View Attachment A — Rules & Legislation Committee, April 14, 2022

ADVANCED POLICY ANALYSIS STUDENT REPORT:

Reparations for Black Communities in Oakland
2021
By Amy Ferguson, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley Attachment A
Photo attribution
Top: “ConnectOakland,” ConnectOakland, Accessed May 16, 2021, http://www.connectoakland.org.

Bottom: Ulinskas, Moriah, “Imagining a Past Future: Photographs from the Oakland Redevelopment Agency,” Places, January 2019,
https://placesjournal.org/article/imagining-a-past-future/#.YG5e4ufmgHc.mailto. 2 Acknowledgements
Many thanks for the guidance of Darlene Flynn at the Department of Race and Equity in Oakland for accepting this student project and providing insight on how to shape a reparations proposal. Thanks are also owed to Dan Lindheim, professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy and Faculty Director of the Center on Civility & Democratic Engagement, for his detail-oriented feedback and crucial advice in developing the analysis. 3 Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
3 Table of Contents
4 Executive Summary
6 Introduction
8 Methods
12 Present Disparities
14 The Wealth Gap
21 Home Ownership
22 Health Disparities
25 Oakland History as a Basis for Past and Present Inequities 31 Brief History
31 Housing: Keeping Neighborhoods Segregated
34 Urban Renewal/Redevelopment
40 Freeways
45 Public Transit
49 Jobs
51 Police Violence
53 Harms To Other Races
55 Side Note: Resistance And Organizing
56 Population Fluctuation by the Numbers
58 Calculating Reparations
58 Homes Demolished
58 Estimating Impacts
60 Economic Gains from Reducing Disparities
63 Brief History of Reparations
64 Current Reparations Eﬀorts
69 Approaching Reparations in Oakland
74 Reparations Models
74 Holistic View
77 Community Engagement
78 Challenges to Calculating Reparations
80 Scale
82 4

Policy Alternatives
83 Status Quo - What If We Do Not Pay Reparations?
83 Alternative: Housing
83 Alternative: Jobs
88 Alternative: Remove I-980
91 Alternative: “Reparations Style Infrastructure Package” 93 Alternative: Business Support
95 Alternative: Health
97 Alternative: Banking Industry/Real Estate Industry
98 Alternative: Cash Payments
100
Alternative: Schools
102
Alternative: Museums/Monuments/Arts
104
Alternative: Apology
105
Funding Sources
106
Funding Alternative: Bond Measure
106
Funding Alternative: Paving Program
107
Funding Alternative: Business Tax
107
Funding Alternative: Slavery Era Disclosure Reparations Fund 108
Funding Alternative: Wells Fargo Lawsuit
108
Funding Alternative: Build into Transportation Projects 109
Funding Alternative: Federal Funds
110
Funding Alternative: Appropriation from State and/or County 111
Funding Alternative: Philanthropic
113
Recommendation
114
Conclusion
114
5 Executive Summary
As cities, states, and private organizations seek to redress past and present racial inequities, some are proposing reparations to Black communities. Oakland has an opportunity to emerge as a national leader in not only centering racial equity, but acknowledging and repairing past and present harms. Reparations are increasingly legitimized and politically salient.

Reparations are being paid not only for slavery in the U.S., but also ongoing and systemic racism and discrimination. As most Black people did not come to California until the Great Migration of the 20th century, racism in Oakland has been expressed less through slavery but more through public policies that distributed resources to white groups and displaced and harmed Black groups. Oakland’s racialized history of urban renewal and housing and transportation policies that harmed the historically Black neighborhood of West Oakland is well-documented. Continuing impacts from job discrimination, police violence, and other injustices are well-documented as well.

This report ﬁrst outlines the case for reparations in Oakland based on present disparities in income, poverty, wealth, home ownership, mortgage denials, and health. It then outlines historical decisions that shaped and segregated neighborhoods and access to opportunity, contributing to those disparities. This includes segregation, urban renewal, freeway construction, public transit, jobs, and police violence. These provide a basis of historical discrimination and thereby a justiﬁcation for reparations paid today. There is also a brief discussion of how reducing disparities is of overall beneﬁt to society at large.

The report establishes quantitative estimates of homes demolished by these urban renewal government policies. It provides a few methods of estimating the size of reparations that could make up for racism and discrimination. These include 1) How much wealth could have been created were homes not demolished, 2) How much wealth was lost when homes were taken through eminent domain for low sale prices, 3) How much it would cost to make homes today available at the prices they were when Black communities could not get mortgages, and 4) How much it would take to close income and wealth gaps in Oakland.

The report oﬀers a brief history of ideas about reparations and current reparations around the country and in California. These include work on reparations in Evanston, Illinois, Asheville, North Carolina, Providence, Rhode Island, Burlington, Vermont, Amherst, Massachusetts, Manhattan Beach, CA, educational institutions, religious organizations, and others. The State of California and County of Alameda also have parallel reparations eﬀorts.

The report then shifts to outlining how to approach reparations in Oakland:● It shares some guidelines for basic models of how to pay reparations. 6 ●
It puts forth that community members advocated most strongly for a holistic and ongoing approach to reparations, covering a range of needs and policy areas.● The report recommends a further community engagement process to make ﬁnal determinations of how to pay reparations.●
It discusses challenges to thinking about reparations.● It discusses that an appropriate scale and sustainability are needed for reparations to be truly impactful.

It then explores some policy and funding alternatives that could be further investigated with community members. The report ﬁrst discusses the alternative of paying no reparations or continuing the status quo. The policy options explored include:● Programs that provide housing●
Programs that provide jobs●
Restorative justice embedded in the project to remove I-980● A “reparations-style infrastructure package”●
Programs to support business ownership and engagement●
Programs to address health issues●
Encouragement of reparations paid by banking or real estate industries● Cash payments●
Programs in schools●
Museums, Monuments, or Art●
Issuing a formal apology
Lastly, the report discusses diﬀerent funding possibilities, including:● A bond measure●
Transportation programs●
Amending the business tax●
The Oakland Slavery Era Disclosure Reparations Fund●
Funds from a Wells Fargo lawsuit on discriminatory lending practices● Building into transportation projects●
Federal funds●
State funds●
County funds●
Philanthropic funds
Key recommendation:

Coordinate with state and county eﬀorts and advocate for listening sessions and community engagement including community-based organizations, community leaders, and marginalized community members, especially residents of color. Ad hoc groups may be formed to further investigate the ideas proposed here and to make recommendations for programming that can pay reparations. Lobbying for state and county funding to provide local reparations may be a strategy with the most resources and deepest reach. 7 Introduction
“It’s one thing to say it’s wrong, another thing to keep denying it’s wrong, keep turning a blind eye to it.”
-Pastor Harris
“America has something to atone for. How do we atone for it?” -Leo Bazile
Congress has yet to pass H.R. 40 to create a commission to study the idea of reparations, and the federal government has yet to take action on paying reparations to Black people in the U.S. for a legacy of slavery and discrimination.

As this debate continues at the federal
1 level, localities and organizations are stepping up. Evanston, IL, Asheville, NC, Providence, RI, Burlington, VT, and other municipalities and organizations are paying some reparations in grants and community programs to Black people in their towns. The State of California and Alameda County are investigating how to do the same. After a nation-wide racial reckoning following the murders by police of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others in 2020 and beyond, reparations are politically salient.

Systemic racism and discrimination and inequitable applications of public policies have been well-documented throughout the U.S. There is also a well-documented history in Oakland, and speciﬁcally in the historically Black neighborhood of West Oakland. Racialized housing and transportation decisions made by the City of Oakland, state agencies, and the private sector, often with federal funding, have demolished homes and destroyed businesses, displacing people and leading to the decline of a once thriving neighborhood.

Other programs have excluded Black people from their beneﬁts. These include many decisions made in the mid-20th century with tools of “post-war urban design,” but also
2 include discrimination and disparities that continue to today. Many of these policies have led to trauma and generational trauma passed on. Many people who were aﬀected by these policies are still alive today.

At the same time, there have been many government policies that have beneﬁted white people, most notably the Federal Housing Administration’s mortgage program. This enabled many white families to get 30-year mortgages and begin to build generational wealth to pass on to their oﬀspring. This program overwhelmingly excluded Black applicants. Black residents were also conﬁned to living in certain segregated 2 Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003).
1 H.R. 40 is currently moving through the House of Representatives. “U.S. Congress Advances Slavery Reparations Bill,” Human Rights Watch, April 9, 2021,
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/09/us-congress-advances-slavery-reparations-bill. 8 neighborhoods. There were largely not able to buy homes in the suburbs that were created in the mid 1900s. This has created a “racialized geography” that persists today. 3 As historian Robert O. Self described, “Programs like urban renewal subsidized the accumulation of wealth and other resources among some groups - primarily white property holders - and denied those subsidies and protections to other groups - primarily African Americans.”
4 As Oakland city planners and politicians sought to revitalize the city post World War II and even in recent years with former mayor Jerry Brown’s 10K plan, there has been a focus on bringing investment and people with disposable income to downtown Oakland. The focus in some of this planning has not been on serving the marginalized residents of West Oakland.

Though Black organizing did gain wins for Black communities over the years, and Oakland has been led by Black mayors and City Council members, especially since the 1970s, there has not been comprehensive redress for the systemic racism and discrimination perpetuated against Black communities.

Aﬃrmative action programs in the 1990s sought to address historic discrimination.

However, with the passing of Proposition 209, banning a preference for race or gender in public employment, education, and contracting, this has become more diﬃcult. Racial equity has increasingly become a focus in government programs. However, equity programs cannot oﬀer systemic, comprehensive redress for decades of racism and discrimination.

Over the years, racism has mutated and changed form, but is always circulating in the community. Present-day disparities clearly show the eﬀects of ongoing discrimination.

Randall Robinson, author of
The Debt
, has written
that, “Until America’s white ruling class
accepts the fact that the book never closes on massive unredressed social wrongs, America can have no future as one people.”
Reparations are
in the best interest of all racial groups,
5 to acknowledge harm done. As long as reparations have not been paid to Black communities, the U.S. will not be able to overcome the injustices perpetuated. 5 Randall Robinson,
The Debt: What America Owes to
Blacks
(New York: Penguin Group, 2000), 208.
4 Robert O. Self,
American Babylon: Race and the Struggle
for Postwar Oakland
(Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2003), 3.
3 Aaron Golub , Richard A. Marcantonio & Thomas W. Sanchez, “Race, Space, and Struggles for Mobility: Transportation Impacts on African Americans in Oakland and the East Bay,” Urban
Geography,
34, no. 5 (2013).
9 Robinson goes on to say, “...the psychic and economic injury is enormous, multidimensional and long-running. Thus must be America’s restitution to Blacks for the damage done.”
6 Unfortunately, any eﬀort by Oakland will necessarily be “piecemeal reparations,” which are sometimes criticized. The City of Oakland can redress harm in Oakland, but cannot address the legacy of slavery and systemic racism throughout the country. It must be noted that Oakland is not unique in its racialized history, and that cities across the country used many of the same policies and have similar stories of segregation and discrimination. However, as federal action has been lagging, with H.R. 40 reintroduced in every session of Congress for decades, localities are taking up the mantle of reparations, and may contribute to a larger national movement.

Moreover, any reparations eﬀorts undertaken by any city are unlikely to completely repair past harms. The magnitude of the harms inﬂicted could be valued at billions of dollars, and academics have made estimates of the magnitude of national reparations that are valued at trillions of dollars. However, signiﬁcant action can still be taken. As organizations and agencies increasingly embed racial equity into their policies and programs, they can be spurred to build reparations into their equity plans, and have more comprehensive redress for past and present discrimination.

As scholars William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen have written, “ The fact that full amends
cannot be made for a grievous injustice does not mean signiﬁcant recompense should not be made.

Although the long-overdue bill will not match
the price paid by the victims, the bill
must be paid.”
7 It must also be noted that reducing disparities and inequities faced by Black communities does not beneﬁt only those communities. Creating greater access to opportunity widely generates better economic and social outcomes. This includes a reduction in income and wage gaps, decreased need for social services, and increased tax revenues.

Though the City of Oakland did not solely make housing and transportation decisions that demolished and displaced homes and people in West Oakland, it has an opportunity to lead the charge, in conversation with state and county oﬃcials and agencies, and truly acknowledge the harm perpetuated against Black communities in Oakland.

Other communities of color have also been harmed through government policies. These are outside the scope of this project and should be addressed in subsequent plans. 7 William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen,
From
Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in
the Twenty-First Century
(Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, 2020), 55.
6 Randall Robinson,
The Debt: What America Owes to
Blacks
(New York: Penguin Group, 2000), 9.
10 The objective of this research is to document past racialized harms in Oakland, learn from community members what their community priorities for reparations are, and to oﬀer policy and funding alternatives for paying reparations in Oakland. 11 Methods
This project has involved research of secondary historical resources and government programs. I used Newspapers.com to search historical articles from the Oakland Tribune. I submitted Public Records Requests from CalTrans, BART, and the U.S. Post oﬃce to ﬁnd out what sums had been paid for homes taken by eminent domain. BART provided approximately 146 records, only one of which was located in West Oakland. None of the other agencies were able to provide records. I used PolicyMap to generate maps and statistics on disparities.

I have also interviewed the following 14 community members and leaders:● Alan Dones, Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC●
Regina Davis, Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC● Margaret Gordon, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project● Leo Bazile, former City Councilmember●
Reginald Lyles, former police oﬃcer and Assistant to the Mayor● Gilda Baker, West Oakland homeowner●
David Peters, Accounting Manager Consultant●
Reverend Chambers, West Side Missionary Baptist church● Reverend Harris, Pleasant Grove Baptist Church●
Ernestine Nettles, Oakland city employee and West Oakland resident● Maxine Ussery, the Post News Group●
Wilfred Ussery, former BART director●
Adrionne Fike, Mandela Grocery Co-op●
James Bell, Mandela Grocery Co-op
I conducted a two-hour workshop with seven interviewees to discuss reparations as a group. Stipends were given to community members who agreed to an interview and/or participated in the workshop.

I interviewed members of the following government agencies:● City of Oakland Oﬃce of the City Administrator●
City of Oakland Department of Transportation●
City of Oakland Cannabis Equity Program●
CalTrans●
MTC●
California Transportation Commission●
California State Transportation Agency●
Lateefah Simon, Board of Directors at BART●
Link21●
Oﬃce of County of Alameda Supervisor Miley●
Oﬃce of Dr. Shirley Weber, Secretary of State●
Asheville, North Carolina Oﬃce of Equity and Inclusion
12 I also spoke with the following non-proﬁt and advocacy groups● Reparations for Black Students campaign●
Cypress Mandela Training Center
13 Present Disparities
Past policy decisions in Oakland (as across the U.S.) have persistent impacts, including racially segregated geographies, concentrations of wealth, and health and life outcomes.

Black communities and white communities in Oakland remain segregated and have diﬀerent outcomes by income and poverty, home ownership, mortgage denial rates, and health outcomes, including life expectancy and asthma rates.

The following are not meant
8 to be an exhaustive list of disparities, but rather point to diﬀerential outcomes by race along a few key indicators. The existence of these persistent disparities provides a basis for redress and reparations.

The overall population of Oakland was tallied at 433,031 people in 2019. The Black
9 population is about 103,061 people.

For a look at how Oakland’s largely still segregated neighborhoods fare on a number of indicators, please see ﬁrst a map of Oakland. Note the location of West Oakland and the ﬂatlands between I-580 and I-880. You can also see I-980 separating West Oakland from downtown.

Figure 1: Map of Oakland with Freeways
10 Source: Google Maps
10 Google Maps, “Oakland, CA,” Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7936409,-122.2439023,12z. 9 “Quick Facts: Oakland city, California,” United States Census Bureau, Accessed May 7, 2021,
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/oaklandcitycalifornia. 8 There are additional disparities between people of
other racial groups, including Asian and Latinx
communities. However, as this report is focusing on reparations to Black communities, disparities between only white and Black communities are reported.
14 In maps of Black and white populations by census tract, you can see that Black populations are concentrated in West and East Oakland, and that there are very few Black people but a concentration of white people in the hills around Piedmont:

Figure 2: Map of Black Populations in Oakland
Source: PolicyMap
11 11
“Percent of all people who are non-Hispanic Black or African American in 2020,” PolicyMap, https://www.policymap.com/newmaps#/embed/7207/c73bbad7828f4080cf52172b5de972c5 (based on data from the 2020 Census; Accessed January 14, 2022). 15 Figure 3: Map of White Populations in Oakland
Source: PolicyMap
12 Dustin Cable, a former demographic researcher at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, created racial dot maps in 2013.

They mark one dot for
13 one person, with diﬀerent races having diﬀerent colored dots. Looking at the racial dot map, you can see that Oakland is very segregated by race, and that highways function as borders between diﬀerent racial groups. I-580 marks a clear line between white residents in the hills and communities of color in the ﬂatlands. I-980 also separates the majority Black West Oakland from the Asian Chinatown and mixed downtown area. 13 “The Racial Dot Map,” Demographics Research Group,
University of Virginia Weldon Cooper Center
for Public Service, Accessed May 7, 2021, https://demographics.coopercenter.org/racial-dot-map. 12 “Percent of all people who are non-Hispanic White in 2020,” PolicyMap, https://www.policymap.com/newmaps#/embed/7208/90107764bfa9e134f2bfe32767803fb8 (based on data from the 2020 Census; Accessed January 14, 2022). 16 Figure 4: Racial Dot Map of Oakland
Source: Demographics Research Group, University of Virginia Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service 14 14
The Racial Dot Map,” Demographics Research Group, University of Virginia Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, Accessed May 7, 2021, https://demographics.coopercenter.org/racial-dot-map. 17 In maps of income and poverty by race, you can see that areas that are majority Black tend to have a lower per capita income and more poverty, whereas the predominantly white areas have a higher per capita income and less poverty.

Figure 5: Per Capita Income by Census Tract
Source: PolicyMap
15 15
“Estimated per capita income, between 2015-2019,” PolicyMap, https://www.policymap.com/newmaps#/embed/7210/d6c11ba81a262799b309f44ed9fdef1b (based on data from 2015-2019 U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS); Accessed January 14, 2022).
18 Figure 6: Poverty by Census Tract
Source: PolicyMap
16 16
“Estimated percent of all people that are living in poverty as of 2015-2019,” PolicyMap, https://www.policymap.com/newmaps#/embed/7211/eb27c0cb06442f260d780ddb6252d35c (based on data from 2015-2019 U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS); Accessed January 14, 2022). 19 You can see a correlation where neighborhoods with higher percentages of Black people have lower median incomes:

Figure 7: Median Income by Census Tract
Data Source: 2015-2019 U.S. Census American Community Survey Neighborhoods with more Black people have higher poverty rates:

Figure 8: People in Poverty by Census Tract
Data Source: 2015-2019 U.S. Census American Community Survey 20 The Oakland median income
for white people is $94,236, whereas the Black median
income is only $38,619, in the 2019 Oakland Race and Equity Baseline Indicators report. 17 This is a gap of $55,617 per year. In 2017, 9% of white people in Oakland were in poverty, while 28% of Black people were.

This is a 19% diﬀerence. Furthermore, in 2017, 29% of
18 white workers owned a business in Oakland, while only 16% of Black workers owned a business.

This is a 13% diﬀerence.
19 The Wealth Gap
The wealth gap is an essential and elegant way to quantify the diﬀerential impacts of intergenerational racism. Lack of access to land and home ownership have prevented many Black families from building wealth to pass on to their children. Unfortunately, statistics measuring the wealth gap in Oakland are not readily available. However, the wealth gap in the L.A. region and in the U.S. at large (the most recent data found) are oﬀered here as one way to demonstrate the gap in how Black and white families have been able to accumulate wealth:

Location
White Median
Wealth
Black Median
Wealth
Diﬀerential
Los Angeles
(2014 data)
20 $355,000
$4,000
21 $351,000
Nationwide
22 (2019 data)
$188,200
$24,100
$164,100
22 Neil Bhutta et al., “Disparities in Wealth by Race
and Ethnicity in the 2019 Survey of Consumer
Finances,” FEDS Notes, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, September 28, 2020, https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/disparities-in-wealth-by-race-and-ethnicit y-in-the-2019-survey-of-consumer-ﬁnances-20200928.htm.
21 This calculation disaggregated data on “U.S. Black
people” and “African Black people” and reports
numbers for U.S. born Black people as opposed to people who have immigrated from Africa.

Melany De La Cruz-Viesca et al., “The Color of Wealth in Los Angeles,” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, A Joint Publication of Duke University, The New School, the University of California, Los Angeles and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, 2016, http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/besol/color_of_wealth_report.pdf. 20 Melany De La Cruz-Viesca et al., “The Color of Wealth in Los Angeles,” Federal Reserve Bank of San
Francisco, A Joint Publication of Duke University, The New School, the University of California, Los Angeles and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, 2016, http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/besol/color_of_wealth_report.pdf. 19 “Business Ownership: Race and gender should not be
a barrier to owning a business,” National
Equity Atlas, Accessed May 7, 2021,
https://nationalequityatlas.org/indicators/Business-ownership#/?geo=07000000000653000. 18 “Poverty: No one should experience poverty or economic insecurity,” National Equity Atlas,
Accessed May 7, 2021,
https://nationalequityatlas.org/indicators/poverty#/?geo=07000000000653000. 17 Veronica Cummings, “Oakland Race and Equity Baseline Indicators Report,” City of Oakland Department of Race & Equity, Oct. 14, 2019,
https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/2018FullReport-12021edit.pdf. 21 You can see that the wealth gap is not solely due to income gaps, as the median income gap in Oakland is only $55,617. There have been disparities in how people of diﬀerent racial groups have been able to accumulate assets, including homes, and how they have been able to pass on wealth to future generations. These ﬁgures do not include updates from Covid-19, which likely worsened income and wealth gaps.

Home Ownership
Home ownership is a key way to build intergenerational wealth. Being able to build equity in a home rather than sink money into rent-paying is a major way many American households have built wealth and joined the middle class. The federal government subsidized wealth-building among primarily white families through subsidized mortgages.

Only 2% of Federal Housing Administration loans given between 1934 and 1962 (totaling $120 billion) went to families of color.

Wealth-building
and access to the middle class was
23 thus oﬀered to white families, but not to Black ones at the same scale. Disparities in home ownership persist to today. You can see homeownership is concentrated in the hills and lower in the ﬂatlands, with many census tracts having less than 30% home ownership:

Figure 9: Home ownership by census tract
Source: PolicyMap
24 24
“Estimated percent of all households that own a home, between 2015-2019,” PolicyMap, https://www.policymap.com/newmaps#/embed/7212/ec45f782d013adﬀ25d31429ad3d9f57 (based on data from 2015-2019 U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS); Accessed January 14, 2022). 23 “Go Deeper: Where Race Lives, Uncle Sam Lends a Hand, Did the Government Racialize Housing
and Wealth?” Race - The Power of an Illusion, PBS, 2003, https://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_06_a-godeeper.htm .
22 In 2017, 52% of white households in Oakland owned homes, while only 33% of households owned by people of color did.
25 Nearly a century later, the maps still correspond to the redlining map created in the 1930s by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) and used by the Federal Housing Administration to determine which neighborhoods to give mortgage loans to. The yellow areas were inhabited by white people, while the red areas were blocked from mortgages due to desirability factors including “Inﬁltration of: Negroes.” When the maps were
26 created, not many Black people lived in Oakland, but as they migrated in, they were relegated mainly to West Oakland, which was redlined.

Figure 10: Home Owners Loan Corporation Redlining Map of Oakland Source: ResearchGate
27 27
“Fig 6 - uploaded by Nathan McClintock,” Research
Gate, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.researchgate.net/ﬁgure/A-1937-redlining-map-of-Oakland-published-by-the-Homeowne rs-Loan-Corporation-Areas_ﬁg5_280021484.
26 Camila Domonoske, “Interactive Redlining Map Zooms
In On America's History Of Discrimination,”
The Two-Way, NPR, Oct. 19, 2016,
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/19/498536077/interactive-redlining-map-zooms-i n-on-americas-history-of-discrimination.
25 PolicyLink and the USC Equity Research Institute, “National Equity Atlas,” 2020, www.nationalequityatlas.org.
23 Some of these neighborhoods have disparities that persist to this day. Nationwide, 74% of the “hazardous” areas are still low to moderate income today.

In Oakland, you can see
28 that the present-day, highest rates of mortgage denials are in the ﬂatlands between I-580 and I-880:

Figure 11: Home loan denials
Source: PolicyMap
29 Using 2010 Census data in Oakland (the most up to date available in the mapping tool), an average of 13.5% of white applicants across census tracts were denied home loans, while
30 30
“Percent of Home Loan Applications from Wlack Applicants that were Denied,” PolicyMap, https://www.ﬃec.gov/hmda/ (based on data from Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC): Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Summaries; Accessed April 8, 2022). 29 “Percent of home loan applications denied in 2019,” PolicyMap, https://www.ﬃec.gov/hmda/ (based on data from Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC): Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Summaries; Accessed April 8, 2022). 28 Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro,
“Systemic Inequality: Displacement,
Exclusion, and Segregation,” Center for American Progress, Aug. 7, 2019, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472617/systemic-inequality-disp lacement-exclusion-segregation/.
24 an average of 26.11% of Black applicants across census tracts were denied.

Black
31 applicants are denied mortgages at almost double the rate of white applicants.

Notably, the Great Recession also decimated some of the wealth that people of color had built. Financial institutions targeted people of color for subprime loans, and one study found that subprime loans to families of color increased from 2% to 18% between 1993 and 2000.

