100 Years After Black Family Is Run Out of White California Town, Their Descendants Claim What’s Rightfully Theirs

Over 100 years ago, the first Black family to live in an affluent California neighborhood was chased out of town, citing threats of racist mob violence. Now, the descendants of Sidney Dearing are claiming what’s rightfully theirs in the form of a lawsuit. However, to truly understand what’s at stake for the Dearing family, you must start at the very beginning.

The year is 1924. While in the midst of the economic boom known as the Roaring ’20s, Dearing, the owner of a popular jazz club in Oakland called The Creole Cafe, and his wife boldly made the decision to move to Piedmont, Calif., as reported by SF Gate. The predominantly white “sundown town” is located just outside of Oakland. But as the Dearings began to make a life for themselves, trouble soon rose in the form of racist residents and police.

The couple endured months of verbal abuse and physical attacks from neighbors, but things came to a head when a mob of 500 descended onto the Dearing property and demanded they leave town. The police chief– a known member of the Ku Klux Klan, according to the official Dearing website– did practically nothing to protect the Black family.

The Dearings stood strong, however, until the city took them to court, declaring that the Dearings had to hand over their property in order to make way for the construction of a road. With that, the Black family fled Piedmont, and the road was never built.

Today, in 2026, the Dearing property is worth a whopping $2 million, and Piedmont remains a predominantly-white area. But while the city has since honored the contributions and struggles of the Dearings in the form of a local park, the couple’s great-granddaughter, Jordana Ackerman, says that’s simply not enough.

That’s why she’s suing the city of Piedmont, demanding financial compensation and a formal apology. The Feb. 2 lawsuit was filed by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Alameda County on behalf of Ackerman. She alleged the city conspired against her ancestors to run them out of town, and not only was that illegal, but the impact is still visible today.

“This lawsuit seeks to right some of the many wrongs and compensate for the hopes and dreams, generational wealth, and opportunities that the City denied my family through lies and violence rooted in racial discrimination,” she wrote in a press release.

Additionally, the filings alleged that the act of forcing the Dearings out completely violated the state’s Constitution, which includes an equal protection clause. Ackerman claimed the city discriminated against Dearing, forcing him to give up his home “solely for the reason” that he and his family were Black.

Attorney Leah Aden, a senior attorney with the NAACP, told SF Gate, “This history has been largely hidden… It’s no small thing that people, for buying a home, were threatened to be lynched, had a 500-person mob come to their door and threaten their existence.”

Ackerman reportedly only found out about the transgression in recent years. “When traumatic things happen to people, it is very reasonable that it’s not known or widely shared,” attorney Aden explained. “You lose out on knowing your history when the past isn’t passed along.”

Piedmont city spokesperson Echa Schneider spoke to SFGATE noting the horrors endured by the Dearings. “What Sidney and Irene Dearing experienced 100 years ago was abhorrent, and is a shameful chapter in the community’s history,” Schneider said. “It does not reflect the values of the community today.”