

00:17:22.080 --> 00:17:24.600
My father, in 1957/58,

00:17:24.600 --> 00:17:25.980
he'd come home drunk.

00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:27.660
They'd bring him drunk from Russell City,

00:17:27.660 --> 00:17:29.220
this little unincorporated town.

00:17:29.220 --> 00:17:31.657
So my father come home, he'd whisper,

00:17:31.657 --> 00:17:32.607
"Come here, Ronnie,

00:17:33.630 --> 00:17:37.050
put on Muddy Waters on for me, put it on."

00:17:37.050 --> 00:17:37.883
He'd give me a nickel.

00:17:37.883 --> 00:17:39.951
And if my mother would hear, she said,

00:17:39.951 --> 00:17:41.580
"Eddie, don't you, cut that,
and let that boy go to sleep."

00:17:41.580 --> 00:17:43.290
My mother's name Barbie,
he said, "Oh, Barbie.

00:17:43.290 --> 00:17:46.020
I'm... Okay, he just
playing a record for me.

00:17:46.020 --> 00:17:47.880
Put on, Muddy."

00:17:47.880 --> 00:17:50.370
And he be...He couldn't clap
his hand, he be too drunk.

00:17:50.370 --> 00:17:51.570
He'd be doing like this.

00:17:52.800 --> 00:17:55.200
People like Big Mama
Thornton, Ray Charles,

00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:57.450
Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker,

00:17:57.450 --> 00:18:00.570
every guitar player
that pick up his guitar,

00:18:00.570 --> 00:18:02.100
plays a little of T-Bone Walker.

00:18:02.100 --> 00:18:05.460
And that's The Beatles, The
Rolling Stones is T-Bone Walker.

00:18:05.460 --> 00:18:07.860
And again, he played in Russell City.

00:18:07.860 --> 00:18:11.340
Even Ray Charles played Russell City.

00:18:11.340 --> 00:18:15.150
Elvis Presley was right down
here at the Oakland Auditorium.

00:18:15.150 --> 00:18:16.110
He's making it then.

00:18:16.110 --> 00:18:19.470
This is 1956/57, $50,000.

00:18:19.470 --> 00:18:21.147
His big hit was "Hound Dog."

00:18:22.140 --> 00:18:24.859
Big Mama Thornton and Johnny Otis wrote,

00:18:24.859 --> 00:18:26.236
and she said in Russell City,

00:18:26.236 --> 00:18:30.842
she said, "We making $25 a
night here, five dollars a man.

00:18:30.842 --> 00:18:33.240
He's playing my song as his hit song.

00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:35.699
You ain't nothing but a hound dog."

00:18:35.699 --> 00:18:36.749
And what a dichotomy.

00:18:38.046 --> 00:18:40.629
(gentle music)

00:18:55.826 --> 00:18:59.340
- My parents, my mom and my
dad worked in the shipyards.

00:18:59.340 --> 00:19:02.220
When they approached real estate brokers,

00:19:02.220 --> 00:19:05.520
they were directed to Russell City.

00:19:05.520 --> 00:19:07.797
And they were told that, "You know,

00:19:07.797 --> 00:19:10.110
you could live there cheaply.

00:19:10.110 --> 00:19:13.830
You would be able to live
with your own people."

00:19:13.830 --> 00:19:17.640
But they were steered to Russell City.

00:19:17.640 --> 00:19:20.370
And my parents were gainfully employed,

00:19:20.370 --> 00:19:25.110
so they could have easily
afforded a place like San Leandro.

00:19:25.110 --> 00:19:28.860
So my parents ended up
living in Russell City,

00:19:28.860 --> 00:19:32.250
because they could not live
anywhere else in the Bay Area.

00:19:32.250 --> 00:19:35.970
This was in 1938.

00:19:35.970 --> 00:19:39.030
It said, "Property shall
not be used or occupied

00:19:39.030 --> 00:19:42.300
by any person whose blood is not entirely

00:19:42.300 --> 00:19:44.310
that of the Caucasian race,

00:19:44.310 --> 00:19:48.480
but persons not of the
Caucasian race may be kept there

00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:52.230
by a Caucasian occupant,
strictly in the capacity

00:19:52.230 --> 00:19:55.080
of servants of such occupant."

00:19:55.080 --> 00:19:56.730
Most people don't even realize

00:19:56.730 --> 00:20:00.480
that redlining, mortgage
industry, the role they played,

00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:04.770
the real estate industry, the
role they continue to play.

00:20:04.770 --> 00:20:09.770
If you lived in a black
community, the areas were red.

00:20:10.320 --> 00:20:14.220
And if you lived in a white
community, the areas were green.

00:20:14.220 --> 00:20:18.510
And the federal government
created this back in 1934.

00:20:20.100 --> 00:20:23.790
Mortgage companies used
these color-coded maps

00:20:23.790 --> 00:20:27.810
to identify where it was
safe to ensure mortgages.

00:20:27.810 --> 00:20:29.670
Red was the lowest rating,

00:20:29.670 --> 00:20:34.170
indicating areas where it was
too risky to ensure loans.

00:20:34.170 --> 00:20:38.163
And then green was in
the white neighborhoods.

00:20:40.050 --> 00:20:41.730
How will we ever undo this?

00:20:41.730 --> 00:20:44.340
How will we ever catch
up with white people

00:20:44.340 --> 00:20:47.373
as far as multi-generational wealth?

00:20:48.250 --> 00:20:50.833
(gentle music)

00:21:06.906 --> 00:21:10.320
- I can remember my dad sold
everything, everything he had

00:21:10.320 --> 00:21:13.440
to purchase that property in Russell City.

00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:15.630
And my mom looked at my dad,

00:21:15.630 --> 00:21:18.567
she said, "Tom, I know this
is not the house you bought."

00:21:19.578 --> 00:21:22.140
He said, "Yeah, Lotty B, I just
paid $2,000 for the house,"

00:21:22.140 --> 00:21:24.240
he said, "And I'm going to fix it up."

00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:28.140
It didn't have any windows
in it, didn't have any doors,

00:21:28.140 --> 00:21:30.243
and we had brought everything we own.

00:21:31.907 --> 00:21:33.780
My mother was so upset.

00:21:33.780 --> 00:21:35.763
- You know, a kid does what he sees,

00:21:36.840 --> 00:21:38.240
kid does what you teach him.

00:21:39.471 --> 00:21:41.612
Right when you go over the
tracks, they call it the front.

00:21:41.612 --> 00:21:43.110
It was like the spot,
around-the-clock gambling.

00:21:43.110 --> 00:21:45.240
It was always a bunch of men there,

00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:47.694
you know, shooting crap,

00:21:47.694 --> 00:21:48.810
drinking wines, doing dope.

00:21:48.810 --> 00:21:49.643
But that was just like,

00:21:49.643 --> 00:21:51.030
they drew me like, wow,
going to the store.

00:21:51.030 --> 00:21:54.724
So you see that, you know,
cussing and partying.

00:21:54.724 --> 00:21:57.030
It just like no cops, there was no law.

00:21:57.030 --> 00:21:59.148
Cops never came there.

00:21:59.148 --> 00:22:00.912
And if they came, they came 100 deep.

00:22:00.912 --> 00:22:02.774
You know how they say you're
a product of your environment.

00:22:02.774 --> 00:22:04.380
My people perish for
the lack of knowledge.

00:22:04.380 --> 00:22:06.180
My dad was 59,

00:22:06.180 --> 00:22:07.713
my brother, Raymond, was 58,

00:22:09.106 --> 00:22:10.440
my brother, Freddy, was 42,

00:22:10.440 --> 00:22:11.943
my brother, Frank, was 44,

00:22:12.975 --> 00:22:15.053
and my brother, Manu, was 48.

00:22:15.053 --> 00:22:16.368
None of them made 60.

00:22:16.368 --> 00:22:18.171
Three of them didn't make 50.

00:22:18.171 --> 00:22:21.210
Yeah, my dad was an
alcoholic or a drug addict.

00:22:21.210 --> 00:22:23.340
My brother, Raymond, he died from cancer.

00:22:23.340 --> 00:22:24.750
He was a drinker.

00:22:24.750 --> 00:22:27.535
My brother, Freddy, late in life,

00:22:27.535 --> 00:22:29.310
he got divorced, broken heart.

00:22:29.310 --> 00:22:34.310
He started using, I think he
was like 40 maybe, that's old.

00:22:36.660 --> 00:22:38.010
He just started using dope.

00:22:39.690 --> 00:22:42.753
I started fixing it, putting
needle around at 13 years old.

00:22:44.550 --> 00:22:48.390
Sad, I started smoking
weed when I was about 11.

00:22:48.390 --> 00:22:51.745
Just puffing on the joint, and liking it.

00:22:51.745 --> 00:22:52.578
Like, it's cool.

00:22:52.578 --> 00:22:53.970
Drinking a little wine,

00:22:53.970 --> 00:22:55.980
just, you went deeper and deeper.

00:22:55.980 --> 00:22:57.720
Remember he would tell
me, he'd say, "Guy,"

00:22:57.720 --> 00:23:00.325
he goes, "When you turn 13,

00:23:00.325 --> 00:23:02.250
Ima give you fix."

00:23:02.250 --> 00:23:03.088
And I was, "Yeah."

00:23:03.088 --> 00:23:04.590
I was looking forward to my 13th birthday,

00:23:04.590 --> 00:23:06.600
and on that day and sure enough,

00:23:06.600 --> 00:23:09.388
and I remember I could see as
if it was happening right now.

00:23:09.388 --> 00:23:11.544
And I remember, give me just a little bit

00:23:11.544 --> 00:23:12.872
call it cotton,

00:23:12.872 --> 00:23:14.250
put the cotton in the spoon, cook it up,

00:23:14.250 --> 00:23:15.383
draw it up and put it in your vein.

00:23:16.915 --> 00:23:17.850
And remember I was just a kid.

00:23:17.850 --> 00:23:19.750
I look back at that, I said, "My God,"

00:23:21.060 --> 00:23:22.203
you know, I was a kid,

00:23:23.304 --> 00:23:28.080
and I didn't know nothing else, you know?

00:23:28.080 --> 00:23:31.854
So anyway, I got sent to youth
authority from eighth grade.

00:23:31.854 --> 00:23:33.363
I got busted for a burglary,

00:23:34.260 --> 00:23:36.810
stealing cars, just blowing it.

00:23:36.810 --> 00:23:39.274
I was incorrigible, I didn't mind the law.

00:23:39.274 --> 00:23:40.601
I didn't mind my mom.

00:23:40.601 --> 00:23:45.601
My mom used to beg me, poor
thing (speaks in Spanish)

00:23:47.302 --> 00:23:49.470
Hurting my mom. I was so miserable,

00:23:49.470 --> 00:23:52.053
empty and lonely inside, ugly.

00:23:53.370 --> 00:23:56.591
Ugly, I hate that person, you know?

00:23:56.591 --> 00:23:57.424
It just piled up.

00:23:57.424 --> 00:23:58.770
When I calculated my time,

00:23:58.770 --> 00:24:02.447
I did like 40 years of my life in prison.