Another found that Black households lost

47.6% of their wealth due to the
32 Great Recession, while white families lost 26.2%.
33 Health Disparities
The West Oakland neighborhoods where Black people were permitted to live had industrial zoning that has had health impacts on residents. The freeways built through the neighborhood have also led to disproportionate health impacts. Further exacerbating the inequities between the hills and the ﬂatlands, trucks have not been allowed along the northern I-580 corridor since its construction in 1963, routing them to take I-880, which runs through West Oakland.

The West Oakland Environmental
Indicators project has
34 made evident the health risks that have accrued to West Oakland residents from these policies. They have found that children in Oakland living near freeways have an asthma rate that is twelve times higher than children in the suburb of Lafayette.

This is likely due to
35 combined impacts from traﬃc on the freeways and the industrial activities of the nearby Port of Oakland.
35 “West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project,” Accessed Oct. 11, 2021, https://education.ucdavis.edu/sites/main/ﬁles/ﬁle-attachments/margaret_gordon_woeip_overview_sl ides.pdf.
34 “A Tale of Two Freeways,” Environmental Defense Fund, Accessed Oct. 11, 2021,
https://www.edf.org/airqualitymaps/oakland/tale-two-freeways. 33 Signe-Mary Mckernan, Caroline Ratcliﬀe, Eugene Steuerle, and Sisi Zhang, “Impact of the Great
Recession and Beyond: Disparities in Wealth Building by Generation and Race,” Urban Institute, April 2014,
http://www.urban.org/sites/default/ﬁles/alfresco/publication-pdfs/413102-Impact-of-the-Great-Rece ssion-and-Beyond.PDF.
32 Jacob S. Rugh and Douglas S. Massey, “Racial Segregation and the American Foreclosure Crisis,”
American Sociological Review
75, no. 5 (2010): 629
- 651, cited in Nick Carey, “Racial predatory loans
fueled U.S. housing crisis: study,”
Reuters,
Oct.
3, 2010,
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-foreclosures-race-idUSTRE6930K520101004. 31 “Percent of Home Loan Applications from Black Applicants that were Denied,” PolicyMap, https://www.ﬃec.gov/hmda/ (based on data from Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC): Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Summaries; Accessed April 8, 2022). 25 These disparities can also be seen visually in life expectancy and asthma rates in Oakland.

People in whiter areas are actually expected to live longer than those in poorer or more Black areas:

Figure 12: Life Expectancy by Census Tract
Source: PolicyMap
36 36
“Life expectancy at birth, as of 2010-2015,” PolicyMap, https://www.policymap.com/newmaps#/embed/7213/af854427f063712aa6bfa9b4c3251a0e (based on data from CDC National Center for Health Statistics, the United States Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project (USALEEP); Accessed January 14, 2022). 26 There are also higher asthma rates in the majority Black neighborhoods:

Figure 13: Asthma rates by Census Tract
Source: PolicyMap
37 37
“Estimated percent of adults reporting to have asthma in 2018,” PolicyMap, https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/annual_data/annual_data.htm (based on data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Health Outcome Estimates and Risk Factor Estimates; Accessed April 8, 2022).
27 There is a correlation between neighborhoods with a high percentage of Black residents and asthma rates:

Figure 14: Asthma rates by Census Tract Plotted by Percentage of Black Residents The West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP) has documented some of the environmental harms done to the neighborhood of West Oakland due to diesel particulate matter from trucks on the highways and from ships at the Port. They have found that, “About 42 percent of local diesel PM impacts and cancer risk come from heavy-duty trucks; about 38 percent of PM2.5 impacts come from road dust.” At the Port, “About 33 percent of diesel PM comes from ocean-going vessels associated with the Port, while 18 percent comes from rail. Thirty percent of cancer risk from local sources comes from ocean-going vessels.”
38 38
“Owning Our Air: The West Oakland Community Action
Plan -- A Summary,” Bay Area Air Quality
Management District and the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Oct. 2019, https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/ﬁles/ab617-community-health/west-oakland/100219-ﬁles/owning -our-air-plan-summary-pdf.pdf.
28 Some of the images from the WOEIP Owning Our Air report outlining the particulate matter and cancer risks follow. You can see the outlines of the highways that surround West Oakland:

Figure 15: Diesel Particulate Matter in West Oakland
Source: Owning Our Air Report
39 39
“Owning Our Air: The West Oakland Community Action
Plan -- A Summary,” Bay Area Air Quality
Management District and the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Oct. 2019, https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/ﬁles/ab617-community-health/west-oakland/100219-ﬁles/owning -our-air-plan-summary-pdf.pdf.
29 Figure 16: Cancer Risk in West Oakland
Source: Owning Our Air Report
40 Assembly Bill 617 has directed local air districts to look at local air pollution; however, one of the bill’s main proponents, Ms. Margaret Gordon, has noted that they are struggling with funding initiatives from the bill.
41 Further documentation of present disparities can be found in the Oakland Race and Equity Baseline Indicators Report.
42 42
Veronica Cummings, “Oakland Race and Equity Baseline
Indicators Report,” City of Oakland
Department of Race & Equity, Oct. 14, 2019,
https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/2018FullReport-12021edit.pdf. 41 Ms. Margaret Gordon in discussion with the author,
March 2021.
40 “Owning Our Air: The West Oakland Community Action
Plan -- A Summary,” Bay Area Air Quality
Management District and the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Oct. 2019, https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/ﬁles/ab617-community-health/west-oakland/100219-ﬁles/owning -our-air-plan-summary-pdf.pdf.
30 Oakland History as a Basis for Past and Present Inequities Brief History
“The freeways took houses, BART tracks took houses, the post oﬃce took houses...This community has suﬀered environmentally, economically, and through gentriﬁcation...it’s a system that has traumatized people of color and people that are low income.” -Reverend Ken Chambers
“
It’s been government-sanctioned every step of the
way.”
-Leo Bazile
The following provides a brief, broad stroke of the history of Black Oakland. I provide more detailed historical information after the initial brief history. This historical information laid out presents evidence of discriminatory public policies as a basis for paying reparations today. Over decades, speciﬁc decisions were made to build public projects through and around the historically Black neighborhood of West Oakland, displacing residents and demolishing homes, with homeowners sometimes unable to purchase replacement housing. These policies also had a racialized aspect, as urban renewal programs in Oakland and across the country targeted Black communities to erase “blight” and through which to build transportation networks. After post-World War II urban renewal, Black communities have continued to suﬀer from racism and discrimination. The following historical information serves as evidence of racism and discrimination against Black people in Oakland, which caused some of the disparities seen in the previous section, and provides an impetus for the payment of reparations.

Slavery did touch California, as the state upheld the federal Fugitive Slave Act, where enslaved Black people in the state were not protected and could be returned to the “slaveowner” they had escaped from.

However, as signiﬁcant
numbers of Black people did
43 not come to the state until the Great Migration of the 20th century, this brief history and reparations proposal focuses instead on harm done from governmental public policies that disenfranchised and discriminated against Black people in Oakland after the second World War.

Black migrants came to Oakland largely during World War II and in the decades afterward, as part of the Great Migration, when many Black people left the South and moved to the North and West of the country. The Great Migration was approximately from 1915 to 1960.

Black migrants to Oakland enjoyed ample employment in shipyards and military bases in Oakland during World War II. After the war, some struggled to ﬁnd employment, working in factories or services, though the military bases remained a stable source of employment across further decades. West Oakland was a center for the Black community, as discriminatory policies caused them to be unable to live in many other neighborhoods. A 43 Susan Anderson, “California, a ‘Free State’ Sanctioned Slavery,” California Historical Society, Apr. 2,
2020, https://californiahistoricalsociety.org/blog/california-a-free-state-sanctioned-slavery/. 31 thriving commercial center, Seventh Street, hosted numerous small businesses, including the jazz clubs for which it was well-known.

Figure 17: Slim Jenkins jazz club
Source: FoundSF.org
44 “Post-war urban design,” to use a term employed by historian Robert O. Self in a history of post-World War II Oakland with a racial lens titled
American Babylon
, involved remaking the
historically Black neighborhood of West Oakland with urban renewal projects. These projects aimed at reducing “blight” (which was often racialized) and improving transportation corridors. They involved housing projects, demolishing and redeveloping housing, and transportation projects such as the freeway system and the new Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) tracks. Many projects had a goal to bring shoppers into downtown and raise property taxes.

The highway and BART transportation networks were designed to bring commuters from the newly emerging suburbs to work in San Francisco. They were not necessarily designed for the beneﬁt of Black residents in West Oakland, but rather to transport people through and past the neighborhood. To the chagrin of West Oakland residents, many homes were demolished and people displaced through these policies. 44 Jennifer Soliman, “The Rise and Fall of Seventh Street in Oakland,” Found SF, 2015,
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Seventh_Street_in_Oakland. 32 As Self writes:
“In the 1950s and 1960s [city planners and developers] hoped to restore property values by redeveloping land, clearing slums, constructing highways and rapid transit, and mechanizing the port -- a broad engineering of new urban forms. They sought to revive the city, and downtown in particular, as a site of capital accumulation. At the same time, African Americans sought a diﬀerent sort of urban renaissance, one shaped by the goals of economic opportunity for the growing Black community: jobs, development, and neighborhood investment. The two visions clashed, as the reengineering of Oakland, coupled with structural economic changes, further disadvantaged the city’s Black working class” (AB 9) As Black people were pushed out of West Oakland, many settled in East Oakland or left the city altogether. This led to a Black community that spanned West Oakland, North Oakland, East Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, and Emeryville. People in these areas engaged in the same churches, sports, and outdoor social activities.

Maxine Ussery, whose father owned a prominent dry cleaning business in West Oakland, spoke of a “vibrant” Black community that previously existed in the neighborhood. She listed that Seventh Street businesses included “banks, skating rink, movie theater, restaurants, you name it,” and that, “All of our needs were met in West Oakland.” But beyond commercial businesses, Ms. Nettles spoke of an interconnected community, with people in West Oakland representing on the school board and being a part of the same church communities. She explained that the loss of industry and jobs, along with gentriﬁcation, were a major factor in the loss of the community.

In the 1960s, programs for the War on Poverty came to West Oakland. These included the Model Cities program, funded by the Ford Foundation. Black residents also founded organizations such as the Oakland Economic Development Council and the West Oakland Planning Committee. Black residents like Paul Cobb and Wil Ussery became involved in the Civil Rights movement, and Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party in Oakland. As factories left Oakland for neighboring suburbs and counties, jobs were lost, and a lot of organizing was done around job opportunities for Black residents.

In the 1970s and 1980s, a “Black urban regime” gained power as increasing numbers of Black people were elected to City Council, worked in planning departments, and joined the police force. In the 1980s, Oakland suﬀered as retail companies left the city, and white ﬂight continued. In the 1990s the federal military bases, which had been a source of employment for many Black residents, closed as well.

In the 21st century, former mayor Jerry Brown set a “10K plan” aimed at attracting residents to downtown. The plan was reminiscent of earlier plans aiming to bring shoppers to 33 downtown. Also in the 21st century, Oakland and West Oakland have become increasingly gentriﬁed.

Despite Black organizing and many victories, they have had to work against forces like urban renewal, segregation, and discrimination. Aﬃrmative action has not been suﬃcient to remedy these eﬀects, and even that has been challenged in California with Proposition 209 (the proposition bans preferential treatment based on race in public employment, education, and contracting). The following, more detailed history outlines some of the discrimination and damage that Black communities in Oakland have faced. As the racialized history of West Oakland and Oakland have already been well-documented, this historical section relies heavily on two books,
American Babylon:

Race and the Struggle for Postwar
Oakland
by Robert O. Self and
No There There: Race,
Class, and Political Community in
Oakland
by Chris Rhomberg, with additional articles
and websites having been consulted.

Housing: Keeping Neighborhoods Segregated
“In 1950, there were four Black families on the block. In 1964, it was the whole neighborhood.

Today, there are four black families on the block again. It’s come full circle.” -David Peters
“All together, it feeds into the racial wealth gap. Unequal access to capital has aﬀected everything in the neighborhood...it’s cyclical…”
-David Peters
Due to exclusionary housing policies including redlining and lack of access to credit for down payments or to repair housing; city zoning; racially restrictive covenants; enforced segregation; white ﬂight and white migration to the suburbs; blockbusting; and civilian and police violence; Black communities in Oakland were at ﬁrst allowed to settle only in West Oakland. West Oakland had been a “port of entry” for many immigrants, who often moved to other parts of the city or to Berkeley once they had gained some economic stability.

Yet
45 for Black immigrants, ““Many could and did ultimately make that move. Many more could not.” By 1950, “nearly 90 percent of the city’s Black population resided in 22 percent of its census tracts concentrated in West and North Oakland.”
West Oakland also became
46 subject to overcrowding in housing.
47 During the Great Migration (approximately 1915 - 1960) , as millions of Black families
48 moved out of the South to the North and West, and especially during and after World War 48 Stephanie Christensen, “The Great Migration (1915-
1960),” Black Past, Dec. 6, 2007,
https://www.Blackpast.org/african-american-history/great-migration-1915-1960/. 47 Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 48.
46 Ibid.
45 Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 50.
34 II, many Black migrants came to the city. They found employment on the railroads, at the port, and on the military bases.

West Oakland has
easy access to jobs in these industries.
49 The inﬂux of Black migrants continued in the 1950s and beyond. By 1950 there were approximately 55,778 Black residents in Oakland, by 1960 there were 100,000, and by 1970 there were 125,000.
50 During World War II, West Oakland “boomed,” and the commercial center of Seventh Street:
“...ﬂourished with Black-owned businesses and professional oﬃces, Slim Jenkins’ jazz club on Seventh and Wood streets headlined a famous (now legendary) nightclub scene; women’s clubs, churches, and fraternal orders thrived; and the district developed a special sense of transplanted community as southern migrants from the same towns and even neighborhoods in ‘near South’ states settled close to one another.”
51 As West Oakland increasingly became a majority Black neighborhood and white residents gained economic status, many white residents left for other parts of the city or nearby suburbs. They could often aﬀord larger homes with bigger yards in these other areas. 52 Zoning was used to designate some areas as residential, either with single-family homes or multi-family homes, and others as industrial.

This
kept property values higher for white
53 residents in more aﬄuent areas. Unfortunately for Black residents of West Oakland, the neighborhood was zoned for heavy and light industrial use:
“Activities allowed in light industrial areas included chemical, acid, disinfectant, chlorine, ammonia, cement, lime, gypsum, and alcohol manufacturing. In heavy industrial areas, the following were allowed: manufacturing explosives and fertilizer; petroleum reﬁning; garbage, oﬀal or dead animal reduction or dumping; smelting.” 54 Segregation of neighborhoods also maps onto zoning diﬀerences. A segregation map published in 1960 by Dr. Hunter showed that the three zones where Black people resided included zoning for industrial use around residential areas, while the six zones were they did not reside were mostly “A” or single-family zoned, with no industrial use.

Keeping
55 55
Ibid., 35.
54 Ibid., 37.
53 Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 35.
52 Ibid., 42.
51 I
bid., 54.
50 Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 160.
49 Jennifer Soliman, “The Rise and Fall of Seventh Street in Oakland,” Found SF, 2015, https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Seventh_Street_in_Oakland. 35 aﬄuent areas free from industrial use also protected property values and tax dollars for the city.
56 Ernestine Nettles recalled train tracks being forged down Union St. when she was a child for steel companies and a candy factory. She recounted that they ran by an elementary school and even that the neighborhood “lost some kids to that train.” In what is usually termed “white ﬂight,” many white residents across the country left cities where Black migrants had moved in and took advantage of federally-backed mortgages to purchase homes in the suburbs. As Self writes, however:
“Across the breadth of these decades, white suburbanites did not “ﬂee” Oakland.

They were drawn to suburban communities by the powerful economic and cultural incentives behind city building: new housing markets subsidized by the federal government; low taxes underwritten by relocating industry; and the assurance that a new home, spacious yard, and garage signaled their full assimilation into American life and its celebration of modernity and consumption.” 57 Racially restrictive covenants often speciﬁed that Black people and other people of color were restricted from certain neighborhoods,
and “The
Tribune published ‘white only’ real
58 estate listings until 1963.”
Even after a Fair Housing
Act was passed in 1963, “An Oakland
59 Redevelopment Agency phone survey found 21 percent of current 486 housing listings and 17 percent of 675 rental listings were racially restricted.” 60 Common racialized thinking employed over the decades was that Black households did not properly maintain their housing, were less moral and less law abiding, and that Black families would decrease neighborhood property values.

Realtors exploited these fears
61 through blockbusting - stoking white fears that a Black family would move into a neighborhood, causing the white families to sell, and then selling the homes to Black families at an inﬂated price. A study in 1964 by University of California Professor Floyd Hunter found blockbusting in the real estate industry in Oakland, along with reports of inﬂated pricing, and denial of loans in redlined areas.

This also gave the real estate
62 62
Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 166.
61 Ibid., 27-28.
60 Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 50.
59 Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 164.
58 Aaron Golub , Richard A. Marcantonio & Thomas W.

Sanchez, “Race, Space, and Struggles for
Mobility: Transportation Impacts on African Americans in Oakland and the East Bay,” Urban
Geography,
34, no. 5 (2013), 707.
57 Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 16.
56 Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 44.
36 industry more control over the housing market and prices.

Self goes as far as to say,
63 “...the real estate industry came to see the promotion, preservations, and manipulation of racial segregation as central - rather than incidental or residual - components of their proﬁt-generating strategies.”
64 The pattern of Black inner cities and white suburbs was referred to as a “suburban ‘white noose’” by Self. Indeed, as late as 1970, over ¾ of census tracts in Oakland on the border of San Leandro were majority Black, but San Leandro was less than 0.1% Black.

A report in
65 1971 by the National Committe Against Discrimination in Housing “blamed federal housing policy, homeowners associations, the city government, and the county real estate board for racial restriction,” and it found that “‘‘The Veterans Administration guaranteed more than $1.6 million in home loans’ in San Leandro...while the Federal Housing Administration insured more than $1.7 million in home mortgages.’ All went to white buyers.” Between
66 1960 and 1970, 56,611 white people, over 20% of the white population, left Oakland. 67 Suburban residents were worried about property values but also “school overcrowding, increased traﬃc, degradation of parks and other public spaces, crime, and increased social service burden...In short, suburban homeowners hoped to exclude the complicated social life they associated with large cities.”
68 As desegregation and integration became national policy priorities, homeowners across California sought to preserve segregation. The Rumford Act passed in the California legislature in 1963, prohibiting discrimination in housing and lending.

Some rejected the
69 legislation and, led by the California Real Estate Association, campaigned for and passed Proposition 14, which said that property owners could sell or rent property “to any person as he chooses" and repealed the Rumford Act.

The
federal government stopped sending
70 funding for urban renewal to the state after this decision.

However, Proposition 14 was
71 71
Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 99.
70 “No on Proposition 14: California Fair Housing Initiative Collection,” Collection number: GTU
94-7-01, Online Archive of California, Accessed May 16, 2021, https://oac.cdlib.org/ﬁndaid/ark:/13030/kt0b69q1bw/.
69 Herbert G. Ruﬃn II, “The California Fair Housing
Act [The Rumford Act] (1963 - 1968),” Black Past,
June 5, 2011,
https://www.Blackpast.org/african-american-history/california-fair-housing-act-rumford-act-1963-19 68/.
68 Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 281.
67 Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and
Political Community in Oakland
(Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), 153.
66 Ibid.
65 Ibid., 268.
64 Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 265.
63 Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 50.
37 struck down in the Supreme Court in 1966, and in 1968 the National Housing Act was passed, outlawing discrimination by “race, color, creed, and national origin.” 72 A linchpin of segregation had been redlining and the denial of loans and mortgages. The Home Owners Loan Corporation ﬁrst produced the infamous maps marking city neighborhoods by color and assigning neighborhoods mostly inhabited by minorities as “high risk” in red. These were later used by the Federal Housing Administration and by private lenders to deny loans and mortgages from applicants in those neighborhoods. 73 Major consequences of these policies include that many Black residents in West Oakland were not able to access mortgages to buy homes, and were thus barred from home ownership. Furthermore, Black residents with homes could not access crucial credit to upkeep and maintain their homes.

This would become
an even larger problem when
74 those homes were determined to be “blighted” and became slated for demolition under urban renewal, making home ownership more diﬃcult to achieve once again.

Meanwhile, federally-backed mortgages that went mostly to white families represented “...one of the largest federal welfare transfers in the nation.” Home ownership was
75 federally subsidized for white families and, along with cheaper land in the suburbs and new techniques in housing production, “brought homeownership to historically unprecedented numbers of white/Anglo people in California and the nation.” Beneﬁts tended to go to
76 middle- and upper-class families, with no loans given to the bottom third income bracket and only 16% to the bottom half by the 1960s, in the San Francisco-Oakland region. 77 Disparities in access to mortgages and credit persist to this day. As stated earlier, Black applicants in Oakland today are denied mortgages at almost double the rate of white applicants. One present-day interviewee explained that she is in need of loans to ﬁx up her home, but that she does not think she will qualify for a loan at a commercial bank. She was reluctant to take a “dirty loan” with high interest rates but was not sure what her options could be.
77 Ibid.
76 Ibid., 281.
75 Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 329.
74 Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 39.
73 Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 104.
72 Herbert G. Ruﬃn II, “The California Fair Housing Act [The Rumford Act] (1963 - 1968),” Black Past, June 5, 2011,
https://www.Blackpast.org/african-american-history/california-fair-housing-act-rumford-act-1963-19 68/.
38 Leading up to the Great Recession in the late 2000s, one study found that subprime loans to families of color increased from 2% to 18% between 1993 and 2000.

Another found
78 that Black households lost 47.6% of their wealth due to the Great Recession, while white families lost 26.2%.
79 Reveal
from The Center for Investigative Reporting
found that, in 61 metro areas across the
country, Black and Latinx mortgage applicants were turned away at higher rates, even after controlling for nine economic and social factors including, “an applicant’s income, the amount of the loan, the ratio of the size of the loan to the applicant’s income and the type of lender, as well as the racial makeup and median income of the neighborhood where the person wanted to buy property.”
Credit scores were
not available in this analysis as they
80 are not publicly accessible.
81 The Community Reinvestment Act, passed in 1977, aimed to decrease the eﬀects of redlining by requiring banks to give loans to “low-income geographic areas.” However, as
82 the legislation is based on geography, there is a loophole where these loans may go to white residents moving to historically redlined neighborhoods.

Black applicants continue
83 to be denied loans at higher rates than white applicants.

Credit scoring also contributes to disparities in outcomes. Black families denied mortgages or other loans may resort to predatory loans.

Compounding
eﬀects of families not being
84 able to build generational wealth leads to greater risk of economic instability, while job discrimination presents a barrier for many Black job applicants. Formerly incarcerated 84 Michelle Singletary, “Credit scores are supposed
to be race-neutral. That’s impossible,”
Washington
Post
(Washington, D.C.), October 16, 2020,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/10/16/how-race-aﬀects-your-credit-score/. 83 Sharon Velasquez, “The Community Reinvestment Act
at 40: It’s Hard to Fight Redlining If You’re
Colorblind,”
Greenlining Institute
(blog), October
31, 2017,
https://greenlining.org/blog-category/2017/community-reinvestment-act-ﬁght-redlining/. 82 Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 119.
81 Aaron Glantz and Emmanuel Martinez, “For people
of color, banks are shutting the door to
homeownership,”
Reveal
, February 15, 2018,
https://revealnews.org/article/for-people-of-color-banks-are-shutting-the-door-to-homeownership/. 80 Aaron Glantz and Emmanuel Martinez, “For people of
color, banks are shutting the door to
homeownership,”
Reveal
, February 15, 2018,
https://revealnews.org/article/for-people-of-color-banks-are-shutting-the-door-to-homeownership/. 79 Signe-Mary Mckernan, Caroline Ratcliﬀe, Eugene Steuerle, And Sisi Zhang, “Impact of the Great
Recession and Beyond: Disparities in Wealth Building by Generation and Race,” Urban Institute, April 2014,
“http://www.urban.org/sites/default/ﬁles/alfresco/publication-pdfs/413102-Impact-of-the-Great-Rece ssion-and-Beyond.PDF.
78 Jacob S. Rugh and Douglas S. Massey,
“Racial Segregation and the American Foreclosure Crisis,” American Sociological Review
75, no. 5
(2010): 629 - 651, cited in Nick Carey, “Racial predatory loans fueled U.S. housing crisis: study,” Reuters,
Oct. 3, 2010,
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-foreclosures-race-idUSTRE6930K520101004. 39 individuals, populations in which Black men and women are overrepresented, may face discrimination when applying for jobs as well. Systemic inequalities and disparities can aﬀect a credit score and make it harder for people to access credit to create more wealth.

As one head of a Philadelphia Black real estate broker association’s local chapter put it, “This is how people lose their homes...First, they can’t ﬁx the kitchen, and then it’s a leaky roof and then the electrical. Then the building inspector shows up, and you have to sell, and here comes the gentriﬁcation.”
85 Urban Renewal/Redevelopment
“People were displaced. They moved to North Oakland, East Oakland. Because of urban renewal in the 1960s. West Oakland has been diminishing ever since then.

Blacks moved to East Oakland. Portuguese and Italians moved to San Leandro. San Leandro had a hard police line for blacks... “
-Reginald Lyles
“As a kid, I was embarrassed at the ﬂat, bare ground. Acres and acres of nothing. Not understanding but having a vague sense of embarrassment. 14th and Broadway was also bare ground - in the middle of downtown, too. Urban renewal schemes take longer to rebuild than advertised. Number of units built is far short of the number of people displaced, despite promises they’d be able to come back. Community networks are ended. This is what cultural erasure looks like. Connection, cultural connections, are not recoverable.” -David Peters
Black residents of West Oakland were prevented from settling in other neighborhoods throughout the city and were often in overcrowded housing and unable to access credit to improve their homes. Determination of blight was based on “buildings, populations, land and public utilities, health, and value” in the 1949 Housing Act.

