This episode of CRT2 takes a look at eminent domain under the Fifth Amendment “Takings Clause,” and the way it has been used to disproportionately displace Black and other racialized communities in the name of urban renewal and “public use.” We talk to Kavon Ward, the founder of Where is My Land, and Professor Flores Forbes, an urban planner and adjunct professor at Columbia Law School.
To learn more about Where is My Land, visit:
“It takes people knowing about what happened and galvanizing communities and bringing people together to fight for policy change that would allow for land to be returned.”
– Kavon Ward
This episode of CRT2 takes a look at eminent domain under the Fifth Amendment “Takings Clause,” and the way it has been used to disproportionately displace Black and other racialized communities in the name of urban renewal and “public use.” Indeed, the displacement of Black communities in particular was so synonymous with “urban renewal” in the United States that it was regularly referred to as “Negro removal.” We see the prevalence of this trend in cases across the country, in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York, just to name a few. The land is declared “blighted” and seized under the power of eminent domain to make way for various urban planning projects.
In New York City for example, the Lincoln Center and surrounding area was once known as San Juan Hill, a thriving community consisting largely of African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Puerto Rican residents. It was famous for its bustling jazz clubs and dance halls, and was the birthplace of the Charleston, bebop, and famous musicians like Thelonious Monk and James P. Johnson. An area of Central Park was once known as Seneca Village—another thriving community—founded by free African Americans in 1855. Many of its African American residents owned property, which granted them a right to vote at the time. The land was seize to create Central Park.
In more recent times, land was seized through eminent domain to make way for expanding the Columbia University campus into the West Harlem Manhattanville neighbourhood. One unique aspect of this taking, however, is the Community Benefits Agreement that Columbia entered into with the West Harlem Development Corporation in 2009.
Nevertheless, we have seen some progress toward justice for these communities and what reparations might look like. Bruce’s Beach was seized from Willa and Charles Bruce under the power of eminent domain exercised by a local Southern California government in 1924. It was a beachfront property along the Southern California coast, where they operated a flourishing beach resort for Black families—it was one of the few places where Black people could have access to a beach. In 2021, almost 100 years after the taking, the property was approved to be returned back to the Bruce family.
In this episode, we talk to Kavon Ward, the founder of Where is My Land about her ground-breaking work surrounding the return of Bruce’s Beach, and the road to reparations for these communities who had land stolen from them. We also talk to Professor Flores Forbes, an urban planner and adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, and his work in relation to the Columbia University Manhattanville expansion.
Featuring
Kavon Ward, Founder of Where is My Land
Kavon is the founder of Justice for Bruce’s Beach. She started her advocacy around Bruce’s Beach on Juneteenth, 2020 when she and other co-founders put together a picnic at Bruce’s Beach to shed light on Black history in Manhattan Beach, specifically the land stolen from Black landowners Willa and Charles Bruce. Kavon is a reparative justice consultant and Co-founder of Where Is My Land, an organization focused on getting Black land back nationally. She is a former Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) fellow and public policy activist. Kavon holds a BA in Communications and a Masters of Public Administration.
Flores Forbes, Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School
Flores is an urban planner, writer and former Columbia University administrator, and is currently an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School where he teaches Critical Race Theory. He has written two books on race, radical urban politics and mass incarceration. In 2020 he was appointed to President Bollinger’s Anti-Racist Taskforce and led the planning effort to combat anti-Black racism in the communities surrounding Columbia University. He has a BA from San Francisco State University and a Masters of Urban Planning from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service NYU.
CREDITS
Written, edited, and produced by Lias Borshan, Dora Chan, and Jane Spencer.
SOURCES
Brief of Amici Curiae National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, ARP, Hispanic Alliance of Atlantic County, Inc., Citizens in Action, Cramer Hill Resident Association, Inc., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Support of Petitioners, Kelo v. City of New London, 545 US 469 (2005).
Chappell, Bill, “The Black family who won the return of Bruce’s Beach will sell it back to LA County,” NPR (Jan. 4, 2023).
CUNY, “Race / Ethnic Change by Neighborhood” (Excel file). Center for Urban Research, The Graduate Center, CUNY. May 23, 2011. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
Fullilove, Mindy Thompson, “Eminent Domain & African Americans: What is the Price of the Commons?” Perspectives on Eminent Domain.
Kaur v. N.Y. State Urban Dev. Corp., 933 N.E.2d 721, 724 (N.Y. 2010), cert. denied sub nom. Tuck-It-Away, Inc. v. N.Y. State Urban Dev. Corp., 131 S. Ct. 822 (2010).
Kaur v. New York State Urban Dev. Corp., 72 A.D.3d 1, 2009 N.Y. Slip Op. 8976, 892 N.Y.S.2d 8 (N.Y. App. Div. 2009)
Somin, Ilya, Let There Be Blight: Blight Condemnations in New York After Goldstein and Kaur, 38 Fordham Urb. L.J. 1193 (2011), 1199.
Ware, Leland. Plessy’s Legacy: The Government’s Role in the Development and Perpetuation of Segregated Neighborhoods. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, vol. 7, no. 1, 2021, pp. 92–109.
Pritchett, Wendell, The “Public Menace” of Blight: Urban Renewal and the Private Uses of Eminent Domain, 21 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 1 (2003).
Xia, Roxanna, “Bruce’s Beach can return to descendants of Black family in landmark move signed by Newsom,” LA Times (Sep. 30, 2021).
FURTHER READING
Barron, James, Before Lincoln Center, San Juan Hill Was a Vibrant Black Community, New York Times (Feb. 15, 2023).
Carpenter, Dick M., and John K. Ross. “Testing O’Connor and Thomas: Does the Use of Eminent Domain Target Poor and Minority Communities?” Urban Studies, vol. 46, no. 11, 2009, pp. 2447–61.
McFadden, Robbyn, Uncovering the history of Seneca Village in New York City, CBS News (Feb. 6, 2022).
Mystal, Elie, Let’s Talk About the Taking of Black Land, The Nation (Feb. 28, 2022).
US Commission on Civil Rights, Briefing Report: The Civil Rights Implications of Eminent Domain Abuse (June 2014).
TRANSCRIPT