Palm Springs reaches $6M reparations deal with displaced minority families

Photo: Getty Images City council members of Palm Springs, California will soon vote on whether to approve a nearly $6 million reparations deal reached with Black and Latino families who were forcefully displaced from their homes in the 1960s, per the New York Times. The reparations deal stems from city officials destroying Section 14 of Palm Springs, a one-mile tract of land owned by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, to make room for commercial development in the mid-1960s. In the process, more than 230 structures in the neighborhood, which were predominantly occupied by Black and Latino families, were demolished and burned down by the city’s fire department. Section 14 was one of the few areas where minorities could live at the time due to discriminatory housing restrictions and a change in federal law that allowed the tribe to lease their land for up to 99 years. Palm Springs City Council is expected to vote later this week on a $5.9 million settlement accepted by former residents and descendants. The settlement also includes naming rights for a future public park and a racial healing center. The Palm Springs Section 14 Survivors group applauded the reparations deal reached with the...