It was also generally
86 associated by the federal government with “property in which value no longer appreciated.” Blight could mean a property had “old, unsafe buildings,” or that it was overcrowded. It
87 could mean high crime rates, “disproportionate expenditures for police and ﬁre protections and other public services,” and lower tax revenue based on property values. 88 88
Ibid., 45.
87 Ibid., 56.
86 Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 45.
85 Aaron Glantz and Emmanuel Martinez, “Gentriﬁcation became low-income lending law’s unintended consequence,”
Reveal
, Feb. 16, 2018,
https://revealnews.org/article/gentriﬁcation-became-low-income-lending-laws-unintended-conseque nce/.
40 However, there was often a racialized component to properties deemed blighted.

White
89 people saw blighted properties as an “individual moral deﬁciency.” Though there were
90 real problems with some homes, including health problems in people whose homes were located next to industry and safety issues, “much of [urban renewal across the country] was implicitly racialized.” It was neighborhoods primarily made up of Black residents, with lower property values, that were targeted for redevelopment through urban renewal.

Urban renewal, or demolishing properties and replacing them with new projects, even became known as “Negro Removal.”
West Oakland was
also targeted for its proximity to
91 downtown with a desire to bring more middle- and high-income residents to frequent stores downtown.

A 1949 blight study recommended demolishing blighted areas of West Oakland and converting it to industrial zoning.

In 1959 the Oakland
General Neighborhood Renewal
92 Plan recommended demolishing the neighborhood for industrial use and high-income housing, especially for residents who would frequent downtown.

In the decade between,
93 the Citizen’s Committee for Urban Renewal (later the Oakland Citizen’s Committee, abbreviated OCCUR), made up of “business elites,” had supported renewal in West Oakland to stop the ““centrifugal loss of capital, property value, and middle-income consumers.” 94 This was also thought to decrease the tax burden throughout the city through increased property values. There is a comparison to be made in bringing in wealthier residents to revitalize downtown to Jerry Brown’s 10K plan.

It is noteworthy that a 1969 complaint ﬁled by Oakland residents with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development led to a new co-chair and board of directors for OCCUR. This included civil rights activist Paul Cobb, and others. The complaint was that minorities were not incorporated in the community participation process. 95 Urban renewal was partially funded by the federal government, with them paying ⅔
of the
costs to acquire land through the 1949 and 1954 Housing Acts. 96 96
Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 63.
95 Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and
Political Community in Oakland
(Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), 165.
94 Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 139.
93 Ibid., 65.
92 Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 61.
91 Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 140.
90 Thomas J. Sugrue,
The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014), 9, cited in Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 57. 89 Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 56.
41 A major issue with urban renewal in West Oakland is that residents did not want their homes to be demolished. As noted by Robert O. Self, many Black residents were “optimistic” about urban renewal and rehabilitation, but did not wish for demolition of existing homes to be the method chosen.

In a letter
to Harry Truman in 1949, West
97 Oakland resident Lola Bell Sims wrote, “Just now here in Oakland the [Black people] are much confused and very unhappy, thinking that they are going to lose their all and all by the U.S. government taking their property by force whether or not they want to give it up.” 98 As Self wrote, “...it appeared that the city of Oakland and the federal government, in a partnership made possible by the Housing Act of 1949, planned to condemn their property, acquire it through eminent domain, and redevelop vast stretches of the city’s principal Black neighborhood.” And the money paid to acquire these homes at “fair market value” was often not enough to buy another home in the same or adjacent neighborhoods. 99 Thousands of homes were demolished.

At a hearing in 1961 that the Redevelopment Agency held with residents of the Acorn area, residents “‘made it known emphatically they they [did] not want to be moved from their homes.’”
Residents won concessions demanded by a
representative from the NAACP that
100
the agency would “urge appointment of a committee to assure housing for minorities…develop residential sites for current residents; and...set a time schedule for allowing residents to ﬁnd decent housing.”
Despite
resident complaints, the Acorn
101
project proceeded.

Another issue with urban renewal is that low-income housing in new developments was insuﬃcient to meet the need. The General Neighborhood Renewal Plan had “estimated that of the 8,416 families living in West Oakland, 12 percent ‘can aﬀord [to] purchase housing,’ 33 percent ‘can aﬀord new rental units,’ 33 percent ‘can aﬀord ‘rehab’ rental units,’ and 22 percent ‘need subsidized housing.’ However, the plan states that ‘adequate housing will be available only in the ﬁrst three categories.’” Families who needed subsidized housing were not adequately served by new housing.

This included
about 1,850 families.
102
102
Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 77.
101
Ibid.
100
Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and
Political Community in Oakland
(Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), 130.
99 Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and
Political Community in Oakland
(Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), cited in Aaron Golub , Richard A. Marcantonio & Thomas W.

Sanchez, “Race, Space, and Struggles for Mobility: Transportation Impacts on African Americans in Oakland and the East Bay,”
Urban Geography,
34, no.
5 (2013), 708.
98 Ibid., 137 - 138.
97 Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 143.
42 As homes were demolished and more Black people continued to move to Oakland, East Oakland eventually opened up to non-white residents. Over time, many Black Oaklanders had moved to North Oakland and South Berkeley as well.

Urban renewal also led to transportation projects connecting the suburbs to San Francisco. 103
Robert O. Self writes that, by demolishing homes and building new projects:
“...in Oakland no less than in other American cities, urban renewal constituted a massive redistribution of property and people in the name of saving downtown...at the heart of the plan was a redistribution of property from homeowners and small businesspeople to private industry and corporations and a redistribution of poor and middling homeowners and renters from one slum to another.” 104
Acorn was one of the ﬁrst redevelopment projects proposed in West Oakland. City planners designated two of its subdivisions with 70% “substandard housing,” and ﬁve with 60% “standard housing,” but demolished all of the buildings.

These were mostly homes of
105
Black residents (78% Black, 20% Mexican, and 2% white)
. Ernestine Nettles, who grew up
106
in a West Oakland neighborhood not far from Oakland, described a lot of the homes in West Oakland as “beautiful homes,” and many were made in a Victorian style.

Acorn had
107
also included part of Seventh Street.
107
Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 113.
106
Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and
Political Community in Oakland
(Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), 127.
105
Penelope Fergison, “Head for the Hills: Race and
Property Value in Oakland” (thesis, University of
California at Santa Barbara, 2018), 109.
104
Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 149.
103
Aaron Golub , Richard A. Marcantonio & Thomas W. Sanchez, “Race, Space, and Struggles for Mobility: Transportation Impacts on African Americans in Oakland and the East Bay,” Urban
Geography,
34, no. 5 (2013), 708.
43 Figure 18: 1966 Model for the Acorn project
Source: Oakland Redevelopment Agency
108
One of the tragedies of Acorn was that part of the demolished lots were not immediately rebuilt. “Thirty-four acres” of the Acorn area were left vacant for over ﬁve years. 109
The damage was signiﬁcant. As Rhomberg put it:
“By the mid 60s, policies of wholesale demolition would wreak havoc on Black neighborhoods around the city center. Altogether, between 1960 and 1966 more than 7,000 housing units in Oakland were destroyed by urban renewal, freeway and BART construction, and other governmental action, and in West Oakland alone almost 5,100 units were removed, resulting in a net outmigration from the neighborhood of about 14,000 residents.”
110
Between 1960 and 1966, West Oakland’s population had decreased by about 25%.

As
111
people were pushed out, many Black residents settled in East Oakland, which had eventually opened up to Black residents.
111
Ibid., 156.
110
Ibid., 125.
109
Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and
Political Community in Oakland
(Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), 156.
108
Moriah Ulinskas, “Imagining a Past Future: Photographs from the Oakland Redevelopment Agency,” Places, January 2019,
https://placesjournal.org/article/imagining-a-past-future/#.YG5e4ufmgHc.mailto 44 Organizing by the NAACP and others led to the inclusion of more public housing. But by “1966 Oakland still had only 1,422 permanent public-housing units. By that time, the City Planning Commission estimated that more than 20,000 households in Oakland were eligible for public housing.”
112
The West Oakland neighborhood of Oak Center had a diﬀerent fate. In 1963, Lillian Love organized the Oak Center Neighborhood Association (OCNA).

The group advocated for
113
rehabilitation of homes rather than demolition. Oak Center was initially targeted to be 20% rehabilitated, but after their organizing (and internal changes in the Redevelopment Agency), 75% of properties were rehabilitated.

In
1966, Love became the commissioner
114
of the agency.
115
Another urban project was the construction of a new U.S. postal center in West Oakland. In 1958, 400 homes were demolished for the building at 1675 7th Street.

After demolition, it
116
was seven years before the building was built.
117
Reverend Chambers knows a personal story of disenfranchisement. Growing up, he knew a woman aﬀectionately called “Mother Norwell,” who used to own a home where the post oﬃce is located. Once her house was bought for land for the post oﬃce, she was not able to buy another house. As Reverend Chambers explained, “She lived and died in public housing.”
Freeways
“When I ﬁrst came to the area, I saw Cypress Freeway around West Oakland. Most of the people living in West Oakland at that time, were mostly African American. The freeway came down because of the earthquake.

People in power making decisions, they don’t want certain things in their neighborhood because it’s disturbing-- noise, pollution, they push oﬀ to other areas. In African American neighborhoods, we’ve accepted those things, “That’s the way it is.” Now we have a voice to say we don’t want these things.
-
Pastor Harris
117
Katie Ferrari, “The house on Magnolia Street,”
Curbed,
April 29, 2020,
https://sf.curbed.com/2020/4/29/21240456/moms-4-housing-oakland-house-history. 116
“Oakland's History of Resistance to Racism,” City
of Oakland, Accessed May 17, 2021,
https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/oaklands-history-of-resistance-to-racism. 115
Zack Haber, “Remembering Housing Activist Lillian
Love,”
Post News Group
(Oakland, CA), March 5,
2020, https://www.postnewsgroup.com/2020-03-05-remembering-housing-activist-lillian-love/. 114
Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and
Political Community in Oakland
(Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), 132.
113
Zack Haber, “Remembering Housing Activist Lillian
Love,”
Post News Group
(Oakland, CA), March 5,
2020, https://www.postnewsgroup.com/2020-03-05-remembering-housing-activist-lillian-love/. 112
Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and Political Community in Oakland (Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), 130.
45 “Methodically, infrastructure has destroyed every black commercial corridor in the US.” -Regina Davis
As Aaron Golub , Richard A. Marcantonio & Thomas W. Sanchez have written, “A common component of post-war urban renewal was transportation infrastructure such as highways and mass transit systems, with often devastating eﬀects on African American communities.”
Most of the highways in Oakland were
planned in the early 1950s and
118
built by the late 1960s, although I-980 and State Route 24 (Grove-Shafter) were not completed until the 1970s.
119
I-580 (MacArthur) runs east to west, cutting a barrier between West and North Oakland.

I-880 (the Nimitz freeway) travels along the southern border, and curves north to meet with I-580 and the Bay Bridge. State Route 24 (Grove-Shafter) travels from the northeast to West Oakland, and disrupted a Black commercial center on Grove St. in North Oakland. The freeway marked a new “racial redline,” previously “deﬁned by discriminatory lending and real estate practices.”
It also connects to I-980,
which cut a barrier between West Oakland
120
and downtown. Lastly, the Cypress Freeway, part of I-880 or the Nimitz Freeway, originally ran right through West Oakland, “isolating its westernmost section.” 121
Richard Rothstein, in an interview with NPR, shared that the Federal Housing Administration “recommended” to use highways as racial barriers in its underwriting manual.

In cities across the U.S., transportation
planners intentionally put
122
neighborhoods through or around communities of color, damaging and isolating their neighborhoods.

One interviewee described the Cypress Freeway as a “monster” that “divided the community.” Another mentioned the “pollution, blight, noise and air pollution”: that it brought, and that it had “substandard construction.” He went as far as to call it “an assault on a beautiful community.” In 1989, it collapsed during the Loma Prieta earthquake, killing 122
Richard Rothstein, Interview by Terry Gross, “A 'Forgotten History' Of How The U.S. Government
Segregated America,”
NPR,
May 3, 2017,
https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segreg ated-america.
121
Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and
Political Community in Oakland
(Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), 123.
120
J. Norman, J.,
Temescal Legacies: Narratives of Change
from a North Oakland Neighborhood
(Oakland,
CA: Shared Ground, 2006), cited in Aaron Golub , Richard A. Marcantonio & Thomas W. Sanchez, “Race, Space, and Struggles for Mobility: Transportation Impacts on African Americans in Oakland and the East Bay,”
Urban Geography
, 34, no. 5 (2013),
710.
119
Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 150.
118
Aaron Golub , Richard A. Marcantonio & Thomas W. Sanchez, “Race, Space, and Struggles for Mobility: Transportation Impacts on African Americans in Oakland and the East Bay,” Urban
Geography
, 34, no. 5 (2013), 710.
46 42 people.

With community organizing, led by Chappell Hayes, the freeway was rerouted 123
to go along the western border of West Oakland.
124
The freeways destroyed homes and businesses, displaced residents, brought noise and air pollution and health impacts, and contributed to blight in West Oakland. They created barriers that “disﬁgured” the neighborhood
. The
freeways “crisscrossed the area, walling
125
oﬀ, and casting shadows across neighborhoods and creating environmental nuisances.” 126
The freeway system, along with the new rail system, greatly beneﬁted suburbs like Alameda, connecting them more easily to San Francisco, and the Port, bringing trucks to and from, but was not built for the beneﬁt of West Oakland. 127
In 1963, CalTrans and the federal government decided to ban diesel trucks on I-580, rerouting them to I-880. Many trucks also travel along I-880 to reach the Port. This has led to increased pollution on 880 and along West Oakland.
128
Industrial activity at the port and the freeways have contributed to signiﬁcant health and environmental impacts for the neighborhood of West Oakland. One interviewee even described that Black communities had been “redlined into those places where the air was killing us.”
128
“A tale of two freeways,” Environmental Defense Fund,
Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.edf.org/airqualitymaps/oakland/tale-two-freeways. 127
Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 150.
126
Ibid., 710.
125
Aaron Golub , Richard A. Marcantonio & Thomas W.

Sanchez, “Race, Space, and Struggles for
Mobility: Transportation Impacts on African Americans in Oakland and the East Bay,” Urban
Geography,
34, no. 5 (2013).
124
Rasheed Shabazz, “Oakland legend - Chappell Hayes
- Environmental Justice advocate, West
Oakland leader,”
The Daily Regiment
(blog)
,
December
20, 2010,
http://dailyregiment.blogspot.com/2010/12/oakland-legend-chappell-hayes.html. 123
“Replacing Oakland’s Cypress Freeway,”
Public Roads
61, no. 5 (1998),
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/98marapr/cypress.cfm. 47 The following image from Grist Media illustrates the disturbance certain freeways created:

Figure 19: Layout of major highways in West Oakland
Source: Grist media
129
The highway locations were planned by the State Department of Public Works (predecessor to the California Department of Transportation or CalTrans). However, the “exact ﬁnal routes” were determined by Oakland City Council.

In 1958, when ﬁnal plans were
130
released, there were no Black members of City Council,
although Oakland’s population
131
was 22.8% Black (in the 1960 census).
132
Robert O. Self writes that, “...by the late 1960s West Oakland was a postindustrial transportation crossroads...The costs to West Oakland residents - in the destruction of homes and commercial districts - were enormous.”
133
133
Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 150.
132
Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments
(MTC-ABAG), “City of Oakland: Alameda County,” Accessed October 16, 2021, http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/cities/Oakland50.htm.
131
Ibid.
130
Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 150.
129
Nathanael Johnson, “A highway runs through it,” Grist Media, April 17, 2019, https://grist.org/cities/oakland-california-freeway-removal-interstate-980/. 48 Public Transit
Oakland has several public transportation networks. The original Key streetcar system serviced West Oakland, including Seventh Street. As quoted by Self, “When the red trains [Key System] were taken oﬀ 7th Street, that just devastated the area… people couldn’t get there easily and the businesses closed down, the streets looked shabby” (Self, 2003, p. 157).

The Key system was replaced by the AC Transit bus system, but this brought a “worsening of service and connections for urban transit riders.”
134
The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system was designed in the 1950s and 1960s to bring commuters from the newly established suburbs to San Francisco.

The system was not
135
geared for people moving within Oakland, which is evident through the few stops in Oakland, spaced far apart. Golub, Marcantonio, and Sanchez wrote that, “...studies, during the 1970s, demonstrated that its operation was consistent with its intended orientation toward suburban commuting. BART was not designed to serve the mobility needs of minorities, and these later studies in fact showed that it was not meeting them.” Another
136
study showed that:
“BART made little impact on the mobility of ethnic minority residents because it does not go where they need to go—speciﬁcally places away from central business districts. It found that BART’s design does not lend itself to the local travel, blue-collar employment, and inner city travel needs of minorities.” 137
A major consequence of the BART system was created from the placement of above-ground tracks right along Seventh Street. Seventh Street had been in the 1940s a “bustling place of commerce hosting a myriad of businesses such as markets, cleaners, restaurants, hotels and gyms,” pharmacies, dance halls, theaters, groceries, and others.

It
138
also hosted multiple night clubs that were well known for “styles like New Orleans, swing, bebop, and blues” and West Coast Blues. Slim Jenkins was a particularly well-known nightclub. However, the commercial district suﬀered as jobs were lost after war-time production and the Key system ceased to run. It persisted until the 1950s, but as urban renewal projects reconﬁgured West Oakland, the Cypress Freeway was placed right along Seventh Street, the post oﬃce was built in the area, and the BART tracks were placed along 138
Jennifer Soliman, “The Rise and Fall of Seventh Street
in Oakland,” Found SF, 2015,
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Seventh_Street_in_Oakland. 137
Ibid.
136
Ibid.
135
Ibid.
134
Aaron Golub , Richard A. Marcantonio & Thomas W. Sanchez, “Race, Space, and Struggles for Mobility: Transportation Impacts on African Americans in Oakland and the East Bay,” Urban
Geography,
34, no. 5 (2013), 712.
49 it, the center ceased to thrive. The BART tracks particularly “killed the street.” Another
139
source described that BART “eviscerated what was left of Seventh Street.” 140
One interviewee, Alan Dones, co-founder of the Strategic Urban Development Alliance, noted how disruptive the BART tracks are by describing a recent time he attended a community meeting on Seventh Street. It was in a venue that had been a nightclub in Seventh Street’s heyday. The BART kept passing, causing the participants to close windows and doors to hear one another better. They measured the sound at 78 decibels - Alan (who runs a development ﬁrm) says that construction permits require sites to keep the sound below 70 decibels.

Figure 20: BART tracks along Seventh Street
Source: Art In the Margins blog
141
In a diﬀerent turn of events, the adjacent city of Berkeley paid through a $20.4 million bond measure to put BART tracks underground.

West Oakland
was not able to do the same.
142
142
Frances Dinkelspiel, “Fight to underground BART in
Berkeley one of many tales told in new book,”
Berkeleyside,
March 14, 2017,
https://www.berkeleyside.org/2017/03/14/ﬁght-underground-bart-berkeley-one-many-tales-told-ne w-book.
141
Charlie Dubbe, cited in “2) Oakland: Post-War Urban Design, Transportation, and Graﬃti,” Art in the Margins (blog), Accessed May 15, 2021,
https://artalongthemargins.wordpress.com/graﬃti-post-war-urban-design-transportation-and-broke n-windows/.
140
Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2003), 157.
139
Jennifer Soliman, “The Rise and Fall of Seventh Street
in Oakland,” Found SF, 2015,
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Seventh_Street_in_Oakland. 50 Another unfortunate consequence of these projects was that many residents felt the price oﬀered to them to take their homes by eminent domain was not suﬃcient to buy another house. A local newspaper reported in 1966 that, “‘BART feels that the property owners should not expect very much money for their property because the neighborhood is run down.”
143
Summarizing years of these urban renewal housing and transportation projects, Robert O.

Self writes that, “‘We’ve been bulldozed one time too many’ was a typical West Oakland complaint.”
144
Jobs
Abundance and scarcity of jobs for Black Oaklanders, based both on race and on other economic conditions, contributed to the success and decline of the residents. Jobs had been readily available in the nearby shipyards, railroads, and ports during World War II. 145
After the war, many Black workers had to ﬁnd new jobs in manufacturing or services. Chris Rhomberg writes that, “By 1960, the blue-collar sector--craftsmen and foremen, operatives and laborers--employed proportionally more African American men than any other sector.” The Port also underwent mechanization and containerization in the 1960s that led to a
146
loss of jobs.

In 1964 the unemployment rate in Oakland
was 11%, while the Black
147
unemployment rate was 20%.

Furthermore, Black workers
had not been brought into
148
many apprenticeship programs.

It was diﬃcult for
some Black workers to enter unions.
149
150
The Oakland Army Base, U.S. Naval Supply Station, and Naval Air Station in Alameda provided jobs and remained key employers for many residents of West Oakland. 151
Rhomberg writes that “a new Black middle class” also formed during the 1950s.

However, many manufacturing plants also began leaving Oakland during this time. This included “General Motors, Dow Chemical, Shell Oil, Borden Chemical, and Trailmobile,” among others.

Some moved further south in Alameda
County, and some to Contra Costa
152
County. Robert O. Self writes that manufacturing jobs in Oakland decreased by 10,000 between 1961 and 1966.
152
Ibid., 171.
151
Ibid., 57.
150
Ibid., 56.
149
Ibid., 173.
148
Ibid., 170.
147
Robert O. Self,
American Babylon: Race and the Struggle
for Postwar Oakland
(Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2003), 157.
146
Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and
Political Community in Oakland
(Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), 123.
145
Jennifer Soliman, “The Rise and Fall of Seventh Street
in Oakland,” Found SF, 2015,
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Seventh_Street_in_Oakland. 144
Ibid., 195.
143
Robert O. Self,
American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2003), 193.
51 As many Black residents worked in service jobs, a “front-of-the-house/back-of-the-house” racial line was established in jobs at “hospitals, hotels, restaurants, department stores, transportation, and other services,” where Black workers were relegated to positions that did not involve interfacing with the public.

As the
local economy underwent
153
“deindustrialization and the transition to services,” there was continued discrimination and challenges to Black employment.
154
However, in “government service,” due to “fair hiring practices,” many more jobs became open to Black workers.

In the late 1960s, public
employment consisted of 29% of Black
155
employment, “from public hospitals and schools to state and county oﬃces to the University of California and federal military installations like the Oakland Army Base, Naval Supply Depot, and the Alameda Naval Air station.”
In 1970, more Black families made
156
above average median income in Oakland than were “below the poverty line.” The Black
157
middle class owned homes in similar proportions as the white middle class.

Robert O. Self writes that in the 1950s and 1960s, Black groups in Oakland “struggled above all for economic rights.”
He outlines many instances
of organizing and litigation aimed at
158
increasing economic opportunity for Black people, including a coalition in 1963 of the NAACP, Congress for Racial Equality (CORE), and others that lobbied for equality and anti-job-discrimination in City Council.
159
A major organizing eﬀort was put forth by a group who called themselves Justice on BART or JOBART. As the BART system was being planned, there was potential for 8,000 jobs to construct it, the biggest “jobs boom” since “the bridge projects of the 1930s.” JOBART
160
brought together diverse groups including the NAACP, CORE, and “religious, civil rights, and community organizations.”
Self wrote that JOBART
was a way to address the urban
161
renewal projects that had remade West Oakland and also union discrimination.

JOBART had victories, including that BART created an aﬃrmative action plan in 1967. Black workers were hired and constituted 20% of the construction jobs. However, Black workers constituted under 2% of apprenticeships and 5% of oﬃce jobs in the ﬁrst year of construction.

JOBART continue to organize in the
1970s and contributed to a
162
162
Ibid., 198.
161
Ibid., 194.
160
Ibid., 191 - 193.
159
Ibid., 182.
158
Ibid., 180.
157
Ibid.
156
Ibid., 174.
155
Ibid.
154
Ibid., 173.
153
Robert O. Self,
American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2003), 56.
52 “community-centered model of organization, protest, and negotiation in West Oakland [that] would help change the shape of the city’s politics.” 163
Additional gains were made in the late 1960s and 1970s, as more Black workers were employed in government positions and contracts. In 1972, 62% of “demolition, construction, and rehabilitation work” by the Oakland Redevelopment Agency was done by “minority” workers. Rhomberg also reports that, “Between 1970 and 1974, $10 million in urban renewal building contracts went to minority ﬁrms, with another $10 million to joint ventures between white- and Black- owned companies.”
The Alameda County Building
164
Trades Council, who supervised the Acorn project, participated in a federal program, along with other agencies for “preapprenticeship training” for “minority residents.” 165
In the 1990s, the Oakland Army Base, U.S. Naval Supply Station, and Naval Air Station in Alameda closed, leading to a loss of jobs, many of which were held by Black workers.

Police Violence
The police had a role to play in enforcement of the racial segregation that plagued Oakland.

Historian Chris Rhomberg described that segregation was “reinforced by a discriminatory pattern of police violence, which eﬀectively constituted a form of oﬃcial social control in the ghetto.”
Reginald Lyles, a former Berkeley policeman,
described that:
166
“If a person moves out of the area, they got harassed by the police. Their children got harrassed. If they call police to protect them, the police are slow to respond, think you’re exaggerating, that type of thing. In the community where a Black person moved into, young people would attack the family by vandalizing property, damaging property, rocks breaking windows, setting ﬁres. Call police, the police act as if they’re unable to create safety for you.”
As urban renewal displaced families from West Oakland, East Oakland eventually opened to Black residents.