00:24:02.447 --> 00:24:03.750
- [Mimi] 40?
- 40 in pieces.

00:24:03.750 --> 00:24:05.430
16 months, three years,

00:24:05.430 --> 00:24:07.170
five years, two years,

00:24:07.170 --> 00:24:09.363
you know, just like that.

00:24:10.308 --> 00:24:12.891
(gentle music)

00:24:14.222 --> 00:24:15.060
- At Russell City, if you weren't careful,

00:24:15.060 --> 00:24:17.043
you could get into trouble.

00:24:18.083 --> 00:24:21.360
It's not what we all make it
to be like a big family, no.

00:24:21.360 --> 00:24:22.947
Yes, it was in a way,

00:24:22.947 --> 00:24:24.753
but it had its rough boys in there.

00:24:25.595 --> 00:24:27.382
And I wasn't part of that group, you know?

00:24:27.382 --> 00:24:30.390
But they were still my
friends, but I drew the line.

00:24:30.390 --> 00:24:32.490
My dad sat me down in the living room.

00:24:32.490 --> 00:24:34.110
He said, "You're not gonna
be around me no more,

00:24:34.110 --> 00:24:36.330
but I want you to know right from wrong.

00:24:36.330 --> 00:24:38.232
I don't want you to be a follower.

00:24:38.232 --> 00:24:39.506
I want you to be a leader."

00:24:39.506 --> 00:24:40.575
I mean, I'm what?

00:24:40.575 --> 00:24:41.520
13 years old when he's telling me this.

00:24:41.520 --> 00:24:43.350
And the biggest statement,

00:24:43.350 --> 00:24:46.750
and probably I made in my
life is when I told him,

00:24:46.750 --> 00:24:47.610
"You don't have to worry about it, Dad."

00:24:47.610 --> 00:24:50.147
That was always in the back of my mind

00:24:50.147 --> 00:24:51.676
that I couldn't let him down,

00:24:51.676 --> 00:24:52.904
that I go pick up a bad habit.

00:24:52.904 --> 00:24:54.540
I knew that I gave him my word.

00:24:54.540 --> 00:24:57.295
We'd be working somewhere, you know,

00:24:57.295 --> 00:24:59.395
doing people's houses, seven days a week,

00:25:00.270 --> 00:25:01.533
seven days a week.

00:25:02.610 --> 00:25:05.430
It'd been longer conversations on the jobs

00:25:05.430 --> 00:25:09.214
if people would've known that
he was Pancho villa's son,

00:25:09.214 --> 00:25:10.875
'cause he never brought it out.

00:25:10.875 --> 00:25:13.958
(gentle piano music)

00:25:20.700 --> 00:25:22.380
- We had a small little house.

00:25:22.380 --> 00:25:24.861
So the couch was against one wall,

00:25:24.861 --> 00:25:25.920
and there was the entrance,

00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:28.413
and there was a chair, you know?

00:25:30.360 --> 00:25:32.558
And my dad was sitting there.

00:25:32.558 --> 00:25:33.690
So he came in,

00:25:33.690 --> 00:25:36.270
and my dad was sitting
like this, you know?

00:25:37.290 --> 00:25:41.160
So knock on the door, and here comes Jim,

00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:45.417
and says, "Well, talk
to my dad, you know?"

00:25:46.830 --> 00:25:50.412
I didn't know how he was
going to react, you know,

00:25:50.412 --> 00:25:51.930
and Jim didn't know how
he was gonna react either.

00:25:51.930 --> 00:25:56.171
So he says in Spanish, you know,

00:25:56.171 --> 00:25:58.890
he tells him (Priscilla speaks in Spanish)

00:25:58.890 --> 00:26:01.080
which means that, "I came to see

00:26:01.080 --> 00:26:03.784
if you could let me come
and visit Priscilla."

00:26:03.784 --> 00:26:04.617
He said, "Well, what are you asking?

00:26:04.617 --> 00:26:05.787
You're already here!"

00:26:06.690 --> 00:26:08.436
And we got married.

00:26:08.436 --> 00:26:11.190
I was 19 and he was 20, 1962.

00:26:11.190 --> 00:26:13.890
He was my one and only boyfriend, yeah.

00:26:13.890 --> 00:26:16.960
This year would be 60 years,

00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:18.723
would've been 60 years, yeah.

00:26:20.460 --> 00:26:22.666
He used to love for me to play

00:26:22.666 --> 00:26:25.124
for him "Solamente una vez"

00:26:25.124 --> 00:26:25.957
which means "Only one time."

00:26:26.948 --> 00:26:30.031
(gentle piano music)

00:27:06.535 --> 00:27:09.545
- I am still weeping within my heart,

00:27:09.545 --> 00:27:11.085
and I try not to think about it.

00:27:11.085 --> 00:27:14.183
Sometimes when I go to
sleep, my mind get on it,

00:27:14.183 --> 00:27:15.495
and I say, "Oh, not today.

00:27:15.495 --> 00:27:17.054
I'm not gonna think about this,

00:27:17.054 --> 00:27:20.395
'cause it's terrible what they
did to the people out there."

00:27:20.395 --> 00:27:21.750
Like, we didn't mean anything.

00:27:21.750 --> 00:27:24.086
My dad would just break down,

00:27:24.086 --> 00:27:25.140
"Well, where are we gonna go?

00:27:25.140 --> 00:27:26.880
We don't have any money, Lotty B,"

00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:28.771
that's what he called my mother.

00:27:28.771 --> 00:27:30.630
And like I said, my dad,

00:27:30.630 --> 00:27:35.310
he just started drinking
until he didn't care no more

00:27:35.310 --> 00:27:37.717
because we was gonna leave there.

00:27:37.717 --> 00:27:39.510
And he didn't have anywhere to go.

00:27:39.510 --> 00:27:41.068
What is it?

00:27:41.068 --> 00:27:42.870
60 years of heartache.

00:27:42.870 --> 00:27:45.240
- Haves and have-nots.

00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:48.210
People of color are the have-nots.

00:27:48.210 --> 00:27:49.510
It's always been that way.

00:27:58.554 --> 00:28:01.137
(gentle music)

00:28:46.380 --> 00:28:50.010
- [Reporter] Slum beginnings
are found in the project area.

00:28:50.010 --> 00:28:52.380
Frontages often look presentable.

00:28:52.380 --> 00:28:56.250
But interiors and
backyards are the telltale

00:28:56.250 --> 00:28:57.723
of approaching blight.

00:28:59.220 --> 00:29:03.570
The slum, the end result of this disease,

00:29:03.570 --> 00:29:06.720
many of her dwellings
look and are malignant,

00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:09.753
threatening the vitality
of the entire community.

00:29:10.800 --> 00:29:14.220
Some houses were illegally constructed.

00:29:14.220 --> 00:29:16.713
The slum does not just happen,

00:29:17.580 --> 00:29:20.370
war, depression, public apathy,

00:29:20.370 --> 00:29:23.040
inadequate laws and personnel,

00:29:23.040 --> 00:29:26.823
and other complex factors
combined to create the slum.

00:29:27.940 --> 00:29:31.410
Some houses have inadequate
and decrepit plumbing,

00:29:31.410 --> 00:29:33.060
dangerous to health.

00:29:33.060 --> 00:29:36.870
Some have no inside sanitary facilities.

00:29:36.870 --> 00:29:40.533
Every form of housing
decay is found in the slum,

00:29:41.370 --> 00:29:43.920
rickety railings or steps,

00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:47.070
faulty plumbing, unvented stoves,

00:29:47.070 --> 00:29:49.740
poor lighting, many families jammed

00:29:49.740 --> 00:29:51.780
into single family units.

00:29:51.780 --> 00:29:55.023
All of these when concentrated spell slum,

00:29:56.010 --> 00:29:58.980
decay and filth take over.

00:29:58.980 --> 00:30:02.460
But the decay is not self-contained.

00:30:02.460 --> 00:30:05.700
Like a cancer, it feeds
upon and drains the economy

00:30:05.700 --> 00:30:08.970
and vitality of the entire city.

00:30:08.970 --> 00:30:12.678
Slums are a costly
breeding ground for crime,

00:30:12.678 --> 00:30:14.973
juvenile delinquency, fire and disease.

00:30:16.200 --> 00:30:17.910
The taxpayers in the good areas

00:30:17.910 --> 00:30:20.610
of the city pay for the slum.

00:30:20.610 --> 00:30:23.610
Decay of moral and spiritual
values cannot be measured

00:30:23.610 --> 00:30:26.467
in dollars and cents, but taxes can.

00:30:46.877 --> 00:30:51.877
(water sloshing)
(fire crackling)

00:31:14.440 --> 00:31:17.607
- Two months ago, I was
going through the garage

00:31:17.607 --> 00:31:19.800
and going through some
of the boxes of books,

00:31:19.800 --> 00:31:24.800
and lo and behold, one of
the books fell to the floor,

00:31:24.840 --> 00:31:27.840
and it was the transcript of hearings

00:31:27.840 --> 00:31:30.930
that were conducted by
the Board of Supervisors

00:31:30.930 --> 00:31:32.994
of Alameda County.

00:31:32.994 --> 00:31:36.709
So I picked up the book,
and I started reading it,

00:31:36.709 --> 00:31:39.420
and I mean, I just had to sit down

00:31:39.420 --> 00:31:42.900
because it was just so deplorable the way

00:31:42.900 --> 00:31:45.450
that we were treated.

00:31:45.450 --> 00:31:49.380
And you realize how there
had been a long term plan

00:31:49.380 --> 00:31:54.030
to reclaim the land from Russell City.

00:31:54.030 --> 00:31:56.972
It was really heart-wrenching

00:31:56.972 --> 00:31:59.700
to hear our families pleading

00:31:59.700 --> 00:32:04.700
with the Board of Supervisors
to improve their land.

00:32:04.770 --> 00:32:09.770
And you realize then how
we never had a chance.

00:32:10.440 --> 00:32:13.560
It was a perfunctory hearing.

00:32:13.560 --> 00:32:15.870
There was never any intent

00:32:15.870 --> 00:32:18.210
on behalf of the Board of Supervisors

00:32:18.210 --> 00:32:22.443
to allow us to remain in Russell City.

00:32:24.463 --> 00:32:27.546
(audience murmuring)

00:32:48.660 --> 00:32:49.710
- [Chairman Purcel] It is our intent

00:32:49.710 --> 00:32:52.859
to eliminate severely blighted conditions

00:32:52.859 --> 00:32:55.867
in the Russell City area
that have for a long time,

00:32:55.867 --> 00:32:58.140
been a source of great concern to us.

00:32:58.140 --> 00:33:00.850
And to restore the lands
in the project area

00:33:01.693 --> 00:33:04.500
to a condition and use
of significant benefit

00:33:04.500 --> 00:33:08.152
to all of the county of Alameda.

00:33:08.152 --> 00:33:10.318
- Mr. Chairman, for the
purpose of the record,

00:33:10.318 --> 00:33:11.310
I wonder if we could have an estimate

00:33:11.310 --> 00:33:13.644
of the number of people here

00:33:13.644 --> 00:33:15.300
to show the participation of this meeting.

