A descendant of the first Black family to own a home in affluent Piedmont, California, is suing the city for forcing her great-grandfather to sell his home and inducing the family to flee nearly a century ago amid threats of mob violence by white residents.
Sidney Dearing and his family were driven from their home in 1925 through threats, violence, terror, and what the lawsuit deems a fraudulent use of eminent domain by the city. The civil lawsuit filed by his descendants against the city of Piedmont now seeks restitution for the loss of their property and generational wealth. The home is now worth $2 million.
The complaint filed on Feb. 2 by Jordana Ackerman on behalf of the Dearing family estate in Alameda County Superior Court (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star) chronicles the stark ways in which city officials, including the police chief, conspired to wrest the valuable property away from the family for openly racist reasons, which current city leaders fulsomely acknowledge.
Sidney Dearing was a businessman who owned a successful jazz club and eatery, the Creole Cafe in West Oakland. In January 1924, Dearing and his wife, Irene, became the first Black homeowners of Piedmont by purchasing a house at 67 Wildwood Avenue in a neighborhood of stately manses overlooking the San Francisco Bay, and moved in with their two children…