Overview:
More than 50 community members came together to listen, learn, and advocate for change, as local experts shared insights on affordable housing, economic mobility and education.
Black community leaders gathered at City Hall on Tuesday evening to address the systemic barriers Black families face in the central San Joaquin Valley — and to push for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, as national attacks against DEI gain traction.
President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders, issued shortly after returning to office, aims at terminating diversity programs across the federal government, including dismantling programs and putting pressure on federal contractors to end “illegal DEI discrimination.”
“As these initiatives face growing scrutiny across government, education, and the corporate world, we want to create buy-in, educate the public on the importance of this work, and show there’s still a real need here in the Central Valley,” said Eric Payne, an event moderator and co-organizer. “We have a long way to go, and we need to be lifting from the bottom, together.”
The Trump administration also ordered K-12 schools to certify that they are following federal civil rights laws and end diversity programs or risk losing their federal money.
The executive orders frame diversity policies as a threat to American safety and claim they undermine individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination in hiring decisions.
In an interview with Fresnoland, Payne said the timing of Tuesday’s hearing was important, because “the national conversation around diversity, equity, and inclusion is at a critical juncture.”
The Central Valley Urban Institute hosted the event with support from the California Black Freedom Fund and The California Black Power Network to spotlight the urgent need for policies to close racial gaps and address systematic barriers in housing, education and economic opportunities.
Marc Bady, chief impact and innovation officer at Fresno Housing, stressed the need for new policies that fight displacement, boost housing funds, and enforce strict anti-discrimination protections to help stabilize families and close economic gaps.
LaNeesha Senegal, CEO of Helping Others Pursue Excellence, advocated for community equity matching funds, zoning for cooperatives, and wealth-building zones to foster economic growth through public-private partnerships supporting job creation, homeownership, and local businesses.
In the “Economic Mobility” panel, Stephanie Nathan, the newly-appointed CEO of United Way Fresno and Madera County, pointed to data showing Black families face the county’s lowest employment-to-population ratio, lower incomes, and higher debt.
“We know that when economic data is broken down by race, it reveals inequities that generalized data simply does not show,” said Nathan.
Closing those gaps, she said, will require targeted investment in Black-owned businesses, affordable housing, workforce pipelines, and community-led solutions.
“We are the worst city for Black residents here in Fresno, where we reside,” said Keisha Thomas, executive director of Fresno Career Development Institute and a Fresno Unified School Board trustee. “If community policies and actions are data driven, then what needs to be done is clear.”
Thomas stressed the importance of advancing programs like Fresno guaranteed income programs, home ownership programs, and small business supports, such as the BTAC contractor program, KIVA community-backed business loans, and Money $ender business advising program, which were created by the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce.
In the “Education” panel, Dr. Latoria Hall, vice president of student services at Fresno City College, said that in her seven and a half years at City, she has realized “higher education was never created for individuals like us.”
Hall noted that high school completion rates are significantly lower for African Americans ages 20 to 29, with only 20% attaining higher education — a gap that limits career opportunities, deepens poverty, and widens Fresno County’s economic and social divide.
“Education is a shared responsibility,” said Hall. “It’s not just the higher education institution, it’s family, it’s community, it’s making sure that we all work together, and creating that lift up.”
Desiree Miller, community organizer at GO public schools, shared that, in California, only about 20% of Black third graders read at grade level — and students who aren’t reading at grade level by third grade are four times less likely to graduate.
The inequities, Miller said, don’t end there. She acknowledged that while overall graduation rates have improved, for Black students “the crack widens into barriers.”
Miller shared that out of about 4,000 Fresno Unified high school students who took the SBAC — California’s standardized test for college readiness — last year, only 3.6% were fully prepared for college-level math. Of that small group, just five were Black students.
“While students may be earning diplomas, the doors that diplomas should open are still locked for too many of our youth,” said Miller. “This isn’t a small oversight. It is a systemic failure that continues to send the message that our students’ futures are optional, and these failures follow our young people beyond the classroom.”
Miller said solutions should include investing in early literacy by third grade, demystifying A-G college subject requirements, and expanding access to dual enrollment and culturally relevant mentorship from counselors.
During public comment, Aline Reed, former president of Fresno Freedom School, described a “black brain drain” that has been present in Fresno because “people that look like us don’t see any opportunity here.”
She recalled a time when southwest Fresno had over 150 Black-owned businesses before redevelopment displaced families. Reed added that integration pushed many to north Fresno, where class divisions grew and the community in southwest Fresno was left behind — a reality few acknowledge.
Tonyce Givens, president of the NAACP Madera Branch, urged panelists to keep rural communities like Madera in mind, pointing out that class barriers often limit opportunities there. Unlike Fresno, she said, Madera lacks a visible presence of successful Black leaders — a reflection of those deep-rooted divides.
“We’re out here, and we could benefit from seeing faces like everyone in this room,” Givens said. “If you look at our statistics in the age discrepancy in our county, everyone is either a minor or everyone is either a senior. We don’t even have a lot of people out in the county who can do the work that we’re asking everyone in this room to do.”
DJ Criner, pastor at Saint Rest Baptist Church, spoke about the rising cost of living in West Fresno, among other issues, saying,“We ain’t satisfied.”
He said Black residents won’t be satisfied until true, long-term community transformation and housing opportunities uplift wWest Fresno — until businesses in southwest reflect those in north Fresno, “until investment doesn’t skip blocks, until opportunity doesn’t need a mouth to find us.”
“We’ve been stretching dollars till they snap,” Criner said, “feeding families off of faith, fighting battles in a system that wasn’t built for us, just built around us.”