00:33:15.300 --> 00:33:17.130
Would somebody estimate?

00:33:17.130 --> 00:33:19.170
- [Audience Member] Probably
between three and 400.

00:33:19.170 --> 00:33:23.070
- May the record show there
are present about 400 people.

00:33:23.070 --> 00:33:26.663
All of your testimony will be recorded.

00:33:26.663 --> 00:33:28.540
- This is a question that has come

00:33:28.540 --> 00:33:30.860
to many of the people
that are sitting here.

00:33:30.860 --> 00:33:31.693
Where will they go?

00:33:31.693 --> 00:33:33.180
What will it cost them?

00:33:33.180 --> 00:33:35.950
And is this redevelopment
move going to allow them

00:33:36.832 --> 00:33:37.665
to afford it?

00:33:38.582 --> 00:33:39.990
- [Official] They will go where
their money will allow them.

00:33:39.990 --> 00:33:42.090
- [Audience Member] We're going nowhere.

00:33:42.090 --> 00:33:43.020
(indistinct)

00:33:43.020 --> 00:33:46.230
- The area is characterized
by depreciated values,

00:33:46.230 --> 00:33:49.860
impaired investments, social
and economic maladjustment,

00:33:49.860 --> 00:33:52.560
and by other conditions
conducive to ill health

00:33:52.560 --> 00:33:54.540
and juvenile delinquency.

00:33:54.540 --> 00:33:56.970
Lady, do you wish to speak?

00:33:56.970 --> 00:33:57.990
- Yes, sir.

00:33:57.990 --> 00:34:00.480
- [Chairman Purcel] What
do you think of the plan?

00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:02.613
- Well, I don't wanna sell my property.

00:34:03.657 --> 00:34:04.560
- [Chairman Purcel] You
don't wanna sell it.

00:34:04.560 --> 00:34:05.640
You live there, but-

00:34:05.640 --> 00:34:07.530
- I asked Mr. Carlson for a permit.

00:34:07.530 --> 00:34:08.820
They denied me the right,

00:34:08.820 --> 00:34:11.139
the building inspector and I,

00:34:11.139 --> 00:34:12.360
I don't wanna sell my property.

00:34:12.360 --> 00:34:14.378
- You don't wanna sell it,

00:34:14.378 --> 00:34:16.740
even though you know that
you'd receive a fair price

00:34:16.740 --> 00:34:17.910
for the property.

00:34:17.910 --> 00:34:19.710
- They wouldn't give me a fair price.

00:34:19.710 --> 00:34:21.180
- How do you know?

00:34:21.180 --> 00:34:22.200
You don't know that.

00:34:22.200 --> 00:34:24.030
That is our responsibility,

00:34:24.030 --> 00:34:25.770
and that is following the provisions

00:34:25.770 --> 00:34:28.634
of the community redevelopment law.

00:34:28.634 --> 00:34:29.940
- Well, I don't know about that.

00:34:29.940 --> 00:34:32.520
- You may not know that,
but that is the law.

00:34:32.520 --> 00:34:33.620
- I don't believe you.

00:34:34.662 --> 00:34:36.305
I never got anything fair yet.

00:34:36.305 --> 00:34:37.459
I'll tell you that much.

00:34:37.459 --> 00:34:40.140
- Do you have anything else
to say, Mrs. Torchette?

00:34:40.140 --> 00:34:41.890
- They ain't gonna get my property.

00:34:43.224 --> 00:34:45.420
- Is there anybody else who
owns property in the project

00:34:45.420 --> 00:34:47.070
and who lives on the property?

00:34:47.070 --> 00:34:48.960
- Yes.
- [Chairman Purcel] Proceed.

00:34:48.960 --> 00:34:51.270
Mrs. Richardson, is that your name?

00:34:51.270 --> 00:34:52.590
- Miss.

00:34:52.590 --> 00:34:54.780
You were telling us how
we had three reports

00:34:54.780 --> 00:34:56.560
on Russell City?

00:34:56.560 --> 00:34:58.273
- Talk right into the microphone.

00:34:58.273 --> 00:34:59.106
Now, go ahead.

00:34:59.106 --> 00:35:01.620
- You were telling us, can you hear me?

00:35:01.620 --> 00:35:04.140
Can you hear me?
- Yes.

00:35:04.140 --> 00:35:05.580
- Why did you make it sound

00:35:05.580 --> 00:35:08.580
that Russell City is
just desperately dying?

00:35:08.580 --> 00:35:10.497
Why did you do that?

00:35:10.497 --> 00:35:13.830
You made it sound like they
had no way of doing anything.

00:35:13.830 --> 00:35:15.450
- May I ask you a question?

00:35:15.450 --> 00:35:16.590
- [Ms. Richardson] Yes, you may.

00:35:16.590 --> 00:35:17.670
- Is it your position

00:35:17.670 --> 00:35:20.100
that Russell City is not a blighted area?

00:35:20.100 --> 00:35:21.240
Is that it?

00:35:21.240 --> 00:35:22.620
- Oh, it's damaged, all right.

00:35:22.620 --> 00:35:25.650
But you make it sound
like it's beyond hope.

00:35:25.650 --> 00:35:27.840
Is there someone here
from the fire department?

00:35:27.840 --> 00:35:30.270
- Ms. Richardson, you live there.

00:35:30.270 --> 00:35:31.980
May I ask you a question?

00:35:31.980 --> 00:35:33.990
- [Ms. Richardson] I
just asked a question.

00:35:33.990 --> 00:35:35.370
- Just a minute, just a minute.

00:35:35.370 --> 00:35:38.700
Do you have a fire department
within the Russell City area?

00:35:38.700 --> 00:35:41.580
- I just asked a question
about the fire department.

00:35:41.580 --> 00:35:43.980
If we had one, would I be asking it?

00:35:43.980 --> 00:35:45.480
- Wait a minute, wait a minute.

00:35:45.480 --> 00:35:48.090
Listen, if you conduct
yourself like a lady,

00:35:48.090 --> 00:35:50.365
you'll be treated like a lady.

00:35:50.365 --> 00:35:51.198
(Ms. Richardson sighs)

00:35:51.198 --> 00:35:53.940
- I'm asking about who
brings the water out.

00:35:53.940 --> 00:35:56.370
You said they get there
as fast as they can.

00:35:56.370 --> 00:35:58.110
How come when my house was on fire,

00:35:58.110 --> 00:36:00.150
it took them 100 years to get there?

00:36:00.150 --> 00:36:01.980
- I don't know any of the facts on this,

00:36:01.980 --> 00:36:03.840
and I can't answer.

00:36:03.840 --> 00:36:05.550
I'm very sorry, Mrs. Richardson,

00:36:05.550 --> 00:36:06.870
- It's Miss.

00:36:06.870 --> 00:36:09.180
- [Chairman Purcel Ms. Richardson.

00:36:09.180 --> 00:36:10.013
- I'm through.

00:36:13.470 --> 00:36:15.909
- See these pictures and things?

00:36:15.909 --> 00:36:17.250
They taken the worst pictures

00:36:17.250 --> 00:36:20.128
in the worst part of Russell City,

00:36:20.128 --> 00:36:20.970
and I wonder why you do that.

00:36:20.970 --> 00:36:24.210
- It is true, but those 12
photographs represent a condition

00:36:24.210 --> 00:36:28.080
that exists in more than
70% of the structures.

00:36:28.080 --> 00:36:30.180
- You heard the statement, Mr. Stone,

00:36:30.180 --> 00:36:31.920
do you have another question?

00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:33.888
- Hold on now.

00:36:33.888 --> 00:36:36.739
Sister Richardson was up
here talking about this fire.

00:36:36.739 --> 00:36:38.130
A house would get caught a fire out there,

00:36:38.130 --> 00:36:40.260
and then you can call the fire department,

00:36:40.260 --> 00:36:42.745
and they would never come out there,

00:36:42.745 --> 00:36:44.760
until the house done
completely burnt down.

00:36:44.760 --> 00:36:47.958
Back in '61, I was building my place up,

00:36:47.958 --> 00:36:49.918
trying to make it look
pretty good, I guess.

00:36:49.918 --> 00:36:52.069
And one of my neighbors turned me in.

00:36:52.069 --> 00:36:53.460
I didn't have no building
permit or nothing.

00:36:53.460 --> 00:36:55.890
I had to go down to the
Alameda County official.

00:36:55.890 --> 00:36:59.010
So I was pretty warmed under
collar about the whole thing.

00:36:59.010 --> 00:37:01.305
And the peoples down there told me

00:37:01.305 --> 00:37:03.150
that, "We were going to
get run out of Russell City

00:37:03.150 --> 00:37:04.377
or burned out."

00:37:05.415 --> 00:37:07.200
"But we were just going
to pick up and walk,"

00:37:07.200 --> 00:37:08.367
and I quote that.

00:37:08.367 --> 00:37:11.520
- You said that... you
realize you were under oath,

00:37:11.520 --> 00:37:13.410
when you made that statement.

00:37:13.410 --> 00:37:14.310
- [Mr. Stone] Yes.

00:37:15.420 --> 00:37:18.330
- Did I understand you
to say, sir, under oath,

00:37:18.330 --> 00:37:21.210
that somebody down at
the building department,

00:37:21.210 --> 00:37:25.770
said they were either going to
run you out or burn you out?

00:37:25.770 --> 00:37:26.763
- That's true.

00:37:27.746 --> 00:37:29.610
(audience murmuring)

00:37:29.610 --> 00:37:32.436
- Mr. Chairman, may I also interject?

00:37:32.436 --> 00:37:33.870
We have compassion in here.

00:37:33.870 --> 00:37:36.113
We think they are good people.

00:37:36.113 --> 00:37:37.056
They are nice people.

00:37:37.056 --> 00:37:38.220
They don't always understand the law.

00:37:38.220 --> 00:37:40.924
It is difficult to get
over the law to them.

00:37:40.924 --> 00:37:44.007
(audience murmuring)

00:37:45.073 --> 00:37:45.930
- Well, you know yourself.

00:37:45.930 --> 00:37:47.820
I think you got the ability to know

00:37:47.820 --> 00:37:48.990
what property is selling

00:37:48.990 --> 00:37:52.140
for all over the United States of America.

00:37:52.140 --> 00:37:55.020
You can't get it for a song and a dance.

00:37:55.020 --> 00:37:57.330
- They will offer you
the fair market value

00:37:57.330 --> 00:37:58.470
of your property.

00:37:58.470 --> 00:38:01.052
Then if you think it's worth more,

00:38:01.052 --> 00:38:02.820
it goes to court under
condemnation proceedings,

00:38:02.820 --> 00:38:04.620
and then it is in the hands of the court

00:38:04.620 --> 00:38:08.310
as to what is a fair market
price for your property.

00:38:08.310 --> 00:38:13.080
- I do have to have enough out
of it to buy me another home.

