Discover Gold ~ Black Sacramento Heritage Project

A select few local Black History Month events in Sacramento will focus on the individuals, families, communities from our Sacramento River Basin. Local, regional and state Black History is currently not a pubic policy priority. Sacramento Museum Day 2010 may show an improvement at the free events, this first Saturday in Black History Month. A wonderful education opportunity is available each year however the desire to include authentic Black Sacramento history is a low, low priority.

Curriculum frameworks and content standards of currently limit culturally responsive instruction thus a failing grade is an acceptable social engineering practice for the Black community at large. A business model of market based education alternatives without providing cultural identification is also bad public policy. Positive solutions are available.

Anderson Norris, Sylvia Starks, Nancy Gouch, Sarah Jones and William Alexander Leidesdorff are examples to share with Sacramento educators, since it was not part of the education they received to obtain the credential to teach Black children in Sacramento or apart of the solution to a failing school system.

Central to our Black Sacramento Heritage Project is sharing the golden legacy of William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. “African Founding Father of California.” The Leidesdorf Legacy was recently recognized in New York City by the Congress of Racial Equality, 25th Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ambassadorial Dinner and by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. was born on a family farm in 1810, St. Croix, Virgin Islands, to his African-Cuban mother, Anna Marie and Danish-Jewish father, William Leidesdorff, Sr. a citizen of Demark. Leidesdorff was naturalized a U.S. citizen in 1834, New Orleans, Louisiana and obtained Mexican citizenship in 1843, Monterey, Alta California. Leidesdorff died very suddenly in 1848, a day before a very public announcement of the California Gold Rush.

Honorable William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. was a successful maritime captain who was reported to be one of the wealthiest men in all of California by any tangible method of measuring wealth. He was elected San Francisco Treasurer, President of the School Board and U.S. Vice Consul to Mexican California. Most of his personal and official records are “hidden” however; partial records are dispersed at universities, public libraries and private collections throughout the world.

In 1844, Honorable William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. received an official land grant he called Rancho Rio de Los Americanos from Mexican authorities and built an enormous cattle and wheat ranch compound in Sacramento County. Unique to his land grant was an added stipulation to allow the native Maidu community was to remain undisturbed on a significant portion of his 35,000-acre Leidesdorff Ranch.

Today, ancient Maidu acorn grinding holes remain present among the mile long portion of the American River once known as Negro Bar, Sacramento County. This area was an early Gold Rush mining community 4 miles downstream from Negro Hills, El Dorado County. Very rich gold deposits were found at Negro Bar by Negro settlers, the first to discover gold in Sacramento County. Centuries of snow melt river current created a natural swirling pattern facilitated by a 250 foot limestone bluff on the northern bank of the American River. This wondrous geographical landmark contains layers of oceanic life forms and peaks cultural archeological interest, since the Pacific Ocean is 100 miles away.

Captain Leidesdorff navigated the first steamship in California, showcasing his desire to develop overnight steam transportation to obtain fresh agricultural products from the Sacramento Valley to export markets. His famous steamship voyage his ship, the Sitka, is seen on our California State Seal.

William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. greatest historical legacy, as founder of Public Education in California; he organized construction, built and opened the first public school in California, at Portsmouth Square, San Francisco is not taught in the California Education System. This type of culturally responsive instruction would encourage far too many towards excellence and that would create far greater problems for the current reality.

In 1848, William Alexander Leidesdorff Jr. commissioned a survey to verify vast quantities of reported gold on his land. He received favorable official reports from government officials, while murder, lawlessness and hysteria ruled the early Gold Rush experience.

Prior to his sudden death from “brain fever” and quick burial inside of the Catholic Mission Delores, San Francisco, Leidesdorff built an amazing empire and represents an unsurpassed legacy in Gold Rush California, authentic Black Sacramento Heritage, October 23, 2010 is his 200th birthday celebration in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, a Sacramento delegation will learn first hand our journey toward freedom.