GREENSBORO, North Carolina (WXII) — One month after fires destroyed thousands of homes in several central California communities, a North Carolina A&T professor is shedding light on the ongoing concerns of residents in one of the hardest hit towns, Altadena.
Ernest Hooker grew up in the Altadena area, in the 1980s and 90s.
He said he still can’t believe it’s gone.
“A friend of mine called me… he basically said, Altadena is on fire,” he said, “I immediately just dropped.”
Hooker says while the homes may be burned, as an African American history professor, he will make sure the cultural significance of this town is never forgotten.
In the 1960’s Altadena was one of few areas in the county that were exempt from redlining.
“African Americans were discriminated against for buying homes in that area, especially in Los Angeles, but in Altadena in particular, where they started buying houses,” he said.
The professor said homeownership catapulted a surge of black and brown families into the middle class, allowing them to pass them down and create generational wealth.
Hooker said living in this culture shaped who he is today.
“Walking to school and just seeing people who looked like me, doctors, lawyers, some owned restaurants, some owned barbershops,” he said.
Right now, friends still living there tell him, that between insurance claims, and companies trying to buy their burned land, rebuilding could become harder for some.
But the professor says he is going to make sure the story of his home is never forgotten.
“Now that I’m teaching, you know, African American history lets me know how much of we have achieved, one as African American to, as a country to know that a small city did,” he said.
The-CNN-Wire
