SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Black and Latino families who were pushed out of a Palm Springs neighborhood in the 1960s reached a $5.9 million tentative settlement agreement with the city.
The deal was announced Wednesday, and the city council will vote on it Thursday. The history of displacement that took place there had been largely forgotten until recent years, said Areva Martin, a lawyer representing more than 300 former residents and hundreds of descendants.
“The fact that we got this over the finish line is remarkable given the headwinds that we faced,” Martin said.
The deal is much smaller than the $2.3 billion the families previously sought as restitution for their displacement.
The $5.9 million will go toward compensating former residents and descendants. City council will also vote on allocating $10 million for a first-time homebuyer assistance program, $10 million for a community land trust and the creation of a monument to commemorate the history of the neighborhood known as Section 14.
It has not been determined how much each family or individual would receive in direct compensation, Martin said. Money for housing assistance would go toward low-income Palm Springs residents, with priority given to former Section 14 residents and descendants.
“The City Council is deeply gratified that that the former residents of Section 14 have agreed to accept what we believe is a fair and just settlement offer,” Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein said in a statement.
The city council voted in 2021 to issue a formal apology to former residents for the city’s role in displacing them in the 1960s from the neighborhood that many Black and Mexican American families called home.
The tentative deal comes as reparations efforts at the state level have yielded mixed results. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law in September to formally apologize for the state's legacy of racism and discrimination against Black residents. But state lawmakers blocked a bill that would have created an agency to administer reparations programs, and Newsom vetoed a proposal that would have helped Black families reclaim property that was seized unjustly by the government through eminent domain.
Section 14 was a square-mile neighborhood on a Native American reservation that many Black and Mexican American families once called home. Families recalled houses being burned and torn down in the area before residents were told to vacate their homes.
They filed a tort claim with the city in 2022 that argued the tragedy was akin to the violence that decimated a vibrant community known as Black Wall Street more than a century ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma, leaving as many as 300 people dead. There were no reported deaths in connection with the displacement of families from Section 14.
Pearl Devers, a Palmdale resident who lived in Section 14 with her family until age 12, said the agreement was a long-overdue acknowledgement of how families' lives were forever changed by the displacement.
"While no amount of money can fully restore what we lost, this agreement helps pave the way for us all to finally move forward,” she said in a statement.
This story and headline have been corrected to say that the settlement agreement was for $5.9 million, not $27 million. The Palm Springs City Council will also vote on another $21 million that would largely go to housing programs.
Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @ sophieadanna
FILE - Descendants of Palm Springs Section 14 residents, front row from left, Durran Jamison, Jarvis Crawford, Janell Hunt, and Taunya Harvey gather at the United Methodist Church in Palm Springs, Calif., Sunday, April 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
FILE - Pearl Taylor Devers the chairperson for the Palm Springs Section 14 Survivors group, right, is hugged by another member at the United Methodist Church in Palm Springs, Calif., Sunday, April 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
FILE - Palm Springs Section 14 neighborhood residents and descendants listen to Areva Martin, civil rights attorney, at the United Methodist Church in Palm Springs, Calif., Sunday, April 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
For the late James Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, receiving the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award was a true high point in his career. He said as much accepting the prize, a non-competitive honorary Oscar, at the Academy Awards in 1982.
Roger Moore presented it to him that night while his family in the audience looked on, including his daughter, Barbara Broccoli, who was reduced to a puddle of tears, and her brother, Michael G. Wilson.
“He always treasured it,” Barbara Broccoli said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “It was the most important physical possession he had.”
The award, then a bust of the inimitable “boy wonder” producer of Hollywood’s early years, sat on his mantlepiece for many years. Now, Broccoli, 64, and Wilson, 82, are following in “Cubby’s” footsteps as the 40th recipients, collecting the Oscar statuette Sunday at the 15th Governors Awards in Hollywood.
“It’s a rare honor, and I think that makes it extra special,” Wilson said.
