Tuesday, January 27, 2026

UCLA Historian, Altadena Fire Survivor to Discuss Eaton Fire’s Impact on Black Community

USC webinar marks one year since blaze that disproportionately destroyed Black households in the unincorporated community bordering Pasadena

A virtual discussion Wednesday will bring together a nationally recognized historian of Black social movements and an Altadena resident who lost her home in the Eaton Fire to examine the blaze’s one-year impact on the community’s historic Black population.

The webinar, hosted by the University of Southern California’s Equity Research Institute and Black Studies Center, will feature Robin D.G. Kelley, the Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA, and Shimica Gaskins, president and CEO of End Child Poverty California, who lived on Ganesha Avenue in Altadena for eight years before the fire destroyed her home on January 7, 2025.

The event takes place three weeks after the one-year anniversary of the Eaton Fire. Research from UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies found that Black households were disproportionately affected: 61 percent were located within the fire perimeter compared to 50 percent of non-Black households, and nearly half of Black homes were destroyed or sustained major damage.

Kelley, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, has written extensively on Black radical movements and community resilience. His books include “Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination” and the award-winning biography “Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original.”

Gaskins, an attorney who previously served as Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, has been a vocal advocate for fire survivors since the blaze destroyed her family’s home. In an interview with Sojourners magazine weeks after the fire, she described the loss felt by Altadena’s residents.

“It’s the sense of safety, acceptance, and love that was taken away instantly,” Gaskins said.

Altadena has long included a rare enclave of Black homeownership in Los Angeles County. Black homeownership rates in the community are approximately 75 percent, nearly double the national average, according to census data. The Black population peaked at 43 percent in the 1980s and has since declined to under 20 percent, driven by gentrification and rising property values.

“Altadena’s Black community has long served as a symbol of resilience and opportunity in the Los Angeles region, but the Eaton Fire exposes how decades of segregation and the legacy of redlining practices have left Black households more vulnerable,” said Lorrie Frasure, director of UCLA’s Bunche Center, in a January 2025 data brief.

The webinar follows a similar USC discussion in October 2025, which featured Veronica Jones, president of the Altadena Historical Society, discussing ongoing efforts to document the fire’s impact on the community.

“The neighborhood is an example of how children thrive when their parents, neighbors, and classmates are not hounded by poverty,” Gaskins said of Altadena in the Sojourners interview. “We’ve been failed time and time again as Black communities.”

“After the Fires: Voices from Black Altadena, One Year Later” takes place Wednesday, January 28, from 4:00 p.m to 5:15 p.m.

The event is a free virtual webinar hosted by the USC Equity Research Institute and USC Black Studies Center. Registration is required. For more information and to register, visit the USC Event Calendar at calendar.usc.edu or contact the USC Equity Research Institute at eri@dornsife.usc.edu.