New Book Available
“Through a Trail of Tears: A Black Family’s Story of Generational Wealth is a work in social history—bottoms-up history. Gloria Petgrave Scoggins’s family story is also a history of America’s evolving systems of racial oppression. The story begins with her family’s enslavement by the Five ‘Civilized’ Tribes in Oklahoma and ends with her mother’s tenacious fight against systemic racism in the Bay Area housing market to become a wealthy property owner and civic leader. Family histories can yield interesting stories about families. And when combined with research and compelling analysis can also yield important understandings of a people and of a nation. This is what Scoggins accomplishes in this captivating book.”
—Robert C. Smith, Emeritus Professor of Political Science
at San Francisco State University, author of From the Bayou to the Bay: Autobiography of a Black Liberation Scholar
Meet the book
Through a Trail of Tears:
A Black Family’s Story of Generational Wealth
The United States and the world are inundated with social media, books, magazines and televised media about the plight of African American families and communities, and their quest for universal freedom.
The fight for Black freedom and dignity has its roots in the race riots of Oklahoma, the Timothy McVeigh bombing, and the many other atrocities that have been, and continue to be, leveled against African Americans, Native Americans and other citizens of color in the United States.
In the context of the global struggle of Black or Brown skin women, there have been many women who fought against the White supremacist system and who have not been included in the historical narratives. This is the history of one such Black woman: my mother Ermestine Martin.
Simply put, Ermestine’s courage and perseverance in fighting the real estate industry laid the foundation upon which obtaining property wealth and housing were improved. She refused to be caged by the chains of society and rejected being a prisoner like a crab in a fish tank being clawed over and pushed back.
She was a hard hitter in a city that refused to allow Blacks housing opportunities beyond the boundaries imposed upon them. She fought for Black women in particular, promoting opportunities to achieve their full potential.
Before my mother’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease in 2015, Ermestine Martin had built a sizable fortune for her family, while constantly supporting her community through educational advocacy and preaching about the need to acquire and hold on to property as a means of self-determination for both present and future generations.
Alzheimer’s was the final game-changer for my mother, as she lost the ability to reason,and could no longer navigate day-to-day living without help. She is still a talker, though! The battles she encountered years ago are still fresh in her mind. And her stories are unfiltered anger. The prevalence of discrimination in mortgage lending, and the race-based system of justice, still loom large in those stories. The government has only taken baby steps toward addressing the concept of reparations. Descendants of enslaved Black people persistently deal with wealth gaps and Jim Crow treatment, even today.
More About Gloria Petgrave Scoggins
Gloria Petgrave Scoggins is a native of Richmond, California, where she learned from her mother about the world of real estate and interwove that into her own forty-five-year career as a leader in the field of education. Like her mother, Gloria has been an advocate for justice and equity in her community and throughout California, both in her work as an educator and supervisor and as a leader in community programs focused on education. These include the BlackBoard of West Contra Costa and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. After her mother’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in 2015, Gloria retired to care for her and write about her life. This is Gloria’s first book.
My Moment with Dr. King
“Dr. Martin Luther King spoke at Aunt Lillian’s church, Easter Hill on Cutting Boulevard, and all family members attended. A room overflowing full of Black migrants, captured by his words, unaware that a short time later that he would be assassinated. Dr. King was in our city [Richmond, California], encouraging and motivating and then he was gone. That was a defined game changer in my life, and for family members as well.” —Gloria Petgrave Scoggins
What People Are Saying
TESTIMONIALS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
A must for any school curriculum
“Through a Trail of Tears offers the reader a chance to follow the heroine’s journey through the lens of the unique relationship that only Black Americans have with this country. As a History and English teacher, I rarely come across a literary work that encapsulates the story of who this country is. This written history is all that an educator could hope for. Through a Trail of Tears is broken into forty-six ‘Game Changer’ chapters that tell the captivating story of one family while capturing the history of a nation. Through its pages it affirms that the American dream was not given but was acquired through the constant push and pull of hope, desire, decisions, consequences, and navigating the ever-changing landscape of a country whose very essence is one of oppression and opposition. This book encourages the reader to face the fabric of tragedy and success that was forcefully woven into the genealogy of every Black American.”
Jamela Smith-Folds, Mother and Educator, West Contra Costa Unified School District School Board Trustee, Hercules, CaliforniaA mother’s tenacious fight against systemic racism in the Bay Area
“Redlining policies, which began in this country more than eighty years ago, bolstered prosperity for some but increased disparities in homeownership, wealth, and health for others. Leaders like Ermestine Martin did everything they could to break through these restrictive policies and build communities where all people can thrive. Mrs. Martin worked to achieve equity in housing for her community, and now her daughter and granddaughters are following in her footsteps to prevent gentrification and displacement in this same community. This is their story, and we, the readers, are invited to the ‘kitchen table’ to hear the tales.”
James A. Becker, President and CEO, Richmond Community Foundation Richmond, California“Through a Trail of Tears is a heartwarming tribute to a life well lived. The affection and reverence of a daughter for her mother is profoundly captured in this living history, which reflects the saga that so many black immigrants experienced in the Richmond / Bay Area region over the past century. Scoggins powerfully and skillfully portrays the essence of a self-made, self-directed Black woman in a pre-civil rights America. This work gives us a glimpse into the legacy of strength and tenacity that so many of our mothers and ancestors instilled.”
Dr. Stefanie Phillips, Associated Professor University of Southern California
Meet the Author
Gloria Petgrave Scoggins
Gloria Petgrave Scoggins is a native of Richmond, California, where she learned from her mother about the world of real estate and interwove that into her own forty-five-year career in the field of education.
Gloria witnessed and lived the struggle of Black people to both acquire property wealth and secure a quality education, goals that have been the foundation of success for all migrants. This includes her ancestors and other Blacks migrating to California, seeking fair and equitable opportunities for success and family prosperity. And it includes her mother, Ermestine Martin, a Black realtor who fought any belief, practice, or policy she came up against that marginalized Black people.
Gloria has followed in her mother’s footsteps in this regard. In addition to her work in the school environment, she has been a field instructor at Loyola Marymount University and a university supervisor at California State University, East Bay, where she worked to ensure that new generation of teachers are equipped to address the needs of all students within the communities they are assigned. In addition, she has held leadership positions in many community programs focused on education. For example, she served as president of the BlackBoard of West Contra Costa, working in collaboration with other community-based organizations to eliminate the opportunity gaps of targeted populations. She also served on the Richmond’s Girls Inc. Board of Directors, focused on implementing the College Bound Girls Program. Gloria was also a co-chair of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Alpha Nu Omega’s Emerging Young Leaders Program for middle school girls.
Gloria earned her undergraduate degree in Child Development from California State Hayward and two master’s degrees, one in Elementary Education from the University of San Francisco and a master’s degree in Education from Mills College. She advanced to candidacy in the Education Leadership Doctoral Program at the University of Southern California. After her mother’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in 2015, Gloria retired to care for her and to become the conservator of the family’s real estate and business holdings‚and to write this book.