00:38:13.080 --> 00:38:16.290
And as far as they've been
talking about the relocation,

00:38:16.290 --> 00:38:20.940
I don't want nobody to
relocate me no place, no place.

00:38:20.940 --> 00:38:23.940
Not long as I got breath in
my body and I got a limb.

00:38:23.940 --> 00:38:26.935
I've been a slave all my life,

00:38:26.935 --> 00:38:28.260
trying to live right and do right,

00:38:28.260 --> 00:38:31.560
and people while you sleep,
it's penciled out, ugh...

00:38:31.560 --> 00:38:33.300
They take advantage.

00:38:33.300 --> 00:38:35.581
The Lord ain't pleased at it.

00:38:35.581 --> 00:38:36.480
I'm telling you what I know.

00:38:36.480 --> 00:38:40.380
You don't want nothing bad,
don't deal me nothing bad.

00:38:40.380 --> 00:38:42.090
You want the best?

00:38:42.090 --> 00:38:43.560
Give me the best.

00:38:43.560 --> 00:38:46.590
Give me a chance to get the best here.

00:38:46.590 --> 00:38:48.510
I got a nice place.

00:38:48.510 --> 00:38:50.880
So why I wanna move
now all over the world,

00:38:50.880 --> 00:38:52.680
when I got a place?

00:38:52.680 --> 00:38:54.423
I wants to fix the house.

00:38:58.500 --> 00:39:01.890
- Back in 1956, I believe,

00:39:01.890 --> 00:39:04.320
I'm the one who asked
the board of directors

00:39:04.320 --> 00:39:07.860
to consider Russell City
being a residential area

00:39:07.860 --> 00:39:11.853
for I knew the struggle that
the people had gone through.

00:39:12.750 --> 00:39:17.093
I know one family who attempt
to buy property elsewhere,

00:39:17.093 --> 00:39:18.197
but they told them

00:39:18.197 --> 00:39:20.670
that Russell City was where they belonged.

00:39:20.670 --> 00:39:23.620
I asked the Board of
Supervisors in Oakland

00:39:24.617 --> 00:39:28.710
to give the people of Russell
City a chance many years ago,

00:39:28.710 --> 00:39:31.676
but we were failed to be considered.

00:39:31.676 --> 00:39:32.703
- [Audience Member] Yes, we were.

00:39:32.703 --> 00:39:35.670
- So this is more than
just relocating people.

00:39:35.670 --> 00:39:40.670
This is people who spent
their lives for their homes,

00:39:41.310 --> 00:39:43.620
what they call home.

00:39:43.620 --> 00:39:48.480
This is people who have
sacrificed all that they have.

00:39:49.433 --> 00:39:51.780
Some of them will never get another home,

00:39:51.780 --> 00:39:54.510
and if you move them out,

00:39:54.510 --> 00:39:58.713
you will destroy them for
all that they ever had.

00:40:01.830 --> 00:40:03.660
- We have witnessed programs result

00:40:03.660 --> 00:40:06.450
in the uprooting of Negroes
and other minority groups

00:40:06.450 --> 00:40:08.647
and the transporting of them,

00:40:08.647 --> 00:40:10.020
beyond the community of their choice.

00:40:10.020 --> 00:40:13.440
Urban redevelopment then becomes
a useful and legal weapon

00:40:13.440 --> 00:40:16.419
to accomplish the unconscionable result

00:40:16.419 --> 00:40:17.620
of acquiring the land,

00:40:17.620 --> 00:40:19.530
and removing the
occupants to a new ghetto.

00:40:19.530 --> 00:40:22.770
One needs only to look at
Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago,

00:40:22.770 --> 00:40:25.950
Washington DC, San Francisco, Oakland.

00:40:25.950 --> 00:40:29.640
The NAACP can agree that
Russell City is a blight area,

00:40:29.640 --> 00:40:31.520
and that the idea

00:40:31.520 --> 00:40:34.650
of improving conditions therein
is basically a sound one.

00:40:34.650 --> 00:40:37.800
However, we cannot overlook the fact

00:40:37.800 --> 00:40:39.810
that the conditions which exist there,

00:40:39.810 --> 00:40:42.720
did not develop today, nor yesterday.

00:40:42.720 --> 00:40:45.090
I feel the common
consensus of the population

00:40:45.090 --> 00:40:47.497
of that area would be, and I quote,

00:40:47.497 --> 00:40:49.290
"Our dear supervisors,

00:40:49.290 --> 00:40:53.280
why the belated concern
about Russell City?

00:40:53.280 --> 00:40:57.161
Why have you failed to hear our feeble cry

00:40:57.161 --> 00:41:00.570
from the wilderness in the
years we begged and pleaded

00:41:00.570 --> 00:41:04.590
for fire protection, water, sewage, gas,

00:41:04.590 --> 00:41:05.907
and mosquito abatement?"

00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:11.160
From our vantage point,

00:41:11.160 --> 00:41:13.870
your present concerns are somewhat akin

00:41:14.749 --> 00:41:15.630
to the philosophy of the farmer

00:41:15.630 --> 00:41:19.421
who locks the barn door
after the horse was stolen.

00:41:19.421 --> 00:41:22.320
We hope that you'll be
guided by human values,

00:41:22.320 --> 00:41:24.840
rather than the value of the land.

00:41:25.956 --> 00:41:27.567
- Is there any other individual

00:41:27.567 --> 00:41:29.700
who has not had the opportunity
to speak to the board

00:41:29.700 --> 00:41:31.773
who wishes to speak at this time?

00:41:32.730 --> 00:41:34.050
- I'm just an interested party,

00:41:34.050 --> 00:41:36.810
a citizen of the United States.

00:41:36.810 --> 00:41:39.240
If the County Planning
Commission intends to bring water

00:41:39.240 --> 00:41:41.610
and sewage into this
area for industrial use,

00:41:41.610 --> 00:41:43.380
I don't know why they
can't do it for the people

00:41:43.380 --> 00:41:44.613
that already live there.

00:41:46.920 --> 00:41:49.836
- You may make a few comments if you want.

00:41:49.836 --> 00:41:51.690
Go ahead, make it as brief as possible.

00:41:51.690 --> 00:41:53.070
- Oh, I will do that.

00:41:53.070 --> 00:41:56.490
I could preach all night,
but it wouldn't do no good.

00:41:56.490 --> 00:41:59.070
I just wanted you to see one point.

00:41:59.070 --> 00:42:01.441
You put stumbling blocks

00:42:01.441 --> 00:42:03.330
in all the Russell City's people's path.

00:42:03.330 --> 00:42:05.970
And listen, I'm not satisfied in it.

00:42:05.970 --> 00:42:07.950
God's not satisfied.

00:42:07.950 --> 00:42:09.690
But this is the main thing.

00:42:09.690 --> 00:42:11.490
You all want the property,

00:42:11.490 --> 00:42:13.740
you didn't want it up until now.

00:42:13.740 --> 00:42:15.690
You got something in mind?

00:42:15.690 --> 00:42:17.580
You won't let us know nothing.

00:42:17.580 --> 00:42:19.110
You tell us nothing.

00:42:19.110 --> 00:42:22.230
And while we sleep, you
are doing nothing at all,

00:42:22.230 --> 00:42:24.633
but penciling us out of our life.

00:42:25.650 --> 00:42:29.040
I worked hard for that
little piece of property,

00:42:29.040 --> 00:42:29.873
thanks to the Lord.

00:42:29.873 --> 00:42:31.620
All I know to do is work.

00:42:31.620 --> 00:42:36.210
And if you take this place now,
I don't have nowhere to go.

00:42:36.210 --> 00:42:39.050
I'm getting to be an old man,

00:42:39.050 --> 00:42:40.830
whether you know it or not, I am,

00:42:40.830 --> 00:42:42.555
and I'm too old.

00:42:42.555 --> 00:42:45.569
- I can't hear you, talk
into your microphone.

00:42:45.569 --> 00:42:48.152
(gentle music)

00:44:40.016 --> 00:44:41.820
- [Mimi] You were the
relocation supervisor.

00:44:41.820 --> 00:44:43.803
- Right, that's what I was hired for.

00:44:45.005 --> 00:44:48.060
And within a year, I was director,

00:44:48.060 --> 00:44:53.060
because I went to a board of
supervisors meeting one morning

00:44:54.300 --> 00:44:56.252
with my then boss,

00:44:56.252 --> 00:44:58.290
who was then executive
director, Mr. Herron.

00:44:58.290 --> 00:45:00.395
He just asked me one day, he said,

00:45:00.395 --> 00:45:02.061
"You wanna go downtown with me?"

00:45:02.061 --> 00:45:05.130
'cause my office was in
Hayward, the county building.

00:45:05.130 --> 00:45:08.460
And I said, "Yeah, why not?"

00:45:08.460 --> 00:45:11.897
So I'm sitting in the
supervisor's meeting,

00:45:11.897 --> 00:45:16.897
and they're talking, they
sitting and they talking,

00:45:17.442 --> 00:45:18.960
and I don't really know

00:45:18.960 --> 00:45:21.443
what they were talking about,
wasn't really concerned.

00:45:22.681 --> 00:45:27.681
And somebody made a motion,
one of the supervisors,

00:45:28.170 --> 00:45:33.170
that Harold Davis would be
appointed as executive director

00:45:34.639 --> 00:45:35.543
of the redevelopment agency.

00:45:37.837 --> 00:45:41.190
"Immediately, no, when, effective when?"

00:45:41.190 --> 00:45:42.217
That's what one said.

00:45:42.217 --> 00:45:43.710
"Effective now."

00:45:43.710 --> 00:45:45.663
His name was Kent Purcell.

00:45:46.770 --> 00:45:49.440
He was chairman of the board then.

00:45:49.440 --> 00:45:52.773
And I walk in one way
and walk out another.

00:45:53.819 --> 00:45:55.143
And that's the way it was.

00:45:56.970 --> 00:45:59.850
I was talking to someone not too long ago,

00:45:59.850 --> 00:46:01.893
and they remembered Russell City,

00:46:02.880 --> 00:46:07.593
and it wasn't a city
at all, it was a dump.

00:46:09.944 --> 00:46:11.793
And that's literally the truth.

00:46:12.630 --> 00:46:17.630
And what impressed me
most was the children.

00:46:19.356 --> 00:46:21.857
And when they told me the
children didn't know how

00:46:21.857 --> 00:46:23.373
to use an inside bathroom.

00:46:25.152 --> 00:46:29.433
And then the hog farm, Santucci Brothers,

00:46:30.513 --> 00:46:32.310
and that was the biggest purchase we made

00:46:33.281 --> 00:46:35.793
as an agency of a property out there.

00:46:36.640 --> 00:46:39.156
So now there's a street out
there with my name on it.

00:46:39.156 --> 00:46:40.042
- [Mimi] Is it?

00:46:40.042 --> 00:46:42.810
- Yes, Cabot, Cabot & Forbes,

00:46:42.810 --> 00:46:47.810
the developer, well, they
wanted a street named after me.

00:46:49.200 --> 00:46:50.973
So Harold Davis Avenue.

00:46:52.422 --> 00:46:54.630
- [Mimi] Do you remember
if people wanted to move?

