 All right, I'm going to jump in and get started with some library announcements and introduce our speaker today. So first off welcome and we are here to celebrate African Americans of San Francisco and the work of Jan Batiste Atkins. We want to welcome you here to our more than a month events, we're rounding it out. But we promise to offer events all year round about black history black boy, and about our black population and culture in San Francisco in the Bay Area. San Francisco would like to San Francisco Public Library would like to welcome you to the unceded land of the Eloni tribal people and acknowledge the many raw mutish Eloni tribal groups and families as the rightful stewards in the lands in which we live and work here in the Bay Area. We are up encourage we encourage you to learn more about first person culture and land rights and are committed to providing educational resources on these topics. This FPL would also like to let you know that the library is not a neutral institution, and that we stand in solidarity with the black lives matter movement and structural systemic and institutional racism in our own house and in our community and in our state and in our world. You know, as far as we can as far as the library reaches. So we're working in our own house like I said we've just developed our own racial commitment racial equity commitment and that will be, you can find that in that link that I placed in the chat box. We've also placed lots of reading lists about more than a month so about black history month about black art and black joy but also about being an anti racist and incarceration of our black population. There's a lot of information in those reading lists but also lots of celebration as well. So please check out those and then I'm just going to give some quick announcements because I want to get on to our presentation. You can pick up all your boats and all of that at our library to go locations worth more and more locations and so we'll, we're, we're coming, we promise, but please remember to mask up this beautiful art by Samuel Rodriguez, you can find him on Instagram. SFPL is celebrating our 16th one city one book and we have selected author Chanel Miller for her book, know my name a very powerful memoir of her sexual assault on the Stanford campus campus and the subsequent. Her subsequent experience with the judicial system. She's super amazing and approachable writing. She's an artist and you can see her work at the Asian art museum right now on high street you can see this ginormous triptych mural she has up through the windows. So with one city one book we are able to with the support from our friends of the San Francisco Public Library do a lot of programming surrounding the topics of this book. So we partner with a lot of people we bring a lot of people in and I'm so excited about all the events that we get to do around this book, including this event with the McEvoy found the arts, featuring Isaac Julian who's exhibition at the McEvoy has just been extended to April, and you can make an appointment to see this it's free. It's a multi screen, it's beautiful and lush, and it's this particular talk will be with Judith Butler and Celeste, Celeste Marie Bernier. And they'll be talking about the women in Frederick Douglass's life. So the event. Isaac Julian's exhibition is about Frederick Douglass's life. Very amazing. Bringing the gorilla girls and these are all part of one city one book so definitely check out Google one city one book San Francisco Public Library and you'll find out way more of the events. So we're highlighting bookstores each month and this month we're highlighting borderland books and Marcus books the nation's oldest black owned bookstore. And we encourage you to pick up Jan's books from there, or you can also order them from Arcadia publishing or pick them up from your library shop local though. So this was this part of our more than a month, and we still have this week of events happening so please join us and Friday, I mean sorry, the 25th. We have Jason Reynolds who will be speaking about the transformative power of writing and reading. And today without further ado, I'm going to welcome Jan Batiste Atkins, and she's going to discuss her work researching documenting documenting African Americans in the Bay Area with a focus on African Americans of San Francisco. The books are part of the Arcadia publishing companies images of America series African Americans of San Francisco tells the important stories of black pioneers from 1800s today, who helped established viable African American communities. Jan captures these incredible stories and images of public figures religious leaders athletes politicians and everyday families, as they mirrored the nation slow progress toward integration. Jan is an educator and lecture and author of Arcadia publishing titles documenting African Americans in the Bay Area, San Francisco, Monterey County, and Jose and Santa Clara County. She has spent the last several years researching the African American experience in the Bay Area, her books document the success of African Americans and encourage school children and adults to read about their local history. It celebrates the rich African American experience as seen in photographs from area archives, museums, local newspapers, historical societies, libraries and family or histories. And this event will be available on the channel afterwards. And we will have time for Q&A, please use that Q&A box. And without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Jan