Furthermore, Black Oakland residents have been complaining of police violence since at least the 1950s. In 1950, the California State Assembly’s Interim Committee on Crime and Corrections held hearings on discriminatory policing in Oakland. The community decried beatings and harassment, as well as a murder of an unarmed Black man in 1949.

A
167
decade and a half later, the California advisory committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a hearing where similar accusations of discrimination and excessive use of 167
Ibid., 121 - 122.
166
Ibid., 121.
165
Ibid., 164.
164
Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and
Political Community in Oakland
(Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), 163.
163
Robert O. Self,
American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2003), 198.
53 force were made.

The NAACP and Oakland Economic Development Committee (OEDC) 168
requested the formation of a police review board, but OEDC met challenges from City Council and the Oakland police oﬃcers association in 1966 and 1967.

Oakland did form a
169
Citizen’s Police Review Board in 2014, which became the Community Police Review Agency in 2017.

Unfortunately, police violence and killings
of Black people continues to be a
170
national tragedy.

Former Berkeley police oﬃcer and assistant to the Oakland mayor Reginald Lyles notes that the Oakland Police Department has had a “tortured relationship” with West and East Oakland.

The Black Panther Party started in Oakland in the late 1960s as a way to push back against police brutality. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale started the organization, which was initially focused on “surveillance patrols against brutality by Oakland police.” The Panthers have a
171
rich history involving national expansion, social programs such as free food distribution and a health clinic, along with shootouts with police and allegations of corruption.

They
172
were also the main target of J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO FBI surveillance program. By the late 1970s, “233 out of 295 total FBI counterintelligence operations directed against Black liberation groups across the nation were aimed at the Black Panther Party.” One
173
interviewee, Alan Dones, noted that other Black groups such as churches were also targeted by COINTELPRO. He explained that the FBI surveillance eﬀorts were disruptive to the community, even causing “trust issues that last to this day.” 173
Robert O. Self,
American Babylon: Race and the Struggle
for Postwar Oakland
(Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2003), 229.
172
Ibid., 167.
171
Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and
Political Community in Oakland
(Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004) 154.
170
Oakland City Council, ORDINANCE NO. 13498 C.M.S (Oakland, CA, October 1, 2018), 1,
https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Ordinance-13498-Police-Commission-Enabling-Or dinance.pdf.
169
Ibid., 151 - 152.
168
Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and Political Community in Oakland (Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004) 150.
54 Figure 21: Black Panther Party members
Source: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture 174
Harms To Other Races
Other racial groups, including Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinx communities of many nationalities and ethnicities, have also been subject to discriminatory treatment in Oakland, as across the country.

Native peoples who once had an abundance of villages and dialects in California were killed in death squads or sent to Catholic missions, their land appropriated and settled. 175
Asian Americans have a long history of exclusion and derision in the Bay Area as across the United States, including the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act making Chinese people ineligible to migrate to the U.S. and Japanese internment in camps during World War II. San Francisco passed ordinances restricting laundries, aimed at restricting Chinese laundries, starting in the 1870s.

In 1935, Oakland passed its own ordinance
restricting hours during which
176
laundries could operate, to impede Chinese laundries for white competition speciﬁcally. 177
177
David E. Bernstein, “Lochner, Parity, and the Chinese
Laundry Cases,”
William and Mary Law Review
41, no. 1 (1999), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1512&context=wmlr. 176
Diana Fan, “Yick Wo: How A Racist Laundry Law In
Early San Francisco Helped Civil Rights,”
Hoodline
(San Francisco, CA), August 23, 2015,
https://hoodline.com/2015/08/yick-wo-and-the-san-francisco-laundry-litigation-of-the-late-1800s/. 175
Will Parrish, “Living on Ohlone Land,”
East Bay Express
(Oakland, CA), May 30, 2018,
https://eastbayexpress.com/living-on-ohlone-land-2-1/.
174
“The Black Panther Party: Challenging Police and Promoting Social Change,” National Museum of African American History & Culture, Smithsonian, July 23, 2019, https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/black-panther-party-challenging-police-and-promoting-social- change.
55 Latinx communities also had a complicated history of racism and violence. The Spanish had colonized indigenous communities, but then after land was transferred to the U.S. after the Mexican-American war, new Mexican U.S. citizens and immigrants from Mexico were subjected to mob violence.
178
There have been initiatives to address racism and discrimination perpetuated against other groups. Reparations were paid to Japanese people interned in camps during World War II.

After legislation was passed in 1988, survivors received $20,000, and an education fund and formal apology were created. In 1946 the Indian Claims Commission was formed to address native complaints against the government, often tied to land disputes. The Commission paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to land claims.

This initiative cannot comprehensively address all racism and oppression experienced by diﬀerent racial groups in Oakland and the Bay Area. Addressing anti-Black racism and discrimination doesn’t address racism against all groups. The reparations approach here should not be the only anti-racist action taken to acknowledge and redress the history of racism and oppression in Oakland and across the country. Diﬀerent approaches should be taken for diﬀerent groups.

However, taking action on anti-Black racism and oppression is warranted and necessary.

Reparations for Black communities can address speciﬁc, racialized, public and private discrimination targeted at Black neighborhoods and communities.

Side Note: Resistance And Organizing
Over the decades, there have been many examples of Black organizing for jobs and neighborhood control. Though these have in some cases won victories and in others, failures, they do not absolve government agencies from accountability for discriminatory policies. The following is not an exhaustive account of organizing, but brings forward a few eﬀorts.

In the 1930s organizers including C.L. Dellums, a well-known leader in the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Alameda County NAACP, and the Alameda County Central Labor Council, organized for jobs driving streetcars and busses for Black residents.

These
179
would have been primarily for the Key streetcar system. These organizing eﬀorts encountered resistance, with some dedication to fair employment being won in 1945, but not instituted for another six years.
180
180
Ibid., 55.
179
Robert O. Self,
American Babylon: Race and the Struggle
for Postwar Oakland
(Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2003), 48.
178
Erin Blakemore, “The Brutal History of Anti-Latino Discrimination in America,” History, August 29, 2018, https://www.history.com/news/the-brutal-history-of-anti-latino-discrimination-in-america. 56 Oak Center, a neighborhood in West Oakland, organized to prevent their neighborhood from being demolished, as had happened at Acorn. Lillian Love was a major organizer of the eﬀort. They were successful in preserving homes by easing the standards to which homes had to be refurbished.
181
As discussed above, JOBART successfully lobbied for jobs constructing the BART system in Oakland.

The Oakland Economic Development Council started as an advisory council to the Oakland Interagency Project, but became a force of advocacy and recipient for anti-poverty funds. 182
It was disbanded in 1971.

Wilfred Ussery shared stories of organizing and creating Black-led organizations. As a member and leader of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), he presented on desegregation to the Berkeley Board of Education, fostered the founding of Black-led groups in Harlem and Cleveland, and, in the Bay Area, participated in the founding of Citizens United Against Poverty and the San Francisco Economic Opportunity Council, which runs to this day. He was also involved in housing development in Oakland, including in Acorn projects both in the 1970s and the 1990s. In Acorn he advocated to protect Section 8 housing and later to include ﬁber optic wiring to apartments and a computer learning center.

After the Cypress Freeway, running straight through West Oakland, collapsed in an earthquake in 1989, community organizers were able to inﬂuence it to be rebuilt west of the neighborhood.

It was replaced with a greenway.
183
In 1999, the Alameda Building Trades Council won a labor agreement with the port for 50% of work on an expansion project go to “local area hires.” 184
A coalition called Revive Oakland won a community beneﬁts agreement for jobs in redevelopment when the Oakland Army Base was decommissioned in 1999. 185
The Oakland Athletics are currently negotiating a community beneﬁts agreement for development of a ballpark at the Howard Terminal.
186
186
“Oakland Waterfront Ballpark District at Howard Terminal Community Beneﬁts,” City of Oakland,
Accessed May 16, 2021,
185
“Paving the Path to Opportunity: How Revive Oakland
Innovated a New Model for Inclusive
Economic Development,” Partnership for Working Families and Ebase, Accessed May 16, 2021, https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/sites/default/ﬁles/publications/Revive%20Oakland%202015.pdf. 184
Ibid., 193.
183
Ibid., 191.
182
Ibid., 136, 151.
181
Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and Political Community in Oakland (Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), 132.
57 Population Fluctuation by the Numbers
This story of Black congregation in Oakland and subsequent displacement can be observed in the population numbers of the city over the decades
. Notably, the Black population
187
peaked around 1990 and has declined by about 60,000 people since then.

Year
Total Population
Black population
Percentage
1940
302,163
8,462

2.8%
1950
384,575
47,562

12.4%
1960
367,548
83,618

22.8%
1970
361,561
124,710

34.5%
1980
339,337
159,351

47.0%
1990
372,242
163,526

43.9%
2000
399,484
142,460

35.7%
2010
390,724
109,471

28.0%
2019
433,031
103,061

23.8%
Calculating Reparations
Homes Demolished
Racialized public policies led to displacement and the destruction of Black communities, as homes were demolished for urban renewal and transportation projects. Especially in the once historically Black neighborhood of West Oakland, many policy decisions were made to reduce “blight” in the hopes of attracting higher income and white residents, and transportation corridors were built through the neighborhood in order to bring white suburban residents to San Francisco. Here are some estimates of homes destroyed:
187
Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments (MTC-ABAG), “City of Oakland: Alameda County,” Accessed May 16, 2021, http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/cities/Oakland.htm.
https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/community-beneﬁts-agreement-cba-for-the-oakland-as-waterfron t-ballpark-district-at-howard-terminal.
58 Project
Approximate years
Homes Demolished
Vacant lots
Cypress Freeway
1958
600
188
Post oﬃce
1958
400
189
7 years
Acorn
1962 - 1969
190
4,300
191
10 years
I-980
1968
500
192
One source estimates that over 7,000 housing units, including 5,100 in West Oakland, were demolished between 1960 and 1966 for “urban renewal, freeway construction, BART construction, and other government action.”
They
also noted that there were 1,422
193
“permanent public housing units” available in 1966, but that the need was closer to 20,000 units.

At the time of acquiring properties for urban renewal projects, city agencies did pay to purchase the homes and in some cases provided moving costs. Apart from one record of a property purchased in West Oakland, CalTrans, BART, and the post oﬃce were unable to provide records of speciﬁc homes taken by eminent domain. I found a few data points in old newspaper articles. More information on homeowners was not available, but the below oﬀer a few benchmarks for amounts oﬀered to homeowners in majority Black neighborhoods of West Oakland:●
Oakland Tribune, 1/23/66: Residents of Oak Center would be oﬀered between $12,000 - $18,000 to sell their homes to the Oakland Redevelopment Agency. 194
●
Oakland Tribune, 9/1/61: Oakland provided $400,000 for moving costs for 1,700 families and 200 businesses to build the Acorn housing project. 195
195
“Houlihan, City Oﬃcials Elated Over U.S Green Light
for Project Acorn,”
Oakland Tribune
(Oakland,
CA), September 1, 1961, Accessed via Newspapers.com.
194
“Residents Forced Change in Concept,”
Oakland Tribune
(Oakland, CA), January 23, 1966, Accessed
via Newspapers.com.
193
Chris Rhomberg,
No There There: Race, Class, and
Political Community in Oakland
(Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press, 2004), 125, Cited in “The Changing Face Of Oakland 1945-1990,” The Planning History of Oakland, CA, Accessed May 16, 2021, https://oaklandplanninghistory.weebly.com/the-changing-face-of-oakland.html. 192
Katie Ferrari, “The house on Magnolia Street,”
Curbed,
Vox Media,
April 29, 2020,
https://sf.curbed.com/2020/4/29/21240456/moms-4-housing-oakland-house-history. 191
Ibid.
190
Oaklanddots, “The Acorn Projects,”
A Bit of History:

Oakland Unfolded
(blog), September 14, 2020,
https://abitofhistory.website/2020/09/14/the-acorn-projects/. 189
Ibid.
188
Katie Ferrari, “The house on Magnolia Street,”
Curbed,
Vox Media,
April 29, 2020,
https://sf.curbed.com/2020/4/29/21240456/moms-4-housing-oakland-house-history. 59 ●
Oakland Tribune, 7/20/66: BART provided up to $200 for families and $3,000 for businesses for moving costs.
196
Numbers of homes demolished can be useful for lower bound estimates of harm done.

They are a lower bound because they do not account for psychological eﬀects of displacement, businesses destroyed, health impacts from new transportation infrastructure, foregone wealth from being denied mortgages, and many other impacts.

However, they provide one metric to look at impacts of historical policies.

Estimating Impacts
The following oﬀers three methods of estimating the ﬁnancial impact of Oakland urban renewal policies:
1) One way to calculate the amount of reparations to pay in Oakland, you can look at how much the homes demolished would have appreciated to today, and how much wealth those homes could have created for Black homeowners were they not demolished.

The following lists historical and present Oakland median home values . Some were listed
197
in terms of 1980 dollars:
1950 - $35,900 in 1980 dollars > present value = $121,899.79 1960 - $39,500 in 1980 dollars > present value = $134,123.72 1970 - $45,200 in 1980 dollars > present value = $153,478.28 2021 - West Oakland - $750,000
198
2021 - Oakland - $866,886
199
Using the present day West Oakland median home price, homes could have appreciated by $628,100.21 (from 1950 values) to $596,521.72 (from 1970 values). Multiplied by the 5,100 units demolished in West Oakland from previous policies, potential wealth from $3,203,311,071 to $3,042,260,772 was not able to accumulate. As West Oakland was majority Black, much of this wealth denied likely went to Black homeowners.

Using the present day Oakland median home price, homes could have appreciated by $744,986.21 (from 1950 values) to $713,407.72 (from 1970 values). Multiplied by the approximately 7,000 units demolished across Oakland for urban renewal policies, this could have generated $5,214,903,470 to $4,993,854,040. However, it is less certain how 199
“Oakland Home Values,” Zillow, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.zillow.com/oakland-ca/home-values/.
198
“West Oakland Housing Market,” Redﬁn, Accessed May
16, 2021,
https://www.redﬁn.com/neighborhood/14233/CA/Oakland/West-Oakland/housing-market. 197
Census of Housing
, 1950, vol. 1, part 2;
Census of
Housing
, 1960, vol. 1, part 2;
Census of Housing
,
1970, vol. 1, part 6, cited in Robert O. Self,
American
Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar
Oakland
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003),
338.
196
“BART to Pay Moving Costs,”
Oakland Tribune
(Oakland, CA), July 20, 1966, Accessed via
Newspapers.com.
60 many homes demolished across Oakland were from Black homeowners. Therefore, these calculations are excluded.

Based on demolished houses in West Oakland alone, families could have cumulatively built wealth from a range of $3,042,260,772 to $3,203,311,071. This would be equivalent to $29,519 to $31,081 for every current Black resident of Oakland. This would be a measurable beneﬁt - however, it only begins to calculate the harm done and does not express all of the other impacts from systemic racism and discrimination. 2) You can look at the amount that the Redevelopment Agency oﬀered to people to purchase their homes through eminent domain and the diﬀerence between this number and the average home value at the time. This shows wealth that was stripped from families forced to relocate. This number can be carried forward to its worth today.

When Oak Center was targeted for redevelopment in 1966, the Redevelopment Agency oﬀered them from $12,000 - $18,000 for their homes. This averages to $15,000 per home.

In present dollars, this is $134,328.84.

If homes were valued at $134,123.72 (present value) in 1960 and $153,478.28 in 1970, you can say that an average home value in the mid 1960s might be $143,801. Oﬀered $15,000 at the time ($134,328.84 in present dollars), people who took the oﬀer were paid on average $9,472.16 less than the value of their homes.

If 5,100 homes were demolished in West Oakland between 1960 and 1966, the total value lost could have been:
$9,472.16 x 5,100 = $48,308,016.

This amount is equivalent to $468 for every Black resident of Oakland.

This ﬁgure shows a direct loss from being forced to sell a home below market value, as many had complained of, however, it does not show any of the compounding harms that resulted from this displacement.
3) If Oakland made homes at today’s median price available at the prices they were initially available at, they could pay reparations by generating homeownership. If homes were available for $121,899.79 (in present dollars) in 1950 and are available at a median of $750,000 in West Oakland today, the city could subsidize $628,100.21 to make current homes aﬀordable at 1950 prices. If homes were available at 1970 prices, or $153,478.28 today, the city could pay $596,521.72 per home to make homes aﬀordable at their former prices.

With a $10 million fund, Oakland could subsidize 15.92 homes to reﬂect the 1950 value, or

16.76 homes at the 1970 value. While this strategy would be highly impactful for some 61 families, it would not serve very many, and would require a higher allocation than $10 million.

These prices reﬂect that home prices have risen dramatically in Oakland in the 21st century, even accounting for the foreclosure crisis and Great Recession. 200
4) You could apply income and wealth gaps to Black families in poverty in Oakland. Darity and Mullen share several calculations of the national cost to pay reparations. Using Bittker’s idea of making up the income gap, they calculated that in 2017, based on the U.S.

Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, white people over 15 had an average income of $49,609, and Black people over 15 had an average income of $33,636. The diﬀerence would be $15,973 per Black person over 15.
201
They make the argument that the wealth gap is a more representative tally of the impacts of racism and discrimination, as it shows compounding eﬀects over generations. They ﬁnd the wealth gap by household in the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances to be $795,000 (signiﬁcantly higher than the gap cited in this report). Multiplied by 10 million Black households in the U.S., reparations to close the wealth gap would be $7.95 trillion. 202
As there are about 103,061 Black people in Oakland, making up the income gap with national ﬁgures from Darity and Mullen would require $1,646,193,353. Using the more conservative national wealth gap of $164,100 from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, it would take $16,912,310,100 to close the gap for Black residents in Oakland.

You could apply the nationwide wealth gap only to Black people in poverty in Oakland.

Approximately 23.77% or 24,497 of Black residents are in poverty.

This would be a cost of
203
$4,019,957,700. Though this number is somewhat easier to attain, it would not fully address harmful impacts that Black middle and upper class families have experienced.

Whether using the observation that home prices could have appreciated to billions of dollars of wealth or the trillions that reparations are estimated at nation-wide, it is unlikely that these numbers could be reached with a reparations package. Moreover, it is unlikely that the full weight of the damage done could even be completely repaired with a large enough investment. But an acknowledgment of harm, the best possible redress possible, and a pledge to change policies going forward can go a long way toward repairing past harms.
203
“Estimated percent of all Black or African American
people who lived in poverty, between
2015-2019,” PolicyMap,
https://www.policymap.com/newmaps#/embed/7437/dcd8c0e911f0b6b11cf26e1cdf619e8a (based on data from 2015-2019 U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS); Accessed April 8, 2022). 202
Ibid.
201
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen,
From
Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in
the Twenty-First Century
(Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, 2020), 263.
200
City of Oakland, “Housing Element 2015-2023,” City
of Oakland, December 9, 2014, 8.
62 Economic Gains from Reducing Disparities
Paying reparations may address past harms, but reducing opportunity and wealth gaps will have positive beneﬁts looking forward as well. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation published “The Business Case for Racial Equity” and found that reducing gaps between people of color and white people in health, education, and opportunity, thereby reducing gaps in earnings, would create $1 trillion in earnings, leading to a $2.7 trillion increase in GDP. They also found that closing earnings gaps would reduce government spending and increase federal tax revenue by $450 billion every year and state and local taxes by $100 billion every year. 204
Reducing the impacts of systemic racism does not beneﬁt only one racial group - it leads to increased beneﬁts for all. By targeting resources to reduce inequities, we can increase productivity and outputs that bolster our economy and allow more people to access opportunity.
204
Ani Turner, “The Business Case for Racial Equity: A Strategy for Growth,” Altarum, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2018,
https://www.wkkf.org/resource-directory/resources/2018/07/business-case-for-racial-equity. 63 Brief History of Reparations
“The idea that reparations could be an eﬀective method of addressing the eﬀects of slavery and white supremacy has a long history, cycling in and out of popular discourse and the national policy arena. Reparations are as timely today as they were in the 1860s.” 205
-William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen,
From
Here to Equality
There is a long history of thinking about what could constitute appropriate reparations to Black communities for our country’s legacy of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and multi-faceted discrimination. Since the Civil War and the much discussed suggestion of “40 acres and a mule” - General William Tecumseh Sherman had issued special ﬁeld order 15 giving 40 acres of land and a loan of a mule to Black families in South Carolina and Georgia -- there have been calls to provide economic recompense to Black people.

Beyond
206
compensating them for their unpaid labor, land was sought to give newly freed slaves a chance to build economic stability.

However, reparations have not been demanded for slavery only. After emancipation and some progress in Reconstruction, a century of Jim Crow segregation, discrimination, and white violence followed. After the Civil Rights and fair housing and employment legislation of the 1960s and beyond, there have been decades of continuing discrimination and disparities. As in the previous section, Oakland has perpetuated discrimination and inequitable treatment against Black people living in the city. It is for these more recent manifestations of racism that Oakland has an opportunity to redress.

A brief history of calls for reparations follows. These were mainly sourced from From Here
to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century by William A. Darity Jr.
and A. Kirsten Mullen and
Long Overdue: The Politics
of Racial Reparations
by Charles P.

Henry.

Legal history:

There have been numerous lawsuits ﬁled to receive compensation as reparations (See:

Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial Reparations
,
by Charles P. Henry). But the judicial route is
challenging, involving issues of the statute of limitations, sovereign immunity or need for the government to consent to a suit, and standing or who is bringing forth the suit.

Due
207
to these complications, Henry recommends a legislative approach, rather than a judicial one.
207
Ibid., 22.
206
Charles P. Henry,
Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial
Reparations
(New York: New York University
Press, 2007), 41.
205
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen,
From
Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in
the Twenty-First Century
(Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, 2020), 2.
64 Callie House:

Callie House was born a slave in 1861 in Tennessee.

In 1898 she became a promoter for
208
the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty, and Pension Association (MRBP). The organization aimed to lobby Congress for pensions for ex-slaves as well as to give mutual aid for people who fell ill or for burial assistance if they died. Callie House recruited at least 34,000 members to the organization. In 1915, the organization ﬁled a lawsuit against the U.S. government to garnish $68 million, which was what the government had received for cotton harvested by slaves that it had conﬁscated from southern plantations. The suit was not successful.

In 1916, accusations were made that Callie House and MRBP illegally received payments, and Callie House spent around 10 months in prison. Other pension clubs were also accused of illegally use of payments that club members had sent for the purpose of lobbying Congress.
209
“Queen Mother” Audley Moore:
“Queen Mother” Audley Moore founded the Committee for Reparations for Descendents of U.S. Slaves and was active in advocating for reparations from the 1960s onward. She advocated for reparations for Black Americans at the United Nations in 1957 and 1959. 210
James Forman and the Black Manifesto:

Activist James Forman of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers presented a “Black Manifesto” in 1969 advocating for $500 million in reparations to Black Americans.

He
211
presented the manifesto during church services of the Riverside Church in New York City and demanded that the reparations be paid by churches and synagogues for racist impacts of religious organizations. After his speech, $500,000 was donated to the cause.

N’COBRA:

In 1987, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) was formed.

It included the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the New Afrikan People’s Organization, and the Republic of New Afrika, of which “Queen Mother” Audley Moore had been a part. The organization is still active today. N’COBRA aided U.S. representative John Conyers in introducing H.R. 40, “a bill to establish the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans,” in 1989.
212
212
Ibid., 15.
211
Ibid., 14 - 15.
210
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen,
From
Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in
the Twenty-First Century
(Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, 2020), 13.
209
Charles P. Henry,
Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial
Reparations
(New York: New York University
Press, 2007), 53.
208
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen,
From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century
(Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, 2020), 11.
65 John Conyers and H.R. 40:

Every year since 1989, U.S. representative John Conyers (D-Mich.) has introduced H.R. 40 to form a commission to study and develop reparations proposals. This was based on the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which authorized reparations to Japanese victims of internment.

In
213
2017, Conyers left Congress, but representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) has been sponsoring the bill. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ.) sponsors a Senate version.

H.R. 40 was
214
introduced in the House in January, 2021.
215
California Department of Insurance and University of California:

In 2000, the State of California mandated that the Department of Insurance look into proﬁts it had made from slavery in the Slaveholder Insurance Policies Bill (SB 2199). Names of slaves who had been insured and their slaveholders were recorded, and some
216
insurance corporations expressed “regrets,” but no reparations were paid. 217
In 2000, the University of California Slavery Colloquium Bill mandated a research conference to investigate economic impacts of slavery.

A conference took place in 2001
218
at UC Santa Barbara.

Oakland Slavery Era Disclosure:

Oakland also passed an ordinance in 2005
requiring
city contractors in insurance and
219
ﬁnancial services, as well as other industries, to investigate and document their ties to slavery.