00:46:54.630 --> 00:46:57.900
- It appeared to be too
much trouble for them.

00:46:57.900 --> 00:47:02.560
They didn't know, and they
didn't really trust anything

00:47:04.230 --> 00:47:05.630
that was government-related.

00:47:06.739 --> 00:47:09.270
Then there were people
against the redevelopment

00:47:09.270 --> 00:47:10.143
of Russell City.

00:47:11.188 --> 00:47:13.080
Now, don't ask me why.

00:47:13.080 --> 00:47:15.240
There was one time I got angry.

00:47:15.240 --> 00:47:20.240
This was a white guy who was telling me

00:47:20.640 --> 00:47:24.510
that I was going against my people,

00:47:24.510 --> 00:47:27.030
and I shouldn't be in that position.

00:47:27.030 --> 00:47:28.293
Well, that made me angry.

00:47:29.866 --> 00:47:33.889
See, 'cause how could he
know when I'm looking at all

00:47:33.889 --> 00:47:35.610
that trash and smelling it and so forth?

00:47:35.610 --> 00:47:37.023
And he lived in Oakland.

00:47:38.370 --> 00:47:42.303
He was a minister, so that
didn't help me too much either.

00:47:43.362 --> 00:47:48.362
So, that's just the way
things were at that time.

00:47:51.510 --> 00:47:55.085
You compare that time
with what happens now

00:47:55.085 --> 00:47:59.313
with some of these so-called
activists, it would be nothing.

00:48:00.704 --> 00:48:03.930
But in the early '60s,
that was almost radical,

00:48:03.930 --> 00:48:08.930
the way they saw government
and saw me as heading something

00:48:09.510 --> 00:48:12.723
that a lot of people are
gonna be displaced, yeah.

00:48:13.860 --> 00:48:15.532
- [Mimi] What was it like,

00:48:15.532 --> 00:48:17.310
being the only black man back then along

00:48:17.310 --> 00:48:20.281
with all of these supervisors?

00:48:20.281 --> 00:48:21.578
- Didn't bother me.

00:48:21.578 --> 00:48:25.103
In fact, I was the first
black department head

00:48:29.889 --> 00:48:30.863
in Alameda County government.

00:48:32.310 --> 00:48:37.310
Yeah, so I figured it had to
happen sometime, so why not?

00:48:37.560 --> 00:48:38.760
But it didn't bother me.

00:48:40.230 --> 00:48:43.980
I say I just did it because
I happened to be there,

00:48:43.980 --> 00:48:46.840
and if I did it, anyone
else could have done

00:48:47.739 --> 00:48:49.401
who got the opportunity.

00:48:49.401 --> 00:48:51.090
So it never bothered me.

00:48:51.090 --> 00:48:52.654
- [Mimi] You mentioned

00:48:52.654 --> 00:48:54.330
that you remember the
children in Russell City.

00:48:54.330 --> 00:48:58.830
These children now are
70, 80, 85 years old.

00:48:58.830 --> 00:49:00.848
You know, they're younger than you,

00:49:00.848 --> 00:49:01.681
some of them are still around.

00:49:01.681 --> 00:49:03.270
What would you wanna say to them?

00:49:05.160 --> 00:49:08.910
- Well, coming from someone who
didn't know them personally,

00:49:08.910 --> 00:49:10.443
but I know the conditions,

00:49:11.940 --> 00:49:16.173
I would say, hopefully, you've
done the best that you could.

00:49:17.347 --> 00:49:19.320
And if you've done your best,
that's all you could do.

00:49:19.320 --> 00:49:24.120
And obviously, you have prospered relevant

00:49:24.120 --> 00:49:27.480
to the condition you were in at that time,

00:49:27.480 --> 00:49:29.580
and that's all you could do.

00:49:29.580 --> 00:49:33.060
And hopefully, you learn some things

00:49:33.060 --> 00:49:36.900
that you passed on to a younger generation

00:49:36.900 --> 00:49:39.630
who would've by this time benefited

00:49:39.630 --> 00:49:40.980
from what you went through,

00:49:42.306 --> 00:49:46.740
because things don't necessarily
end with your experience.

00:49:46.740 --> 00:49:50.280
And you can learn also
from negative experience

00:49:50.280 --> 00:49:52.203
because you learn what not to do.

00:49:53.190 --> 00:49:55.290
- [Mimi] Why were they in such conditions?

00:49:57.030 --> 00:49:58.470
- You say you've done research,

00:49:58.470 --> 00:50:01.950
some folks call it "negro renewal",

00:50:01.950 --> 00:50:04.773
because where they really did

00:50:04.773 --> 00:50:06.578
a lot of it was in bad neighborhoods,

00:50:06.578 --> 00:50:07.560
and that's where Negroes were,

00:50:07.560 --> 00:50:10.563
just a way to get the
land from black folks.

00:50:11.610 --> 00:50:14.370
And that's why they
called it "negro renewal"

00:50:14.370 --> 00:50:16.825
And then the thought was

00:50:16.825 --> 00:50:20.010
that we were only doing
this to sell the land

00:50:20.010 --> 00:50:22.020
to rich people.

00:50:22.020 --> 00:50:24.510
Well, somewhere in there,

00:50:24.510 --> 00:50:29.510
it shows that the amount
of taxes collected

00:50:29.970 --> 00:50:34.970
on properties out there
was $19,000 a year.

00:50:36.870 --> 00:50:41.613
We had no federal funds,
which was really unusual.

00:50:42.510 --> 00:50:45.273
And to pull that thing
through without federal funds,

00:50:46.205 --> 00:50:47.703
that was a miracle.

00:50:49.300 --> 00:50:51.330
- [Mimi] How did you do it?

00:50:51.330 --> 00:50:54.873
- Well, I had the support
of the county administrator,

00:50:57.090 --> 00:50:59.970
and he became somewhat of a mentor for me.

00:50:59.970 --> 00:51:01.893
And that was Earl Strathman.

00:51:03.285 --> 00:51:06.300
He had come to Alameda
County from Los Angeles,

00:51:06.300 --> 00:51:10.260
and he was just a heck of a guy.

00:51:10.260 --> 00:51:13.230
And one day, I walked into his office

00:51:13.230 --> 00:51:14.380
in the county building,

00:51:15.510 --> 00:51:18.840
and he said, "How you doing, Harold?"

00:51:18.840 --> 00:51:21.440
I said, "Mr. Strathman, I
feel like I'm floundering."

00:51:22.440 --> 00:51:26.250
He said, "Okay, just flounder ahead."

00:51:26.250 --> 00:51:27.660
I've never forgotten that.

00:51:29.344 --> 00:51:31.927
(gentle music)

00:52:37.715 --> 00:52:40.462
- Because they didn't have
transportation to Russell City,

00:52:40.462 --> 00:52:41.565
I couldn't go visit.

00:52:41.565 --> 00:52:43.020
I didn't drive, so I
couldn't go out there.

00:52:43.020 --> 00:52:45.030
And the only time I would see my friends

00:52:45.030 --> 00:52:46.263
that I grew up with,

00:52:47.561 --> 00:52:49.440
(Zenobia sighs)

00:52:49.440 --> 00:52:52.270
sorry, my friends that I grew up with

00:52:53.138 --> 00:52:54.721
and the friends that I had a lot

00:52:54.721 --> 00:52:56.760
in common with was at school.

00:52:56.760 --> 00:53:01.440
And once school was over,
we went our separate ways.

00:53:01.440 --> 00:53:05.370
And even my aunt Rosie,

00:53:05.370 --> 00:53:08.433
she moved all the way
to Fremont after that.

00:53:09.300 --> 00:53:12.260
And so that was sad for me.

00:53:17.571 --> 00:53:19.133
It took me a while to get over it.

00:53:19.133 --> 00:53:20.529
I thought I'd got over it,

00:53:20.529 --> 00:53:22.176
but talking to you, it came back up.

00:53:22.176 --> 00:53:24.570
- The city pulled that
eminent domain stuff,

00:53:24.570 --> 00:53:26.970
and forced everybody to leave.

00:53:26.970 --> 00:53:31.110
They bought up all the property
and folks had to get out,

00:53:31.110 --> 00:53:33.393
and they dispersed all over the place.

00:53:34.235 --> 00:53:35.760
It broke everything up.

00:53:35.760 --> 00:53:38.520
They'd rather put warehouses out there,

00:53:38.520 --> 00:53:42.406
than have a community
that they couldn't control

00:53:42.406 --> 00:53:43.456
or get involved with.

00:53:44.497 --> 00:53:48.240
- $2,250.

00:53:48.240 --> 00:53:50.700
And I found out that even the people

00:53:50.700 --> 00:53:55.020
that had built their houses
didn't get not much more than

00:53:55.020 --> 00:53:57.270
that for their property as well.

00:53:57.270 --> 00:54:01.615
I'm like, "Wow, they
really, really got over.

00:54:01.615 --> 00:54:02.841
They really did."

00:54:02.841 --> 00:54:03.737
- My mom's crying.

00:54:03.737 --> 00:54:05.760
She didn't know what to do.

00:54:05.760 --> 00:54:08.274
Said some man came and
gave me an eviction notice

00:54:08.274 --> 00:54:09.487
that says, "You got 90
days to move outta here."

00:54:09.487 --> 00:54:12.633
"This is our property,"
whatever he told her,

00:54:13.619 --> 00:54:14.933
and that was it, and kicked us out.

00:54:15.911 --> 00:54:18.930
They wanted Russell City off
the map... a lot of prejudice,

00:54:18.930 --> 00:54:21.720
get rid of them... whatever
name you wanna call them,

00:54:21.720 --> 00:54:23.596
and they got rid rid of it,

00:54:23.596 --> 00:54:26.263
kicked us out, dogged everybody.

00:54:27.319 --> 00:54:30.330
- I think they just gave us
like $2,000 for our property.

00:54:30.330 --> 00:54:33.210
But it's so sad, 'cause they can go home.

00:54:33.210 --> 00:54:36.960
They can say, "Okay, babies
or, okay Linda, okay Billy,

00:54:36.960 --> 00:54:39.990
this weekend we're going
to grandma's house."

00:54:39.990 --> 00:54:42.060
Where my kids gonna go see,

00:54:42.060 --> 00:54:43.383
some warehouses out there?

00:54:44.760 --> 00:54:46.790
- How did it happen, mom,

00:54:46.790 --> 00:54:48.330
that we were the last ones
to leave Russell City?

00:54:48.330 --> 00:54:49.560
How did that happen?

00:54:49.560 --> 00:54:51.663
- [Lita] Grandma did not wanna leave.

00:54:53.890 --> 00:54:55.260
Grandma did not wanna leave her house.

00:54:55.260 --> 00:54:56.580
As a matter of fact,

00:54:56.580 --> 00:54:58.140
one time one of the agents

00:54:58.140 --> 00:55:03.140
from the Hayward Development
Agency came to Russell City,

00:55:04.129 --> 00:55:07.370
and grandma and I were
sitting under the maple tree

00:55:07.370 --> 00:55:09.903
in that wooden bench that grandpa made.