Bates Atkins. Thank you everybody for being here and thank you Jan. unmute yourself Jan. Thank you so much. I'm honored to have an opportunity to talk with you to discuss with you my, my research that started about, I would say about 10 years ago and I began when I have an interest in learning about the lives of African Americans from the Bay Area, and particularly the pioneers. So I was really interested in the 17th, 18th, 19th century. And so I'm going to begin with a discussion of my work. Here we go. Okay, so, okay, so here's a map of early San Francisco. The 1840s black pioneers lived around the Embarcadero and near the water. So 14 blocks bounded by Broadway on the north, pine on the south, Powell on the west and DuPont on the east. Some families also lived between Bush and Vallejo adjacent to Embarcadero. And this information was readily available as I began my research at the public library. And I came across authors that had had started identifying who African Americans were that came during those early years and where they lived. The theme of traveling to California, the continent's end in search of new opportunities is prevalent throughout San Francisco's history, as well as the history of other California cities. The early settlers of the 1840s, both black and white, heard the call to go west in search of gold to develop a business to acquire land for a new home to establish a place to raise their families and to grow crops. African Americans came from every state and the West Indies, both slaves and free men, some work in the gold fields, while others work as domestics in homes of other Californians, in some also established businesses, and some work in farm work as farm workers. The aim of my book is to inspire conversations about the efforts of the early pioneer leaders who envisioned new lives in the West. Hopefully this book will inspire new ideas within the leadership of our communities to continue to build on economic, social and cultural contributions and focus on the overall history, cohesion and livability of San Francisco. My book is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is Chapter 1, 1840s to the 1900s. So this is San Francisco's early black pioneers. Chapter 2, 1900s to the 1950s and that addresses war, migration, employment opportunities and the emerging black community. Chapter 3, 18, I'm sorry, 1950 to 1980. This is reshaping African American communities, leadership, civil rights, student rights and redevelopment. And then Chapter 4, the present after the turmoil. So I'm going to present a little bit of data because I'm sure many of you are wondering, well, how many black people even live in San Francisco today compared to the past? Well, let's look at the past. In 1860, the black population reached 1176. By 1900, the black population grew to 1654. By 1940s, the black population reached 4,846. By the end of World War II, the black population grew to 21,000. But by 1950, the black population doubled, 43,460. By 1970, the black population reached 96,000, which was 13.4% of San Francisco's population. And today, the black population has dropped from the 96,000 in the 70s to 48,000 out of 874,961 total population. So the black population in San Francisco as of 2018 represented about 5%. And then I began to ask myself questions such as, when did people of African heritage begin migrating to California specifically San Francisco? Who were these early pioneers? Where did they come from? And how did they live? Well, the first person I'm going to introduce, I'm sure you've all heard of William Alexander Leesdorf. He was a merchant captain from St. Croix, the Danish West Indies, from the Danish West Indies to San, he migrated to San Francisco in 1841. So he's considered, from my research, one of the first, one of the first to settle persons of African heritage to settle in San Francisco. He was a wealthy businessman. He established businesses, built the city hotel, was elected to the town council in 1847 with others, and with others he started the public schools. He was the first to bring a steam vessel into San Francisco water. So he was in the shipping industry, and he began, he developed his business in New Orleans. And so he brought his business from New Orleans, then he brought the first steam vessel into San Francisco, and then he decided to stay in San Francisco. So he didn't become rich in San Francisco, he brought his money, and he was able to continue to flourish and develop and continue building his wealth in San Francisco. He died in 1848. He's buried in Mission Dolores, but no one knew of his heritage until after his death. So his friends, he had several good friends in San Francisco, decided to go to St. Croix to find his mother, to let his mother know that he died. And when he met his mother, his mother was a black woman. And of course, they're very surprised. But yeah. So William Leibdorf. Alvin Cope, those stories a little different, but still very interesting. Alvin Cope was brought to California, and those were brought. He didn't travel on his own same ship, but he was brought to California in 1849 as a slave to work in the mines. And in 1854, he decided that he wanted his freedom. So he began working for other gold miners, white gold miners, and raised extra money. And he was able to buy his freedom from his owner. And then, once he was able to buy his freedom, he also bought the freedom of his family members, and he moved his family members from the south to San Francisco. They settled throughout the Bay Area, but