Key Votes: Apology & Reparations for Culver City’s Racist Past
A resolution acknowledging the racial history of Culver City was approved 3-2 by the City Council on June 17, 2021.
Harry Culver advertised the city bearing his name as a “model little white city.” Since its incorporation in 1917, Culver City has had a well-documented history as a “sundown town,” a place that is hostile (and sometimes outright violent) toward Black people, Jews, and others considered non-white.
The cities of Glendale and Burbank adopted resolutions in 2020 apologizing for their histories as sundown towns. That same year, the Culver City Council established an Ad Hoc Equity Subcommittee, and on June 17, 2021, the subcommittee, comprised of Vice Mayor Daniel Lee and Council Member Yasmine-Imani McMorrin, brought forward a Resolution Acknowledging the Racial History of Culver City, to be voted on by the City Council. The Resolution acknowledges that:
Culver City has a history of discrimination, segregation, and police abuse;
As a sundown town for much of the 20th century, Culver City used various means, including racially restrictive covenants and deed restrictions, to exclude members of non-white racial and ethnic groups, particularly African Americans, from living in, owning land, or being present after sundown;
The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations established themselves and held meetings in Culver City;
The city occupies land appropriated from the original Gabrielino-Tongva inhabitants, who were then not allowed to live in the city.
The Resolution acknowledges “the fundamental injustice, inhumanity, and unkindness of these practices” and “the City apologizes to the people of all races, creeds and colors who have suffered under discriminatory and harmful policies and practices for the wrongs committed against them and their forebears.”
It also states: “The City unequivocally rejects racism in all its forms and is committed to working toward building an antiracist Culver City where people of all races and backgrounds are welcome to live and prosper.”
The Community Speaks
“The racism which is obvious to us as we look at the early days of this country continues to affect our neighbors through policies and procedures. When we deny that racism exists, it becomes stronger and more entrenched, so I’m really grateful that Culver City is taking important steps to right this, to acknowledge its past, apologize for what it’s done, and to make important changes that will affect the lives of our neighbors. Historical racism has resulted in generational trauma that is rarely addressed… For those who say ‘I wasn’t here, I wasn’t part of this,’ we are responsible for what directions we are headed. Will we continue to strengthen systemic racism through our denial or will we move in a positive direction toward healing and wholeness?”
“I do think it is important to pass this Resolution, and the solutions, while aspirational and not necessarily operative, at least provide some guideposts of ideas of how … we can repair the wrongs and the histories of this city…. We cannot fix the broken bones and bruises of those who were beaten and forced out of our community, we cannot give the properties back to people who wanted to live here during [that] era and were denied, but we can, and there is no harm in admitting, the faults of our past, and does not deny the progress that we have made to date, even as we have more progress to go. I commend and appreciate the great work of this Council, hope they will consider my suggestions as a supporter of this, and look forward to this Resolution being passed…”
What did the City Council have to say?
Council Member Yasmine-Imani McMorrin (Voting YES)
“It sometimes makes folks uncomfortable that I talk about power and privilege so frequently, but historical policy decisions are very much present today… This has been at least a few years in motion at this point and has been fully vetted by members on the previous Council and this Council as well as staff…. I also wanted to push back on the concept of [the Resolution being] divisive, because I think that too goes to who traditionally is centered and who is feeling uncomfortable. I would just offer that many Black, Indigenous, and people of color operate in discomfort all the time. They feel this ‘divisiveness’ and have to learn to code switch in traditionally white spaces; we have to adjust no matter how we feel about it.”
Council Member Albert Vera (Voting NO)
“I agree there is power in apology, and I think it’s very important that we acknowledge our past, but we also need to recognize where we are today as a result of our past and that learning process and to vow that we’re going to fight racism at every point continually moving forward. I support portions of the resolution. I think in talking to a lot of folks, there’s some people that whether it’s through ignorance or lack of information or whatever, it might feel that this is sort of wagging their finger in their face so to speak. I don’t know that we can follow through with a lot of things on here. I think there’s certain areas that need to be refined where we can move forward collectively. I’m not going to get into the reparations because I don’t know how we do it…, but I think in moving forward it’s important that instead of just being right, that we get it right… that we invite everybody to this conversation on something so meaningful and powerful…I think it’s important that we bring everybody along for the ride that we were able to agree on this, all of us, all five of us.”
Key Vote Summary
Apology & Reparations for Culver City’s Racist Past
Approved 3-2 on June 17, 2021
Voting YES:
✅Alex Fisch, Mayor
✅Daniel Lee, Vice Mayor
✅Yasmine-Imani McMorrin, Council Member
Voting NO:
❌Göran Eriksson, Council Member
❌Albert Vera, Council Member
The Resolution commits the city to develop a reparations system to narrow the racial and income housing gap in the city through the use of a portion of cannabis tax revenue; providing financial assistance for housing to low-income residents and prospective residents; developing affordable housing for members of the city’s workforce who want to live in Culver City; and identifying people of color and those of non-Christian faiths, or their descendants, who were prevented from buying or renting, or were forced out of housing, with the intent of providing reparations.
The Resolution also commits the city to develop a Racial Equity Action Plan to review and revise policies, procedures, ordinances, values, goals and missions through an anti-racism lens.