It also set up a reparations fund, without
mandating payments to it. Records
220
documenting compliance with the ordinance do not exist, but in fall 2020 City Council voted to recommit to the ordinance.
220
City of Oakland, “Chapter 9.60 - Slavery Era Disclosure,” City of Oakland Municipal Code, June 21,
2021,
https://library.municode.com/ca/oakland/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TIT9PUPEMOWE_CH9. 60SLERDI_9.60.010SLERDI.
219
Annie Sciacca, “Oakland revives city law that requires
contractors to disclose historic ties to
slavery,”
East Bay Times
(Walnut Creek, CA), October
7, 2021,
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2020/10/07/oakland-revives-city-law-that-requires-contractors-to-dis close-historic-ties-to-slavery/.
218
Charles P. Henry,
Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial
Reparations
(New York: New York University
Press, 2007), 169.
217
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen,
From
Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in
the Twenty-First Century
(Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, 2020), 22.
216
“Slavery Era Insurance Agency,” California Department
of Insurance, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/150-other-prog/10-seir/. 215
“H.R.40 - Commission to Study and Develop Reparation
Proposals for African Americans Act,”
(117th Congress 2021 - 2022) https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/40/actions. 214
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen,
From
Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in
the Twenty-First Century
(Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, 2020), 17.
213
Charles P. Henry,
Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial Reparations
(New York: New York University
Press, 2007), 98.
66 State and federal apologies:

In 1993, Congress apologized to Hawaiians for the U.S. takeover of the “sovereign Hawaiian nation.”
221
In 1997, President Bill Clinton formally apologized for the Tuskegee experiment. Between 1932 and 1972, the study had examined Black men with syphilis without disclosing to them what their illness was or oﬀering them treatment. In Clinton’s apology he said, “The United States government did something that was wrong, deeply, profoundly, morally wrong.” 222
Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama, New Jersey, and Florida issued apologies in their state legislatures for “slavery or for slavery and Jim Crow” in 2007 and 2008.

The U.S.
223
Congress passed a bill apologizing for slavery in both houses in 2009.

Ta-Nehisi Coates:

In 2014, journalist Ta-Nehisis Coates wrote an article, “The Case for Reparations.” Published in The Atlantic, it reinvigorated the reparations debate as the Black Lives Matter movement was gaining momentum.

Japanese internment reparations:

In 1988, The Civil Liberties Act granted reparations to Japanese people who had been interned in camps during World War II. The act provided $20,000 to each survivor, an education fund, and an apology.
224
Rosewood, Florida:

In 1923, a white mob murdered Black residents of Rosewood and burned nearly every building in the town. In 1994, motivated in part by a 1983 “60 Minutes” episode discussing it that set oﬀ yearly reunions of survivors, the Florida legislature passed the Rosewood Compensation Act. Florida dedicated $2.1 million in compensation, “including a $500,000 property compensation fund, college scholarships for needy students with preference to children of Rosewood descendents, and $150,000 for each survivor.” Nine people
225
received the monetary compensation.
226
226
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen,
From
Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in
the Twenty-First Century
(Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, 2020), 17.
225
Ibid., 78.
224
Charles P. Henry,
Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial
Reparations
(New York: New York University
Press, 2007), 97.
223
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen,
From
Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in
the Twenty-First Century
(Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, 2020), 24.
222
Ibid., 1.
221
Charles P. Henry,
Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial Reparations
(New York: New York University
Press, 2007), 94.
67 Figure 22: Survivor Robie Allenetta Mortin with Florida Representative Ed Jennings Jr. at the Rosewood historical marker in 2004
Source: Doug Finger, Associated Press, posted in the Tampa Bay Times 227
227
Doug Finger, Associated Press, Photograph, included in Adelle M. Banks, “Reparations after Rosewood Massacre a model, descendants say,” Tampa Bay Times (Tampa Bay, FL), December 24, 2020,
https://www.tampabay.com/news/ﬂorida/2020/12/24/reparations-after-rosewood-massacre-a-mode l-descendants-say/.
68 Current Reparations Eﬀorts
There are a number of current reparations eﬀorts around the country and in California.

These are advancing reparations in the absence of a federal program. They can serve as examples from which to draw from as well as movement further legitimizing the need for reparations. As the State of California and County of Alameda are also considering reparations, it could be impactful to collaborate with the county and state.

Evanston, Illinois
In 2019, Evanston, Illinois City Council passed Resolution 58-R-19, “Commitment to End Structural Racism and Achieve Racial Equity” and Resolution 126-R-19, “Establishing the City of Evanston Reparations Fund and the Reparations Subcommittee.” The former
228
acknowledged historical impacts including “decimation of historically Black neighborhoods” and committed to becoming an anti-racist city and joining the Government Alliance on Race and Equity. The latter decreed that revenue from cannabis taxes go to a fund for reparations. Evanston has put aside $10 million for reparations.

Their ﬁrst allocation was announced in March 2021 and oﬀers a “Restorative Housing Program.”
Evanston allocated $400,000 of the reparations
fund to this program, which
229
oﬀers grants of up to $25,000 for a down payment on a home or to home repairs. The program has garnered national attention. By addressing homeownership, the program is directly repairing past discrimination in housing and homeownership. However, the allocation to the program is minimal. If families are granted the maximum amount of the grant, only 16 families will be able to access this grant.

Asheville, North Carolina
In summer 2020, Asheville, North Carolina passed a resolution for “community reparations.” The resolution called for short-, medium-, and long-term recommendations to “address the creation of generational wealth” and “boost economic mobility and opportunity in the Black community.”
In October,
the city reported on racial equity
230
initiatives, including a suspension of changes to properties appropriated through urban renewal, a contracting equity program following proof of discrimination in a disparity study, a Climate Justice screening tool to incorporate BIPOC community voices into environmental 230
Nia Davis, "Asheville reparations resolution is designed to provide Black community access to the
opportunity to build wealth,” Asheville Oﬃce of Equity and Inclusion, The City of Asheville, July 20, 2020,
https://www.ashevillenc.gov/news/asheville-reparations-resolution-is-designed-to-help-Black-comm unity-access-to-the-opportunity-to-build-wealth/.
229
Julie Bosman, “Chicago Suburb Shapes Reparations
for Black Residents: ‘It Is the Start’,”
The New
York Times
(New York, NY), March 22, 2021,
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/22/us/reparations-evanston-illinois-housing.html. 228
“Evanston Local Reparations,” City of Evanston, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/reparations. 69 justice eﬀorts, and others.

In February, their guidelines for housing developers included a 231
Public Beneﬁts Table, where developers can choose from a “menu of options” to give back to the community. At least half of their points must be from contributing to a Reparations Fund or an Aﬀordable Housing Fund.

The city also
oﬀers “racial healing mini-grants” for
232
the second year in a row.
233
In June 2021, the city decided to allocate $2.1M to reparations from the sale of land that had been acquired through urban renewal.

They have
not yet decided how to use the
234
funds. Some in the community have criticized this program for not having enough funding behind it.

Providence, Rhode Island
In June, 2020, the Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island issued an executive order calling for Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. The ﬁrst “Truth-Telling” phase started in September 2020 and involved various historical societies, community-based organizations, representatives and community members to gather and document Providence’s racialized history. Subsequent phases of Reconciliation and Reparation will continue to engage community members in redressing past harms.
235
235
City of Providence, “Mayor Jorge Elorza Joins Community Members in Launching Truth Telling
Phase,” City of Providence, September 22, 2020,
https://www.providenceri.gov/mayor-jorge-elorza-joins-community-members-launching-truth-telling -phase/.
234
Associated Press, “North Carolina city commits $2.1M for reparations,” The Associated Press
(New
York, NY), June 9, 2021,
https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-racial-injustice-business-race-and-ethnicity-d9190175bb2 60ba2882954fd731fbe92.
233
Ashley Traynum-Carson, “City of Asheville announces
recipients of racial healing mini-grants,” The
City of Asheville, January 20, 2021,
https://www.ashevillenc.gov/news/city-of-asheville-announces-recipients-of-racial-healing-mini-grant s-2/.
232
Polly McDaniel, “New Asheville hotel development
‘Public Beneﬁts Table’ designed to meet
community needs,” The City of Asheville, February 23, 2021, https://www.ashevillenc.gov/news/new-asheville-hotel-development-public-beneﬁts-table-designed-t o-meet-community-needs/.
231
Polly McDaniel, “City of Asheville advances equity
through multiple interconnected initiatives,” The
City of Asheville, October 28, 2020,
https://www.ashevillenc.gov/news/city-of-asheville-advances-equity-through-multiple-interconnecte d-initiatives/.
70 Burlington, Vermont
Burlington has formed a task force that will hire academics to investigate the city’s racial history and make recommendations for reparations.

The task force will issue a report by
236
February 2022.
237
Amherst, Massachusetts
In 2020, Amherst, Massachusetts passed a resolution apologizing for the town’s racial history and committing to a “path of remedy” described as the “ﬁrst step in the reparative process.”
Amherst City Council is forming a African
Heritage Reparation Coalition to make
238
recommendations and has instructed the Finance Committee to identify funding sources in the next budget.
239
Manhattan Beach, California
Activists in Manhattan Beach, California, have called for reparations for a Black resort seized in 1924. Though it was purportedly seized to form a public park, the land was not developed for thirty years. The city has issued “a statement of acknowledgment and condemnation,” but not an oﬃcial apology, fearing litigation. A Los Angeles County supervisor is “open to returning the land,” and a state senator is drafting legislation that could deal with a legal issue with the property transfer. The New York Times reported on this issue on April 18, 2021, and it remains to be seen what will happen. 240
Educational and Religious Institutions
Georgetown University decided in 2019 to pay reparations to descendants of the 272 slaves the school proﬁted from by funding education and health care initiatives. The descendents are also given priority in admissions.
241
241
Adeel Hassan, “Georgetown Students Agree to Create
Reparations Fund,”
The New York Times
(New York, NY), April 12, 2019,
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/us/georgetown-reparations.html. 240
Jacey Fortin, “California Beach Seized in 1924 From
a Black Family Could Be Returned,”
The New
York Times
(New York, NY), April 18, 2021,
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/us/bruces-beach-manhattan-california.html. 239
Scott Merzbach, “New panel to develop reparations
fund in Amherst,”
Amherst Bulletin
(Northampton, MA), May 28, 2021,
https://www.amherstbulletin.com/Revenue-stream-sought-for-reparations-in-Amherst-40620107. 238
Amherst Town Council, “A Resolution Aﬃrming the
Town of Amherst’s Commitment to End
Structural Racism and Achieve Racial Equity for Black Residents,” Town of Amherst, December 2020, https://www.amherstma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/53900/6b-Structural-Racism-Draft-Resolution-1 2-2-2020---Final.
237
Mike Hoey, “Burlington reparations task force begins
researching eﬀects of slavery,
discrimination,”
MyChamplainValley.com
(Colchester,
VT), February 3, 2021,
https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/burlington-reparations-task-force-to-kick-oﬀ-a-year-of-re search-of-slavery-discrimination-issues/.
236
Zuri Hoﬀman, “The city of Burlington establishes Reparations Task Force,” NBC5,
November 17,
2020,
https://www.mynbc5.com/article/the-city-of-burlington-establishes-reparations-task-force/34705446 .
71 As far back as 2003, Brown University investigated its past involvement with slavery and allocated $10 million to educate disadvantaged children in Providence, R.I., render technical assistance to historically Black colleges and universities, and fund research on slavery and racial justice.
242
In 2018, the Society of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic group, created a reparations fund for slavery, and in 2019, the Virginia Theological Seminary, an Episcopalian group, allocated $1.7 million to a reparations fund for descendents of slavery. 243
State of California
In 2020, AB 3121 “Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans” was passed in the California state legislature.

This bill was authored by Dr.
244
Shirley Weber, formerly an Assemblymember and now the California Secretary of State.

The bill acknowledges the impacts of slavery and discrimination and calls for a task force of appointees by the governor and the legislature to study this history and make recommendations for reparations. The appointees will have one year to make their recommendations. The appointees include state Senator Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, San Diego City Councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe, appointed by Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins, D-San Diego,
Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los
245
Angeles), Kamilah Moore, an activist and lawyer who will chair the task force, appointed from the Assembly, Dr. Cheryl Grills, a clinical psychologist, Dr. Amos C. Brown, a pastor and civil rights leader who is vice-chair, Lisa Holder, a civil rights lawyer, Donald Tamaki, a lawyer who worked on a case related to Japanese internment, and Dr.
246
Jovan Scott Lewis, an associate professor of Geography and Othering & Belonging Institute-aﬃliated faculty member, nominated by the Governor. 247
In a congressional hearing on H.R. 40 or the federal bill to study reparations, Dr. Shirley Weber, currently California’s Secretary of State and former an assemblymember who was 247
“OBI scholar Jovan Scott Lewis appointed to CA taskforce on reparations,” Othering and Belonging
Institute, May 7, 2021,
https://belonging.berkeley.edu/obi-scholar-jovan-scott-lewis-appointed-ca-taskforce-reparations. 246
Taryn Luna, “California’s slavery reparations task
force is convening. Here’s what happens next,”
LA Times
(Los Angeles, CA), June 1, 2021,
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-01/california-slavery-reparations-task-force-conve nes.
245
Andrew Sheeler, “Here comes Faulconer + Reparations
task force takes shape + Stacey Abrams to
speak at CA event,”
The Sacramento Bee
(Sacramento,
CA), February 2, 2021,
,” https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article248922554.html. 244
AB-3121 Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation
Proposals for African Americans,” California
Legislature 2019 - 2020, October 2, 2020,
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB3121. 243
Ibid.
242
Manisha Sinha, “The Long History of American Slavery Reparations,” The Wall Street Journal
(New
York, NY), September 20, 2019,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-history-of-american-slavery-reparations-11568991623. 72 the principal author of the bill, testiﬁed that California had slave laws, prevented the accumulation of wealth among Black families, and disproportionately incarcerates Black males.

She stated that she hopes California to be
a model and that federal reparations
248
are still necessary.

The Task Force has been meeting and developing their recommendations for reparations.

County of Alameda
Alameda County issued a resolution with an apology for “enslavement and racial segregation of African Americans” in 2011,
and issued
another in 2020 committing to an
249
action plan for community reparations.

Supervisor
Nate Miley, who has been advocating
250
for reparations since before 2011, wrote in a letter to the Board of Supervisors that this should not have any additional cost. The county is still identifying needs and developing an action plan for reparations, which they hope to develop with community involvement. 250
“A Resolution of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Seeking the Support of Community
Reparations for African Americans,” Resolution R-2020-412, Alameda County, October 6, 2020, http://www.acgov.org/board/bos_calendar/documents/DocsAgendaReg_10_06_20/GENERAL%20AD MINISTRATION/Regular%20Calendar/Supervisor%20Miley_302233.pdf. 249
“Apologizing for Slavery of African Americans and
Calling for Reparations and Reconciliation,”
Alameda County, June 7, 2011,
http://www.acgov.org/board/bos_calendar/documents/DocsAgendaReg_06_07_11/PROCLAMATIONS _COMMENDATIONS/Carson_Miley_Slavery_of_African_Americans.pdf. 248
Dr. Shirley Weber, “H.R. 40: Exploring the Path to Reparative Justice in America,” Hearings, House Committee on the Judiciary, February 17, 2021,
https://judiciary.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=4367. 73 Approaching Reparations in Oakland
The following presents reparations models, challenges to paying reparations, recommendations around community engagement, and policy and funding alternatives.

Reparations Models
In the following I outline guidelines for conceptualizing reparations from Borris Bittker, William A. Darity and A. Kirsten Mullen, and Charles P. Henry.

Borris Bittker wrote “The Case for Reparations” in 1973. He points to public policies that have perpetuated racism and discrimination, targeting:
“...Discriminatory policies of federal agencies administering residential and business loans and guarantees, public housing projects, agricultural extension services, farm-price supports, and other economic and social programs that have only gradually been subjected to the constitutional standard of equality that in theory has always been applicable.”
251
Bittker targets “statutes, ordinances, and other oﬃcial actions” as “the predominant source” of racial discrimination. He says that, because of this, reparations are justiﬁed even when harms may have come from private individuals or agencies. 252
He goes on to say:
“More than any other form of oﬃcial misconduct, racial discrimination against Blacks was systematic, unrelenting, authorized at the highest governmental levels, and practiced by large segments of the population. These facts argue for a legislative plan of reparations in this area…”
253
Bittker shares that a judicial approach to reparations has been attempted in many cases, but not successfully achieved. A legislative approach has more potential to be passed and able to be implemented.

Bittker’s approach of focusing on government actions can be applied to Oakland, where slavery was not as much of a factor, but government and policy discrimination was.

Scholars William A. Darity and Kirsten Mullen outline three main components of reparations:

1. Acknowledgment

2. Redress
A.

Redress may include:
a.

Restitution
253
Ibid., 21.
252
Ibid., 26.
251
Boris I. Bittker,
The Case for Black Reparations
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1973), 17.
74 b.

Atonement

3. Closure
254
Restitution is “the restoration of survivors to their condition before the injustice occurred or to a condition they might have attained had the injustice not taken place.” Atonement is achieved when “perpetrators or beneﬁciaries meet conditions of forgiveness that are acceptable to the victims. Achieving these elements of a reparations program requires good-faith negotiations between those who were wronged and the wrongdoers.” 255
Darity and Mullen decide that atonement is too elusive to achieve, as the decision of when forgiveness is warranted is diﬃcult to come to collectively. They recommend a path of restitution. They ﬁnd that when racial disparities across housing, education, wealth, health and other arenas have been eliminated, restitution will have been successful.

Charles P. Henry shares a framework from legal scholar Roy Brooks on redress to be successful:

1. “The demands of claims for redress must be placed in the hands of legislators rather than judges.”

2. “Political pressure must be applied.”

3. “Strong internal support must be generated.”

4. “It must be a meritorious claim.”
256
Another author, Mari Masuda, expanded on the meaning of a meritorious claim:

1. “A human injustice must have been committed.”

2. “It must be well-documented.”

3. “The victims must be identiﬁable as a distinct group.”

4. “Current members of the group must continue to suﬀer harm.”

5. “Such harm must be causally connected to a past injustice.” 257
Oakland’s case ﬁts all of the requirements for a meritorious claim. Oakland may ﬁt the conditions for redress to be successful with political pressure and internal support in City Council.

As Charles P. Henry has written, reparations may include measures such as:

1. An apology

2. Restitution

3. Compensation
257
Ibid.
256
Charles P. Henry,
Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial
Reparations
(New York: New York University
Press, 2007), 66.
255
Ibid.
254
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen,
From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century
(Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, 2020), 2 - 3.
75 4.

Rehabilitation

5. Satisfaction

6. Guarantees the action will not be repeated
258
Former Oakland City Councilmember Leo Bazile had a unique metaphor for reparations.

He compared them to a Louisiana gumbo: gumbo has diﬀerent ingredients depending on the geographic location and what people have available. Similarly, reparations may be diﬀerent in diﬀerent geographic locations, depending on that location’s history and what resources are available. Speaking about reparations as a movement across the country, Leo stated that, ““At the national level, the gumbo is simmering. At the local level, turn the heat up.” He also made clear that giving reparations at a local level may increase support to take action at a state or federal level.

In line with Bittker’s reasoning, Oakland may approach reparations as a way to make up for past policy decisions. The racialized policies and resultant disparities outlined in earlier sections provide a basis for reparations today. As slavery has had relatively less of an impact (though there was some impact in California), reparations in Oakland should be aimed more at policies in the 20th century and ongoing racism, discrimination, and exclusion from government beneﬁts.

Furthermore, as Oakland’s racial history has already been well-documented, it is recommended to focus on policy solutions, rather than focusing on further documenting the history.

In line with Darity and Mullen, a focus should be on acknowledgment, redress involving restitution, and closure. Based on Leo Bazile’s comments, reparations can be applied to diﬀerent localities based on their particular histories and policies. One idea is for Oakland to appeal to the State to apply its reparations programs to speciﬁc localities based on their individual histories.

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions
Such commissions are used to “investigate a pattern of abuse.” They may be “oﬃcially sanctioned by the state to investigate the past and make recommendations for the future.” They may share a buried history or provide relief for past victims. And they can “contribute to justice and accountability.”
259
259
Ibid., 5.
258
Charles P. Henry,
Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial Reparations
(New York: New York University
Press, 2007), 2.
76 Past commissions to look into the racial history of the U.S. include the Kerner Commission in 1967, in response to the Watts Riots.

The Commission
found racism to be a “white
260
problem,” not a Black one.

Forming a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is one approach Oakland could take.

However, it may be more direct to form a Reparations Commission instead. The history and truths of racism and discrimination have been documented. Actionable steps to address them are more current and politically salient.

Restorative Justice
A Restorative Justice program is another way to approach making amends for past harms.

Restorative Justice focuses on healing harms, rather than punishment for criminals. It may take diﬀerent forms, one of which involves bringing together the perpetrator and the victim in a circle process with family and community members present to discuss how to repair harm. Reparation may involve monetary compensation to the victim or other methods. 261
A restorative justice program could conceivably be employed to explore complex harms in depth with a group of people. This would be an impactful way to investigate what could go towards repairing the harms of systemic racism. Repair could then be extended to paying reparations to all members of the Black population and former Black population in Oakland.

Holistic View
“Success for some people is living every day in a comfortable fashion. Come home, eat, pay their bills, and smile when they get up in the morning. I don’t know if I’m living in a fantasy world...What would I want? Opportunity to do some things without. Having the same rights as my counterparts. Don’t leave me out because of the color of my skin, way I talk. Other things used against us that has nothing to do with getting what I need.” -Pastor Harris
“The needs of the community are, ﬁrst of all, to feed itself. To house itself. Clothe itself. Educate itself. Employ itself. And lastly, there’s the environment.” -Leo Bazile
261
“Lesson 3: Programs,” Centre for Justice and Reconciliation, Prison Fellowship International, Accessed May 16, 2021,
http://restorativejustice.org/restorative-justice/about-restorative-justice/tutorial-intro-to-restorative-j ustice/lesson-3-programs/#sthash.FlGbKaKk.dpbs.
260
Charles P. Henry,
Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial
Reparations
(New York: New York University
Press, 2007), 10.
77 “When someone is hungry, they need to eat. When someone is unhoused, they need a place to stay. When uneducated, has to be a way to educate them...Everyone wants a decent, clean way to live”
-Ernestine Nettles
Seven out of fourteen interviewees advocated for a holistic approach to reparations. They asserted that reparations could not be a one-shot approach, but that a multi-faceted one considering a variety of community needs would be more eﬀective. Multiple people advocated for quality housing, education, access to food, and essentially, to be able to live a middle-class lifestyle.

The harms that have been perpetuated have gutted West Oakland’s commercial center, demolished homes and displaced residents, caused health issues, and prevented Black families from being able to build wealth. These problems cannot be ameliorated with a simple solution. A complex, multi-faceted approach would be the best way to address the issues keeping West Oakland and Black communities from thriving.

Furthermore, these policies played out over decades. They will not be solved overnight. Any solution needs to have a long-term vision, possibly for 20 years or more.

Two interviewees spoke of “restoring Oakland to where it was,” in terms of an active community and a history that some current residents are not even aware of. One interviewee stated that reparations could, “Restore to the extent possible economically vibrant black communities.”
Leo Bazile also spoke of holding all institutions that contributed to systemic racism accountable, such as government agencies, the real estate industry, and the banking industry. Each institution could investigate its impact and make a commitment to repair some of the harm it had done. These eﬀorts could potentially be coordinated with one another.

Community Engagement
Reparations should address community needs as determined by the community. Too many policy decisions have been made by planners and politicians, with not enough input from the community. These decisions should be made by the community, not about the community. With that said, I would recommend an extensive community process to determine the form for reparations to take shape.

The Howard Terminal Community Beneﬁts Agreement (CBA) based around a new ballpark for the Oakland Athletics has an extensive community engagement and decision-making process. There are seven topic cohorts of community members - Community Health & Safety, Culture Keeping & History, Economic Development & Jobs, Education, Environment, 78 Housing, and Transportation.

The cohorts met on their own schedules between March
262
and August of 2020, in addition to steering committee meetings for cohort representatives.

The cohorts came up with over 150 recommendations
that are in the process of being
263
narrowed down.

The Reparations for Black Students campaign, organized by the Justice for Oakland Students coalition (J4OS) and in conversation with the Oakland Uniﬁed School District on reparations for Black students, conducted listening sessions over the course of two years, from 2017 to 2019. These included “over 150 Black students, parents, educators, school and district staﬀ.”
264
The Evanston, Illinois Equity and Empowerment Commission that has put forth funding and programming for reparations conducted two meetings with community members in 2019 to get feedback on reparations ideas. The Reparations Subcommittee then held three town halls to educate the community and ﬁfteen meetings on the development of the housing program.

For this study on reparations in Oakland, fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with Black community leaders from Oakland and around the Bay Area, many of them having grown up in West Oakland. Seven interviewees then participated in a virtual workshop to discuss community needs and approaches to reparations. Ms. Margaret Gordon of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project advocated passionately for bringing the most marginalized community members to the table.

Though interviews and a workshop with community leaders were conducted for this study, a more extensive community engagement process would be highly recommended. As many harms to West Oakland and Black communities in Oakland came from policy decisions made without community input, communities are the only ones who can remedy the harm caused and make their neighborhoods whole. This study recommends a six month to one year process with community members, not only leaders but also low-income, disenfranchised people about whom reparations decisions will be made.

This process could involve topic cohorts such as in the Howard Terminal CBA process, focusing on diﬀerent policy areas. If this approach is taken, a slate of meetings with the whole group should also be held to converge on top ideas across all areas. Oakland could select group members based on volunteers, with attention given to people with a range of 264
“Reparations Resolution,” Reparations for Black Students, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://reparationsforBlackstudents.org/.
263
Veronica Cummings (City of Oakland staﬀ), in discussion with the author, March 2021.
262
“Oakland Waterfront Ballpark District at Howard Terminal Community Beneﬁts,” City of Oakland, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/community-beneﬁts-agreement-cba-for-the-oakland-as-waterfron t-ballpark-district-at-howard-terminal.
79 occupations, income levels, community engagement, and home ownership or renting statuses.

