The Alameda County Board of Supervisors has voted to create a roughly $1 million “redress fund” to bring some amount of justice to the former residents of Russell City, a once-thriving African American and Latino community on the Hayward shoreline.
The vote Tuesday authorized money to be set aside from several supervisors’ discretionary budgets to fund direct payments to victims of the community’s destruction, which was orchestrated in the 1960s by white politicians then sitting on the Board of Supervisors and the Hayward City Council.
“Let us be clear, the destruction of Russell City is an atrocity that cannot be undone,” said Supervisor Elisa Marquez. “The displacement of homes, businesses, and livelihoods represent a profound injustice that continues to affect former residents, including the elders who are still alive and living in Alameda County.”
Marquez noted that the vote comes two years after the county formally apologized for its role in the razing of Russell City and that her office will be contributing $400,000 to the fund.
While the initial agenda item also included $250,000 from Supervisor Nate Miley’s office and $250,000 from the city of Hayward, supervisors Nikki Fortunato Bas and David Haubert also pledged $100,000 each on Tuesday.
‘A fundamental and necessary step’
“We are progressing beyond words and taking tangible action today by establishing the Russell City Redress Fund,” said Marquez, who grew up in Hayward and served on the City Council before being elected to the Board of Supervisors.
“While this fund cannot match the magnitude of loss experienced, it is a fundamental and necessary step toward repairing, healing and justice for former Russell City residents and their families,” she said.
Founded in 1853, Russell City was destroyed by county officials who used 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 and eventually forcibly evicted all 205 families and 33 individuals living there and bulldozed the 200-acre town.
“(I)t wasn’t that long ago, yet it seems like a distant memory, but we still have people living in our community who were affected by this and their descendants.” Supervisor David Haubert
The county then allowed a developer to build an industrial park, after which Hayward annexed the area and finally began providing city services after years of neglect on the part of the city and county, according to the report “Erased by Eminent Domain: ‘The City May Be Gone, But the Memories Live On’ — Russell City 1853-1963.”
“Unless we confront our history, we are doomed to repeat it,” Haubert said. “And it wasn’t that long ago, yet it seems like a distant memory, but we still have people living in our community who were affected by this and their descendants.”