several of them settled in San Francisco and became prominent citizens. Even if his granddaughters became the very first pre-school teacher in San Francisco in the early 1900s. And we have the case. So there's another person. How did Archie Lee get to San Francisco? He was a slave. In the case of Archie Lee, it was a fugitive slave who was tried in the courthouse in San Francisco. Local black residents raised money for Archie Lee's defense. He was freed by the Supreme Court. So how did this happen? Well, California is known as a slave state. And that's what we were taught in our history books. So we probably thought that this meant that slaves were not allowed to, that owners could not bring slaves into California. And slaves could not be maintained and could not work in California. Well, that's not the case. Owners were allowed to bring their slaves to California. And what happened is that California would not allow those selling and buying of slaves. And also California would not allow the slave owners to bring their slaves and move to California on a permanent basis, which meant they were able to temporarily live in California with their slaves and temporarily meant a few years. And after a few years, they had to go out of state. And what happened with Archie Lee? So his owner put him on a ship and he was out there in the waters off of San Francisco, and he was going to go back. He was on a boat and he was going to go back to the state where he came from. And then he, but he ran away. He jumped off the boat and the townspeople, they hid him in a place in a black residential housing situation. And then he was arrested. And while he was arrested and in jail, then he had his court case, which the first case, the owner won that case and was attempting to put Archie back on the boat to send him back, to go back to leave the state, which was required in California. And then what happened is he ran away again. And after he ran away, then there was, during the meantime, his case was appealed. And the Supreme Court heard his case and Archie Lee then was released and he was emancipated by the courts. So Archie Lee decided not to continue living in San Francisco. And in the late 1850s, he departed and went to Victoria BC and relocated in Victoria BC, along with 400 other black residents of San Francisco. I'll talk about that a little later about why so many black residents wanted to leave San Francisco back in the late 1850s. Mary Ellen Pleasant, I'm sure many of you have heard about Mary Ellen Pleasant. There's a wonderful plaque of her on Bush and Octavia Street. But anyway, Mary Ellen Pleasant was born in slavery in Virginia or Georgia. It's not quite clear which state, this is where she was born. And she was born in slavery, but then she was freed. As a free person, she moved to San Francisco in 1852. She became a successful business woman and civil rights leader and philanthropist. She joined the black abolitionist efforts of the Bay Area, and was known to contribute to the defense of slaves seeking freedom. So she was one that helped to support Archie Lee and his quest is believe she helped finance a John Brown raid also. She also started a boarding house for homeless girls in San Francisco. Mary Ellen died penniless in 19. Well, there is a Mary Ellen Pleasant Memorial Park, so to speak, sort of a memorial space. And as a mother of civil rights in California, she support the Western Terminus of the Underground Railroad, which was the Western Terminus ended in Oakland. And this was for fugitive slaves. Excuse me. And this was between 1850 and 1865. This legendary pioneer once lived on the site where the plaque is located. Her house was just adjacent to the plaque. And she planted six trees. And those six trees that you see are may not be the original six trees, but these are the those six trees planted in this particular Jason to the plaque represent this hurt the trees that she planted. The plaque is placed at Bush and Octavia Street, and it was placed by the San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society in 1975. Well, we're going to find out a little more about Mary Ellen Pleasant because she's very important to. Mary Ellen Pleasant successfully sued the railroad in Pleasant versus North Beach and Mission Railroad. And the reason she sued was because she wanted to desegregate San Francisco's public transportation system. So began with the woman by the name of Charlotte Brown, Charlotte Brown was able to ride the train to work or wherever she was going every day whenever she wanted to. But because it was never crowded. And at one particular time, the train was crowded. And, and she was told she had to get off the train. Well, she had already paid her fair. So she got off the train she was told to get off she had no choice she got off the train and then she sued the train company, the omnibus cable company for $500 she won her case. But she won her case, because she had already paid. And the ruling was that the company did not have the right to take her money and then not give her the opportunity to ride the train. So that wasn't good enough because because it did not help other black citizens of San Francisco. So Mary Pleasant sued the railroad, the railroad, North Beach and Mission Railway, and in an effort to desegregate be a public transportation system so that all black people have the right to ride the trains. So in 1863, black residents were able to ride the trains. And we have George Dennis, but George Dennis came to San Francisco in 1849 with his father