Reparative Justice Projects

All Saints Church, ca. 1880-1910. USC Digital Library.

In recent years, I’ve participated in several reparative justice projects in the L.A. region. A few examples:

Since 2022, I’ve given talks for community groups on the history of segregation and housing discrimination in suburbs of the San Gabriel Valley, including Pasadena and La Canada. Some of these presentations have been in partnership with the Center for Restorative Justice in Pasadena.

In 2024, I consulted on a project for the City of Pasadena on the historic displacement of communities of color caused by the 710/210 Freeway.

In 2021-23, I consulted on projects for Culver City and the City of Los Angeles on their histories of discrimination and segregation in land use and housing. The final report for the City of LA project, “Historical Housing and Land Use Study,” is available here - it is meant to help guide housing policy in Los Angeles For coverage in the Los Angeles Times about this report, see Liam Dillon’s article, “Los Angeles has to rezone the entire city. Why are officials protecting single-family-home neighborhoods?,” September 26, 2024.

In 2022-23, I co-authored a report for All Saints Church Pasadena, on the history of the land under and around the church, with a focus on the displacement of indigenous peoples. The report, “Telling the Whole Story: The Land We are On,” uses a variety of sources, including oral history, and we worked in concert with members of the Tongva nation. Read more about this work at:

“Telling the Whole Story: The Land We are On,” All Saints Church, Pasadena.
“At Church Building’s Centennial, All Saints Report Candidly Tells the Whole Story of the Land It Occupies,” Pasadena Now,” Nov 6, 2023.