A historic Black neighborhood has been hit by the destructive wildfires raging across Los Angeles County.
As of Friday (January 10), several wildfires remain active in Southern California, continuing to destroy buildings and displace thousands of families.
The Palisades and Eaton fires have collectively burned over 30,000 acres of land. The Eaton fire, burning just east of Los Angeles near Pasadena, is destroying homes and businesses in the historic Black neighborhood of Altadena, per theGrio.
Altadena is known as California’s first middle-class Black community. During the Great Migration, the area served as a refuge for Black Americans to flee the Jim Crow South. Altadena offered Black families a chance to acquire land, build homes, and create generational wealth without redlining and other forms of systemic oppression.
Altadena’s Black population grew from roughly 4 percent in 1960 to 31 percent in 2000. Now, wildfires fueled by Santa winds and dry conditions threaten to wipe out the community.
As maintain media directs its attention to the countless celebrities affected by the wildfires, social media users spotlighted the impact the natural disaster has had on the Black community of Altadena.
“Stories of generational Black-owned homes burning to the ground in Altadena is a different kinda hurt,” one user wrote on X.
“The Altadena fire is even sadder knowing it’s one of the only areas in that part of LA County with a historic & large Black community,” another said.
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