and his brothers who are white. In fact, he was a slave to his father and his brothers. He eventually bought his freedom for $1,000 with the money that he earned from his job at the El Dorado Hotel at Washington and Kearney. So he was like a bus boy, his job was to clean up after the pay the patrons of the of this El Dorado hotel. And, and I was reading a story, and the story was about how money would drop on the floor and he was it was okay for him to keep the money as he cleaned up the floor. And he saved the money, and he was able then to buy his freedom from his father and his brothers. Well, he was sort of a busy had a business mind and so after that he went ahead and he and he decided to establish his own business. The business that he established was what is called a horse library business which was a horse, a business where he's grooming and taking care of horses. And this was located right in the city, and he became very wealthy. He married Margaret Brown sister to Charlotte Brown so Charlotte Brown was the woman who sued the, the, the on the bus company. They married her sister, and he worked. He was a he joined the abolitionist movement in San Francisco and he worked very hard to free other slaves he also was another person who helped to finance the defense team for the slaves. Then we have James, john James and more. He was very important to because he was also, he came out of slavery from West Virginia, but he traveled to San Francisco as a free man. He established the first African Methodist Church which was one of the very first black churches established in San Francisco and it is still there today. This was in 1852, and the church was established on Stockton Street. He helped to establish the very first school for black children and the school at that time was located in the basement of San Sifrin's church on Jackson and Virginia Street. More was also the publisher of a short lived publication was like a newsletter called the lunar visitor. He traveled throughout the Bay Area after establishing the church and establishing the school, he traveled throughout the Bay Area ministering to black communities from as far south of San Jose, and as far east as Sacramento. So there's a very interesting story to. So here's a rendering of the very first of the first church, which was 18 which was an 1852 and it was established in San Francisco. And so you can see is organized in 1852. And the picture is that on Stockton Street, the church on Stockton Street. At that church first Amy Zion, he hired a pastor by the name of Reverend Alexander Walters and he was a civil rights leader. He worked when he worked as Pat he passed through the church from 1883 to 1888. In 1890 he became a member of WB Du Bois's Niagara movement. And this Niagara movement address lynching discrimination and other issues facing black Americans during that time. Right after, after that time after 1890 he left San Francisco to join the mother church, but while in San Francisco he continued to address some of the discrimination issues that San Francisco skins were facing. We have Eliza and William Davis. So they started the second black church, and this was called third Baptist Church of San Francisco. In this case, African Americans could not attend well African Americans could attend first Baptist church, but during that time they were only allowed to sit in the balcony. And that was pretty common for churches for white churches. So black persons were able to attend, but they just couldn't sit with everybody else so Eliza and William Davis decided in 1852 that they wanted to, they wanted to worship in a church that did not discriminate against them but saw them as equal. And they start their very own church and it was the open your home for the first time. So there's a plaque in my book. And this plaque is located today. The plaque is there in San Francisco commemorating this very first church. And I'll let you know, oh, it's on a DuPont street. So anyway, if you have my book, you can read a little more about the first church and the plaque that was given to the church. Then we have an educator by the name of Jeremiah Burke, Sanderson. He came to California in 1854 as an anti slavery activist and speaker at the first meeting of the convention of color citizens of San Francisco. So this was, this was another church. Well, this was Amy Church, but this, this church that he became a part of was called Little Pilgrim Church in San Francisco. Today it's known as Beth Bethany Amy Church and it is still in operation today. He moved to San Francisco in 1859 he became the principal of the very first black school that was founded by by John Jamerson. And he in the basement of San Sifrin's church. Well what happened is that John Jamerson and others decided to hire. Jeremiah Burke Jeremiah Burke Sanderson because he was an educator, and then he was he served as a principal and the first teacher for the school after eight years Sanderson left San Francisco and he went to Sacramento to establish schools so we had black schools during the same time period in San Francisco in San Jose and also in Sacramento and Jeremiah Burke Sanderson was a part had a part of establishing all three of those schools. Then in 1849. Once again, you know who are some of the pills the the pioneers that came to San Francisco, well we had Mifflin W Gibbs Gibbs, he came to San Francisco in 18 and 1849. In 1855 he started the very first black newspaper. This newspaper was called the Mirror of the Times. He also led 200 citizens who left San