‘Our dreams were shattered’: the Black Californians forced from the city they built

In the 60s, the white city of Hayward removed residents of Russell City. Now a $1m reparations fund has been approved – and important histories are coming to light In the early 1940s, Gloria Moore’s parents migrated west from Arkansas, seeking – as many Black southerners did at the time – work, and a reprieve from poverty and Jim Crow. They first found jobs working in the wartime shipbuilding industry in Portland, Oregon, before ultimately settling in Russell City – a small, unincorporated community in the San Francisco East Bay, and a bastion of Black and Latino culture and life. There, the Moores bought several acres of land, built a house and raised Gloria and her three siblings.