00:55:11.098 --> 00:55:12.150
(Lita sighs)

00:55:12.150 --> 00:55:14.580
She said, "She wasn't moving."

00:55:14.580 --> 00:55:17.220
And he told her, "You have to move."

00:55:17.220 --> 00:55:19.470
And grandma said, "She wasn't moving.

00:55:19.470 --> 00:55:21.436
She didn't wanna move.

00:55:21.436 --> 00:55:22.350
That was her house."

00:55:22.350 --> 00:55:27.090
That dirty son of a gun told
grandma, "If you don't move,

00:55:27.090 --> 00:55:30.387
your house will be bulldozed
together with you."

00:55:31.640 --> 00:55:35.947
Grandma put her little hands
to her face and started crying.

00:55:37.023 --> 00:55:39.440
(Lita sighs and starts crying)

00:55:41.710 --> 00:55:43.627
No. Poor grandma.

00:55:48.977 --> 00:55:50.686
We had to move.

00:55:50.686 --> 00:55:54.014
We had to, we had to, we were forced out.

00:55:54.014 --> 00:55:56.681
There was tons, oceans of tears,

00:55:58.545 --> 00:56:00.717
oceans of tears from the residents.

00:56:03.874 --> 00:56:08.874
♪ Sometimes I feel ♪

00:56:11.239 --> 00:56:16.239
♪ Like a motherless child ♪

00:56:18.714 --> 00:56:23.714
♪ Sometimes I feel ♪

00:56:25.335 --> 00:56:30.335
♪ Like a motherless child ♪

00:56:33.653 --> 00:56:38.653
♪ Sometimes I feel ♪

00:56:41.069 --> 00:56:46.069
♪ Like a motherless child ♪

00:56:48.197 --> 00:56:51.447
♪ A long way from home ♪

00:57:05.801 --> 00:57:06.781
- It's still standing,

00:57:06.781 --> 00:57:09.600
it's the most beautiful
tree right down the street

00:57:09.600 --> 00:57:11.453
from where my mother-in-law had her land.

00:57:11.453 --> 00:57:12.923
And that tree was there.

00:57:12.923 --> 00:57:13.756
And I came out one day and I said,

00:57:14.638 --> 00:57:15.960
"Oh, is that a weeping willow?"

00:57:15.960 --> 00:57:16.980
And I go there now

00:57:16.980 --> 00:57:19.440
and I saw a lady working
in a building there.

00:57:19.440 --> 00:57:21.590
I said, "My grandfather
planted this tree."

00:57:22.508 --> 00:57:23.970
And one day, I was sitting
out there like I belonged

00:57:23.970 --> 00:57:24.963
at that building.

00:57:26.031 --> 00:57:26.864
A man came, he said,

00:57:26.864 --> 00:57:28.551
"Ma'am, can I help you?"

00:57:28.551 --> 00:57:30.860
I said, "No, I'm just looking at the tree

00:57:30.860 --> 00:57:33.240
that my grandfather planted.

00:57:33.240 --> 00:57:35.460
Yeah, this is my grandfather's tree.

00:57:35.460 --> 00:57:36.293
Thank you, grandfather.

00:57:36.293 --> 00:57:39.090
You left something for us to see."

00:57:39.090 --> 00:57:41.433
A long time, still there.

00:57:44.220 --> 00:57:47.610
- Everything has its life,

00:57:47.610 --> 00:57:51.027
because that's why they
chased us outta here

00:57:51.027 --> 00:57:53.310
to put these complex, these parks in here,

00:57:53.310 --> 00:57:54.960
'cause they needed the parks.

00:57:54.960 --> 00:57:56.400
They needed the space.

00:57:56.400 --> 00:57:59.700
Can't blame them at all, that's America.

00:57:59.700 --> 00:58:01.083
America's always growing,

00:58:02.040 --> 00:58:04.175
but that would've been nice

00:58:04.175 --> 00:58:05.907
if they would've been more compassionate.

00:58:05.907 --> 00:58:07.344
They weren't thinking like that.

00:58:07.344 --> 00:58:09.270
They were just thinking about
the park, getting it going.

00:58:09.270 --> 00:58:10.590
Can't blame them.

00:58:10.590 --> 00:58:12.033
It's all about capitalism.

00:58:13.290 --> 00:58:15.540
What was definitely different about us

00:58:15.540 --> 00:58:17.998
is we were the last ones to leave.

00:58:17.998 --> 00:58:20.880
Grandma didn't wanna leave,
and mom didn't want to go.

00:58:20.880 --> 00:58:22.435
That was the last day.

00:58:22.435 --> 00:58:24.270
And my mom stood there,

00:58:24.270 --> 00:58:29.193
and then she came back after
she burned the house down.

00:58:30.103 --> 00:58:31.861
A bulldozer would have tore it down

00:58:31.861 --> 00:58:33.330
so she wanted to do it herself.

00:58:33.330 --> 00:58:34.280
That's how it went.

00:58:35.726 --> 00:58:37.233
That's how it went.

00:58:38.143 --> 00:58:40.093
- A lot of us didn't survive by moving,

00:58:41.241 --> 00:58:43.320
a lot of the people, some of them I say,

00:58:43.320 --> 00:58:47.010
using alcohol or drugs
because of the displacement.

00:58:47.010 --> 00:58:50.400
The world per se doesn't owe you anything,

00:58:50.400 --> 00:58:53.400
but I think that was a disaster.

00:58:53.400 --> 00:58:56.100
That's what that was, a disaster.

00:58:56.100 --> 00:58:58.923
- Just you think about
what could have been,

00:58:58.923 --> 00:59:01.113
my grandfather has been a light to me,

00:59:02.404 --> 00:59:04.233
and I just didn't know it until now.

00:59:05.100 --> 00:59:07.333
He made an impression, you know,

00:59:07.333 --> 00:59:09.360
he had a presence that you couldn't deny.

00:59:09.360 --> 00:59:12.815
He had a presence and he
was sitting in his chair,

00:59:12.815 --> 00:59:14.700
his recliner with his legs crossed.

00:59:14.700 --> 00:59:17.703
Sometimes he had a cigar,
sometimes he didn't.

00:59:18.660 --> 00:59:21.374
You knew that when he was in the room

00:59:21.374 --> 00:59:24.000
or you would know that he was
in the next room when you were

00:59:24.000 --> 00:59:25.350
in a room.

00:59:25.350 --> 00:59:27.029
That's what kind of presence he had.

00:59:27.029 --> 00:59:30.150
For a few years, he would
clean a law office in Hayward.

00:59:30.150 --> 00:59:32.580
I would go with him, I became his partner.

00:59:32.580 --> 00:59:36.120
I would go, and this is my
way of making little money,

00:59:36.120 --> 00:59:37.343
but I remember,

00:59:37.343 --> 00:59:40.344
I would empty all the waste
paper baskets and vacuum.

00:59:40.344 --> 00:59:43.350
He would do the dishes and
emptying garbage and stuff, and-

00:59:43.350 --> 00:59:45.335
- [Mimi] So when did you find out

00:59:45.335 --> 00:59:48.513
that he was considered
the mayor of Russell City?

00:59:51.150 --> 00:59:54.690
- You know, I didn't find
that out till very late.

00:59:54.690 --> 00:59:58.350
I didn't find that out
until at his funeral,

00:59:58.350 --> 01:00:00.330
that people called him that.

01:00:00.330 --> 01:00:02.312
So then it kind of provoked,

01:00:02.312 --> 01:00:04.650
where I'd ask a few questions to my sister

01:00:04.650 --> 01:00:07.224
and then my aunts and everything else.

01:00:07.224 --> 01:00:08.057
And then I was, "So
what was all that about?

01:00:08.057 --> 01:00:09.217
I never knew that."

01:00:09.217 --> 01:00:10.830
And it was like, "Oh yeah,
he did a lot for the city,

01:00:10.830 --> 01:00:13.830
and you know, he was a part of the NAACP,

01:00:13.830 --> 01:00:15.601
he was a president."

01:00:15.601 --> 01:00:17.220
And then all these things
started coming out,

01:00:17.220 --> 01:00:18.303
and it was just like,

01:00:19.291 --> 01:00:22.440
"Man, I wish they had
shared that information."

01:00:22.440 --> 01:00:23.970
I didn't know any of that,

01:00:23.970 --> 01:00:27.810
and I didn't know to ask
that when I was younger.

01:00:27.810 --> 01:00:30.420
That would've been really,
really good to know.

01:00:30.420 --> 01:00:31.260
In black families,

01:00:31.260 --> 01:00:33.930
you don't hear a whole
bunch of the history.

01:00:33.930 --> 01:00:36.333
We don't talk a lot.

01:00:37.405 --> 01:00:39.930
And with it going the route that it has,

01:00:39.930 --> 01:00:43.170
with splintering so many
families, so many friends,

01:00:43.170 --> 01:00:45.090
I won't say it's stifled growth,

01:00:45.090 --> 01:00:47.730
because people have continued
to grow in different areas,

01:00:47.730 --> 01:00:52.560
and not everyone is doing bad
from leaving Russell City.

01:00:52.560 --> 01:00:54.135
You know, I wouldn't be so naive

01:00:54.135 --> 01:00:55.470
to think that everyone
has fallen on hard times,

01:00:55.470 --> 01:00:57.120
'cause everyone moved from Russell City.

01:00:57.120 --> 01:00:59.640
But just like in Tulsa, Oklahoma,

01:00:59.640 --> 01:01:03.720
when you have a town
that is built organically

01:01:03.720 --> 01:01:05.700
from the people that live there,

01:01:05.700 --> 01:01:09.350
and that have put their
heart and soul into it,

01:01:09.350 --> 01:01:12.480
and it's theirs.

01:01:12.480 --> 01:01:14.940
Now, what could have been,

01:01:14.940 --> 01:01:18.090
you know, if Russell
City was able to grow,

01:01:18.090 --> 01:01:22.320
we could only sit and imagine
how great this could be,

01:01:22.320 --> 01:01:26.670
and how much legacy could
have been behind it.

01:01:26.670 --> 01:01:30.093
And man, it has no bounds.

01:01:36.030 --> 01:01:38.190
- I got to go to law school in Berkeley,

01:01:38.190 --> 01:01:39.487
you know, that was a surprise to me.

01:01:39.487 --> 01:01:41.270
And then I got to come back here and work

01:01:41.270 --> 01:01:42.120
in Hayward and Oakland,
and like defend folks

01:01:42.120 --> 01:01:44.610
from my own community all the time.

01:01:44.610 --> 01:01:46.020
Like, when I first started as a lawyer,

01:01:46.020 --> 01:01:47.340
I had a really high caseload.

01:01:47.340 --> 01:01:51.030
I had maybe 10 to 15 eviction
cases a week in court.

01:01:51.030 --> 01:01:55.204
And so I always doing thousands
and thousands of evictions

01:01:55.204 --> 01:01:56.037
'cause there were only three
or four eviction attorneys

01:01:56.037 --> 01:01:57.282
in the county.