The key recommendation from these ﬁndings is that a more substantial community engagement process should occur in order to determine how to direct reparations funding.

The City of Oakland may choose to coordinate with county and/or state eﬀorts to conduct listening sessions and engage more community members. It may be beneﬁcial to form a Reparations Committee, involving both community leaders and more marginalized community members, to utilize decision-making power to make ﬁnal recommendations on reparations.

Although community decision-making is essential, this report provides some policy alternatives that can be considered as reparations programs.

Challenges to Calculating Reparations
There are several complicated issues with calculating and paying reparations, as those who have studied the issue before have encountered. These include:
1)
Is the payment based on geographic location or race?
a)
Some of the aforementioned policies had both a racial and a geographic aspect, speciﬁcally homes declared blighted and/or demolished for urban renewal projects in West Oakland. Many of the people who lost their homes moved to East Oakland or out of the city. Black people had migrated to diﬀerent neighborhoods of Oakland and nearby cities, including Berkeley, Emeryville, and Alameda. How would the City of Oakland pay reparations to them?
b)
Any policy based in the geographic space of West Oakland may inadvertently beneﬁt people of other races who move to or gentrify the neighborhood. c)
Is it necessary to ﬁnd the exact people whose homes were demolished? How do you ﬁnd said people? The post oﬃce, CalTrans, and BART largely have not been able to provide records of homes taken. Nor has the Oakland Public Library. However, as discrimination has been ongoing, it may not be necessary to target those speciﬁc people, but to target reparations at improving quality of life and reducing disparities amongst the current population.
i)
If a program is targeted to former homeowners, similar to the program in Evanston, IL, you can leave it to people to prove their history of losing their home themselves. This simpliﬁes the administrative process, but may lead to disqualiﬁcation of some people unable to prove their past homeownership.
2)
If reparations are based on people by race, how do you work around Proposition 209?
80 a)
Proposition 209 presents a challenge, as preferential treatment by race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin cannot be given in public education, public employment, and public contracting.

However, in some
cases, if an agency
265
can prove discrimination through a disparity study, they may be able to tailor programs by race, as CalTrans has done. Attention will need to be given that any solutions do not violate Proposition 209, or that they include a disparity study proving discrimination ﬁrst.
3)
Should reparations be paid for slavery, discrimination, or both? a)
As this project has laid out, harms have been done to Black communities long after slavery has ended, resulting in persistent disparities today. It is recommended to not limit reparations to be paid only for the impact of slavery. However, for those advocating for the severe impacts of slavery, a dual pathway of reparations for descendents of slaves and for all Black communities could be envisioned.
4)
How do you determine racial qualiﬁcation?
a)
If a program is made available to Black people or families, do they have to prove their race? How would this be done?
5)
How many people will be impacted?
a)
If reparations are to wholly address our racialized past, a signiﬁcant number of Black people must beneﬁt from any initiatives.
6)
How much to pay?
a)
No amount can truly repair the trauma and harm from 400 years of slavery in this country, 80 years of Jim Crow segregation, decades of discriminatory public and private polices baked into people’s lives and the social landscape, or the compounding trauma, harm, and barriers to wealth-building passed between generations due to all of the above. National estimates of reparations commonly estimate the debt due to be in the trillions of dollars.

Even based solely on housing appreciation from homes demolished in West Oakland, calculated in the billions of dollars, is likely not going to be matched dollar for dollar with any kind of reparations program. However it can still be impactful to acknowledge harm, make reparative eﬀorts, and commit to prevention of further harm.
7)
If state or federal funds are a funding source, how can they be applied locally? a)
There must be a mechanism for localized funding to be approved. Oakland City Council could build a coalition and lobby state government to fund a reparations pilot in Oakland. Funding from Biden’s Jobs Plans for historic investments could also be diverted to highways in Oakland. 8)
Will a reparations policy be another example of an outside policymaker deciding what is best for a population?
265
“California Proposition 209, Aﬃrmative Action Initiative (1996),” Ballotpedia, Accessed May 16,
2021, https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_209,_Aﬃrmative_Action_Initiative_(1996). 81 a)
A substantial community engagement process, including both community leaders and everyday residents, must be employed to ensure that the community is determining how best to repair the harm done. 9)
What if eﬀorts are one-time or not enough to make communities whole? a)
Reparations should not be a one-shot process. A multitude of policies could aim to ameliorate past harms. Reparations can also be built into successive programs, for example, new infrastructure programs such as Link21. 10)
How much is enough? How do you know when to stop?
a)
Any eﬀorts should measure progress from baseline indicators. Only programs that have been evaluated to have moved the indicators should be continued. When we see fewer disparities and inequities between groups, we will know progress has been made.
11)
Why would this fall on the City of Oakland? Didn’t federal and state agencies contribute to the problem?
a)
Intergenerational and systemic racism are baked into every institution in our society. Advocates have demanded reparations at the federal level for years.

Representative John Conyers introduced H.R. 40 to form a commission to study reparations every year for 30 years. As action has not been taken at the federal level, there is an opportunity for states and localities to lead the way in acknowledging past harms. There is potential for collaboration with the state legislature, state agencies, and the county Board of Supervisors as well.

Scale
It must be noted that while any one of the following programs may seem attractive, making too small of a program will not be adequate to truly pay “reparations.” Rather, a menu of ideas with a substantial budget are necessary to repair past harms. Though not worse than doing nothing, doing a small program with inadequate funding and reach is not recommended.

Furthermore, a one-time program is likely inadequate to be at a scale suﬃcient to truly pay reparations. Rather, an ongoing process is necessary to truly address the magnitude and persistence of harm done.

Evanston, IL has allocated $10 million to their reparations eﬀorts. Many of the alternatives below are evaluated for their potential impact if $10 million were dedicated to them. As many programs would only serve dozens or hundreds of people for $10 million, it is recommended to invest in multiple strategies and programs and a multi-faceted approach. 82 Policy Alternatives
The following section examines some ideas for reparations programs with some projection of how many people they could reach. They are evaluated along the following criteria:
-Eﬀectiveness: How well do they provide repair for past harms? -Equity: Who is impacted by the policy?
-Political feasibility: How possible is a plan to be passed and supported by City Council? It is recommended for the community cohort to evaluate these and any new ideas to potentially direct reparations funding.

Status Quo - What If We Do Not Pay Reparations?
The status quo involves an increasing predilection to “racial equity.” Many government programs now include an equity component and will name systemic racism and discrimination. However, without an eﬀort to atone for past inequities, our racial equity eﬀorts will be lacking. Racial equity cannot be achieved without a comprehensive acknowledgement of past harm and redress for the harm.

Proposition 209, the 1996 ballot referendum that prohibits “preferential treatment” based on race or sex in “public employment, public education, and public contracting,” constrains some government equity programs.

There are methods
of addressing race in
266
government with this restriction, including by doing a disparity study that displays past discrimination. This provides a basis for aﬃrmative action measures to remedy the discrimination.

The status quo also involves ongoing displacement and gentriﬁcation in Oakland.

Oakland currently has programs in place to help low-income families of color, including the new guaranteed income program. However, this program is a pilot, initially only going to 600 families. On their own, without an apology or comprehensive plan, they will not address the past and present racialized harms in the way a reparations program can.

Alternative: Housing
“Keeping Oakland BIPOC - what will it take? You have to understand what was taken away - ownership of homes.Unless you can restore that ownership of homes, it’s not quite justiﬁed or successful. Building aﬀordable housing - there’s not a generational diﬀerence. You’re still renting and can’t build or pass on wealth.”
-Regina Davis
Housing is the primary vehicle for building intergenerational wealth. Housing has also historically been denied to Black communities through redlining and lack of access to loans 266
“California Proposition 209, Aﬃrmative Action Initiative (1996),” Ballotpedia, Accessed May 16,
2021, https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_209,_Aﬃrmative_Action_Initiative_(1996). 83 to purchase or rehabilitate homes. Programs to improve home ownership and access are therefore central to a reparations approach.

Ten out of fourteen interviewees spoke to the importance of housing as a means for stability. One stated that housing should be considered a human right.

The City of Evanston, Illinois has announced the allocation of $400,000 of the $10 million they have dedicated to reparations. This amount will go to a Restorative Housing program, where Black residents can apply for grants of up to $25,000 for down payments on a house or to rehabilitate their homes.

This program has
the potential to redress past harms
267
from denied home ownership and help families to build wealth. However, this allocation could serve as little as 16 families. If it is found that the program is successful, they should allocate more of their funding to it to have a larger impact.

Oakland could oﬀer a Right to Return policy prioritizing any whose homes were demolished in new home ownership or rental assistance programs. This could be reparative to people who were formerly displaced to another neighborhood or city. As in Evanston’s program, the burden of proving past impact could be on those applying for the program, which simpliﬁes the administrative process for the city. However, this may exclude many who were impacted in the past and unable to provide proof of past homeownership.

Oakland could provide homes for purchase at deeply discounted rates, similar to what they would have costed in the mid-20th century. Though this approach is theoretically highly impactful and reparative, given the rapidly rising price of housing in Oakland, a $10M fund could only purchase 15 - 16 homes at the West Oakland median price today.

Though not providing a path to home ownership, the Hope SF housing initiative is meant as a ““racial equity and reparations” eﬀort in San Francisco. It diﬀerentiates itself from the federal Hope VI urban renewal projects, which have resulted in some displacement, by committing to anti-displacement.

They have replaced
outdated rental housing with new
268
aﬀordable housing in four communities and had promising results, with “750 aﬀordable units built, a 79% average retention rate of residents, a 36% increase in school attendance, a 50% decrease in crime, and a 50% increase in employment.” Many of the 21% of
269
residents who did not choose to move to the new units used the resources oﬀered to them to move elsewhere.
270
270
Theo Miller (Director of HOPE SF), in discussion
with the author, February 2021.
269
“Our Impact,” HOPE SF, Accessed May 16, 2021, https://www.hope-sf.org/our-impact/. 268
“History,” HOPE SF, Accessed May 16, 2021, https://www.hope-sf.org/history/. 267
Julie Bosman, “Chicago Suburb Shapes Reparations
for Black Residents: ‘It Is the Start’,”
The New
York Times
(New York, NY), March 22, 2021,
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/22/us/reparations-evanston-illinois-housing.html. 84 The Hope SF initiative takes its role as a reparations initiative seriously. They include a “Racial Equity and Reparations Resource Guide,”
background
information on reparations
271
thought leaders
and initiatives,
and “guiding principles”
that state:
272
273
“We explicitly acknowledge the systemic harm that public policy, government agencies, and the marketplace have disproportionately inﬂicted on African Americans and low-income communities of color throughout the centuries. We seek to share the truth about this harm, promote restitution to those directly aﬀected, and achieve reconciliation and ultimately freedom for those who have suﬀered from this harm and those who have beneﬁted from this harm.”
Former residents of the Hope SF communities are also oﬀered a “Right to Return” through a city ordinance. After current residents of the communities are oﬀered housing in the new units, former residents are given priority.
274
The San Francisco Housing Development Corporation also develops aﬀordable housing and provides other services such as ﬁnancial counseling. Their “origin” story directly identiﬁes redevelopment as a force that displaced families, against which their organization works. 275
There are shared equity homeownership models, where government agencies may subsidize purchase of a home but then share in some of the appreciation when the home is sold. This may include shared appreciation loans, which are repaid when the recipient sells the home and reinvested elsewhere, or subsidy retention programs, which remain tied to the home such as in Community Land Trusts, deed-restricted housing, or housing cooperatives.

In Community Land Trusts, the buyer
purchases the home but not the
276
land, and the land lease has aﬀordability restrictions in it for the next buyer. In deed-restricted housing, the deed has price restrictions built in. In a limited equity housing 276
“Shared Equity Models Oﬀer Sustainable Homeownership,”
Department of Housing and Urban
Development Oﬃce of Policy Development and Research,
Evidence Matters
(Fall 2012)
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/fall12/highlight3.html. 275
“Mission,” San Francisco Housing Development Corporation, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://sfhdc.org/mission/.
274
“Mayor London Breed Celebrates San Francisco's Right
to Return Ordinance,” City and County of
San Francisco, February 26, 2020,
https://sfmayor.org/article/mayor-london-breed-celebrates-san-franciscos-right-return-ordinance#:~ :text=Existing%20law%20gives%20current%20HOPE,goal%20of%20reducing%20displacement%20an d.
273
“HOPE SF Racial Equity and Reparations Resources:

Scan of Reparations Initiatives, National
Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities,” HOPE SF, February 2020, https://cwru.app.box.com/s/et2zm3qtzy7zaqu08fqeqalmpa321ykk. 272
“HOPE SF Racial Equity and Reparations Resources:

Thought Leaders on Racial Equity, National
Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities,” HOPE SF, February 2020, https://cwru.app.box.com/s/hgzqcgbhqkj725qpx950nu8tmny7y4ps. 271
Amy T. Khare, Mark L. Joseph, and Theodore B. Miller, Jr., “HOPE SF: Racial Equity and Reparations Resource Guide” (San Francisco, CA: The Partnership for HOPE SF, October 2020), https://www.hope-sf.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HOPE-SF-Racial-Equity-and-Reparations-Guid e.10.2020.pdf.
85 cooperative, the buyer buys a share of the cooperative, but the cooperative maintains restrictions for its resale to be aﬀordable. Though these programs limit the resale price, a study by the Urban Institute showed that they still allowed participants to build equity. 277
They also allow participants to save or invest more by lowering the initial cost. Oakland could create more programs along these guidelines.

The 2015 - 2023 Oakland Housing Element includes programs for aﬀordable housing, community land trusts, and others. The Oakland First-time Homebuyer plan has issued 372 loans from 2007 - 2014, totaling $22,459,765, for an average of $60,376 per recipient.

If
278
allocated $10 million, this program could serve another 165 recipients. This program is not currently funded. The Home Preservation Loan Program provides “up to $50,000 in forgivable loan funds for distressed homeowners.” If allocated $10 million, this program could serve 200 Black residents.

It is estimated in the Housing Element that 34,000 homes in Oakland are in need of minor repair, 2,600 are in need of major repair, and 260 should be demolished or have extreme major repair.

As homes were previously demolished
due to blight, programs to address
279
repairs could redress that past harm by rehabilitating, rather than demolishing the homes.

However, anti-blight programs have been suﬀering due to reductions in staﬀ and funding. 280
The City of Berkeley is currently planning additional housing at the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations to be in compliance with zoning requirements in AB 2923.

A
281
community group organizing around the eﬀort at Ashby estimates that 550 aﬀordable units could be built around Ashby station, with 250 units developed by non-proﬁts with city subsidies of $200,000 per unit and 300 units being built by for-proﬁt companies with no subsidies.

This would cost $50 million from Bond
Measure O, which authorized up to
282
$135 million in Berkeley.
283
283
“Berkeley, California, Measure O, Housing Bonds (November 2018),” Ballotpedia, Accessed May
16, 2021,
https://ballotpedia.org/Berkeley,_California,_Measure_O,_Housing_Bonds_(November_2018). 282
“Ashby Proposal,” South Berkeley Now!, Accessed May
16, 2021,
https://www.southberkeleynow.org/south-berkeley-nows-aﬀordable-housing-proposal. 281
“Ashby and North Berkeley BART Station Planning,”
City of Berkeley, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.cityofberkeley.info/bartplanning/.
280
Ibid., 75.
279
Ibid., 8.
278
City of Oakland, “Housing Element 2015-2023,” City
of Oakland, December 9, 2014, 56.
277
Kenneth Temkin, Brett Theodos, and David Price, “Balancing Aﬀordability and Opportunity: An Evaluation of Aﬀordable Homeownership Programs with Long-term Aﬀordability Controls,” Urban Institute, October 26, 2010,
https://www.urban.org/research/publication/balancing-aﬀordability-and-opportunity-evaluation-aﬀo rdable-homeownership-programs-long-term-aﬀordability-controls. 86 Oakland could seek to pass a similar bond measure and provide transit-oriented housing for 550 families. Iit should be noted that substantial subsidies would be needed to provide aﬀordable housing for very-low-income families. Investment in aﬀordable housing projects could have a focus on anti-displacement and reparations, similar to Hope SF, and could build in other amenities. Regina Davis, member of the Strategic Urban Development Alliance and former CEO of the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation, recommended building in services like childcare or others. Wil Ussery, civil rights leader and former BART director, shared his work with the Acorn development in the 1990s, putting ﬁber-optic cable into all apartments and building a computer learning center. The center oﬀers training, and computers can also be made available for residents who go through the program. These multi-modal developments can be expanded.

Plan Bay Area, a long-term plan for the nine-county Bay Area, also has housing initiatives. 284
Reparations could be built into planning eﬀorts.

Tradeoﬀs:●
Home ownership is a primary source for wealth-generating that has been subsidized for many white families, but far fewer Black families. Supporting home ownership and retention of homes is a relevant way to remedy past injustices.● The families that receive support in new housing or maintaining current housing would likely not be the same families initially displaced. However, Black people as a group have been discriminated against in many ways, and these are shown clearly in data on racial disparities across categories. Reparations through housing would thus address general harms done to Black communities as a whole, rather than targeted families.●
It may be diﬃcult to target Black families for home ownership subsidies, given Proposition 209.●
If housing is made primarily available to Black residents, how will racial qualiﬁcation be determined?●
Program funding will need to be suﬃciently large to have a suﬃcient impact. Sixteen people receiving a grant (as in the Evanston example) is not a signiﬁcant reparative impact.

Criteria:●
Eﬀectiveness: Enabling residents to become homeowners or remain homeowners directly addresses past issues.●
Equity: Housing programs targeted at Black residents would beneﬁt a speciﬁc group.● Political feasibility: There are many existing models and programs that could be emulated or enhanced. It would likely not be too challenging to do so. 284
“About,” Plan Bay Area 2050, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.planbayarea.org/plan-bay-area-2050-0.
87 Alternative: Jobs
“The ‘50s were okay for Blacks in Oakland; people had jobs. In the ‘60s jobs went to the suburbs; things got rugged.”
-David Peters
Thousands of jobs were lost in West Oakland as industrial factories moved to the suburbs, the Port was mechanized, and the Oakland Army Base and Naval Supply closed. Job discrimination prevented many Black workers from particating in unions, apprenticeship programs, and front-of-the-house positions in service jobs. Previous Black organizing highlighted access to jobs as a key resource. Economic stability is crucial to be able to live prosperously and thrive, and reparations focused around access to jobs can be consequential, even contributing to closing income and wealth gaps. Reverend Chambers in particular advocated for livable wage jobs, job training, and apprenticeship programs.

Four interviewees spoke to the importance of good jobs for Black communities.

There are several job training organizations throughout Oakland that could be bolstered.

The West Oakland Jobs Resource Center (WOJRC), which arose from demands of the Revive Oakland coalition and is partially funded by the city, provides job training and apprenticeship programs for livable wage jobs, particularly in construction and logistics. 285
The Center has agreements with the redevelopment of the Oakland army base and the Port of Oakland to be a “ﬁrst source hire” for their employment needs.

The program
286
trains hundreds of people receiving services each year, and could be expanded as reparations to residents of West Oakland to assist low-income residents with earning a livable wage.

The Center receives less than half of its operating budget from the city and also relies on other grants. The center was founded in 2012, and in the period from 2015 to 2017, expanded its budget and funding sources. For 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, the City of Oakland has sent the center $355,237 for each period.
287
In 2018 the Center referred 182 participants to services, referred 4 to pre-apprenticeship programs, referred 41 to apprenticeship programs, and placed 63 in employment. Black job seekers were 74% of those referred to services, 75% of those referred to pre-apprenticeship, 73% of those referred to apprenticeship, and 81% of those placed in employment .
288
288
Matt Fernandes (Program Assistant at the West Oakland
Jobs Resource Center), email message to
author, December 13, 2019.
287
Lazandra Dial (City of Oakland, Economic and Workforce
Development Department), email
message to author, December 13, 2019.
286
Matt Fernandes (Program Assistant at the West Oakland
Jobs Resource Center), in discussion with
the author, December 2019.
285
“Revive Oakland & the Army Base Redevelopment Project.” EBASE. Accessed December 13, 2019.
http://workingeastbay.org/issues/revive-oakland/.
88 As less than half of its budget is from the City of Oakland (assume ⅓
of the budget is from
the city), if Oakland increased its allocation to $10 million, we could expect the budget increase to be nine-fold. If programs grew at nine times their current rate, an additional 2,610 people could receive services. If the organization could not handle this increase in funding, and the funding from the city were only doubled, this would provide an increase of 95 people served, with 60 people referred to services, 1 in a pre-apprenticeship program, 13 in apprenticeship programs, and 20 people into livable wage jobs.

The Cypress Mandela Training Center was founded in 1993, after the 1989 Loma Prieta
289
Earthquake caused the collapse of the Cypress Freeway that bisected West Oakland, and community organizing led to it being rebuilt on the westernmost edge of the neighborhood. The freeway was replaced with the Mandela Greenway.

The Cypress
290
Mandela Training Center initially trained people to help rebuild the freeway, but has since expanded to green construction training, health and safety training, gas operations and electric operations training for jobs with PG&E, track and structure working training for BART, and others.
291
The standard program for the center is a 16-week pre-apprenticeship training where participants learn basic construction skills. The center usually runs about 3 cycles a year with 30 - 40 graduating participants each cycle. Since fall 2020, they have also run a women’s program in partnership with the Alameda County District Attorney’s Oﬃce. The ﬁrst cohort has been 13 women.

The operating budget for the center was $1,222,325 for ﬁscal year 2018 - 2019.

Its
292
program budget was $1,070,966. If Oakland increased the program budget to $10 million, it would increase by 9.34 times, serving an additional 984 people. As the organization may not have the capacity to handle this additional funding, if their program budget were only doubled, they could serve an additional 118 people.

The Oakland Private Industry Council, founded in 1978, has been running “federally- and state-funded workforce development programs on behalf of the City of Oakland, ﬁrst under 292
“Cypress Mandela Training Center: Full text of "Full
Filing" for ﬁscal year ending June 2019,”
ProPublica, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://projects.propublica.org/nonproﬁts/organizations/800123340/202011979349303576/full. 291
“Free Training for High Paying Careers,” Cypress
Mandela Training Center, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.cypressmandela.org/programs.
290
“Oakland | Mandela Parkway: History,” Congress for
the New Urbanism, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.cnu.org/oakland-mandela-parkway.
289
Tony Khing, “PG&E Mourns the Passing of Cypress Mandela Training Center Leader Art Shanks,”
PG&E,
Currents
(January 7, 2020),
https://www.pgecurrents.com/2020/01/07/pge-mourns-the-passing-of-cypress-mandela-training-cen ter-leader-art-shanks/#:~:text=Initially%2C%20Cypress%20Mandela%20was%20founded,work%20fo r%20BART%20and%20Caltrans.
89 the Job Training Partnership Act, and now under the Workforce Investment Act.” Their
293
programs include career counseling, job training, and connections between employers and job seekers, among others.

For ﬁscal year 2017 -
2018, their operating budget was
294
$4,321,203, and their programming budget was $3,959,092. 295
Wil Ussery, civil rights leader and former BART director, shared his work with the Acorn development in the 1990s, putting ﬁber-optic cable into all apartments and building a computer learning center. The center oﬀers training, and computers can also be made available for residents who go through the program. Including computer access in housing is one way to assist residents in ﬁnding a job. Mr. Ussery saw technological literacy and employment as key to employment for Black workers.

Worker cooperatives are another way to build economic power in the workforce.

Cooperatives typically involve proﬁt sharing, leading to increases in wealth by employees, and shared decision-making power, causing workers to have more of a stake in their business. The Mandela Grocery Co-op currently has 12 worker-owners and has been providing fresh, healthy food to residents of West Oakland. The City of Oakland could support the development of more worker cooperatives by creating a business education program and/or subsidizing feasibility studies for businesses interested in converting to worker ownership.

These programs could be bolstered, focusing on Black residents in Oakland. They could also give preference to anyone who can demonstrate their family had been aﬀected by previous government programs.

Tradeoﬀs:●
Steady employment at a living wage is a major source of economic stability.

Numerous historical and primary sources have identiﬁed loss of jobs in West Oakland as severely detrimental to the neighborhood and residents. Increasing employment opportunities is a key way to support disenfranchised populations.● As one interviewee noted, computers are necessary as the economy has shifted to a greater reliance on technology. Job training programs may focus on construction or health & safety as some of the training centers provide, or could be focused on newer technologies or supports for worker cooperatives as well.● Numbers of job trainees served is important. Hopefully, jobs investments could create hundreds or thousands of new jobs.
295
“Oakland Private Industry Council Inc.: Form 990
for period ending June 2018,” ProPublica,
Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://projects.propublica.org/nonproﬁts/display_990/942683168/08_2019_preﬁxes_94-95%2F9426 83168_201806_990_2019080516545502.
294
“Home,” Oakland Private Industry Council, Inc., Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.oaklandpic.org/.
293
“Our Story,” Oakland Private Industry Council, Inc., Accessed May 16, 2021, https://www.oaklandpic.org/our-story.
90 ●
People served may not have been directly impacted by historical policies, though they may have been by current discrimination and disparities. People impacted by historical policies may not beneﬁt from jobs programs.● Given Proposition 209, it may be diﬃcult to target Black applicants. Programs may take applicants from priority black neighborhoods instead.● If priority is given to Black applicants, it must be determined how to demonstrate their race.

