21st Century Gold Rush ~ President Obama Easter Week Visit to San Francisco

California is named after Queen Califia, a legendary leader of African descent who battled Hernan Cortes in the Spanish quest for the riches of this amazing land. Her story is seen in the mural in the largest room of the California State Capitol, the historic California Room.

During the Age of Sail, the quest for a greater measure of freedom during the Gold Rush brought people of African descent to the wealthiest part of the Gold Mining District. High above the confluence of the North and South Fork of the American River Basin, California Black Agriculture Pioneers, created an amazing unique American legacy, some had a lifetime of experience farming, just escaping "previous condition of servitude" in the deep south while others were seasoned “Black Jacks” sailing back and between Sacramento, California to Boston, Massachusetts.

Honorable William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr., "the African Founding Father of California" who was the first elected City Treasurer in San Francisco, early real estate developer of the San Francisco Waterfront was the creator of early California Maritime Trade and Commerce

His 35,500 acres along the American River Basin at the Leidesdorff Ranch Adobe headquarters, today’s City of Rancho Cordova, CA provided the first U.S. Diplomat of African descent, an expansive empire (1844-1848) of Black Agriculture development that is only beginning to come to light during this bicentennial year of his birth home, in Spring Garden Valley, St. Croix, Virgin Islands.

A short few blocks from the California State Capitol in Sacramento, hidden in the basement of the home of Daniel and Henrietta Blue the first Black Church west of the Mississippi River was created, today's St. Andrews AME Church followed an early multi-ethnic Methodist congregation in Negro Hill, California.

The first California Governor Peter Burnett, in his inaugural speech proposed to export all people of African descent out of the State of California, "they will forever be a scourge upon our society" yet the answered prayers at his neighbor home were answered, in the basement of ole Uncle Blue’s home near the entrance of today’s Sacramento Valley Railroad Station.

The values and beliefs of "white supremacy" remains an essential component of the California story and the reason 36 grave markers continue to read, Unknown, moved from Nigger Hill Cemetery, by U.S. Government in 1954, a sign and symbol to discourage and discredit the golden legacy of the financial hub of the Gold Mining District of Negro Hill, California 1848 – 1863.

Negro Hill surpassed the size and scope of any town in the region and remains a unique American success story to feature this 2011 United Nations International Year for People of African Descent.

During the U.S. Civil War, Negro Hill was redistricted into the boundaries of El Dorado County, or the Gold County in the Spanish language, something to consider in the ongoing U.S. redistricting preparing for November 2012.

For over 300 year's California was part of the Spanish colony, apart of the vast Alta California, including legal slavery under religious and military authority of the Spanish authority headquartered in Havana, Cuba. In 1790, the final Spanish Census of Alta California gives another perspective of the region.

“Mining for Freedom” along the American River Basin at the regional hub of Negro Hill, CA a vast amount of venture capital helped finance the Underground Railroad throughout the United States of America and the African diaspora.

California Black pioneers created a new generation of Black Abolitionist in the tradition of David Walker, Fredrick Douglass and most importantly Mammy Pleasant, "the Mother of Civil Rights in California" who personally travelled from San Francisco throughout the Deep South in 1857 to 1859. She was organizing and financing the “journey towards freedom” before the start of the U.S. Civil War.

Mammy Pleasant picked up where William Leidesdorff left off leading an ongoing golden legacy of Blacks in Gold Rush California.

Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General and Kamala Harris, California Attorney General, once the formal paperwork is received will help correct the open secret of "what happened" in the original Gold Rush, best understood by 36 grave markers that read, Unknown, moved from Nigger Hill Cemetery, by U.S. Government in 1954.

Together we will establish a new generation of Black Agriculturalists who will restore an elevated Ancient African tradition of Queen Califia, building upon the historic Negro Hill, California near the confluence of the North and South Fork of the American River Basin, just east of Rancho Rio De Los Americanos, the land of the “African Founding Father of California” and earliest California Pioneers of African decent first built a strong foundation in 1848.

Michael Harris, Project Director
Negro Hill Burial Ground Project
(916) 997-2451
http://www.Blackagriculture.com