Rodney 'Blair' Stewart made history as the first Black council member in Brea, an Orange County suburb that had a recent reckoning over its 'sundown town' past.
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In Brea, Stewart also found mentors, especially among his high school coaches, including Chris Emeterio, now the assistant city manager. Anonymous donors left athletic shoes on his doorstep, knowing he couldn’t afford them. School board meetings grew increasingly tense, and the Fanning family disputed the veracity of the Klan list. A study by the Brea Museum and Historical Society questioned Fanning’s Klan membership and stressed that there was no city ordinance codifying the “sundown” rules.. But the following year, after the nationwide protests against George Floyd’s murder came to downtown Brea, the Fanning family asked the board to rename the school.
Stewart said he stayed out of the Fanning Elementary controversy. But he doesn’t gloss over the city’s past. The lesson stayed in the back of his mind, but he didn’t seriously consider running for office until recently, as he neared retirement as a firefighter.
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