Criteria:●
Eﬀectiveness: Jobs programs can help to reduce income and wealth gaps. However, people who already have jobs may not beneﬁt from this program.● Equity: Only underemployed people will access programs, and possibly only Black applicants.●
Political feasibility: Bolstering existing programs would be highly feasible. Creating new programming may be done with other workforce development initiatives.

Alternative: Remove I-980
The City of Oakland has been considering removing I-980, an underutilized freeway.

The
296
city has targeted this as an opportunity for restorative justice, where damage done to neighborhoods the freeway disrupted can be ameliorated through aﬀordable housing and public space.

As there is a movement for “Highways to Boulevards” nationally, this idea may have some momentum.

President Biden’s American Jobs Plan initially
called for a $20 billion
297
set-aside to reconnect communities divided by highways and build in racial equity into other projects. The most recent infrastructure plan allocated $1 billion to the eﬀort, with $250 million for planning grants and $750 million for capital construction grants. 298
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has indicated that highways across the country have a racialized history.
299
There is historical precedent for this idea. Boston removed its “Central Artery” and moved highways underground in the “Big Dig,” which lasted over two decades, beginning with 299
Nadja Popovich, Josh Williams and Denise Lu, “Can
Removing Highways Fix America’s Cities?,”
The
New York Times
(New York, NY), May 27, 2021,
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/27/climate/us-cities-highway-removal.html. 298
Audra D.S. Burch, “One Historic Black Neighborhood’s Stake in the Infrastructure Bill,” The New
York Times
(New York, NY), November 20, 2021,
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/20/us/claiborne-expressway-new-orleans-infrastructure.html. 297
“Highways to Boulevards,” Congress for the New Urbanism, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.cnu.org/our-projects/highways-boulevards.
296
Dover, Kohl & Partners team for the City of Oakland,
“The Downtown Oakland Speciﬁc Plan: Public
Review Draft Plan,” City of Oakland, August 28, 2019,
https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/downtown-oakland-speciﬁc-plan. 91 planning in the 1980s.

In Oakland, after the Cypress Freeway collapsed in the 1989 Loma 300
Prieta earthquake, community organizing successfully lobbied for it to be rebuilt on the western edge of West Oakland, rather than directly through it, as it was initially constructed.

It was replaced with a greenway.
301
As David Karas wrote in New Visions for Public Aﬀairs in 2015, removal of highways which had damaged communities could be a “mea culpa,” or acknowledgement of wrongdoing. 302
One possibility for the removal of I-980 may come with the mega-regional Link21 project.

This project aims to improve rail service in the Bay Area and beyond, including to Sacramento. Fundamental to the project is a second transbay rail crossing between Oakland and San Francisco.

Link21 is considering two locations in Oakland to connect to 303
the second crossing, and I-980 is one of those two sites. Oakland’s Downtown Speciﬁc Plan lists a removal of I-980 and replacement with a “multi-way boulevard,” “mixed-income and aﬀordable housing,” a park, and the “new submerged BART alignment.” The plan lists that this could potentially provide “5,000 Residential Units and 1.5 M Sq. Ft. of Commercial Space.”
304
Link21 is building equity into their plans and is currently sponsoring “co-creation workshops” to garner community input on how to deﬁne “priority populations” for projects.

This could be based on factors such as income, race, environmental justice, health, housing, and other indicators. Link21 is also planning on funding a pre-engineering feasibility analysis on removing I-980 next year.

One major concern with the removal of I-980 is not to create further displacement once it is removed. With the highway gone, property values and gentriﬁcation would likely increase.

The city can prevent this from happening with some of the following :
305
●
Aﬀordable housing: Ensure 30 - 50% of new housing is aﬀordable● Community Land Trusts: Subsidize acquisition of land by non-proﬁt organizations for Community Land Trusts, through in the Neighborhood Stabilization program● Tenant Opportunity to Purchase: Give tenants ﬁrst opportunity to purchase a building if a landlord decides to sell. The city could also subsidize this. 305
“All-In Cities Policy Toolkit,” PolicyLink, Accessed
May 16, 2021, https://allincities.org/toolkit.
304
Dover, Kohl & Partners team for the City of Oakland,
“The Downtown Oakland Speciﬁc Plan: Public
Review Draft Plan,” City of Oakland, August 28, 2019,
https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/downtown-oakland-speciﬁc-plan. 303
“Transforming Passenger Rail in Northern California,”
Link21, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://link21program.org/en.
302
Karas, David, “Highway to Inequity: The Disparate
Impact of the Interstate Highway System on
Poor and Minority Communities in American Cities,”
New Visions for Public Aﬀairs
7 (April 2015).
301
“Replacing Oakland's Cypress Freeway,” U.S. Department
of Transportation Federal Highway
Administration,
Public Roads
61, no. 5 (1998),
https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/marchapril-1998/replacing-oaklands-cypress-freeway. 300
“The Big Dig: project background,” Mass.gov, Accessed May 16, 2021, https://www.mass.gov/info-details/the-big-dig-project-background. 92 ●
Foreclosure and eviction prevention: Earmark funds in the Home Preservation Loan program to assist homes at risk of foreclosure.

The Link21 project may be an opportunity to remove the highway, however, it may not have a large enough scope to connect reparations to the project, and some of its impacts may not directly go to Black households in Oakland.

Tradeoﬀs:●
I-980 is likely to be removed for the second transbay crossing.● Reparations for all Black communities in Oakland may be beyond the scope of restorative justice plans for I-980.●
Removing I-980 may improve the neighborhood directly surrounding where the current freeway is, and may include an improvement in air quality or health impacts.

It also may lead to further gentriﬁcation.●
Addressing freeways in neighborhoods is an impactful way to address past public policies that were harmful to Black communities. However, many of those displaced by the freeway moved away from West Oakland.●
How can housing opportunities be targeted to Black residents? If this is possible, how will recipients be determined?
Criteria:●
Eﬀectiveness: This would be a localized eﬀect that would directly address one aspect of historical discrimination, but may not be as instrumental in reducing disparities today.●
Equity: Anyone in the vicinity of the current highway would beneﬁt. This could include white and gentrifying groups. Particular attention would need to be given to programs to prevent displacement and accrue beneﬁts to Black residents.● Political feasibility: This project is likely to happen and to include a restorative justice component. However, it is unlikely to be a large enough scope to provide reparations throughout Black communities in the city, and should be paired with other eﬀorts to be reparative.

Alternative: “Reparations Style Infrastructure Package” Charles T. Brown, Senior Researcher at the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, has advocated for a “Reparations-style infrastructure package” including increased bicycle infrastructure, pedestrian infrastructure, public transit, and public art. 306
Charles T. Brown notes the discrimination that Black people may face as they take any one of transportation options available - they are susceptible to harrassment whether walking, 306
“Identifying and Addressing Barriers to Physical
Activity in the Black Community Webinar,”
National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, posted on Vimeo, September 18, 2020, https://vimeo.com/460197268.
93 running, bicycling, driving, or taking public transit. Infrastructure projects could be used to pay reparations.

Funded with $100 million by Measure KK, Oakland is undergoing a three-year paving program, started in 2019.
$75 million of the plan will go to local streets. The plan includes 307
a ﬁrst-in-the-nation equity weighting factor and plan, where not only streets in need of repaving will be paved, but streets that also serve “underserved communities” -- including “people of color, low-income households, people with disabilities, households with a severe rent burden, people with limited English proﬁciency, and youth/seniors.” Additional
308
creative transportation projects could be used to pay reparations.

Transit-oriented development may be another way to build infrastructure that serves low-income residents. Substantial subsidies would be needed to create housing for very-low-income individuals.

Transportation agencies are using the concept of value capture to inform taxing strategies for communities where transit improves property values. BART is considering how to use value capture to advance equity. Value capture involves using taxes or other instruments to reap some of the beneﬁt that an infrastructure project provides to surrounding communities. Maceo Wiggins, Director of the Oﬃce for Civil Rights at BART, spoke of value capture as a potential tool, but also as potentially harmful. Value capture can be used in Community Beneﬁts Agreements or to fund aﬀordable housing and other government initiatives. However, if a tax is added to capture value on a new infrastructure package, but other communities historically had not had a similar tax applied, this would be an inequitable burden on the neighborhood beneﬁtting today. Maceo suggested that value capture would have to be applied with equity in mind to not be harmful.

Tradeoﬀs:●
Increasing mobility and aﬀordable housing are impactful strategies for low-income residents●
Investing in infrastructure within low-income neighborhoods, not merely through and surrounding them, is a counter-force to past disinvestment in those neighborhoods.●
It may be challenging to target programs to Black communities.● Transportation equity can be built into existing and planned infrastructure packages. However, it must be at a scale suﬃcient to be considered reparative. 308
Oakland Department of Transportation, “OakDOT Kicks
Oﬀ Three-Year, $100 Million,
Equity-Focused Paving Plan,” City of Oakland, August 22, 2019, https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/2019/oakdot-kicks-oﬀ-three-year-100-million-equity-focused-pavin g-plan
307
Oakland Department of Transportation, “OakDOT Kicks
Oﬀ Three-Year, $100 Million,
Equity-Focused Paving Plan,” City of Oakland, August 22, 2019, https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/2019/oakdot-kicks-oﬀ-three-year-100-million-equity-focused-pavin g-plan.
94 Criteria:●
Eﬀectiveness: these strategies can provide greater racial equity to target populations. The scale of strategies used will determine whether or not they are eﬀective as reparations●
Equity: These strategies will seek to provide mobility and resources to underserved communities, targeting those most in need●
Political feasibility: As transportation agencies in the city and state are increasingly concerned with racial equity, equity-focused programs are currently more politically feasible. The challenge is to implement equity programs that are suﬃciently funded and transformative to be reparative.

Alternative: Business Support
“Of the last 100 cranes on the Oakland skyline, not one of those has been put up by Black-led developer team. 25% people of city are not participating in one of the most important engines in the economy. They’re not engaged in an income creating, wealth creating thing.” -Alan Dones
Regina Davis, member of the Strategic Urban Development Alliance and former CEO of the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation, advocated for Black businesses to be created and able to access city contracts. Business ownership can drive wealth creation.

Proposition 209 prevents California municipalities from giving preferential treatment based on race in city contracting. However, there are other strategies that can be employed. As a Mason Tillman disparity study evidenced discrimination in state contracting for construction, there may be a pathway to considering race in city contracts. A “Disadvantaged contractor” program targeted to low-income or otherwise disadvantaged individuals may also have the eﬀect of bolstering many ﬁrms that are owned by or majority people of color. There is a “Disadvantaged Business Enterprise” program for “socially and economically disadvantaged individuals” in “federally funded transportation projects” through CalTrans.

Oakland currently has “Local Business
Enterprise” and “Small Local
309
Business Enterprise” certiﬁcations, among others, that the city is required to send a percentage of contracts to.

The Oakland equity permit program for marijuana businesses is considered a form of “reparations” by allowing people with prior marijuana-related convictions, which are overwhelmingly Black people, to have priority for marijuana dispensary licenses. Priority applicants have a median income 80% or less than the average median income and are 309
“Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program,”
City of Oakland, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/disadvantaged-business-enterprise-dbe-program#services. 95 from one of the 21 police beats with the most weed arrests, or have been arrested and convicted for weed themselves, from November 1996 onwards.

There were 9 “2019-2020
310
dispensary applicants selected.”
Loans and grants
for cannabis businesses were also
311
oﬀered. As of May 2021, Oakland had given $1,222,000 in funding to 35 recipients, averaging $34,914 per grant.

These grants mainly
went to Black applicants.
312
Figure 23: Recipients of Grants
Source: City of Oakland Equity Loan And Grant Programs Monthly Meeting 313
The city had also given loans of $3,368,000 to 55 recipients, averaging $61,236 per borrower, with a similar racial breakdown.

Figure 24: Recipients of Loans
Source: City of Oakland Equity Loan And Grant Programs Monthly Meeting 314
314
Ibid.
313
Ibid.
312
“Equity Loan and Grant Programs Monthly Meeting:Proposed Agenda: Tuesday May 22, 2021, 1:00
- 2:00 pm,” City of Oakland, May 11, 2021,
https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/May-11th-Agenda-Equity-Loan-Grant-Meeting.pdf. 311
“Cannabis Permits,” City of Oakland, Accessed May
16, 2021,
https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/cannabis-permits.
310
Brentin Mock, “The Case for Weed Reparations,”
Bloomberg CityLab
, April 27, 2017,
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-27/oakland-s-war-on-the-war-on-drugs. 96 Sixteen applicants had received partial or full workforce development funds, for a total of $302,248.

If the city increased its grant allocations to $10 million, businesses served could increase by

8.18, serving 251 additional businesses.

This program does give an advantage to people and communities previously harmed through draconian drug policies and policing. However, with 9 dispensaries approved and grant and loan recipients in only double digits, it is not extensive enough to repair harms from the myriad policies that damaged Black neighborhoods. Further investment would be required.

The revenue from cannabis taxes could be reappropriated to programming further reversing the impacts from over-policing and incarceration.

Tradeoﬀs:●
The War on Drugs has disproportionately harmed Black communities, so a policy targeted at ameliorating past harms of marijuana convictions is reparative.● Non-marijuana businesses will not receive supports.●
A “Disadvantaged Contractor” program could ensure additional business contracts with people of color led ﬁrms.●
Business supports will not beneﬁt people already employed.

Criteria:●
Eﬀectiveness: Business supports can give tangible economic beneﬁts, but will not aﬀect people already employed.●
Equity: Only people looking to start or grow a business will beneﬁt.● Political feasibility: Expanding existing programs will be highly feasible.

Alternative: Health
“The city has not instituted health in all policies.”
-Ms. Margaret Gordon
The health impacts of industrial zoning in West Oakland, diesel trucks on the freeways, and vessels and industry at the Port have led to worse health outcomes for people living in West Oakland. As in other cities across the country, polluting factory plants, toxic sites, freeways, and industry have often been placed in areas where people of color live, that have fewer ﬁnancial resources and where land might be less expensive. These health impacts must be addressed.

Truck management is one way to address the pollution from diesel particulates and improve health. The West Oakland Truck Management Plan, ﬁnalized in 2019, attempts to reroute some trucks going through Oakland to have less of an impact on residents. 97 The ban on trucks on I-580 has caused trucks to have to take I-880 as they travel through Oakland. This has been beneﬁcial for white communities in the hills, but has caused more traﬃc and pollution for residents in the ﬂatlands. Without the ban, some trucks would have to go along I-880 in order to reach the port, but others could potentially be diverted. Black carbon has been found to exist at 80% higher levels near I-880 as near I-580. 315
These environmental impacts must be addressed. Assembly Bill 617 has directed local air districts to look at local air pollution; however, one of the bill’s main proponents, Ms.

Margaret Gordon, has noted that they are struggling with funding initiatives from the bill.

This bill should be more fully funded in order to address air quality concerns.

Another approach could be to support the West Oakland Health Council, founded in 1967.

It oﬀers healthcare to anyone in need, no matter if they have insurance or are able to pay.

Their operating budget is $24,549,138, and their
program budget is $16,561,114.
316
Community health centers could be further funded.

Tradeoﬀs:●
Health and life expectancy are key indicators of neighborhood vitality, and transportation projects through West Oakland have contributed to higher rates of asthma and other diseases. Clearing air pollution and providing aﬀordable health care are crucial programs.●
Anyone living in West Oakland, including gentriﬁers, would beneﬁt from eﬀorts to reduce pollution in the area.●
Philanthropic funding tied to health-related issues may be more available.

Criteria:●
Eﬀectiveness: Health programs can reduce air quality, environmental, and health disparities, but they may not necessarily be reparative.● Equity: Anyone living in targeted neighborhoods could beneﬁt from these programs.● Political feasibility: Bolstering current programs is highly feasible.

Alternative: Banking Industry/Real Estate Industry
“Predatory lending cleared out this block to a great extent. I was talking with another multigenerational neighbor...Financial institutions that beneﬁted from government subsidies back in the day, have a point to play in giving access to capital.” -David Peters
316
“Eligibility,” West Oakland Health, Accessed May
16, 2021,
https://westoaklandhealth.org/elgibility/.
315
A Tale of Two Freeways,” Environmental Defense Fund,
Accessed Oct. 11, 2021,
https://www.edf.org/airqualitymaps/oakland/tale-two-freeways. 98 The banking and real estate industries had a clear role in perpetuating racism and discrimination. By following redlined maps from the Federal Housing Administration and denying federally subsidized mortgages to neighborhoods including West Oakland, they have denied access to a major wealth-building opportunity that contributed to the rise of the white middle-class. By writing racially restrictive covenants and restricting where Black families could move to and engaging in blockbusting or encouraging white families to sell when Black families moved in, the real estate industry enforced the boundaries of segregation. Banks also targeted families of color for subprime loans from the late 1990s to the 2000s, leading to the foreclosure crisis and Great Recession, decimating wealth that families of color had gained.
317
Both industries may play a role in reparations. In a 2020 op-ed in The New York Times, Angela Glover-Blackwell and Michael McAfee aﬃrmed that, “...no industry has played a bigger or more enduring role in Black oppression, exploitation and exclusion,” and that “Every industry must now use its power to repair the damage and heal the wounds.” They advocate four strategies for banks to take:●
“Cancel consumer debt for Black customers”●
“Eliminate banking fees for Black customers”●
“Provide interest-free mortgages to Black home buyers”● “Provide interest-free loans to Black-owned businesses” Richard Rothstein, in an op-ed to The New York Times, suggests a strategy of banks and real estate developers making mortgages on homes available at the prices they would have been when redlining and racially restrictive covenants were active . For example, in a
318
neighborhood of San Mateo, in the 1940s, certain homes sold by one company were listed at $5,450, which Rothstein writes is worth about $100,000 today. Their value today is around $1.5 million. Rothstein advocates for the banks and developers involved to make up the diﬀerence and allow Black families to buy the $1.5 million homes in that neighborhood at the price for which they were previously denied the opportunity.

On March 17, 2021, Amalgamated Bank announced that they are in support of HR 40. 319
Oakland city government could undertake programs to support banks in paying reparations. The city could develop a program to provide loan guarantees or subsidize 319
Ramishah Maruf, “This major US bank just endorsed
reparations for Black Americans,” CNN
Business, CNN, March 17, 2021,
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/17/business/amalgamated-bank-hr-40/index.html. 318
Richard Rothstein, “The Black Lives Next Door,”
The
New York Times
(New York, NY), August 14,
2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/opinion/sunday/blm-residential-segregation.html. 317
Esi Hutchful, “The Racial Wealth Gap: What California
Can Do About a Long-Standing Obstacle to
Shared Prosperity,” California Budget & Policy Center, December 2018, https://calbudgetcenter.org/resources/the-racial-wealth-gap-what-california-can-do-about-a-long-sta nding-obstacle-to-shared-prosperity/.
99 loans at low-interest rates. Preference can be given to Black residents and to residents who can demonstrate their family was aﬀected by previous government policies.

Tradeoﬀs:●
Banks have been instrumental in residential segregation patterns, and providing funding to reverse these eﬀorts can be reparative.●
Oakland city government has limited capacity to inﬂuence them to pay reparations.● If programs are made primarily to Black residents, how is eligibility determined? Criteria:●
Eﬀectiveness: Interest-free mortgages or loans could enable more home ownership and wealth generation; however, these eﬀorts on their own are likely not going to have a signiﬁcant impact. Grants would be more impactful● Equity: Mainly Black applicants would beneﬁt.●
Political feasibility: Loan guarantees or subsidized loans may be new programs that would require further development before being seriously considered.

Alternative: Cash Payments
“I’m tired of others trying to control what people would do with the opportunity to have money. I would like to see cash - especially for those who had never had it, I’d love to have funds available to do whatever they want to...It highlights disrespect by determining where the money would be spent. I don’t think any reparations for any people would be controlled the way they want to control African Americans.”
-Gilda Harris
“The remedy is institutional, not individual.”
-Leo Bazile
Though one interviewee advocated for cash payments, three interviewees emphasized community solutions over individual payments. One recommended paying into schools for descendents of people in West Oakland, who were aﬀected by these city policies.

Cash payments have been oﬀered before in the U.S. Japanese people interned in World War II were given $20,000 from the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, along with an education fund and a formal apology.

After a white mob murdered
people and burned homes and
320
buildings in Rosewood, Florida in 1923, the Florida legislature voted for the Rosewood Compensation Act in 1994. This bill “sought compensation, not reparation.” A $2.1 million fund was provided, composed of a “$500,000 property compensation fund, college 320
Charles P. Henry,
Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial
Reparations
(New York: New York University
Press, 2007), 97.
100

scholarships for needy students with preference to children of Rosewood descendants, and $150,000 for each survivor.”
321
Oakland is piloting a privately funded, guaranteed minimum income program to pay $500 monthly to 600 low-income families of color for 18 months.

Given this program, an
322
additional cash payment program is not recommended, as it may duplicate payments to families. However, the program is only serving 600 families, and would have to be signiﬁcantly expanded to be reparative. The Oakland Promise program is also making direct payments available to children born in Alameda County in low-income families, setting up a 529 college savings account for them with $500. 323
These programs are already forward-thinking strategies for using cash payments to further racial and economic equity. If an individual payment strategy is advocated for, it is recommended to bolster these programs and incorporate a reparations perspective into them.

If the guaranteed income program were expanded for reparations, it would have to reach more low-income Black families. As around 23.77% of Black people in Oakland are in poverty and there are about 103,061 Black people in Oakland, there are about 24,498 Black people in poverty in Oakland.

If they averaged to
be families of four, there would be
324
about 6,124 families of color estimated to be in poverty. Providing each with $500 per month would be $3,062,000 per month or $36,744,000 per year. Though this program would be impactful, it would be costly.

The Oakland Promise program requires fewer resources. The City of Oakland estimates about 2,200 children are born in poverty each year.

Payments can be issued to all for
325
$1,100,000 per year. This program could be expanded to give larger payments or to increase payments for students in K-12 (Oakland Promise involves K-12 and college programs in addition to baby bonds). While this program would further economic equity, it would not be directly reparative to people directly aﬀected by past policies. However, it 325
“The Oakland Promise,” City of Oakland, Accessed
May 16, 2021,
https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/the-oakland-promise#:~:text=Our%20vision%20is%20to%20serve %20all,Kindergarten%20to%20College%20by%202020.&text=There%20are%20approximately%2024 %2C000%20middle,path%20to%20college%20%26%20career%20success. 324
“Estimated percent of all Black or African American
people who lived in poverty, between
2015-2019,” PolicyMap,
https://www.policymap.com/newmaps#/embed/7437/dcd8c0e911f0b6b11cf26e1cdf619e8a (based on data from 2015-2019 U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS); Accessed April 8, 2022). 323
“Brilliant Baby,” Oakland Promise, Accessed May 16,
2021,
https://oaklandpromise.org/brilliant-baby/.
322
“Mayor Schaaf Announces Guaranteed Income Pilot,
Oakland Resilient Families,” City of Oakland,
March 23, 2021,
https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/2021/mayor-schaaf-announces-guaranteed-income-pilot-oakland- resilient-families.
321
Ibid., 78.
101

would create greater access to opportunity for Black children and could thereby boost Black communities.

Tradeoﬀs:●
Cash payments are a common reparative strategy to repair past harm.● Cash payments enable recipients to self-determine how the funds would be best spent.●
Cash payments targeted at the most low-income residents will not repair discrimination against wealthier residents.●
The guaranteed minimum income could likely not be scaled to cover all Black families in poverty. It would be a limited time program.● Community investment strategies are likely more politically feasible and were requested more often by interviewees.●
It may be diﬃcult to pay cash reparations based on race, given Proposition 209.● It may be diﬃcult to determine eligibility based on race.

Criteria:●
Eﬀectiveness: Cash payments would be highly impactful and are a model in other reparations eﬀorts to redress past harms.●
Equity: Likely only the most low-income families would receive payments● Political feasibility: The Oakland guaranteed income and Oakland Promise programs are existing, and bolstering them would likely be feasible, though not at the level of scale necessary.

Alternative: Schools
“I think the school system we had growing up was one of the best. I would like the school system to revert back to teaching basic things, community schools, rather than bussed out and moved out. Because our community suﬀers from lack of having very good schools. Part of very good schools - not only did we have very high scholastic expectations, we also had Black teachers.

Parents, friends, teachers went to our churches. There was a whole community that now is not in existence for Black people who live in Oakland.”
-Maxine Ussery
Access to education is widely cited as a way to improve economic mobility and have better life outcomes. Five out of fourteen interviewees identiﬁed education as a top tool for reparations. Ideas on how to improve education range from improving school ﬁnancing to scholarships for Black students with descendents from West Oakland.

The Movement for Black Lives lists “educational opportunities” as its ﬁrst reparations demand, and suggests the following policies
;
326
326
“Reparations,” The Movement for Black Lives, Accessed
May 16, 2021,
https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/reparations/.
102

●
“Free access and open admissions to public community colleges and universities”● “Technical education (technology, trade and agricultural)”● “Educational support programs”●
“Retroactive forgiveness of student loans”●
“Support for lifetime learning programs”
There is currently a group advocating for reparations for Black students in Oakland. Led by the Justice for Oakland Students Coalition, the Reparations for Black Students campaign has been advocating for reparations in Oakland Uniﬁed School District.

