A very racist episode in the history of the City of Piedmont, in the East Bay, is likely going to be commemorated with a memorial sculpture park, as the town's leaders announce this Juneteenth.

You may not know if you haven't lived in Oakland or in and around the wealthy enclave of Piedmont that the town of 11,000, which is surrounded on all sides by Oakland, was established as a redlined, whites-only city. Incorporated in 1907 and developed largely in the 1920s and 30s, Piedmont has always been a place of wealth, earning the nickname "City of Millionaires" as far back as the 20s.

Infamously, a Black couple, Sidney and Irene Dearing, purchased a home in Piedmont in 1924 using Irene's white mother as a proxy. The home at 67 Wildwood Avenue quickly became the target of racial hatred and a campaign by the city to get the family out, with local newspapers eager to cover the controversy.

Sidney Dearing was the owner of a successful Oakland restaurant, the Creole Cafe, which was shut down during Prohibition. And he and his family became the subject of "condemnation proceedings" by the Piedmont City Council. One headline that you can see at this historical website about the Dearings proclaimed "Rich Negro to Be Ousted From Home" when the council offered the Dearings $80,000 to buy them out of the house.

The Dearings initially refused, and a reported mob of 500 white people then arrived at their doorstep on May 6, 1924. Fearing for their safety and that of their two small children, the Dearings ultimately did sell the house and move.

As KPIX reports, 101 years after these events, the City of Piedmont has just announced a new timeline and a target date for a project to commemmorate this ugly history, saying they are at the "50-percent concept stage." The plan is for a memorial sculpture park centered in a triangular grove of redwood trees on the 67 Wildwood property — which is now owned by Gary Theut, who has lived there for 20 years. The memorial should be complete in about 12 months, the city says.

Piedmont's City Administrator Rosanna Bayon-Moore tells KPIX, "We are committed to being a different community today, and being a different community means facing difficult topics. It means confronting difficult chapters in our history. It means having a difficult conversation to be able to move forward."

"I think, although the history is ugly... it is really important that we honor those people who went through it," said the property owner, Theut, speaking to KPIX. "And I'm glad we know about it now, and that the community is aware."

Designing the project will be award-winning landscape architect Walter Hood, who says the project is personal to him because, "I'm a Black man, it is just that simple. I think if we don't tell our stories, someone else will."

Part of the project, Hood proposes, will include a flagpole with a mailbox hoisted on it with the Dearing name on its side, commemorating this place they never really got to call home.