The City of Palm Springs launched a program in 1966 to “clean up” buildings on Section 14. At least 235 buildings were demolished and burned in the process.
During 1965 and 1966, the city demol-
ished and burned at least 235 buildings. “People would come home and their per- sonal belongings would be out on the street,” recalls James Jessie, former director of the city’s Desert Highland Unity Center. “They would just come in and bulldoze your house while you were gone to work or school.” The city’s abatement program forced many Section 14 residents to leave Palm Springs because no other low-income housing was available. The toll on the community was high. “Everybody went different directions,” former resident Alfonso Mediano recalls in the exhibit. “After that, we lost track of each other. As small as that town is, the only time we saw each other was at a funeral or [when] somebody got married.” Reverend Carl McPeters also laments: “The economic strength and the voting strength of the black community was destroyed, and the moral effects are lasting . . . . We were driven to the outskirts of the city and are still there today. We’re separated.” The clearing of Section 14 ended in 1968 when Miller published his report documenting
32 AMERICAN INDIAN SUMMER 2019
the city’s corruption and human rights viola- tions. According to Miller, “The City of Palm Springs not only disregarded the residents of Section 14 as property owners, taxpayers and voters; Palm Springs ignored that the residents of Section 14 were human beings.” In 2000, former residents of Section 14,
representatives of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and local religious leaders sought an apology from the City of Palm Springs. Mayor Will Kleindienst later wrote a letter of acknowledgement, but the city never issued a formal apology. Fami- lies and descendants of those removed from Section 14 are still seeking closure.
THE REVITALIZATION OF SECTION 14
During the 1970s, the Agua Caliente Tribe and the City of Palm Springs began to col- laborate to bring in development. The spark began in earnest after the partners created a land-use contract in 1977 that specified that the tribe administer its own lands. Mildred Browne, who grew up on Section 14 and is now founding chairwoman of the Agua
Caliente Cultural Museum Board of Direc- tors, says, “We work together for the whole of the community. What benefits the tribe also benefits the city.” In 2014, the Agua Cali- ente Tribe initiated Vision Agua Caliente, a strategic plan for revitalizing its properties in downtown Palm Springs. Four years later, the tribe celebrated the groundbreaking of the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, which is scheduled to open in 2020. Today the Agua Caliente Tribe has about
500 members and more than 2,250 people working in its government and business enterprises. Thomas Davis, the tribe’s chief planning and development officer,
says,
“Section 14 has always been about forward- thinking and bringing the tribe’s image into the modern world.” Chairman Grubbe says the exhibit shows how the tribe also has come full circle: “We put our culture aside to learn how to be successful, and now we are embracing our culture again. We are very appreciative of where we are, but we do not want to forget where we came from.” X
Arwen Nuttall has been a NMAI Publications writer and editor for the past 12 years.
PHOTO BY GEORGE AQUINO, COURTESY PALM SPRINGS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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