100 Years After a Black Family Was Forced Out, a Descendant Sues a California City

100 Years After a Black Family Was Forced Out, a Descendant Sues a California City

Sidney and Iréne Dearing, along with their two small children, faced lynching and bomb threats after they settled in a “sundown town” in California in 1924.  As the first Black homeowners in Piedmont, a wealthy white suburb of Oakland, they endured a racial terror campaign that included a mob of 500 people showing up on their property. The police chief, who was also a high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan, failed to protect them. The city even…