{"id":167719,"date":"2026-02-07T04:04:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/167719\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T04:04:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:04:32","slug":"great-granddaughter-of-piedmonts-first-black-residents-forced-out-by-terror-campaign-sues-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/167719\/","title":{"rendered":"Great-granddaughter of Piedmont\u2019s first Black residents, forced out by \u2018terror campaign,\u2019 sues city"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Published 5 hours ago \u2022 loading&#8230; \u2022 Updated 8 hours ago<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit alleges Piedmont used false road construction claims to force the Black Dearing family out in 1924, with 500 residents involved in harassment, according to historical reports.<\/p>\n<p>LeftCenterRightGround G Logo Light Bias ComparisonGround G Logo Bias ComparisonOn Feb. 2, Jordana Ackerman, plaintiff and great-granddaughter of Sidney Dearing, sued Piedmont in Alameda County Superior Court alleging the 1924 condemnation was fraudulent and racially motivated.Upon moving into the Wildwood Avenue house, Sidney Dearing and Ir\u00e8ne Dearing faced harassment from Piedmont residents, including a mob of 500 demanding they sell, drive-by shootings, KKK threats, and dynamite bombings.Then-Piedmont Mayor Oliver Ellsworth told the Oakland Tribune the condemnation was `for the improvement of the city as well as to make the negro move from Piedmont`; Piedmont City Attorney Girard Richardson offered thousands less than the house\u2019s value and threatened state court condemnation.The Legal Defense Fund , representing Ackerman, said Piedmont hasn\u2019t yet been served while Piedmont\u2019s reckoning initiative started in 2022 with a Walter Hood-designed memorial and a $400,000 contract approved last month.The suit links long-term harm: less than 1% of Piedmont\u2019s 10,800 residents are Black today and Ackerman\u2019s suit notes the Dearing eviction helped produce a long property ownership gap.Wrench IconDoes this summary seem wrong?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published 5 hours ago \u2022 loading&#8230; \u2022 Updated 8 hours ago The lawsuit alleges Piedmont used false road&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-167719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}