Now or never: Stand and fight for Bayview Hunters Point

One of the scripts represented a guaranteed return to the Western Addition by anyone who was displaced. So much time elapsed between when the script was issued and there was something to which to return that most of the script holders died. Those who did not die could not qualify for what was built.

The return qualifications were much like releasing slaves and telling them that now the playing field is equal. Most were on retirement of one kind or another. Those that were working did not earn enough to qualify for a loan. These properties that they could not repurchase are now worth millions.

The employment script was equally worthless. Our young men were not allowed in the building trade unions, and only union jobs were available. The rhetoric was that our young men did not qualify for craft training.

Blacks were forced by this system to watch while white union members rebuilt what we had allowed to be torn down. The political leaders and the union bosses claimed Black young people were not qualified to train in the crafts. So they invented something called pre-apprenticeship, a device to pacify Blacks while the white union workers earned prevailing wages.

It is curious that slaves who could not read or write built mansions that have stood for hundreds of years.

The contractor script was even more worthless. Political leadership allowed their white cronies to craft sham joint ventures with Black contractors. One such joint venture dominated the construction in the Western Addition. An examination of the tax return of this joint venture exposed the practice. The joint venture agreement showed a 50-50 relationship. Both the white and Black partners drew down the same amount of money.

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