Kindra F. Montgomery-Block

I am not worried when things are bubbling uncomfortably in a community; unrest means that there is power up for grabs, and we have to be ready to grab it!

—Chet P. Hewitt, CEO of the Sierra Health Foundation

The Black Child Legacy Campaign (BCLC) is an initiative of the Center of Health Program Management of the Sierra Health Foundation. Build. Black., an extension of BCLC, focuses on ecnomic mobility and stability within the African American community (see the appendix for its vison and pillars). Its goal is to build economic opportunities in Sacramento County for Black communities through a focus on health, entrepreneurship, youth voice, and jobs. It is one umbrella that unifies us. Build.Black. is also the professional and personal working together. Build.Black. is a community-led solution to address our pain, fortify our power, celebrate our history, and build legacy. Build.Black. is when the past meets the present.

Build.Black. is rooted in the tragic police killing of Stephon Clark in March 2018 in his grandmother’s backyard in Meadowview, a South Sacramento neighborhood. Sacramento police and sheriffs had mistakenly identified Stephon as a threat and a property vandal. The officers shot Clark, firing 20 rounds, believing that had pointed a gun at them. Police found only a cell phone on him. This unjust killing by local law enforcement ignited a flame of unrest in the city of Sacramento. His death began a slew of protestation and riots that forced the closing of Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center Arena, where the NBA Kings play their home games. His death also marked a hard pivot in our city, awakening justice activists and creating a civil rights movement.

Build.Black. begin with an urgent Sunday morning call to Chet Hewitt, CEO of the Sierra Health Foundation. It was a warm day in March on the weekend after the police killed Clark. The BCLC “community pulse” barometer was way up on the end of “something horrific is about to happen.” Chet had his ear close to the “community folks,” and in our early morning check-in, we agreed that we needed to do something quickly to provide a sense of leadership in the face of the upcoming storm. Indeed, Sacramento and Stephon Clark’s unjust killing made national and international news overnight. Many so-called civil rights leaders showed up the next day unannounced to provide media interviews, align themselves with the Clark family, and speak on behalf of Black Sacramento and “our” collective needs; their actions only served to create deep rifts among local leaders. It was clear that we had to organize ourselves and present our demands to improve our city. The BCLC, although it was authentically connected to racial justice change, needed help.

Chet called his mentor, the health equity and racial justice guru Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of Policy Link. This was an “emergency community call”—different from a 911 call but on the same lifesaving level. Glover Blackwell is world renowned for her leadership on policies and strategies that transform vulnerable communities. She advised our team on how to move forward to engage community partners and immediately deescalate some of the unrest created by overpolicing. She agreed to host a community listening session at the Sierra Health Foundation early the same week. But what stunned the BCLC team was the first question she asked: “What are the current infighting issues among leaders in the African American community?” We were stunned—and impressed. How did she know about the infighting in the community? Because she is a national elder and she had dealt with many issues of police injustice and community unrest. Her goal was to coach us to make sure that we first dealt with the social and emotional needs of our people and partners. We were calling her for guidance out of a sense of desperation—and she knew the first play.

That Sunday evening, we hosted a meeting in the Sierra Health Foundation board room, providing Chinese food for twelve trusted Black civil rights leaders, those familiar in the community for their efforts and sustained advocacy, positioned to address racial and ethnic equity and inclusive collective action in pursuit of justice for Stephon Clark and Black Sacramento. They included local leaders from the NAACP, Urban League, Black Lives Matter, California Urban Partnership, Sistalect, Roberts Family Development Center, South Sacramento Christian Center, Voice of the Youth, and Activism Articulated. Build.Black. was born out of that meeting and the commitments made by those leaders. In that Sunday evening meeting, they were able to establish the tenets and vision that have unified our community and charted a path for economic prosperity. The next day, the Build.Black. leadership stood shoulder to shoulder at press conferences and City Council meetings to present the program’s goals to unite our community and its political demands, wearing BCLC t-shirts and buttons and carrying signs that boldly declared the call for a renewed focus on economic justice.

Build.Black. stands today as Sacramento’s foremost inclusive community economic development collaboration. In Chet Hewitt’s words, “You can do all the good health and racial justice impact programs you want. The influence that BCLC has will only be surface deep. It still won’t be enough for impoverished Black communities to really change, because we have to show people how to get out of the cycle of poverty.” And this is exactly what Build.Black was created to do: to complement the social safety-net infrastructure of the BCLC and drive inclusive economic development in targeted vulnerable neighborhoods.

The Build.Black. Coalition is a successful example of change philanthropy and moving the community to action, made possible by the BCLC’s leadership role in the community, the infrastructure it created, and its deep relationships with stakeholders and community leaders. Through our collective efforts we have secured funding and created a Black entrepreneur partnership with the City of Sacramento. Over the past four years we have built new and ongoing programs with the Sacramento Kings focused on Black youth in sports and leadership. We have held forums and summits to listen and build community voice. We have shaped local policy and aligned our values to respond to the COVID-19 quarantine and helped businesses cope with it. We have also purchased property and hope to expand our micro-enterprise initiatives.

Build.Black. has connected Black neighborhoods and service providers across Sacramento County. The limited resources that many Black-led community–based organizations (CBOs) face when working in isolation no longer prevents full-family, wraparound service support. Through the strategic design and infrastructure of the BCLC, the social service safety net has been restructured to serve vulnerable Black families and create economic prosperity.

Yet, in the summer of 2022, Chet Hewitt felt moved to write to Sacramento’s municipal leadership demanding renewed funding for many of Build.Black.’s initiatives, including its Youth Pop-Up program, designed to expand on the success of the Healing the Hood program in reducing youth violence, providing an effective crisis response, and offering diverse youth services. Only four years after the death of Stephon Clark, everything that the Black community had been fighting for seemed to be suddenly on the budgetary chopping block. Racial justice and health equity victories seemed to be forgotten, encouraging data about program successes were being questioned or doubted, and rivalry politics were overshadowing community needs.

This backsliding often happened before, but social justice work can be overwhelmingly burdensome because of the need to keep “fighting the good fight” with such predictable and frustrating setbacks. Yet, the models provided by Chet Hewitt and the Build.Black. Coalition will continue to give hope and power to the people.