Their demands
327
include closing the Black digital divide by providing technology to Black students, ceasing school closures and designating some schools “historically Black schools,” creating a Black Thriving Fund and Black Thriving Index to continue to evaluate progress and outcomes for Black students, allocating funds to college and career readiness, and more. Most of the demands in their resolution were passed in the OUSD Board, although the demand around halting school closures was not. Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell and the state trustee in charge of ﬁnances for the school district, Chris Learned, were against the part of the resolution around school closures.
328
Given the length of time engaging the community around their reparations demands, the detail in their demands, and their forward progress in OUSD, it is not recommended for the City of Oakland to design its own reparations program in the school district. Instead, it would be better to support the current initiative and possibly designate funding from the funding sources that will be recommended to be raised to pay reparations in Oakland.

Tradeoﬀs:●
Education is a primary tool for upward mobility and wealth generation● The Reparations for Black Students campaign has developed a robust set of reparative demands.●
There is ongoing controversy over the demand to prevent school closures.● These demands would beneﬁt children in the future; however, past harms are not as directly addressed.●
Particular care will be given to Black students.

Criteria:●
Eﬀectiveness: The Reparations for Black Students campaign addresses historic underinvestment in Black schools, though there are not as many beneﬁts to people impacted by past policies.●
Equity: School-age children would be most impacted.
328
Ashley McBride, “Oakland school board says yes to
reparations for Black students, no to banning
school closures,”
The Oaklandside
(Oakland, CA), March
25, 2021,
https://oaklandside.org/2021/03/25/oakland-Black-student-reparations-school-closures/. 327
“Reparations for Black Students,” Reparations for
Black Students, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://reparationsforBlackstudents.org/.
103

●
Political feasibility: This campaign has already won victories that can be further funded by the city.

Alternative: Museums/Monuments/Arts
Multiple advocacy organizations for reparations have included an arts and educational component based in teaching history. A major feature of systemic racism and white supremacy in the U.S. has been that much of the violence that has been perpetuated against Black people and communities has been obscured. Many white people are not aware of the Rosewood massacre or the Tulsa “riots.” There is also the issue of existing historical artifacts that could be repatriated to the communities from which they came.

The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America recommend a slew of programs, including “...creation of multi-media depictions of the history of Black people of African descent and textbooks for educational institutions that tell the story from the African descendants' perspective; development of historical monuments and museums; the return of artifacts and art to appropriate people or institutions…” 329
The Movement for Black Lives’ 5 point reparations demands include reparations “in the form of mandated public school curriculums that critically examine the political, economic, and social impacts of colonialism and slavery, and funding to support, build, preserve, and restore cultural assets and sacred sites to ensure the recognition and honoring of our collective struggles and triumphs.”
330
If Oakland is to reckon with its racial past, educational and artistic materials engaged in truth-telling may be one avenue to do so. Oakland’s racial history has been well documented. Some of this could be gathered into an online exhibit with the African American Museum & Library at Oakland. Curricula could be developed in Oakland schools to teach the city’s speciﬁc history.

Tradeoﬀs:●
Sharing the history is a crucial component to winning public support for racial equity and reparations programs. It is important for people of all races to understand our city’s and country’s racialized histories.●
These strategies do not materially beneﬁt past or present victims of racism and discrimination.●
This strategy would best be combined with others giving direct beneﬁts and funding to community services.
330
“Reparations,” The Movement for Black Lives, Accessed May 16, 2021, https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/reparations/.
329
“National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in
America,” N’COBRA, Accessed May 16, 2021,
http://ncobra.org/.
104

Criteria:●
Eﬀectiveness: This strategy would acknowledge past harms, though it would not provide material beneﬁts to Black residents.●
Equity: The general public could beneﬁt from the creation of exhibits or exhibitionary material.●
Political feasibility: An arts and culture strategy such as this would be more likely with a budget surplus.

Alternative: Apology
“West Oakland has never had a Truth and Reconciliation process.” -Alan Dones
Many have maintained that an apology is a necessary element of a reparations package.

As in the framework shared by Charles P. Henry, a reparations process may involve :
331
-An apology
-Restitution
-Compensation
-Rehabilitation
-Satisfaction
-Guarantees that action will not occur again
Without a formal apology, any reparations eﬀorts may be lacking.

Apologies have historically been made for race-related issues. Congress apologized for slavery in 2009.

Former President Bill Clinton apologized
for the Tuskegee experiment in
332
1997 (the experiment studied syphilis and did not make some of the Black study participants aware that they had the disease, leaving them to die of illness without treatment).

The County of Alameda issued an apology for “enslavement and racial segregation of African Americans” in a resolution in 2011.

The resolution
recommends “economic
333
reparations through programs including health, education, employment and housing to beneﬁt African Americans,” though it wasn’t until 2020 that they made a pledge to create an 333
Apologizing for Slavery of African Americans and
Calling for Reparations and Reconciliation,”
Alameda County, June 7, 2011,
http://www.acgov.org/board/bos_calendar/documents/DocsAgendaReg_06_07_11/PROCLAMATIONS _COMMENDATIONS/Carson_Miley_Slavery_of_African_Americans.pdf. 332
Manisha Sinha, “The Long History of American Slavery
Reparations,”
The Wall Street Journal
(New
York, NY), September 20, 2019,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-history-of-american-slavery-reparations-11568991623. 331
Charles P. Henry,
Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial
Reparations
(New York: New York University
Press, 2007), 2.
105

action plan.

The 2011 resolution also calls on the State of California to pass a similar 334
resolution and the federal government to “issue a formal apology to African Americans.” Note that while an apology is necessary, it is not suﬃcient. An apology that does not redress harms will not tangibly improve the lives of people who have been harmed.

Tradeoﬀs:●
An apology is necessary but not suﬃcient. Additional strategies must be employed.● An apology will acknowledge the harm done in the city’s racialized history and indicate a commitment to cessation of harm moving forward.● An apology could potentially invite risk of litigation.● Apologies have little or no monetary cost.●
Other apologies have been given with little impact.

Criteria:●
Eﬀectiveness: An apology acknowledges past harm and can be paired with a pledge to change outcomes and opportunity moving forward. However, it must be paired with investment to be impactful.●
Equity: All would beneﬁt from an acknowledgement of harm done.● Political feasibility: The county has already taken this step. It would likely not be too diﬃcult for the city to take this step as well.

Funding Sources
There are a variety of possible funding sources that can be directed to reparations. Many city, state, and federal agencies have equity initiatives that could potentially direct some funding to reparations. As a lot of these funds are already dedicated, a more generative proposition may be new legislation at the state level or a bond measure at the city level.

Multiple funding sources may be able to be cobbled together as well. A key consideration is whether reparations can be funded in ongoing programs, rather than a one-shot approach.

Funding Alternative: Bond Measure
The city could approve a bond measure for reparations. Bond measure KK, for $600 million, was approved in Oakland in 2016, for infrastructure and aﬀordable housing.

It is paid
335
through property taxes.
335
“Oakland, California, Bond Issue, Measure KK (November
2016),” Ballotpedia, Accessed May 16,
2021, https://ballotpedia.org/Oakland,_California,_Bond_Issue,_Measure_KK_(November_2016). 334
“A Resolution of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Seeking the Support of Community Reparations for African Americans,” Resolution R-2020-412, Alameda County, October 6, 2020, http://www.acgov.org/board/bos_calendar/documents/DocsAgendaReg_10_06_20/GENERAL%20AD MINISTRATION/Regular%20Calendar/Supervisor%20Miley_302233.pdf. 106

The City of Oakland Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) bolstered an Acquisition and Rehabilitation Program with $3 million from the bond. It is aimed at “developing, protecting and preserving long term aﬀordable housing.” Loans can go up to
336
$150,000 per unit, meaning this could potentially serve as few as 20 units. 337
If a similar bond measure were passed for reparations, $600 million would be equivalent to about $5,825 per Black resident of Oakland. However, passing a similar bond measure may be diﬃcult due to challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Funding Alternative: Paving Program
Funded with $100 million by Measure KK, Oakland is undergoing a three-year paving program, started in 2019.
$75 million of the plan
will go to local streets. The plan includes
338
a ﬁrst-in-the-nation equity weighting factor and plan, where not only streets in need of repaving will be paved, but streets that also serve “underserved communities” -- including “people of color, low-income households, people with disabilities, households with a severe rent burden, people with limited English proﬁciency, and youth/seniors.” 339
While these funds are addressing racial equity by diverting resources to communities most in need, they would not necessarily be reparative. They do improve transportation options for communities that may have been harmed by other transportation projects. There is potential for this plan to be more reparative by expanding on services provided, especially along the lines of a “reparations-style infrastructure package” advocated for by Charles T.

Brown at the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University.

Funding Alternative: Business Tax
The Oakland business tax is one of the biggest sources of revenue for the city. A task force is currently examining whether this tax can be made more progressive, where the most proﬁtable companies pay a bigger share of the tax. The tax currently ranges from .0006 of gross receipts at or over $100,001 for grocers to .0045 of receipts at or over $13,336 for recreation and entertainment or .01395 of receipts at or over $1,001 for residential or commercial property.

The cannabis tax is currently
.12% for gross receipts up to $1.5
340
340
“City of Oakland Business Tax Classiﬁcation & Rate
Schedule,” City of Oakland, Accessed May 16,
2021,
339
Ibid.
338
Oakland Department of Transportation, “OakDOT Kicks
Oﬀ Three-Year, $100 Million,
Equity-Focused Paving Plan,” City of Oakland, August 22, 2019, https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/2019/oakdot-kicks-oﬀ-three-year-100-million-equity-focused-pavin g-plan.
337
Ibid.
336
“Bond Measure KK 1-4 Unit Acquisition and Rehabilitation Program,” Housing and Community Development Department, City of Oakland, Accessed May 16, 2021, https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Bond-Measure-KK-1-4-Unit-Acquisition-and-Reha bilitation-Program.pdf.
107

million, and then 5% for medical sales and 6.5% for non-medical sales up to $5 million, and then 5% for medical and 9.5% for non-medical above that. 341
A “Blue Ribbon Task Force” is currently looking at this issue and will be proposing recommendations for making the business tax more progressive. The task force has nine members, with ﬁve that are business representatives.

Their recommendations must be
342
made by October 31, 2021, and the proposed changes to the tax will go to a voter referendum in 2022.

If the task force recommendations
include a diversion of revenue
343
and/or an increase in the tax and in revenue, this could be allocated to reparations programs.

The Business License Tax in the 2021 - 2023 proposed budget is expected to generate $94,305,865 or about 5.1% of the city’s revenue.

If 9.4% of the tax were diverted to
344
reparations (which would be a high appropriation), a $10 million fund could be created. A $10 million fund would be equivalent to about $97 per Black resident. Even if the amount of the tax were increased, it is unlikely that this tax alone could generate signiﬁcant revenue for a reparations fund. However, it could be used on a menu of funding sources.

Funding Alternative: Slavery Era Disclosure Reparations Fund
The 2005 Oakland ordinance requiring insurance companies, ﬁnancial services, and other industries to document their ties to slavery called for a reparations fund to be paid by these companies. The fund did not set payments to be mandatory. Oakland could consider setting guidelines to the fund or even mandating payments with a future ordinance. The city is still in the process of re-committing to this ordinance.

Funding Alternative: Wells Fargo Lawsuit
The City of Oakland, led by the City Attorney Barbara J. Parker, has brought a lawsuit against Wells Fargo & Company and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. for racially discriminatory lending practices targeting sub-prime mortgages to Black and Latinx communities. The suit claims that foreclosures on properties with these loans led to a decrease in property taxes for the City. The case alleges that Wells Fargo issued subprime mortgages to Black and Latinx borrowers even with the knowledge that they qualiﬁed for better loans and that the 344
“Revenue Tables: FY 2021-23 Proposed Policy Budget,”
City of Oakland, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://stories.opengov.com/oaklandca/published/2cgEW4ZmT. 343
“Blue Ribbon Equitable Business Tax Task Force,”
City of Oakland, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://www.oaklandca.gov/boards-commissions/blue-ribbon-equitable-business-tax-task-force. 342
Ricky Rodas, “Oakland business tax reform put on
hold until 2022,”
The Oaklandside
(Oakland, CA),
July 15, 2020,
https://oaklandside.org/2020/07/15/oakland-business-tax-reform-put-on-hold-until-2022/. 341
“Cannabis Business Tax Rate Schedule,” City of Oakland, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/2020-Cannabis-Business-Tax-Table.pdf. https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Business-Tax-Classiﬁcation-and-Rate-Tables-2020. pdf.
108

loans they oﬀered would likely lead to foreclosure.

The suit was submitted under the Fair
345
Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination and predatory practices in housing and lending.

It is not yet determined whether the city will win
the case or what the potential payout
346
would be. If the City were to win the case, some of the funds could be used to pay for reparations. However, this would likely be a one-time allocation.

Funding Alternative: Build into Transportation Projects The Link21 plan is a mega-regional plan to improve rail service throughout northern California, including a second transbay rail crossing. Funding for the plan so far involves $110 million from BART from bond Measure RR, $50 million from MTC, and $1 million per year from the California State Transportation Agency.

Link21 is prioritizing equity;
347
however, as they are early in the planning process, funding towards equity initiatives is not yet determined.

If the Link21 transbay crossing involves the demolition of I-980, reparations could be built into the project. Reparations could also be built into future transportation projects undertaken by a variety of agencies.

Plan Bay Area 2050, the latest regional transportation plan of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), has directed funds to “communities of concern” in transportation, housing, economic, and environmental strategies. $8 billion of $579 billion, or about 1.4%, is directed to “Support Community-Led Transportation Enhancements in Communities of Concern.” This initiative will “Provide direct funding to historically marginalized communities to fund locally identiﬁed transportation needs.” It directs $10 billion out of $468 billion or about 2.1% in Housing Strategies to “Provide Targeted Mortgage, Rental and Small Business Assistance to Communities of Concern,” which will “Provide assistance to low-income communities and communities of color to address the legacy of exclusion and predatory lending, while helping to grow locally owned businesses.” Housing strategies include eﬀorts to bolster aﬀordable housing, and others. Economic strategies include a state-wide universal basic income and $10 billion out of $234 billion to “Invest in High-Speed Internet in Underserved 347
“From Here to There: Link21 Program Development,”
Link21, BART and Capitol Corridor, Accessed
May 16, 2021, https://link21program.org/en/about/program-development. 346
“Federal Appellate Court Upholds City Attorney’s Right to Continue to Prosecute Lawsuit Against Wells Fargo for Mortgage Discrimination Against Black and Latinx Borrowers,” News from Oakland
City Attorney Barbara J. Parker
20, no. 7 (2020),
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/NEWS-FROM-OAKLAND-CITY-ATTORNEY-BARBARA-J--PARKER.h tml?soid=1102467259990&aid=qEmlTwTO9f8.
345
“Judge rules that Oakland's lawsuit against Wells Fargo for racially discriminatory lending practices can proceed,”
News from Oakland City Attorney Barbara
J. Parker
18, no. 5 (2018),
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/June-2018-Newsletter.html?soid=1102467259990&aid=T-hlmG xP-1M.
109

Low-Income Communities - Provide direct subsidies and construct public infrastructure to ensure all communities have aﬀordable access to high-speed internet.” 348
As this is a regional transportation plan, the amount given to Oakland would likely be a percentage. Plan Bay Area estimates that there are almost 8 million people served in the 9 county Bay Area.

As Oakland’s population is approximately
433,031, Oakland could
349
estimate about 5.4% of funds to be diverted to the city. 5.4% of the approximately $18 billion for communities of concern would be about $972 million. If all of this were earmarked for reparations (which is not likely), it would be about $9,431 per Black resident and would be more similar to an appropriate amount for reparations.

Funding Alternative: Federal Funds
Federal funding is one alternative for a reparations program. H.R. 1319, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, dedicates $1.9 trillion in stimulus money for recovery after the pandemic. The plan allocates $219.8 billion to states,
with $26.2 billion likely to go to
350
California and $14.6 billion to local governments in California.

It has been described as
351
“biggest infusion of funds to state, local and tribal governments in decades.” However,
352
the funds must be spent on eﬀorts to mitigate impacts of Covid-19, address revenue loss due to the pandemic, or “to make necessary investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.”
Creative programming would be needed
to design a reparations program
353
that could meet these requirements. It is likely that a lot of this funding is already determined to make up for budget shortfalls and other programs. Oakland could consider using some of this funding for a one-time reparations package, and then supplement it yearly with a percentage of revenue.

President Biden’s proposed American Jobs Plan involved improving transportation infrastructure, improving water, electric, and broadband systems, updating buildings, 353
Anna Horevay and Kenneth Neighbors, McGuire Woods,
LLP, “$350 Billion Slated for State, Local
Governments as President Signs American Rescue Plan,” JD Supra, March 15, 2021, https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/350-billion-slated-for-state-local-8315859/. 352
Manny Fernandez and Sabrina Tavernise, “Stimulus
Bill Transforms Options For State and Local
Governments,”
The New York Times
(New York, NY), March
15, 2021,
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/13/us/stimulus-biden-states-cities.html. 351
Joey Garrison and Javier Zarracina, USA TODAY, “How
much money will your state get if Biden's
COVID-19 relief bill passes?,”
USA Today,
March 4,
2021,
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/2021/03/04/how-much-money-each-state-would- receive-if-joe-biden-covid-stimulus-bill-passes/6892464002/. 350
Anna Horevay and Kenneth Neighbors, McGuire Woods,
LLP, “$350 Billion Slated for State, Local
Governments as President Signs American Rescue Plan,” JD Supra, March 15, 2021, https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/350-billion-slated-for-state-local-8315859/. 349
“Frequently Asked Questions,” Play Bay Area 2050,
November 3, 2020,
https://www.planbayarea.org/about/frequently-asked-questions. 348
“A Blueprint for the Bay Area’s Future,” Plan Bay Area 2050, Accessed May 16, 2021, https://www.planbayarea.org/sites/default/ﬁles/FinalBlueprintRelease_December2020_Strategies.pd f.
110

creating jobs, and investing in manufacturing, among other ideas.

The plan proposed to
354
spend 1% of GDP every year for 8 years, resulting in about $2 trillion, and proposed one-time investments. Signiﬁcantly, this plan included a component of “redressing historic inequities,” which allocated $20 billion to “reconnect neighborhoods cut oﬀ by historic investments” and “ensure new projects increase opportunity, advance racial equity and environmental justice, and promote aﬀordable access.” The plan speciﬁcally calls out the Claiborne Expressway in New Orleans as an example of a highway that divided a community and a problem that can be addressed. Since this plan was proposed, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has been proposed, allocating $1 billion towards reconnecting communities.
355
This money could certainly apply to the removal of I-980 and could potentially be utilized for reparations approaches relating to transit or transit-oriented development. As Oakland’s population is about 433,031, and the country is 330,269,563, one way to estimate the proportion of the fund to Oakland would be to say that proportionally, the population is 0.13% of the country. 0.13% of $20 billion would be $26 million. That would be the equivalent of $252 per Black resident of Oakland. If only $15 billion were allocated to this eﬀort, 0.13% would be $19.5 million, or $189 per Black resident.

Lastly, the California State Transportation Agency has been ﬁelding earmark requests from congressional members for top projects. An East Bay reparations program could be suggested as an earmark program.

Funding Alternative: Appropriation from State and/or County Collaboration with state and county eﬀorts may be one pathway from which to approach funding. Both will be making recommendations for reparations. As the Alameda County Board of Supervisors determines the form their reparations will take, they may see a beneﬁt in oﬀering funds to go through city programs to address systemic racism and pay reparations.

One idea is to ask the state to make funding available for local grants for reparations. Cities or regions such as Oakland or the East Bay area could apply for funding based on the speciﬁc history of racism and discrimination in each locality, to be applied in tandem with community involvement and decision-making. Any state eﬀorts could be enhanced with city- and county-level community engagement and understanding. To borrow from Leo Bazile’s metaphor, cities could provide recipes for local “gumbo” that could target 355
“UPDATED FACT SHEET: Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” The White House,
August 2, 2021,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/brieﬁng-room/statements-releases/2021/08/02/updated-fact-sheet-bip artisan-infrastructure-investment-and-jobs-act/.
354
“FACT SHEET: The American Jobs Plan,” The White House, March 21, 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/brieﬁng-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-america n-jobs-plan/.
111

reparations to speciﬁc harms in their localities. Legislation may be needed at the state level, and an ordinance at the county level, in order to fund any reparations programs.

In order to inﬂuence the state to put forth legislation that could fund reparations locally, Oakland City Council, the mayor, and grassroot organizations could mount a coalition in support of local reparations applied state-wide. Localities will have a better sense of their history and speciﬁc needs, and could provide recipes of the reparations “gumbo” that would be best applied locally. Cities and mayors across California could potentially collaborate to advocate for this. The state legislature could pass legislation allocating new funding to reparations.

The Oakland cannabis equity program was partially funded by the state. In 2019 they were given $1,657,201.65,
and in 2020 they were allocated
$6,576,705.76.

Some of this
356
357
funding provides business supports like technical assistance and fee waivers, while some goes to grants and loans to start or grow cannabis businesses.

The funding was
358
authorized by the California Cannabis Equity Act of 2018 established by Senate Bill 1294 (Bradford 2018) and the Budget Act of 2019, Item 1111-490 – Reappropriation. 359
If similar state funding were made available for reparations, $8,233,907.41 would be equivalent to about $80 per Black resident of Oakland.

Multiple state agencies also have equity programs that could be utilized for reparations.

The California Air Resources Board has a “Sustainable Transportation Equity Project.” Through this project, local governments, federally recognized tribes, and non-proﬁt community-based organizations can apply for “Planning & Capacity Building Grants” or “Implementation Grants” for programs for “clean transportation and capacity building projects in disadvantaged and low-income communities.”
There is $1.75 million in the
360
360
“Sustainable Transportation Equity Project,” California Air Resources Board, CA.gov, Accessed May
16, 2021,
https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/low-carbon-transportation-investments-and-air-quality-i mprovement-program-1.
359
“Bureau of Cannabis Control Announces Local Equity
Grant Funding Recipients,” Bureau of
Cannabis Control, Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, State of California, October 9, 2019, https://bcc.ca.gov/about_us/documents/media_20191009.pdf. 358
“Equity Loan and Grant Program,” Elevate Impact Oakland, City of Oakland, Accessed May 16,
2021, https://www.elevateimpactoakland.com/.
357
“California Cannabis Equity Grants Program Provides
$30 Million in Grant Funding for Local
Jurisdictions,” Governor’s Oﬃce of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), CA.gov, April 21, 2021,
https://business.ca.gov/california-cannabis-equity-grants-program-provides-30-million-in-grant-fundi ng-for-local-jurisdictions/.
356
“Bureau of Cannabis Control Announces Local Equity
Grant Funding Recipients,” Bureau of
Cannabis Control, Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, State of California, October 9, 2019, https://bcc.ca.gov/about_us/documents/media_20191009.pdf. 112

pool for the Planning and Capacity Building Grants and $17.75 million for the Implementation Grants.

Oakland was awarded a $190,000 grant for a “Sustainable Transportation Options to the MLK, Jr. Shoreline” planning eﬀort. Approximately $130,000 is going to a community organizing group, the East Oakland Collective, to “lead the planning and engagement processes.” This process is still new and hopes to make progress this summer. 361
The amount in these grants is not very large. Even if a full grant of this size were diverted to reparations, a $190,000 grant would be less than two dollars per Black resident of Oakland.

However, Oakland could source piecemeal funding from multiple equity programs to fund reparations.

The California Transportation Commission’s “Active Transportation Program” includes a set-aside for 25% of funding going to disadvantaged communities. The California Transportation Commission also opens up its guidelines to revision every 2 years. A case could be made for stronger equity and reparations considerations.

Funding Alternative: Philanthropic
It is also feasible to seek out philanthropic partners to fund a reparations program. The Oakland guaranteed income program is funded by philanthropic partners, including Family Independence Initiative and the national Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.

The initiative
362
has raised $6.75 million so far, expecting to send 80% of it directly to families. $5,400,000
363
will be needed to fund the pilot.

If Oakland were able to generate similar philanthropic interest for reparations, a $5,400,000 fund would be equivalent to about $52 per Black resident. If $10 million were raised, exceeding the guaranteed income program, this would be about $97 per Black resident. Many more philanthropic resources would be needed for this to be an impactful strategy.
363
“Frequently Asked Questions,” Oakland Resilient Families, Accessed May 16, 2021,
https://oaklandresilientfamilies.org/faqs.
362
“Mayor Schaaf Announces Guaranteed Income Pilot,
Oakland Resilient Families,” City of Oakland,
March 23, 2021,
https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/2021/mayor-schaaf-announces-guaranteed-income-pilot-oakland- resilient-families.
361
Emily Ehlers, email message to author, May 11, 2021.
113

Recommendation
Coordinate with state and county eﬀorts and advocate for listening sessions and community engagement including community-based organizations, community leaders, and marginalized community members, especially residents of color. Ad hoc groups may be formed to further investigate the ideas proposed here and to make recommendations for programming that can pay reparations. Lobbying for state and county funding to provide local reparations may be a strategy with the most resources and deepest reach.

Conclusion
As the country continues its racial reckoning and is increasingly concerned with racial equity, it is an opportune moment to truly acknowledge anti-Black systemic racism and discrimination and pay reparations. Oakland has a history of racialized public policies leading to past and present disparities. Reparations must be at a scale large enough and beyond a one-time investment in order to truly redress these harms. Oakland may consider a menu of community investment programs to pay reparations for complex harms. In doing so, it would emerge as a national leader in “paying the bill” for lost and denied opportunity and prosperity amongst Black communities. Creating better opportunity for Black communities would not only beneﬁt those communities, but would compound to beneﬁt Oakland’s economy and social life as well. 114

Rules & Legislation CommitteeApril 14, 2022

Rules & Legislation Committee
April 14, 2022