Just over a year after the Renton Reporter published the story of John Houston and his family’s fight for reparations from the Renton School District, several more articles have been written, a radio interview has been conducted and video segments have been made. Awards have even been garnered for the journalists who have written about the Houston story.
Despite the story spreading farther and wider, an influx of support from outside of Renton and prestigious prizes for the reporters, little tangible progress has been made for the Houston cause.
In a followup interview, Houston, 70, said that he, his brother Jim and their supporters continue to tell their story at Renton School Board meetings, calling on the school district to take action and reminding the public of what happened to the Houston family in the name of building a new school that was never realized, and eventually sold to developers for profit in the Highlands.
“We’ve doubled down on our efforts to continue the work we’re doing and that’s putting our faces in front of the school board,” said Houston, who has been working with several attorneys and a retired Superior Court judge.
“We’re really lucky, but you have great legal minds that are strategizing, and I just have to make sure that some of my family doesn’t get impatient,” said Houston. “If you look back at the Bruce family [in Manhattan Beach who received reparations after nearly 80 years] and the White family in Santa Monica, it was patience, it was a long road. They kept going back and the Bruce family got their land back and the White family in Santa Monica are currently meeting with the city. So, it takes patience, and that’s what I’ll do as long as I’m here.”
The Houston family story was shared in 2023 with articles and stories from the Renton Reporter, Converge Media, the Seattle Times and Bellevue College’s KBCS 91.3 FM station. And in 2024, the Houston story has expanded to Cascade PBS with a new documentary series helmed by director Angela Moorer.
Titled “King County Reparations Project,” the documentary tells the stories of “the displacement of African Americans in King County, WA for the purpose of documenting their pain and their suffering in order to establish a case for reparations.”
In an email, Houston told the Renton Reporter, “when the district attempts to close the door in our faces, I have found another door with ‘King County Reparation Project.’”
On June 20, the first installment of Moorer’s documentary held a screening at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute in Seattle. The film unfolds the emotional stories of systemic racism in the Central District of Seattle — a once “pulsating core of African American life in the Pacific Northwest” — and beyond, detailing the personal histories of local Black individuals who were boxed in by redlining and then pushed out by gentrification.
Houston was one of these interviewed individuals, recalling the steam rising from the red lights of fire engines in the rain as they tried to snuff out the second fire to consume the Houston home, and then the chilling recollection of the night when an explosion was set off on their front porch.
“That night for some reason, the dogs didn’t bark,” said Houston in the documentary, referring to the eery silence before the porch was blown up. “The police didn’t investigate because there was nobody hurt.”
Houston said that his parents were “easy picking,” and when he told of how his father had signed his name with an “X” — with the evidence of it up there on the screen — the audience responded with small gasps.
Houston’s story touched more hearts and minds during and after the screening, when he joined a panel discussion with Moorer, former King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, Seattle Central College professor Reverend Carl Livingston and Stephanie Johnson-Tolliver, President of the Black Heritage Society of Washington State.
Houston spoke about gentrification, the trauma of what happened to his family and the importance of voting in the right people at a local level.
“We have to vote for people to sit on city council, school boards, King County Council, and this might rub some people the wrong way, but we have people sitting on some of these councils that look just like me, but they won’t say a word about reparations,” said Houston. “I’m so happy about the ‘King County Reparations Project.’ We’re finally getting some movements talking, getting people to listen to us, to hear our stories. For so long, our stories have been pushed under the rug.”
Moorer and Cascade PBS will continue to produce the documentary series as they enter local film festivals and find more venues for screenings, entrusting that raising awareness of local Black stories of displacement will lead to change.
As for Houston, he said that he will continue telling his story and making his case for reparations. He thinks about what his parents had gone through every day and what reparations would mean for him and his family, whom he said has grown closer in the last year.
“I’m not gonna buy a big house, I can’t drive,” said Houston, who is legally blind. “But I have seven beautiful grandchildren and two daughters that want to know that the family name in Renton means something, that their grandparents or great grandparents worked hard.”
In an email, Houston announced that he plans on speaking at the Renton City Council meeting on Monday, Aug. 5.
“Our goal is to get our issue on record,” Houston said.
To submit a personal displacement story or for more information on the King County Reparations Project, visit kingcountyrp.org.
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