The Racist History of El Dorado Hills/Negro Hills, CA

So the New York Times picked up a story about my neighborhood. About a mile from where I live is a cemetery:

But for the better part of five decades, the most notable tombstones at Mormon Island were those without names: 36 anonymous decedents whose grave markers shared a single, shocking label: “Moved from Nigger Hill Cemetery by the US Government in 1954.”

Perhaps more jarring were the words that followed, saying that the headstones were placed “by U.S. Government” in 1954.

New ones are being made by the prisoners at Folsom Prison. The comments section of the article addresses the issue of “whitewashing” history by removing the offending word, similar to Huck Finn. Several commenters state that the area was officially named with the perjorative, but I can find no evidence of that. We live within two miles of Mormon Island, Negro Bar State Park and Dyke 8 of Folsom Lake, now renamed Folsom Point. The cultural implications are significant, but the history is fascinating. I have no idea how to verify this information I found in a web search, but I think it’s worth a look:

Historical Legacy of Negro Hills, California
by Michael Harris

The history of Negro Hills, CA is an excellent place to begin to share our 150+ year Nationwide celebration.

In 1854, Newton Miller noted that in his racially mixed Methodist Church at Negro Hills, Negroes constitute nearly all the church members and are a majority of the congregation. Negro Hills was founded in early 1848 along the American River, east of Leidesdorff Ranch, near today’s City of Folsom.

1830 - 1850 Negro Seamen Acts were established at most major southern seaports in the United States. They prohibited free men of African ancestry from their lucrative career in the maritime industry. Many Negro seamen became farmers in 1840's Mexican California. The Gold Rush of 1848 and California U.S. statehood in 1850 expedited an influx of industrious free men of African ancestry to California.

Negro Hills, CA is an extraordinary early Gold Rush community and maintains a golden historical legacy of the free migration of American citizens of African ancestry.

In 1849 three enterprising men from the New England seaboard named Vosey, Long and French opened a store and boarding house called the Civil Usage House. Business was good. Gold Rush fever swept across the world, like wildfire and brought Irish, Spanish, Portuguese, Mormon, Chinese and Americans from all corners of our new United States.

Early success was assured in Negro Hills and brought global attention to El Dorado County.

Charles Crocker, brother of Edwin Crocker and Dewitt Stanford, brother of Leland Stanford, joined the Negro Hill business community competing directly with the Negro established trade and commerce entities.

In 1853, Negro Hills population exceeded 1200 and could boast of a multiethnic community unmatched outside the Port of San Francisco. Negro Hills was the hub of a regional community that included Salmon Falls, Massachusetts Flat, Chile Hill, Mormon Island and many mining camps along the American River.

By 1854, portions of the deeply religious community of Negro Hills had deteroriated into a Wild West saloon and place of ill repute. The California State Legislature passed laws prohibiting Blacks from testifying in court, homesteading land, voting and public education, these and other environmental hazards helped to destroy the harmonious beginnings of Negro Hills, CA. A group of drunken, broke and destitute white citizens of the village of Negro Hills began to terrorize the Negro business community.

Theft, fights and lynching were often encouraged because of the legal prohibition of equal access to the law in early California State History. In 1855, the first California Colored Convention began to address the disenfranchisement brought about by our California State Legislature. Negro Hills was effectively destroyed to the benefit of the Crocker, Stanford and other prominent families.

Today, California State Historical Landmark No. 570 of Negro Hill is missing. A small portion Negro Hills Cemetery was relocated during the 1954 construction of Folsom Dam; however, our U.S. Bureau of Reclamation sought fit to rename Historic Negro Hills, “Nigger Hill” on 36 unknown grave markers.

An effort to establish the City of El Dorado Hills could bring a fresh new perspective towards a more inclusive historical legacy that reconciles the pioneering spirit of all citizens of early Negro Hills, CA.

A people, who have forgotten their past, will have a limited future.