Reveal the Truth: Eminent Domain in Santa Cruz County

Throughout the weeks

Week 1: Luna contributed great input about being able to recognizeAfrican-American culture when trying to understand historical names and documentation. I learned to also recognize that words have a different meaning and understanding than I would have today. Thinking about words in historical context

Week 2: For my project, going into the Santa Cruz County Recorder's office, I plan to gather as much information as I can. I want to go into the mindset of knowing that I am going to run into roadblocks. Eminent domain is not something that is going to be easy to trace due to the documentation not being entirely accurate, because they control the narrative of how the land was acquired. My goal right now is to use my own prior knowledge aboutAfrican-American language, slang, nicknames, traditions, etc, to make sure that I have a full, well-rounded view of the information that is not going to include those small extra details that I will have to find.

Week 3: What I learned at MAH gave me an understanding of the exaggeration in stories aboutAfricanAmerican people.to create a community archive about us. First, though, you need to understand the erasure in that community. For thousands of years, African history has always been seen as not real and unworthy of documentation, meaning they burned down anything or anyone that housed African history. There is a reason that what is left behind was left behind; the real rich history of a community goes beyond any community but into the community we all share.Also, a lot of people don't know how to research or what to archive. This creates a big problem when people go to read your added information in the community archive. The spread of misinformation plagues minority history, and the allowance of anonymous contributors will do nothing but amplify this.

Week 4: Right for my project, I am at the point of collecting information surrounding my topic, including people, dates, stories, deeds, etc. I am trying to make sure that I do enough research and gather enough information before I start trying to hone in and piece the puzzle together. I tend to get ahead of myself and try to connect the pieces before I have a full understanding of what's going on. Something huge I am starting to notice is that there are a lot of things you have to read between the lines on; there's a deep understanding ofAfricanAmerican culture you have to have to even recognize it. I really want to go back to the MAH and look through the LNLI box.

Week 5: I sat shifting through my research I began to write down more and more questions to research when I went back to the library, MAH, and the recorder’s office. The question that plagued my mind the most was, why did everyone suddenly care so much about black people to write their history in such intricate detail?

Week 6: When researching and reading through articles, I had to becomehyper-aware. I often love that we can tell who the authors are (bias, race, gender) through how they write history. Not only does how you write history tell of your lens/scope on a subject, but it also shows your biases when key events, people, or movements are intentionally not mentioned in your take on sharing history. Like many of our previous authors, this author did not give a full scope of a black person's story, in this case, as a student of history, because I spend a lot of time learning about my people and this era. Understanding the time period or major events going on, or legislation that was being passed, helps to answer questions and minimize confusion.

Week 7: Sacramento was a disappoint. There was an interesting lack of information in the written context, but it makes sense if you understand how white people and institutions felt about black history. Yet the maps gave me so much context as to why I couldn’t find certain topics when I researched them. Older dates meant different counties and districts that would just be considered Santa Cruz today.

Week 8: Was spent going through the London Nelson archive and a visit to the recorder’s office. I could not wrap my mind around the intricate stories of newly freed slaves who were considered property a few years ago. This is when I start to come to conclusions. The more I read, the more discrepancies I

recognized. The mention of death is almost a theme in eminent domain with the African American People.

Week 9 & 10: I went to SC County’s recorder’s office for the last time, where I re-examined deeds and timelines. The cross-examination opened up the gates to the lies being told. Dates on the deeds did not match the dates in the articles, which was very interesting because, if you did research about the topic to begin with, this shouldn't be happening.