Erased by Eminent Domain: Russell City, 1853–1963 (Russell City Arts Committee, 2024)

The descendants’ own history of Russell City, the unincorporated Alameda County community cleared by eminent domain. Carries the chapter title “Russell City Labeled as ‘Blighted’ to Justify Eminent Domain.”

Documents the sequence: the Alameda County Board of Supervisors froze residential construction in Russell City in 1947; the county then declined to provide sanitation and water; and “by the early 1950s the county began referring to the community as a ‘blighted’ area in contrast to its active local economy.” The condition was manufactured before the word was applied.

Records that Mrs. Henry, who testified at the 1963 hearings, “was paid a mere $2,700 for her $7,500 investment,” and quotes her granddaughter Marian Johnson. Records that the county used a portion of the proceeds of the cleared land’s sale to acquire the site of the Santa Rita Jail (citing the Oakland Tribune, 23 April 1968).

Also documents Russell City as a seat of West Coast blues (Ray Charles, Etta James, T-Bone Walker, Lowell Fulson and Big Mama Thornton performed there), and the community’s own account of itself: “Russell City wasn’t just a collection of ‘blighted’ houses; it was home.”

Note on the record: the 1963 hearing transcript underlying Mrs. Henry’s testimony is held privately (the Doris & James Sanders family, per the report’s footnote) and was not independently retrieved.