The recent Eaton Fire that ravaged parts of Altadena and Pasadena left a trail of physical destruction, but its impact goes far beyond property damage. Even as officials announce that the wildfires in L.A. have at last been fully contained, this disaster threatens to upend decades of progress in creating a diverse, thriving community where Black families were able to overcome the extreme challenges they still face in this country toward homeownership, underscoring the need to consider how philanthropy can address the impact of the wildfires.

This is not a success story of just homeownership, this area represented a real win in how Black people built a community where they felt safe, where legacies were seeded and the soul and vibrancy of a culture flourished. Altadena highlights the expansive ways in which Black people define and understand wealth outside of traditional definitions of retirement accounts and home equity, and the need to figure out how philanthropy can address the wildfire's impact.

Altadena has long represented an oasis for Black residents, with an impressive rate of more than 81 percent homeownership  — nearly double the national average, showing the importance of considering how philanthropy can address the wildfire's impact on the Black community. This community, where 58 percent of residents are people of color, established a sort of “promised land” of what California — and the rest of the country — could become in terms of equity of opportunity.

It also serves as a microcosm for what we stand to lose under the second Trump administration’s attack on racial justice efforts: more than a half century of hard-won progress. In reversing the protections from discrimination in federal hiring practices in recent days, he didn’t just undo the work of the prior administration; he set the country back 60 years, making it vital to understand how philanthropy can address the wildfire's impact on the Black community. When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the order that Trump has now ended, the makeup of Altadena was nearly all white. But the advent of the Civil Rights movement ushered in a tremendous shift, with the share of Black residents going from under 4 percent in 1960 to more than 30 percent four decades later.

Read the full article about the LA wildfire's impact on the Black community by Jhumpa Bhattacharya and Anne Price at The Center for Effective Philanthropy.