A few months after a Cascade PBS documentary debuted about reparations for Black families in King County and over a year of sharing his story at every Renton School Board meeting, John Houston, 71, brought the story of his family and their fight for reparations to the Renton City Council for the first time.
Houston was the first to give public comment during the Aug. 5 council meeting, pleading his case to Mayor Armondo Pavone, Council President Ed Prince and Councilmembers Ruth Pérez, Kim-Khánh Văn, James Alberson Jr., Valerie O’Halloran and Ryan McIrvin. Councilmember Carmen Rivera attended the meeting remotely.
“I’m here to discuss with you my parents’ land that they were forced to sell to the Renton School District for supposedly a new school. It was 10 acres of land. The school was never built. We had two houses burned down, a bomb set off on our front porch while the Renton School District still pursued that land. They had already taken two other Black families’ land and that’s all the land that they took from up there,” Houston said, referring to the Renton Highlands.
Houston said that he did not blame the councilmembers or the city, but that the City of Renton “has made lots of income off the 200 homes that are built on that land,” adding that his family was not allowed to build generational wealth due to being forced to sell their land in the 1960s.
“I don’t know what you can do. I don’t know if it’s a policy or something that you can write that’s soon so it doesn’t happen to anybody else, it won’t happen to another Black family because the Renton School District made sure there’s no large Black land owners,” Houston said, who was joined in public comment by Alice Lockridge on the matter of his family. “There’s families that live on that land right now who own the homes that are prepared to pass those homes onto their kids and their grandkids.”
He then called on councilmembers to take action.
“I ask you guys to do something. I can go down the list, every one of you people here in this audience stand on somebody else’s shoulders. Not that you’re this great person that just made it to the Renton City Council on your own. You all stand on somebody’s shoulders — don’t get it twisted. So let’s keep on lifting people up,” said Houston, adding that little progress has been made toward reparations for his family.
“It’s a sad day every time I have to repeat this story because nobody does anything. Silence. They’re silent. There’s people that look just like me that are silent. It’s not an honor to us to turn your back on people. That’s not an honor. There’s people that don’t look like me that think it’s funny,” he said.
When his time was up, Houston ended his public comment with the following: “I still hurt. I still hurt but I don’t hate this city, I don’t hate [the Council]. I still do volunteer work in the Renton School District that took my parents’ land. I love this place. My parents love this place. It’s time that they’re loved back.”
Toward the end of the meeting, Councilmember Văn moved that the “council refer Mr. John Houston’s land issue to the administration to see if there is anything the council can do to assist,” which was seconded by Councilmember Rivera.
After a discussion that included agency jurisdiction, the need for researching the topic and the need for data on past racist policies (among other points), the majority of the council voted for Văn’s motion, with Prince, O’Halloran, Rivera, McIrvin and Văn voting “yes,” and with Alberson and Pérez voting “no.”
Of the motion carrying, Houston said that progress was made and that the city should be more involved with the school district.
“I believe the council and their 4-2 vote to research and investigate the Houston land to be a positive,” said Houston. “There were two councilmembers who did not want to get involved with [Renton School District] business. My belief is that the council should be interested in looking at what happens to all of its residents. When people look to move to a city, one of the first things they ask is how is the school district and the schools. That’s if they have school age kids. The city and [school district] should want to make sure the entire city looks good. What [the school district] did does not make the city look good.”
As Houston waits for the research and investigation to begin, he told the Renton Reporter that he has recently met with 11th District Senator Bob Hasegawa and George Fatheree, the attorney who represented the Bruce family in California who received reparations after nearly 80 years.
“He flew up from Los Angeles with his camera person,” Houston said. “We filmed the land that we once owned and I showed them the old Black neighborhood.”
To watch full Renton City Council meetings and to see the full discussion of the Houston land issue motion on Aug. 8, search for @cityofrentonwa on Youtube.
