1854 Historic Negro Bar, Sacramento County - Leidesdorff Plaza - Diamond Jubilee

By 1839-1840, the Russian American Fur Company had nearly depleted all beaver, river otter and salmon in the "Blood River" and began plans to leave Alta California. Sutter's Fort received extensive Russian material supplies to operate his vision of New Helvetia along today's American River in Mexican California.

Beginning in 1844, Rancho Rio De Los Americanos an 8 Mexican Legues or 35,521 acres, was entitled to the “African Founding Father of California." Honorable William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr., first elected Treasurer of San Francisco, served as US Vice Consul, known as the first US Diplomat of Pan African Descent, and owner of the miracle mile long region named, Negro Bar, in Spring 1848, at the dawn of the California Gold Rush. He was not a miner.

Throughout the Great State of California, “systemic land theft” of thousands upon thousands of acres of land of working rancheros by people of African Descent is the “Stolen Legacy” at the transition from Mexican rule to America rule beginning in 1846 and official September 9, 1850.

1854, remains high point of the Gold Mining Town of Negro Bar is the bustling Wild, Wild West.

Negro Bar, Sacramento County was the hub of the Gold Mining District of Negro Hill, Mormon Island and Negro Bar, key stop on the California Underground Railroad Network to Freedom and home to nearly 3,000 early Chinese immigrants from the Pear River District, South China Sea.

In 1998, legislation titled the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act of 1998 was passed, creating the Network to Freedom program. Negro Bar was once an official key part of the California Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The history is being rewritten given the "need" to erase, distort and disparage 1854 Negro Bar, Sacramento County history.

In Juneteenth 2022, the mission, through collaboration with local, state and federal entities, as well as individuals and organizations to honor, preserve and promote the history of resistance to enslavement through escape and flight was erased from memory and renamed BMB and multi-millions of tax payer dollars allocated to reimagine the history of Negro Bar, Sacramento County.

Through its mission, the Department of Interior, National Parks Service Network to Freedom helps to advance the idea that all human beings embrace the right to self-determination and freedom from oppression the source documents have been removed from the California State University Library and records scrubbed to fit a new Black Miners Bar vision.

California Gold Mining District, along the American River Parkway from Old Sacramento to Coloma remains one of the most empowering story of California Pan African Heritage 1840-1875 and this special Diamond Jubilee Year of Leidesdorff Plaza the broader story comes to life.

2026 International Railroad to Freedom Month will be a catalyst for innovation, partnerships, and scholarship that connects and shares the diverse legacy of the Underground Railroad across boundaries and generations as we celebrate 60 years since the dedication of Leidesdorff Plaza, the hub of Historic Negro Bar, Sacramento County in 1854.

The program consists of sites, locations with a verifiable connection to the Underground Railroad; programs, with educational and interpretive programs that pertain to the Underground Railroad; and facilities, either research, educational or interpretive centers.

There are currently over 695 locations part of the network in 39 states, plus Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Reclaiming the Past of people of African Descent along the American River Parkway is not new. Rancho Rio de Los Americanos connects Leidesdorff St. in the Financial District of San Francisco to Leidesdorff St. Historic Folsom District.

What is new is a focused effort to distort, discredit and disparage the authentic salient contributions by people of African Descent in 2022 in the name of equity and inclusion.

Freedom is never free.

The ongoing journey towards freedom remains a battle and here at Historic Leidesdorff Plaza we will broker a deal with President Donald Trump and preserve the Leidesdorff Legacy, our African Cuban, Danish Jewish "African Founding Father of California."