[Noozhawk’s note: Second in a series sponsored by the Hutton Parker Foundation. Click here for the first article.]
Over the past three years, the three women behind Healing Justice Santa Barbara have effectively worked to amplify and uplift black voices and stories, conserve historical sites, and support black-led projects and organizations.
And they show no signs of slowing down.
A significant example of their impact is the support provided to historic St. Paul AME Church, located at 502 Olive St. at the intersection of East Haley Street.
The church holds the distinction of being the first African-American church in Santa Barbara.
Despite qualifying for historic designation, the church remained on a waiting list for 30 years, before HJSB intervened, achieving historic city landmark status in just two weeks.
The nonprofit organization is now helping to raise funds for much needed repair work to restore the church.
“This is what anti-blackness looks like in practice,” said Leticia Forney Resch, HJSB director of cultural arts and events.
“It’s the procedures and barriers that allow for biased people to take their time against a small congregation in a city where only 1.7% of the population is black.”
The success of St. Paul AME encouraged HJSB to help other historic black properties achieve recognition.
Second Baptist Church, at 26 E. Gutierrez St., is the second oldest black church in Santa Barbara and it, too, received the distinction as a structure of merit.
“The preservation work safeguards the buildings, ensuring they remain intact, and underscores the vital historical role that these places and organizations play within the community,” Resch said.
Krystle Farmer Sieghart, HJSB co-founder and executive director of programs and operations, said the designation has a personal dimension.
“Getting the historic distinction and restoring the church makes people — especially church members — feel seen,” she added.
There are now more than 150 potential historic sites under review and identified in a comprehensive Santa Barbara African American/Black Historic Context Statement, that provides a framework for identification, evaluation and treatment of historic properties, and will ensure the process advances in a professional manner with the City of Santa Barbara.
“It acknowledges the hard work our community did before and extends a welcoming hand to new visitors to Santa Barbara,” Resch said.
“I feel that often people come here and get culture shock, and I want to broaden opportunities for them to feel more at home.”
The efforts of HJSB pay homage to those who laid the foundation before them.
Pioneers like the late Sojourner Kincaid-Rolle, a poet and community historian for the Santa Barbara African-American Oral History Project, who encouraged the women to question, and speak loudly when they felt they had been wronged.
Simone Ruskamp, HJSB co-founder and executive director of community coordination & ethics of care, told Noozhawk that it’s important to continue the tradition set by “black kin-keepers,” notably Sojouorner and Cedric Robinson, in order to accurately collect and retell the black story.
Historical data shows the black community was actively engaged for years before rising housing costs drove many of the founding leaders to larger cities.
Many of the historical documents — including the papers of Anita Mackey, a nationally recognized social service worker — can be viewed at the Department of Special Research Collections at UC Santa Barbara.
“We hope our work can serve as a model for other black communities,” Ruskamp said.
That work is of critical importance.
“Historical preservation has become a core part of our work because we have to find new and inventive ways of telling our stories, so that the black community can revisit, relearn or hear for the first time of our history in Santa Barbara,” Resch explained.
“Part of this story shares how the black community got pushed out, over-policed and discriminated against.”
One of the creative ways HJSB shares these stories is through a historic trolley tour that visits landmarks and other notable areas, while talking about redlining, Ku Klux Klan rallies, and also the joy and amazing accomplishments of local black business owners and churches.
“I am so proud of making black people feel loved and seen,” Sieghart said. “If we are not doing something for the benefit of our community, then why are we doing it?”
“I feel that we have given space, provided permission and named the grief that so many black people suffer,” Ruskamp added, describing how the last stage of mourning can also be defined as “morning,” like the beginning of the day, facing the future and what comes next.
“I believe we are moving closer to that space and that healing, and it’s not lost on me what a treasure and blessing it is for black community members to continue to trust us with holding and preserving that space.”
Click here for more information about Healing Justice Santa Barbara, and click here to make an online donation.