San Francisco, but there are 400 citizens but 200 families who left San Francisco due to prejudice treatment, and they decided to relocate in Victoria BC. So part of the problem that the reason why many black families decide to leave San Francisco is because it was a law that said that that black of that non white so they met black Asians Indians non whites could not testify against a white person. And San Francisco was a little bit prejudice at the time to. And so because blacks could not testify against a white person. They began looking for another place to establish their homes. And so there was an interesting. I read an interesting advertisement in the newspaper the Mirror of the Times, and the advertisement was from Queen Victoria and the advertisement was telling telling black people that come to come to Victoria, we'll find jobs and we'll find homes and so what happened is 200 citizens decided to take her up on it and they left San Francisco and on a boat at the same time. And they relocated to Victoria later Gibbs became so Gibbs was the one that led he actually led those citizens out of San Francisco. And then he became a judge in Arkansas I came back from he went to Canada he established a business there in his family but then he came he moved back to Arkansas, and then he was appointed as a US console to megadasker. Well we have Bill Bell. Now he was a co editor of San Francisco second black newspaper known as a Pacific appeal. So he actually ran this newspaper from 1862 to 1864. Then he established another newspaper called the elevator newspaper and this was from 1864 to 1879. They'll learn the newspaper business, while working for under William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglas in New York, and he worked with them in abolitionist politics and the newspaper business. So he so he was able to bring his expertise to San Francisco. The elevator newspaper became the longest running black newspaper in the Bay Area. Bill died in San Francisco in 1879. He also traveled throughout the Bay Area to San Jose to other parts of the Bay Area. Discussing his newspaper reading the newspaper stories, gathering newspaper information and newspaper stories to include in the next editions. So he was pretty intense and pretty successful as a newspaper man in the Bay Area. We have another shipper, Captain William Shorrie in 1878 he came to San Francisco on the way on a on the whaler Emma F Herman Captain Shorrie was nicknamed the black a have in 1887 he married Julia, and what she was a daughter of a very prominent black family in San Francisco. So black whalers were black men who served on whaler whaler ships and they were the crew members of the ships. Captain Shorrie was the only black captain on the West Coast. So here's a photograph of a whaler ship. And so the so this was the kind of business that Captain Shorrie did. And as I mentioned earlier in 1850 over 200 families board of ships and departing San Francisco for Victoria BC because we're fed up with the lack of progress towards equality and race, and also the racist laws of not being able to testify. Here's an example of a family this is Hannah, Hannah Estes and her children. And in 1850, Anna and two of her children traveled and they went to Salt Springs Island, which is in Victoria BC. They built their homes there and they established a small community. There was another family that left San Francisco, and to go to Victoria BC schools were established in big schools were established in Victoria BC so that children could get education, which at that time, the black school hadn't been as was still in development here in San Francisco. So, many parents wanted the kids to go to other schools wanted to go to public schools and there were no public schools in San Francisco. Today, in Salt Spring Island, the community of descendants from the original black San Francisco families who board of ships that still exist. So I had a wonderful experience and then I wrote to the Salt Spring well first of all I wrote to Victoria BC Museum. And then he led me to Salt Springs Island, and so that's where the families actually live established a community. I contacted the museum there at Salt Spring Islands, and they were the ones that sent me the photographs. To let me and then also assured me that there's there's still a black community in Salt Spring Islands today and this community are some of them are descendants from those from San Francisco, who left back in the late 1850s. So my next question was, what type of work was available to African Americans in San Francisco so now we know that there were black businesses in San Francisco. Nearly 200 black employees worked at the San Francisco's famous Palace Hotel from 1875 to 1889, according to Douglas Henry Daniels, who is a famous researcher and writer. Many worked in raising livestock. Many worked in agricultural businesses. Many started their own businesses. Some worked as teachers, many worked as butlers, domestic workers, barbers, seamstresses, janitors and other jobs like that. Here's a photograph of the Palace Hotel and this photograph was taken in 1878. And so at that time there were many people, many black people who worked in the domestic departments. I'm sorry, who worked at the Palace Hotel doing domestic work and also waiters and things like that. So it reads Negro chambermaids and porters on the upper balcony of the Grand Court. So the 20th century, in terms of 20th century of African American leadership, we see that there were leaders in the areas of civil