01:01:57.282 --> 01:02:00.570
I mean, I was I think 23 when
I graduated from law school.

01:02:00.570 --> 01:02:02.400
And I am small, you know,

01:02:02.400 --> 01:02:05.790
so I was this like young,
small Latina woman,

01:02:05.790 --> 01:02:07.988
who would show up in court,

01:02:07.988 --> 01:02:10.710
and you know, it's all
white men and all landlords.

01:02:10.710 --> 01:02:13.098
And they're like, "Who is this person?

01:02:13.098 --> 01:02:14.400
We are going to bulldoze her."

01:02:14.400 --> 01:02:17.250
The very first day that I was in court,

01:02:17.250 --> 01:02:19.770
there was a male landlord attorney,

01:02:19.770 --> 01:02:22.260
and I was like, "Hi, you
know, my name is Monique,

01:02:22.260 --> 01:02:23.888
nice to meet you."

01:02:23.888 --> 01:02:26.202
I had like my pearls on, my little suit.

01:02:26.202 --> 01:02:27.499
'Cause I thought, you know,

01:02:27.499 --> 01:02:29.039
I was trying to look like a grownup.

01:02:29.039 --> 01:02:31.360
And he just took a piece of
paper, wrote an offer on it,

01:02:31.360 --> 01:02:33.132
and threw it in my face and it hit me.

01:02:33.132 --> 01:02:34.140
There's nothing more rewarding

01:02:34.140 --> 01:02:36.690
as a lawyer than being
in a situation like that

01:02:36.690 --> 01:02:38.460
where you have, you know, for instance,

01:02:38.460 --> 01:02:41.100
like a Spanish-speaking
family from South Hayward,

01:02:41.100 --> 01:02:43.440
where a lot of my family ended up,

01:02:43.440 --> 01:02:46.802
and they're being evicted
because the landlord says that,

01:02:46.802 --> 01:02:48.183
"They're violating their lease,"

01:02:48.183 --> 01:02:49.950
and you look and it's because
they're growing a garden,

01:02:49.950 --> 01:02:51.390
or you know, they're whatever.

01:02:51.390 --> 01:02:53.670
They were selling tamales
in the front of their house.

01:02:53.670 --> 01:02:54.503
And they're just, you know,

01:02:55.470 --> 01:02:57.750
they're scared, and the
landlord's yelling at them

01:02:57.750 --> 01:02:59.476
and calling them names.

01:02:59.476 --> 01:03:00.930
And you put it to a stop,

01:03:00.930 --> 01:03:02.777
and you stand up and you say,
"I don't care what you do.

01:03:02.777 --> 01:03:03.942
I'm taking this case to trial.

01:03:03.942 --> 01:03:05.430
It's gonna cost you $25,000 to defend it,

01:03:05.430 --> 01:03:06.540
or you can give up."

01:03:06.540 --> 01:03:08.610
And watching them, you know,

01:03:08.610 --> 01:03:10.770
huff and puff and get red and then give in

01:03:10.770 --> 01:03:12.583
and then have that family say,

01:03:12.583 --> 01:03:15.600
"Oh my God, I've never had
somebody fight for me before."

01:03:15.600 --> 01:03:17.513
Like I've never, you know,

01:03:17.513 --> 01:03:18.510
most black and brown people

01:03:18.510 --> 01:03:21.404
and low-income people
around here's experience

01:03:21.404 --> 01:03:23.730
with the system is poor and
negative, and no one listens.

01:03:23.730 --> 01:03:27.587
My great grandparents, they
all lived in Russell City

01:03:27.587 --> 01:03:30.150
'cause they were dirt poor, they're poor.

01:03:30.150 --> 01:03:33.060
It's not just bootstraps,
it's where did you start off?

01:03:33.060 --> 01:03:36.900
It's not okay that you have
to have money to have rights.

01:03:36.900 --> 01:03:39.420
I don't think housing
should be a commodity.

01:03:39.420 --> 01:03:41.520
I think there are some things
that are fundamental rights

01:03:41.520 --> 01:03:43.200
that everyone deserves.

01:03:43.200 --> 01:03:44.910
I mean, I'm not gonna be Pancho Villa,

01:03:44.910 --> 01:03:47.160
but I feel like it's
carrying the same torch.

01:03:53.500 --> 01:03:57.500
(Sam sings in Spanish)

01:04:09.990 --> 01:04:12.340
- Oh, I lost that. The
whole song is gone now.

01:04:13.449 --> 01:04:15.024
Haven't practiced it.

01:04:15.024 --> 01:04:16.883
I have to practice it to Juanita again.

01:04:18.270 --> 01:04:20.343
No, I lost that song, I lost that one.

01:04:24.030 --> 01:04:27.060
This is the road that would
lead you to the dumps.

01:04:27.060 --> 01:04:28.770
Once you got on this road,

01:04:28.770 --> 01:04:31.120
you were either going to
the dump or the dairy.

01:04:36.900 --> 01:04:39.438
No, I'm enjoying seeing this myself

01:04:39.438 --> 01:04:42.273
and talking about it. Russell City.

01:04:44.640 --> 01:04:46.738
Well, you know where we're at right now?

01:04:46.738 --> 01:04:47.571
- [Mimi] Where?

01:04:47.571 --> 01:04:49.629
- We're at Russell school ground.

01:04:49.629 --> 01:04:50.820
This is the school.

01:04:50.820 --> 01:04:52.170
We're on top of the school.

01:04:56.171 --> 01:04:58.754
(gentle music)

01:05:22.799 --> 01:05:24.339
- [Mimi] Did you hear about the apology

01:05:24.339 --> 01:05:25.735
from the City of Hayward?

01:05:25.735 --> 01:05:26.719
- Yes.

01:05:26.719 --> 01:05:27.893
- [Mimi] And what was your reaction?

01:05:29.460 --> 01:05:30.783
- I felt vindicated.

01:05:31.860 --> 01:05:36.860
I felt vindicated, because I
wanted my parents to be known.

01:05:36.870 --> 01:05:38.745
They lived there.

01:05:38.745 --> 01:05:40.290
They survived, their sacrifice,

01:05:40.290 --> 01:05:44.583
their existence, I would
say, be recognized.

01:05:54.385 --> 01:05:56.400
- Justice would be for Russell City.

01:05:56.400 --> 01:05:59.670
All the folks that they kicked out,

01:05:59.670 --> 01:06:02.100
especially, the property owners,

01:06:02.100 --> 01:06:04.263
pay them, give them what's due,

01:06:05.130 --> 01:06:08.160
give them what's due, an apology,

01:06:08.160 --> 01:06:09.273
and put it behind us.

01:06:10.920 --> 01:06:12.360
You know, that's all that can be done.

01:06:12.360 --> 01:06:13.890
That's why it's justice,

01:06:13.890 --> 01:06:16.935
you can't turn back the
hands of time, you know?

01:06:16.935 --> 01:06:18.060
If we could turn back the hands of time,

01:06:18.060 --> 01:06:20.643
rebuild Russell City, it'd be nice.

01:06:22.068 --> 01:06:24.118
But I got off track, what did you ask me?

01:06:24.990 --> 01:06:27.870
- I cried 'cause I think,

01:06:27.870 --> 01:06:31.440
it should have happened long
time ago, long years before.

01:06:31.440 --> 01:06:34.230
When was this when they gave the apology?

01:06:34.230 --> 01:06:35.820
Not too long ago.

01:06:35.820 --> 01:06:40.200
I cried, I actually cried to think

01:06:40.200 --> 01:06:43.770
that how can, and it goes,

01:06:43.770 --> 01:06:48.480
it's not just Russell City,
it's other communities too.

01:06:48.480 --> 01:06:50.910
- It's the same block, same house,

01:06:50.910 --> 01:06:53.943
just painted a different way, that's all.

01:06:55.668 --> 01:06:59.730
- I never thought that
this place would be talked

01:06:59.730 --> 01:07:01.533
about this far along.

01:07:02.597 --> 01:07:03.439
What is it?

01:07:03.439 --> 01:07:04.915
70 years or so ago.

01:07:04.915 --> 01:07:05.760
Never.

01:07:05.760 --> 01:07:07.560
What would I have done different?

01:07:07.560 --> 01:07:10.053
Nothing, nothing, nothing.

01:07:17.122 --> 01:07:18.600
- You know, my grandpa
would wake up every morning,

01:07:18.600 --> 01:07:21.060
4:00 AM, be out the door,

01:07:21.060 --> 01:07:23.401
and just never stopped.

01:07:23.401 --> 01:07:25.350
And, you know, would work
himself into exhaustion

01:07:25.350 --> 01:07:28.770
to keep things going, and to
make sure that folks had jobs

01:07:28.770 --> 01:07:30.820
and food on the table.

01:07:30.820 --> 01:07:33.000
And you know, I find myself
in a similar position now,

01:07:33.000 --> 01:07:38.000
and I understand that weight
and why you work so hard.

01:07:40.029 --> 01:07:42.518
I think my grandmother,
she's wicked smart.

01:07:42.518 --> 01:07:43.410
I saw how she just put her nose down.

01:07:43.410 --> 01:07:45.510
She did the work, didn't get the glory.

01:07:45.510 --> 01:07:48.000
And we've never said this,

01:07:48.000 --> 01:07:50.160
but I think there's always
been a silent understanding

01:07:50.160 --> 01:07:53.139
that she will live vicariously through me,

01:07:53.139 --> 01:07:54.270
and I will do everything

01:07:54.270 --> 01:07:56.223
that she should have been able to do.

01:07:58.590 --> 01:08:01.222
- [Lita] Next week, I'll be 92.

01:08:01.222 --> 01:08:02.400
- To share these memories is beautiful.

01:08:02.400 --> 01:08:03.960
The one that I really regret,

01:08:03.960 --> 01:08:07.120
I lit the house on fire and dog on it,

01:08:07.120 --> 01:08:08.922
didn't the Baptist church go with it?

01:08:08.922 --> 01:08:12.002
Before we lit it up, we went inside,

01:08:12.002 --> 01:08:14.700
and they had the piano
there and the old carpet,

01:08:14.700 --> 01:08:16.830
and you knew the old carpet was used

01:08:16.830 --> 01:08:20.880
because it had that old, old smell to it.

01:08:20.880 --> 01:08:24.783
They were still going
to that Baptist Church.

01:08:24.783 --> 01:08:28.410
They were still going over there
and worshiping and singing,

01:08:28.410 --> 01:08:30.210
and just a kid, nine-year-old kid,

01:08:30.210 --> 01:08:31.173
I wasn't thinking.

01:08:33.000 --> 01:08:35.876
I wished I could come back and tell them,

01:08:35.876 --> 01:08:38.130
"I'm sorry I burnt your
church down, Reverend."

01:08:38.130 --> 01:08:39.823
- [Lita] They were from the South,

01:08:39.823 --> 01:08:41.620
Mr. Green and the family
were from the South.

01:08:41.620 --> 01:08:43.920
- But I remember, the next day,

01:08:43.920 --> 01:08:47.160
I think I remember
Reverend Green over there,

01:08:47.160 --> 01:08:49.602
looking at his ashes.

