20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JULY 3-9, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com Seaside natives Audra Walton and Maiaika “Mimi” Velazquez first knew each other as teenagers in the early ’90s—Velazquez’s best friend was dating Walton’s brother—but drifted apart over the years as they pursued their separate paths in adulthood. Now, after reconnecting five years ago, the two women consider each other like family, brought closer by their respective journeys into their ancestors, some of whom were enslaved. In doing so, they realized there wasn’t a good online hub for local Black people, so they struck upon the idea of creating a website, Blackinthe831, that would be a hub for local American Freedmen—descendants of people who were enslaved in the United States—a place to list their businesses or organizations so the community can reinvest its wealth in each other. Then they decided to expand the geographic scope, and this year launched BlackAF.net, which aims to be a business directory, community hub and place to get people started on their genealogical journey. (The AF, in this case, stands for American Freedmen.) The seeds for BlackAF.net were planted in 2020, when Walton and Velazquez ran into each other at a Black Lives Matter protest in Seaside following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Once they got to talking, the two women—now adult professionals—realized how much they had in common when they started discussing the declining dollar. “I love talking about the economy and going deep in the weeds, and a lot of people I’m around aren’t interested in that,” Walton says. “Mimi gets it.” They also realized they shared a love of books and history, particularly Black history, and after California’s Assembly Bill 3121 established a state Reparations Task Force in 2020, they started attending its meetings via Zoom and learning about the reparations process. Separately, they both got involved in politics—Walton became a Marina Planning Commissioner and Velazquez was elected to the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District board. In 2023, after two years of testimony, the Task Force finally published a report with its findings, and a topline recommendation was that “only those individuals who are able to demonstrate that they are the descendant of either an enslaved African American in the United States, or a free African American living in the United States prior to 1900, be eligible for monetary reparations.” It also recommended creating and funding a California American Freedman Affairs Agency. Walton’s own journey started last year in an online discussion about American Freedmen finding their lineage. Someone posted a link to find a genealogist, Walton clicked, and set an appointment with a genealogist in the Bay Area, who first taught her how to use Ancestry.com. After a few weeks they had a follow-up appointment to talk Walton through what she’d found and how to forge ahead. She’s now gotten as far back as 1824, the birth year of Sylvia Dodd, who records show was owned by one Charles Littlejohn shortly before Emancipation. Walton’s genealogist provided his services free of charge, she says, and that’s part of the point. “This is for us, we’re building this for us,” Walton says. “There’s a level of sweat equity that’s going to go along with this. When people find their lineage, they turn around and start working. I have never walked this proud in my life.” She adds that she’s also a veteran and graduated from UC Santa Cruz with “very high” grades—but knowing her lineage has made her stand taller than those things. Velazquez, meanwhile, didn’t start her journey until just recently—Walton has been her mentor—and she’s so far made it to 1900. She thinks (but is still trying to confirm) she may have gotten back to 1878, the birth year of Mattie Cotton, who had a son when she was 10 years old, a traumatic discovery to reckon with. “Not everything you find is going to be happy,” Velazquez says. Both women are hopeful that some form of reparations for American Freedmen in California will come to pass, and want to be ready, and help others be ready too, if and when that happens. Part of that is having an established network in place to reinvest that wealth into the community, so that it’s generational. Walton and Velazquez are both ready. “Enslaved people in America were robbed of generational wealth,” Velazquez says. “This is repayment of a debt for 250 years of free labor that were not compensated.” Free Hub Two Seaside natives have launched a website they hope to make a hub for reparations. By David Schmalz A More Perfect Union As part of their advocacy work for reparations, Maiaika “Mimi” Velazquez (left) and Audra Walton are publishing a Black-owned business directory and helping others research their genealogy. “I love talking about the economy and going deep in the weeds.” DANIEL DREIFUSS
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