Renton Family Garners Support From Teachers Union as They Seek Reparations

Reporting by Cesar Canizales

John Houston continues his quest for reparations from the Renton School District. 

“In 1953, the year I was born, is when they bought this land. I came home from the hospital to that land. That’s how important that land is to me. It’s my life. It’s my life, and it was taken from us,” said Houston.

Nearly two dozen people attended the Teach Truth event organized by the Renton Education Association. They formed a circle on the grounds of Honey Dew Elementary School in Renton—just across the street from what used to be Houston’s parents’ farm and home—to hear the 69-year-old’s story of how the Renton School District forced his parents sell their 10-acre property in 1968. 

Joined by one of his daughters and some grandchildren, Houston retold his story: how the family lived off the land, raising pigs, chickens and cows, and growing produce. 

He talked about how the school district began to pressure the Houstons to sell the land in the mid-1960s. A suspicious fire burned their house down in 1966 or 1968. Arson was suspected. Then, a bombing that destroyed part of the home sometime later. 

The school district at the time told Houston’s parents, George and Rachel, that they could either sell the 10-acre farm, or the district would take it away through eminent domain to build Apollo Middle School.

Houston told the attendees how the pressure from the district worked.

“We’re going to get it, one way or the other. We’re going to get your land! And you see what they got it for. Some nice homes,” said Houston, as he pointed at the $600,000 to $800,000 homes that sit on the land that used to belong to his parents.

Houston’s parents were poorly educated—George Houston had a 3rd grade education. Rachel Houston had a 7th grade education. George Houston could barely read or write. His signature on the documents he signed to sell the property was simply an “X.” John Houston said his parents didn’t know what eminent domain was and did not know if they had options to fight it, so they relented.

The district never built the middle school. The property was sold a few years later to developers, who built houses that now sit where the Houston family used to live and make a living. The sale of the farm took away any chance at building generational wealth the Houston family had. 

It also split the family. George moved to eastern Washington, where he died a few years later. And Rachel, their mother, was forced to work multiple jobs to make ends meet and died penniless, John Houston said.

The current Renton School Board said through an email from a spokesperson that it does not owe the Houston descendants anything—no apology, much less reparations. 

“The Renton School District sits silent. They won’t even say it was wrong. They won’t acknowledge that. That it was wrong,” Houston said.

During the discussion, attendees shared their support and ideas of what reparations could look like.

“What I would like is the current value of that land. What I would like to have addressed also is the damage to my family—destroyed my family. Split up my family. I mean, my brother and sister became drug addicts. There was a lot of pain. There's still pain there,” Houston said.

“I also think reparations is make a Black person feel like they matter. That's reparations, right? Because you've made us feel like we don't matter,” said Steven Miller, Houston’s friend.

“Reparations in my eyes look like the people need to be restored,” said Rev. Linda Smith, a community advocate who has known Houston for years. “I can't put it no other way. That family needs to be restored to current day market--all the years that they've lost, the trauma that their family has suffered as a result of that.”

Houston, who has been attending the Renton School Board meetings to make his case, said he feels a little more hopeful, especially with the growing support from the public.

“The more people that we can—that learn the stories—the stories that we tell are facts, there’s no lies, there’s no embellishment. They’re straight facts, so the more people that hear the story, they realize that it was wrong—what was done. Looking behind us here, nice, warm, beautiful homes while me and my family live in small apartments.”

Julianna Dauble, president of the Renton Education Association, organized the discussion. As president of the REA, she attends all the board meetings and has been learning more and more about the Houston family. Dauble chose Honey Dew Elementary specifically for this event. 

“It needed to be here. The fact that he could point to it and be visible. It’s right there. That’s really important. Today was a first step and the people who showed up feel more hopeful and we can build on the compassion that drove people here today,” said Dauble.