Acknowledgments

We would first like to acknowledge the parents and families of Black children living in the Sacramento region. Your efforts, dedication, and desires for promising futures for your children have not been lost during these uncertain times. We appreciate you! We also want to lift up all our essential workers: teachers and school leaders; community activists; city, county, and state employees; and everyone at nonprofit organizations advocating for better life chances and opportunities for children who are too often marginalized and silenced because of their race. Black children matter.

This book would not have been possible without the contributions of Damany Fisher, Ijeoma Ononuju, Patrice Hill, Quadir Chouteau, Kenneth Duncan, Heather Gonzalez, Amaya Noguera-Mujica, Adiyah Ma’at Obolu, David Gonzalez, and Vanessa Segundo. Fisher’s expertise on the history of Black migration, residential redlining, and the disinvestments in Black neighborhoods provided the historical analysis needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Black Child Legacy Campaign implementation strategy.

Adam D. Musser at editing for change was an invaluable partner who helped organize the book and prepare it for production. Vanessa Segundo, while a graduate student at the University of California, Davis, assisted with data collection and analysis, as well as drafting and designing key aspects of this book. We acknowledge technical assistance from the Transformative Justice in Education Center (UC Davis) and the College of Education at California State University, Sacramento. We also appreciate the support from the Sierra Health Foundation, namely Chet Hewitt, Leslie Cooksy, and Noemi Avalos who gave us access to data, people, and events.

We are grateful to Scott Peters, a professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University and faculty codirector emeritus of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life. He was instrumental in helping shepherd this book from vision to reality. Likewise, Mahinder Kingra, the editorial director at Cornell University Press, was patient, gracious, and supportive every step of the way—thank you!

We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge that the Black Child Legacy Campaign itself was born out of struggle, preventable death, and pain. While writing this book, one of our coeditors experienced this grief when her nephew Santana Kane Harris (June 15–September 11, 2021) passed of SIDS in Sacramento. While in mourning, the healers inside the Black Child Legacy Campaign—Heather Gonzalez, Brandi Missouri, and James Willock—grabbed hold and did not let go. Another BCLC partner, the Ramsey Wallace Funeral Home and Chapel, helped lay Santana to rest. This heartfelt network of compassion and care is firsthand testimony of our beloved community.

Finally, this book focuses on the work of the legacy builders and movement makers of Oak Park, Del Paso Heights-North Sacramento, Arden Arcade, North Highlands-Foothill Farms, Fruitridge Stockton Boulevard, Meadowview, and Valley Hi. To all the organizations and people representing these communities, thank you for the opportunity to observe, listen, learn from, and uplift your stories. We are forever grateful to you.