SV@Home Presents: The Black Community Stabilization Project

As part of San Jose State University's Transforming Communities annual event series, join us for a moderated panel discussion on emerging research that supports the need for a Black Housing and Displacement Study in Santa Clara County. Elementary economics tells us that growth is supposed to help everyone, but when Silicon Valley’s economy boomed, African Americans were left out. From 1980-2000, census tracts with disproportionately higher poverty rates lost Black residents. As the county's Black population declines, we need to examine its cause and develop strategies to build Black permanence and regeneration.

We invite you to investigate place-based community development as a means to make Silicon Valley an accessible place Black folks can call home. The community development model empowers community members and organizations to play a central role in the prosperity of their neighborhoods. Community developers were essential in preserving and strengthening Black neighborhoods in the East Bay and San Francisco from gentrification between 1980-2000. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley unsuccessfully fought off these displacement pressures because it lacked a robust community development infrastructure.

SV@Home will share a Story Map that walks through the history of Santa Clara County’s Black population from the early days of San Jose’s founding and its first Black neighborhoods, into the county’s rapid African American population growth from 1960-1980, and to the displacement that followed as Silicon Valley’s economy boomed. We will end with a Q&A that engages participants and invites them to collectively dream about what it would take to create a Silicon Valley that shares prosperity in and with the African/African Ancestry community.

Moderated by Regina Celestin Williams, Executive Director of SV@Home

Panelists:

• Heather Rhines, Local Silicon Valley Housing Activist
• Walter Wilson, Developer and Senior Project Supervisor of the Silicon Valley African American Cultural Center
• Chuck Cantrell, Principal Strategy Consultant with CAA Consultants

SV@Home strives to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please email [email protected]

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

African American Community Services Agency, 304 North 6th Street, San Jose, United States