Since its inception in 1937, the award has only been given 39 times, celebrating creative producers for a lifetime of quality films. The roster of honorees is a who’s-who of Hollywood legends from David O. Selznick and Walt Disney to Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. And only once before Broccoli has it gone to a woman, Kathleen Kennedy in 2018.
“It’s very humbling," Broccoli said. “I think of so many people who have come before us, so many people I wish had been given the honor who aren’t with us anymore.”
Though she is quick to point out all the others she thinks more deserving, the fact is that no one quite occupies the space that Broccoli and Wilson do as the guardians of the Bond franchise, one of the longest running film series in history.
Since Cubby and Harry Saltzman purchased the rights to Ian Fleming’s novels in 1961, the 25 films released by EON productions have grossed over $7.6 billion at the global box office. And despite all odds, the major creative decisions, including who gets to be Bond, have stayed in the family through massive changes in the business, including new corporate overlords.
For many years, EON split profits with MGM, which financed and distributed the movies. But that got slightly more complicated in May 2021, several months before the last Daniel Craig Bond, “No Time to Die” opened, when Amazon purchased MGM for $8.45 billion. The siblings continue to own 50% of Bond and maintain creative control over its future. They're also adamant about theatrical.
“People are playing it very safe. I think in times of crisis like this, you've got to be brave," Broccoli said. “It’s certainly a new era in the movie business, so we’re trying to figure it out."
Broccoli has been entrenched in the world of Bond her entire life. She was only a year old when the deal was signed and spent much of her youth on sets around the world. One of her earliest memories was filming “You Only Live Twice” in Japan. She was 6.
Her father’s passion for the films was infectious and she followed him into the business, learning the trade from the ground up. Though she didn’t quite start without connections, as Cubby had when he came to Hollywood in 1934, she never shied away from doing “the dirty work.” During one indie shoot, she remembers scrubbing toilets before the wrap party.
Wilson came into the family when his mother married Cubby in 1959. With two actor parents, he didn’t imagine a career in entertainment for himself. Instead, he pursued law. Then Cubby asked for his advice during a dispute, Wilson “caught the bug” and never looked back.
Cubby passed the torch to the kids in 1995; he died the next year. Since then, Wilson has operated as the business affairs person and Broccoli as more of a creative and practical producer. Their different skills and interests were compatible.
“I think it worked out pretty well,” Wilson said. “We were a good team.”
During their tenure, they bid farewell to the Pierce Brosnan era and welcomed Daniel Craig as the seventh Bond; firm in their decision, despite the immense backlash. They also produced non-Bond films, like “Till.”
But the spotlight on them has intensified as the world awaits official word on Bond No. 8. People are always playing the guessing game with the role, whether it was the long-running fan campaign for Idris Elba or any number of promising young actors who pop on the scene. The latest, stickiest rumor is Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but Broccoli and Wilson are staying tight-lipped on even a general timeline for when an announcement might come.
“It’s a big decision,” she said.
They’ve teased some things: It will be a man. He’ll likely be in his 30s. Whiteness is not a given. And whoever says yes is doing so with the expectation of at least a decade’s worth of films. One thing is certain: There's going to be a period of adjustment for audiences in the transition. Every Bond had its detractors, especially at the start. Broccoli saw firsthand the vitriol of the internet era when Craig was cast ("anti-Daniel nonsense," she called it.)
But when people finally saw “Casino Royale,” the sentiment shifted to love. The five Craig Bonds are the highest grossing in the series, not adjusting for inflation. It remains one of her proudest moments. And a new Bond means new opportunity.
“Every time we cast a new actor, the films change. It’s the excitement of a new Bond, a new direction,” Wilson said. “Every one of these people who took on the role offered something new and different.”
Plus, they're playing the long game with Bond, producing and cinema in general. And not losing sight of the Cubby spirit.
“He always said films were like the circus coming to town,” Broccoli said. “You set up your tent, everybody comes and you create magic. It's all about pleasing the audience, making sure that people get their bang for their buck.”
FILE - Barbara Broccoli, left, and Michael G. Wilson appear at the World premiere of the film "No Time To Die" in London on Sept. 28, 2021. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
