The Story of Russell City, the Town that Lost the Blues

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2022

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Russell City used to be a thriving community in the 1940s and 50s. But in the 1960s Alameda County and the city of Hayward used eminent domain to seize the land, evict the residents and build an industrial park. We hear stories from former Russell City residents about what it used to be like there. Additional Reading: Remembering Russell City: A Thriving East Bay Town Razed by Racist Government Decades After 'Cultural Genocide,' Residents of a Bulldozed Community Get Apology from Hayward Join us at KQED HQ for a live event featuring music and storytelling from Russell City! Reported by Spencer Whitney and Katrina Schwartz. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Amanda Font and Brendan Willard. Our Social Video Intern is Darren Tu. Additional support from Kyana Moghadam, Jen Chien, Jasmine Garnett, Carly Severn, Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Jenny Pritchett and Holly Kernan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED.
0:02.0	In the 1950s and 60s, if the wind blew just right, you might have heard blues wafting over the bay near Hayward.
0:15.0	Music from greats like John Lee Hooker, who you're hearing now. Boom, boom, boom, boom.
0:25.0	Gonna shoot you right down.
0:27.0	Well, I feel like this morning now. Or Big Mama Thornton.
0:34.0	Mama Thornton.
0:39.0	She recorded her R&B chart-topping hound dog.
0:43.0	Years before Elvis Presley made it a worldwide sensation.
0:50.0	You ain't nothing by the hound dog. People from all over the world would flock to music
0:58.0	people from all over the world would flock to music clubs
1:01.0	on the outskirts of Hayward to hear some of the best blues around, all in the unincorporated community of Russell
1:07.8	City.
1:08.8	It had no paved roads, no electricity, but it was popping.
1:13.0	Oakland, Richmond, LA, you gotta put Russell City in there
1:17.5	because some of the greatest artists of our time
1:20.0	was right here in Russell City. But the music abruptly stopped in the 1960s.
1:28.0	Alameda County and the city of Hayward sent bulldozers to tear the
1:34.6	predominantly black and Latino community apart. They used eminent domain to
1:39.3	seize the land and turn it into an industrial park.
1:43.0	What they tried was cultural genocide.
1:45.0	They tried to remove everything that was a reminder
1:48.0	or everything that would create a question.
	...

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