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Former residents of Russell City, a once-thriving African American and Latino community on the Hayward shoreline, could soon receive payments for being run out of their homes in the 1960s thanks to a proposed “redress fund”.
Hayward Mayor Mark Salinas and Alameda County supervisors Nate Miley and Elisa Márquez announced the proposal last week, saying they’ve earmarked $900,000 for the fund.
“Two years after Alameda County formally apologized for its role in the destruction of Russell City, we are progressing beyond the written word and toward tangible action through the establishment of a Russell City Redress Fund,” Márquez said July 10. “While neither equal to nor comparable with the depth of loss experienced, this is a fundamental step towards repair and healing.”
Founded in 1853, Russell City was destroyed by county officials wielding the cudgel of eminent domain to acquire homes and businesses in 1963, according to a 2024 report by Hayward’s Russell City Arts Committee, a partnership formed between former Russell City residents and the city.
To justify such a move, the county declared the community blighted, a decision seen as a cruel irony by many residents since it followed years of neglect by county and Hayward officials who refused to provide basic services such as water, sewer, road maintenance and public safety to the area.
Eventually all 205 families and 33 individuals were evicted, the 200-acre town was bulldozed and the county allowed a developer to build an industrial park, after which Hayward annexed the area and finally began providing city services, according to the report “Erased by Eminent Domain: ‘The City May Be Gone, But the Memories Live On’ Russell City 1853-1963”.
Márquez and Miley have championed the creation of the redress fund as members of the county’s Ad Hoc Committee on Reparations and will contribute money from their offices’ discretionary budgets for the project — $400,000 from Márquez and $250,000 from Miley.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the funding at its meeting next Tuesday (July 22).
Hayward is kicking in $250,000 from its general fund, which the City Council included in last year’s budget, Salinas said.
In 2021, Hayward issued a formal apology and then initiated the Russell City Reparative Justice Project, which was led by a committee that included former residents and which ultimately recommended establishing the fund, along with other measures.
“I know we’re all sort of fixated on the money, and I get it, it’s a lot of money,” Salinas said. “But for the descendants of Russell City, there is no amount of money that we can identify that can restore what happened back in the ’50s and ’60s.”
Salinas said the city and county will work together to select a nonprofit foundation to administer the funds and establish eligibility criteria and protocols for applications.
“I’d love to have checks going out by the end of the year — that’s the optimistic Mayor Salinas talking,” he said.
— Story by Kiley Russell, Bay City News Service
This story ignores the fact that white families also lived in this area. It was not a “thriving” community, but one without basic services. Everyone was paid for their land. Nobody was evicted without compensation. It would be nice if all of these facts were included in the story.