The County Supervisor of Los Angeles County has urged the United States to give back the land and property previously stolen from black families.
The call from Janice Hahn came after a property in LA County that is now worth $72 million was returned to the descendants of a black family that were forced out of the home by racist authorities and the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.
In a speech, the supervisor said:
"I think this is the first time in our nation that a government has given land back to an African American family to make amends for past discrimination and atrocities and policies that were enacted, that really limited African Americans' ability to own businesses, to own property, to even buy homes in certain neighbourhoods. This is a very small step towards what I think this whole country should be doing - and that is working to repair and to make amends with the African Americans in this country."
She added:
"We as a collective society should apologize - not just to African Americans, but to indigenous Americans. There are a lot of people we should probably apologize to for how we literally stole land for public benefit. I learnt to swim in the ocean a couple of blocks from this lot, and I never knew this story."
Hahn also stated that she was previously unaware of just how much racism existed within the state of California, she said:
"I always thought the atrocities against African Americans happened in the South. Because I grew up in LA, we never saw drinking fountains that were labelled colored or white, so I felt like we in LA County sort of escaped some of those horrible injustices that were inflicted on African Americans in our country."
The $72 million home had belonged to the Bruce family, who had arrived from New Mexico in the early 20th century. The area they bought a home in became a popular tourist area in the 1920s and racist local officials believed that too many black people in the area might scare away tourists. With the assistance of the KKK and local by-laws, the Bruce's were eventually forced out.
[h/t: Daily Mail]
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