rights, student rights, redevelopment. According to the US Census, the African American population in San Francisco increased from 4,846 in 1940 to 43,460 in 1950 due to defense industry employment opportunities at the shipyards and other jobs. African American population in 1970 increased to 96,078. They worked in semi-skilled and skilled jobs. The great migration of African Americans who left the rural south and sought job opportunities in the urban north resulted in over 6 million African Americans relocating to northern cities and many came to San Francisco, came to California. Many African Americans marched for equality. African Americans lived in the Fillmore district, many lived in the Fillmore district because this is where African Americans were able to rent and buy homes. African Americans own businesses in the 10 block area of the Fillmore was filled, this area was filled with restaurants, pool halls, theaters and stores. In the 1940s to the 1950s, African Americans were limited to patronizing black clubs and hotels and moving houses. So San Francisco was segregated. For musicians, the Fillmore though became a place to entertain fans and San Francisco's residents, often both black and white fans were flocked to the Fillmore to hear John Coltrane, Frank Jackson Trio, or Eddie Alley, and many other jazz musicians. Here's a photograph of Jimbo's Bop City and After Hours Club where music brought black and whites together to enjoy their favorite Fillmore musicians. And Jimbo's Bop City was located near the Marcus Bookstore, actually it's just upstairs from the Marcus Bookstore. And this photograph actually came from Marcus Bookstore. The family of the Marcus Bookstore had this photograph in their family collection. Willie Mays based discrimination in San Francisco and attempted to buy a home. We know that Willie McCovey played, so one of our, wanted to recognize one of our great baseball players. In the 1960s Negro American Labor Council led the campaign for hiring African Americans as checkers in grocery stores. So there were lots of protest and lots of efforts to overcome some of the discrimination that African Americans faced in the 1960s. We have Bill Chester, a union leader in 1964 who met with San Francisco civil rights leaders to promote anti-discrimination strategies. We know that Martin Luther King visited San Francisco. We have the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who was very active in San Francisco in the 1960s. They fought to end employment discrimination in the retail industry. Willie Brown often met with students at San Francisco College. San Francisco State is known as San Francisco State University. Now at that time it was San Francisco State College and he represented jail students who were involved in student unrest. In 1968 we have Dr. Nathan Hare, who was recruited as the first chairperson of the Black Studies Department of San Francisco State College. Hare was active in the BSU and student strikes. Dr. Hare continues to live in San Francisco today. Well, every new on San Francisco primarily affected the black communities of the Fillmore and the Bayview Hunters Point. Houses were moved out of the Fillmore in the 1970s. Houses were destroyed partially due to the dilapidation of the turn of the century old Victorian houses. So urban renewal had a major impact on the Fillmore district. Mary Rogers started the Western Edition Community Organization which forced the city to help relocate displaced residents. So relocation was a real problem. For families who were displaced. They have community activists, Hannibal Williams, Pastor Eugene Boyle, and Reverend Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church who are community activists during the, during that urban renewal time period. And also fought to make sure that the rights of the displaced homeowners were protected. In the 1970s families dislocated by redevelopment were able to move into newly constructed family housing. So that was one of the positive outcomes. In Hunters Point, many African Americans lost employment lost employment opportunities after the war, and the defense and after defense industries closed. Navy Housing was offered to the Housing Authority for public housing, but in 1966 rights broke out because of lack of opportunities for young black men. By 1966, many young black men were disillusioned and could not find employment. Many low-income families were displaced and had to relocate to the East Bay or the South Bay because of high unemployment and increase in welfare recipients from neighborhoods, from neighborhoods that became a crime room. And also as a result of urban renewal displacement. With the help of the Bay View Hunters Point Housing Committee, the rights of the citizens were finally protected. I want to thank you very much for this opportunity to share my research and my book. I've highlighted a few sections of the book, but I also want to let you know that this book is available there at the library, Arcadia Publishing Company, Barnes & Noble. I also found out that CBC stores throughout San Francisco and other counties also and Walgreens in San Francisco, they're also carry may sell this book, or you can contact me at www.AfricanAmericanHistories.com. And I would be more than happy to make sure that you receive a copy of this book. