Help Beverly Moore Reclaim Land Stolen Under Eminent Domain in Richmond, California 
 
Help us help the Moore family reclaim land stolen under the cloak of eminent domain laws that disproportionally applied to Black landowners. Help us help the Moore family get back the only family home they owned, and to initiate generational wealth by passing down this family land.  
 
Beverly Moore grew up with her family in a home they rented in Richmond, CA at 502 Enterprise Avenue.  When presented with the opportunity to purchase the home in 1980, Ms. Moore happily did so. Ms. Moore was elated to become a first-time homeowner. “It was a privilege to buy our home for my mom; it was something she was unable to do,” Moore said recently.  
 
Beverly Moore remembers her mom tending to their fig and pear trees with water from their well. Her mother grew collard greens that she traded with neighbors for fresh-caught fish.   Unfortunately, her pride and joy in homeownership were short-lived. In 1993 the City of Richmond seized the home through eminent domain to make way for a drainage system.  
  
Because the lot which once occupied the home of Ms. Moore is owned by the City of Richmond, the City of Richmond can rectify this miscarriage of justice. The City of Richmond has the opportunity to return the property to Ms. Moore and/or restore the financial injustice she experienced by losing the land and the family home.  Instead, the City of Richmond has decided to put the property up for sale at an extremely discounted value in what seems to be an attempt to absolve its responsibility for the wrongful taking and demolishment of Ms. Moore’s home.   
 
Eminent domain is when a government takes private property for public use, often to construct roads, highways, schools, or for some other public purpose. By law, the government is required to provide property owners with “just compensation.”  While eminent domain is legal, it is disproportionately used as a cloak to hide the racist intent to steal land from Black people. Ms. Moore’s situation is a prime example because her home was the only one taken by eminent domain on the whole block.  Ms. Moore was not justly compensated as required by law.  Although her home was a 4,000 sq. foot structure, she was compensated for only about 2,000 sq. ft.  
 
A home located directly across the street from the now vacant lot where Ms. Moore’s home once stood and that is now owned by the City of Richmond, is valued at between $750,000 and $900,000. 
 
Kamala Miller, the Lead Researcher, for WIML who is a licensed attorney in Washington D.C., said “cases like the Moore’s — involving land seized for public use and which remains unused — have better shots at transfers than cases where private parties seize land.” Now is the time to bring restitution and land justice to Beverly Moore!  
 
Beverly Moore recalls the pain and long-term impact of her home being taken “It changed the whole dynamic of everybody’s life. We never had that place to come back to, to land, without the support."  
 
Beverly Moore is working with Where Is My Land, an organization dedicated to helping Black people discover, search for, identify, and reclaim land taken from them.  
 
In the wake of the recent successful return of Bruce’s Beach to the Bruce heirs, which was spearheaded by Where Is My Land’s founder Kavon Ward, the Moore family continues to fight to reclaim the generational wealth that Beverly Moore struggled to obtain as a first-time home buyer.  Kavon Ward said “California is leading the nation in its initiative to repair past harms inflicted upon Black Americans. Since California knows better, the City of Richmond needs to do better.

Contact the City of Richmond Mayor- Tom Butt
 
Help us help the Moore Family reclaim their land Help us get them the financial remuneration they deserve! 
 

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