01:08:49.602 --> 01:08:50.800
- [Lita] Uh-huh.

01:08:50.800 --> 01:08:53.224
- [Leonard] But I would've
probably gotten arrested

01:08:53.224 --> 01:08:54.960
if I would've said, "Hey,
I burned your place down."

01:08:54.960 --> 01:08:57.637
They were gonna burn them
up, tear them down anyway.

01:08:57.637 --> 01:08:58.636
- [Lita] They were abandoned

01:08:58.636 --> 01:09:00.060
because the resident had to leave.

01:09:00.060 --> 01:09:02.729
- And they left everything behind.

01:09:02.729 --> 01:09:04.410
And it was so exciting to
go through these houses,

01:09:04.410 --> 01:09:07.438
and see, "Wow, look at it,
it's a ghost town now."

01:09:07.438 --> 01:09:10.021
(gentle music)

01:09:28.018 --> 01:09:31.050
- I was raised at 916 Adeline Street,

01:09:31.050 --> 01:09:33.660
and our oak tree is still in the back.

01:09:33.660 --> 01:09:36.000
It's Acorn Projects now.

01:09:36.000 --> 01:09:38.327
And that's where I learned how to swim,

01:09:38.327 --> 01:09:40.920
how to play baseball, and
everything at the DeFremery park.

01:09:40.920 --> 01:09:42.750
And you know, being in the ghetto,

01:09:42.750 --> 01:09:44.960
your brothers, they, you know,

01:09:44.960 --> 01:09:46.323
ain't no swimming lessons.

01:09:46.323 --> 01:09:47.700
They take you there, and
push you in the pool.

01:09:47.700 --> 01:09:52.700
So if you didn't swim... well, too bad.

01:09:52.710 --> 01:09:54.663
Your funeral will be Monday at 9.

01:09:56.259 --> 01:09:57.390
- Sing one, excuse me.

01:09:57.390 --> 01:09:59.490
Sing one of Aretha Franklin's song.

01:09:59.490 --> 01:10:01.530
- Oh no.
- She can do it.

01:10:01.530 --> 01:10:03.808
- Betty, can you remember any?

01:10:03.808 --> 01:10:04.641
Why don't you sing along with me?

01:10:04.641 --> 01:10:06.119
- Say what now?

01:10:06.119 --> 01:10:07.050
- Why don't you sing along with me?

01:10:07.050 --> 01:10:09.214
- No, you know I can't,

01:10:09.214 --> 01:10:10.560
cause why you asking me to?

01:10:10.560 --> 01:10:12.570
So you go ahead.

01:10:12.570 --> 01:10:15.247
- I remember the teacher asking me,

01:10:15.247 --> 01:10:16.950
"Well, what would you like to be?"

01:10:16.950 --> 01:10:18.150
I knew I was a nurse already.

01:10:18.150 --> 01:10:19.920
I said, "I'd like to be a nurse."

01:10:19.920 --> 01:10:21.600
She said, "Well, you have long fingers,

01:10:21.600 --> 01:10:24.990
so you need to become a secretary."

01:10:24.990 --> 01:10:26.760
- My mother, she really,

01:10:26.760 --> 01:10:30.788
her dream was always for me
to have a government job.

01:10:30.788 --> 01:10:32.489
And I think she would've been happy

01:10:32.489 --> 01:10:34.239
with me working at the post office.

01:10:35.130 --> 01:10:38.972
But fortunately, I never got
a job at the post office.

01:10:38.972 --> 01:10:40.050
(Gloria laughs)

01:10:40.050 --> 01:10:41.580
- [Mimi] What did you end up doing?

01:10:41.580 --> 01:10:44.280
- So I attended Santa Monica City College,

01:10:44.280 --> 01:10:45.870
and I later transferred

01:10:45.870 --> 01:10:49.080
to University of Southern California.

01:10:49.080 --> 01:10:52.830
And after graduating from USC,

01:10:52.830 --> 01:10:56.787
I attended Loyola Law
School for three years.

01:10:56.787 --> 01:11:00.090
And following graduation from Loyola,

01:11:00.090 --> 01:11:04.440
I ended up working for
then Mayor Tom Bradley.

01:11:04.440 --> 01:11:09.440
So I worked for the
City of LA for 25 years.

01:11:10.350 --> 01:11:14.070
I think back in the '40s and '50s,

01:11:14.070 --> 01:11:16.590
our parents could have purchased homes,

01:11:16.590 --> 01:11:20.853
and imagine the value today,

01:11:20.853 --> 01:11:24.240
had they been able to
purchase homes in those days.

01:11:24.240 --> 01:11:27.810
Today, those homes are outta reach.

01:11:27.810 --> 01:11:29.280
Whereas white families

01:11:29.280 --> 01:11:32.333
who were able to purchase their homes,

01:11:32.333 --> 01:11:33.570
they were able to gain equity

01:11:33.570 --> 01:11:37.590
and attain multi-generational wealth.

01:11:37.590 --> 01:11:40.342
That was something that was denied,

01:11:40.342 --> 01:11:45.342
and it's still denied many
black and Latino families today.

01:11:45.750 --> 01:11:48.210
And that makes me very angry.

01:11:48.210 --> 01:11:51.390
Justice has alluded Black Americans,

01:11:51.390 --> 01:11:55.740
it alluded them then, and
it alludes them today.

01:11:55.740 --> 01:11:59.763
But there is no justice
for Black Americans.

01:12:00.827 --> 01:12:03.410
(gentle music)

01:12:08.340 --> 01:12:13.260
- I got a call, and somebody
suggested that they'd like

01:12:13.260 --> 01:12:17.190
to see me at the Oakland
Housing Authority.

01:12:17.190 --> 01:12:18.543
And I guess they liked me.

01:12:20.137 --> 01:12:23.793
So I was hired there,
and stayed for 27 years,

01:12:24.810 --> 01:12:27.640
which at that time, was the
longest tenure of anybody

01:12:29.070 --> 01:12:33.210
in the chief executive
position at a major authority,

01:12:33.210 --> 01:12:34.653
a large city authority.

01:12:36.330 --> 01:12:37.983
And that's where I retired from.

01:12:39.540 --> 01:12:40.890
It's been a good life.

01:12:40.890 --> 01:12:42.701
- [Mimi] Any regrets?

01:12:42.701 --> 01:12:45.363
- No, no, not that I can think of.

01:12:46.599 --> 01:12:49.182
(gentle music)

01:12:59.170 --> 01:13:00.164
(man laughs)

01:13:00.164 --> 01:13:01.369
- [Sam] You know what?
- [Man] Huh?

01:13:01.369 --> 01:13:02.534
- [Sam] Good turnout, good turnout.

01:13:02.534 --> 01:13:03.367
- [Man] Huh?
- Good turnout.

01:13:03.367 --> 01:13:06.693
- [Man] This is the most people
I've ever seen, isn't it?

01:13:07.746 --> 01:13:08.908
- [Sam] It's good turnout.

01:13:08.908 --> 01:13:10.341
How many since the first one.

01:13:10.341 --> 01:13:11.174
- [Man] Steve Delgado.

01:13:11.174 --> 01:13:12.420
- [Sam] Little Stevie, man.

01:13:13.509 --> 01:13:14.760
Man bro.
- [Steve] Yeah.

01:13:14.760 --> 01:13:16.215
- [Sam] What you doing?

01:13:16.215 --> 01:13:17.048
Hiding out behind that table over there.

01:13:17.048 --> 01:13:18.745
- [Steve] No, I just sit down.

01:13:18.745 --> 01:13:20.534
- [Sam] You just got here?
- [Steve] My legs, yeah.

01:13:20.534 --> 01:13:22.205
- [Sam] Oh, we're all
suffering with them legs, bro.

01:13:22.205 --> 01:13:23.038
- [Steve] My legs get weak.

01:13:23.038 --> 01:13:25.145
- [Sam] We still have people signing in

01:13:25.145 --> 01:13:28.230
and we still have people coming in.

01:13:28.230 --> 01:13:31.239
So church must have
been let out somewhere,

01:13:31.239 --> 01:13:32.072
'cause they're still coming in.

01:13:32.072 --> 01:13:33.030
- [Sam] Russell City.

01:13:33.030 --> 01:13:36.250
- [Sam] This is a special
occasion for Russell Citians.

01:13:36.250 --> 01:13:39.845
We don't go away, lot of faces out there.

01:13:39.845 --> 01:13:42.428
(gentle music)

01:13:55.080 --> 01:13:57.270
- [Female] Supervisor Halbert.
- [Halbert] Aye.

01:13:57.270 --> 01:13:59.160
- Supervisor Marquez.
- [Marquez] Aye.

01:13:59.160 --> 01:14:01.663
- [Female] Supervisor Tam
- [Tam] Aye.

01:14:01.663 --> 01:14:02.640
- [Female] Supervisor Carson.
- [Carson] Yes.

01:14:02.640 --> 01:14:04.200
- [Female] President Miley.
- [Miley] Yes.

01:14:04.200 --> 01:14:06.123
The motion passes unanimously.

01:14:13.272 --> 01:14:18.183
♪ Oh when the saints go marching in ♪

01:14:18.183 --> 01:14:23.183
♪ Oh when the saints go marching in ♪

01:14:23.363 --> 01:14:28.363
♪ Oh Lord, I want to be in that number ♪

01:14:28.508 --> 01:14:33.508
♪ When the saints go marching in ♪

01:14:33.882 --> 01:14:38.675
♪ When the sun refuse to shine ♪

01:14:38.675 --> 01:14:43.631
♪ Well, when the sun refuses to shine ♪

01:14:43.631 --> 01:14:48.631
♪ Oh Lord, I wanna be in that number ♪

01:14:48.741 --> 01:14:53.741
♪ When the sun refuse to shine ♪

01:14:53.921 --> 01:14:58.821
♪ When they crown him Lord of Lords ♪

01:14:58.821 --> 01:15:03.821
♪ When they crown him Lord of Lords ♪

01:15:04.122 --> 01:15:06.045
♪ I just wanna be, I gotta be ♪

01:15:06.045 --> 01:15:09.162
♪ I need to be in that number ♪

01:15:09.162 --> 01:15:13.245
♪ When the saints go marching in ♪

01:15:21.081 --> 01:15:24.683
♪ Amen ♪

01:15:24.683 --> 01:15:28.291
♪ Amen ♪

01:15:28.291 --> 01:15:31.231
♪ Amen ♪

01:15:31.231 --> 01:15:33.063
♪ Amen ♪

01:15:33.063 --> 01:15:34.355
♪ Amen ♪

01:15:34.355 --> 01:15:36.115
♪ On Sunday morning we're singing ♪

01:15:36.115 --> 01:15:39.479
♪ Amen ♪

01:15:39.479 --> 01:15:43.327
♪ Amen ♪

01:15:43.327 --> 01:15:46.218
♪ Amen ♪

01:15:46.218 --> 01:15:48.228
♪ Amen ♪

01:15:48.228 --> 01:15:50.145
♪ Amen ♪