Sacramento, UC Davis Partner On Black Reparations Research

Kate Washington | Special To The OBSERVER What could reparations for Black Sacramentans look like? History graduate students at UC Davis are trying to answer that question by investigating past discrimination against the Black community in Sacramento during the 1950s and beyond. A partnership among Professor Gregory Downs, the City of Sacramento and the Greater Sacramento Urban League is leading the effort to make things right. Downs, a scholar of the 19th century American South, and his students are examining postwar redevelopment efforts – then called “slum clearance” – in Sacramento that forced a thriving Black community out of the city’s old West End, the neighborhood that now encompasses the Capitol Mall and Old Sacramento. They delved into the archives of a civil rights lawyer, court cases, newspapers, and more, reporting their findings to Kelly Fong Rivas, senior advisor to Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg; and Troy Williams, chief impact officer at the Greater Sacramento Urban League. Kelly Fong Rivas, became Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s racial equity adviser following the reckoning after George Floyd’s murder in 2020. She has been partnering with UC Davis and the Greater Sacramento Urban League on a Sacramento reparations plan. Gregory Urquiaga, UC Davis The research...