While coverage of losses in the ongoing Los Angeles fires have often focused on celebrities such as Mel Gibson and Billy Crystal, little attention has been given to the losses in historic Black communities in Pasadena and Altadena in Los Angeles County.
More than 14,000 acres of land that Black families have shaped for generations has burned.
The community was a refuge during the Great Migration, with Black professionals escaping to the area from predominantly Black areas in Los Angeles. The area was one of the few places Black people could purchase homes in metro Los Angeles because the area was exempt from redlining.
Over time, the neighborhood transformed from a segregated enclave to an oasis for Black homeowners. Residents have included Jackie Robinson, Octavia Butler and Eldridge Cleaver, but also a lot of middle class Black people.
In 1960, Black residents comprised under 4% of Altadena’s population. However, schools forced to integrate, freeway construction and redevelopment conflicts caused “white flight” and people of color took their places.
By 1980, people of color made up 43% of Altadena’s population, the Altadena Heritage website states. However, due to gentrification and rapidly rising house prices, the Black population of the community has decreased. About 18% of Altadena’s residents and approximately 7% of Pasadena’s residents are Black, according to the most recent U.S. Census data.
“This will (displace) a lot of Black people,” said Sheila Foster who lost her home in the Eaton fire. “Some of them are elderly, some were barely holding on before the fire, trying to keep their property because it was going down from generation to generation up here.
Foster, 55, grew up in Atadena, and purchased her home there for $250,000 in 2001. According to realtor.com, as of Dec. 224, the average price of a home in Los Angeles County was $900,000.
Homeownership is a major way to accrue generational wealth, of which Black people have historically been at a disadvantage because of the effects of slavery, properties with lower valuation because they’re in Black communities and predatory lending.
Like Rodney Nickerson, 83, some had paid off their homes; others, however, were uninsured — the result of insurance companies pulling out of California due in part to excessive fire risk.
As a result, families who lost homes, clothing and all their possessions are essentially on their own, with next to no financial help to rebuild their lives.
“The Altadena fire is even sadder knowing it’s one of the only areas in that part of LA county with a historic & large Black community,” one user wrote on X.
Recognizing that problem, community activists in Los Angeles set up a GoFundMe page and spreadsheet to collect money specifically for Altadena families who need help. By Friday evening, there were 112 families on the list.
The stress of losing everything was apparent in a video posted by Instagram user lacedbyleas, a Black woman. Standing in front of the blackened husk of her home — not much more than the concrete foundation, a chimney and a warped garage door — she put on a brave face, with a wan smile and throwing up deuces.
Then, moments later, she burst into tears: “We lived here our whole lives,” she sobbed.
Another older Black man — known around the neighborhood as Walt and filmed in an Instagram video posted by walkgoodla — didn’t pretend things were OK
“I used to be a guy who had everything. I lost everything,” he said, his voice breaking as he wept. “I spent my whole life helping people. I didn’t think it would happen to me. But it did!”
Later in the video, Walt acknowledges “I have my life and my health,” so he is fortunate in that respect, he says. Still, the disaster hurts: “I’ve been knocked down before, but not like this.”