Southern California

Altadena community mourns loss of historic Black neighborhoods to wildfires

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Altadena residents spoke out and mourned the loss of the city’s historic Black neighborhoods. Many are now concerned what those communities will look like going forward. Velena Jones reports.

Thousands of acres in Altadena have been destroyed in the Eaton Fire. Among them is the town's historically Black community.

Over the past few days, residents have experienced multiple levels of trauma, from people being reported dead to homes destroyed. Now, many are left wondering what their community will look like once they rebuild.

For many, it's not just the loss of their homes but it's also the loss of their community.

Among the ashes in Altadena includes the community’s history of acceptance and diversity.

“The most important thing my dad shared with me. He says, make sure you buy your house,” said Altadena resident Kevin Williams. “You know, so when we bought this house in 1993, the whole thing was to buy it and create generational wealth. We were not going to leave.”

Williams and his family moved to Altadena in 1965 as a child. While many families were being pushed out of other communities and redlined, the Williams family found refuge in Altadena with a dream of creating generational wealth.

“One of the other reasons why we wanted to maintain this residence is for the legacy purposes, for them to be able to inherit this house, so that they could stay. It's tough,” he told NBC Bay Area’s Velena Jones.

Williams lost his garage in the fire, but his home was saved. Now, he said that he is concerned for those in the Black community who weren’t as lucky. He explained many of their homes were inherited and were not insured.

“Are they going to be able to rebuild?” Williams said. “Who's going to come into the neighborhood? What's going to happen to the African American people who trailblazed?”

Michelle Zack’s Altadena home she’s lived in for 40 years was also lost in the fire. She’s also a historian and explained at one point, Altadena was around 48% African American. She added that today, that number is closer to 20%.

“Pasadena was doing a lot of urban development, urban renewal. And it used to be the urban renewal equals Negro removal is what was actually said,” she said. “And so, a lot of people of color moved up from Pasadena to Altadena. All of a sudden, People of Color were able to purchase homes in areas that had formerly not been accessible to them”

As the community looks to heal, they hope their legacy of diversity will be preserved.

“We love Altadena and what it represents to us. And the kind of place that it is, is a rare, good example for America, I think, for how we've all gotten along and been very diverse,” Zack said.

Williams told NBC Bay Area that some Black families don’t plan to rebuild, others are concerned with gentrification and are hoping the community they love will come back stronger.

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