Long-Awaited Silicon Valley African American Cultural Center Gets $4.8 Million Federal Grant

“There’s a sense of feeling amongst African and African Ancestry people here that there is no here in Santa Clara County for Black people. There is no sense of being, no sense of place,” Wilson said. “The center will address that issue, because we believe we need to be here. We have to be here.”

The cultural center is envisioned to feature a new location of the African American Community Service Agency, as well as the Roots Community Health Clinic, and Ujima Adult and Family Services, officials said.

Also planned for the space are about 150 homes, all of which will be rented or sold below market rate, reserved for people earning from extremely-low to moderate incomes annually. The center will have a performing arts theater, a museum, athletic facilities, as well as retail and commercial spaces.

Wilson said the center has seen years of fits and starts over the decades, but feels confident it’s on a track to completion in roughly five years. In all, the project has raised about $30 million so far, of an estimated $200 million.

Over the next year and a half, Wilson said his team will aim to bring their total raised up to $50 million, which would allow development to begin, while roughly $140 million from state low-income housing tax credit funding is pursued.

The project has received funding contributions from a bevy of sources including local, state and federal governments, nonprofits like the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and corporations such as Google. Crucially, Santa Clara County purchased a nearly 3-acre parcel at 2001 The Alameda that is being held for the project.

Rep. Khanna said the funding is the largest grant that he has secured for a community project in his seven years in Congress.

During an event held to celebrate the grant Wednesday, Khanna noted how other cultures, including the Indian American diaspora, have benefited from the work of African Americans to push for civil rights legislation in America in the 1960s.

“The Indian American community has had an Indian community center for the past 15 years, right? The Vietnamese-American Community center. We can’t have an African American community center, given the history of 250 years of slavery, 100 years of Jim Crow? We need to speak honestly about the economic disparities in this country,” Khanna said.

He said he hopes the center, once complete, will attract talent to the region from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and graduates from other top universities.

“And that’s what’s going to help revitalize the African American community in Silicon Valley, which is critical for us, not just to bridge the economic divides, but also to lead in the 21st century,” he said.

Chike C. Nwoffiah, a Nigerian filmmaker and the founder of the Silicon Valley African Film Festival, said he believes the center is bigger than just the South Bay, and will help bring waves of young, passionate people from all over the African continent to the region. He lauded the community leaders and organizations who helped bring this project together.

“You are creating a home for people that look like me, and you are saying yes to the fact that we belong and we ought to be here. Because for far too long our stories have been told by people that don’t look like us,” Nwoffiah said.

“But this now becomes the home where our stories are preserved and honored and affirmed, and so that we can come out of these doors being our true selves.”