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jen. I'm going to give you a couple questions that we have and folks you can put your questions in the Q&A. And let's get started. So someone from YouTube is asking about Mr. Leader's Dwarf and how he was able to kind of get through the white supremacy of the time. Well, here's the answer. He was a Danish and African heritage and he was able to pass. But while he was, so no one knew that he was black until after he died. But what he did do was that he made sure that San Francisco, he helped to establish those early, the early businesses of early San Francisco in the 1840s. So San Francisco, California wasn't even a state. San Francisco wasn't even the location, but he was one of the early, he was one of the early businessmen to help build that early city. And so it wasn't until, so he actually is not known for his contribution to help build the black community. No, not at all. But he was a philanthropist as a person in his own right. So we have to recognize him and he was a black man. Thank you, Jen. And then another question is why is it that the folks moved to Victoria BC? What was it about that location? Well, because, well, first of all, as I mentioned earlier, Queen Victoria, she advertised in the black newspaper, come to Victoria BC and part of the reason was because they were looking for workers. But they also offered housing, lack of discrimination, schools for the children, communities to live in. And when they went to Victoria BC, it is research shows that they were able to get jobs and they were treated fairly in San Francisco. People of color, I want to make sure, I'm not just saying black people, but Chinese, I mean, sorry, Asians, black and Indians could not testify against a white person. There are lots of stories in the black newspaper of whites who would, you know, do commit a crime against a black person and the black person could not do anything about it. If they were robbed, or if they were burglarized or something like that, a black person could not testify, could not complain. And so this is what drove families out of San Francisco, black families. Eventually that law was overturned, though, in the 1860s, early 1860s. And so that was one of the very first. So it was called the black codes. One black code was that blacks could not testify. So that's what drove the families away. And it was very, very, very prejudiced place to live. Thank you. Thank you, Jen. And then another question is, have you done any research about San Francisco African Americans that trace their family history to any of the pioneers you highlighted, or others who moved here in far past. Yes, I did. In researching this book, I was able to research the families who actually were descendants of some of the early families. But it's really unfortunate in that there, until recently, there wasn't a place where black families were able to, where families were able to house some of their family documents. And so it was passed down from generation and generation and generation, and much of those original papers have been lost or misplaced. Now though, well, as I, when I began researching for this book, the library, your public library was a great resource for lots of information about some of the cofe families, the cofe family is still in the Bay Area. And at the time when I did my research, I was not able to locate members of the cofe family but since then I have. So I'm really happy to say that the cofe family still exist in descendants of descendants of Alvin cofe, which was what we know of one of the first black slaves brought to San Francisco who who bought the freedom of his family and the neighborhood of San Francisco. So they're in the Bay there, I don't know if they're in San Francisco but I do know that they are in the layout and other parts of the Bay Area. Yes, January your research expands all over the Bay Area which is really amazing so definitely encourage you to check out those books at the library, and our History Center is definitely deep we are the archive for San Francisco. So we have so much stuff including like the redistricting and the demolition in the Fillmore we have all of that information which is just so amazing and so tragic. So there is a question which I think is sort of interesting. Do you know anything about the rise of Jim Jones in the 70s and how that impacted our black community. Yes, in my research I found out a lot about Jim Jones but unfortunately, once again, I have to in order to have the for this particular book I had to have the actual documents and from archivist from libraries from the historical societies, and that information was not available at the time I think that there is a, I believe I heard that that there's an effort to collect some of that information, and so I think that's underway now but at the time yes, I knew a lot I had heard a lot about it and I had come across it in readings, but I did not come across documentation families who actually wrote about their experience of their loved ones that actually went to with Jim Jones off on the trip to Renata wherever it was. Jamestown. Oh, there's a person in the email or in the chat who's a Jonestown survivor who would love for you to contact them. Oh, great. Yes, well, I can try and connect that offline. Thank you. Thank you. I like very much to talk to the survivor. And then there's a question again about documents and documentation and how does that get saved, you know, like where, where are your resources from throughout the Bay Area. And, you know, I guess I'm questioning are like personal people still holding these documents and. Well, are we going to get them public. Well, well, well, the library first of all, there was a from what I understand when I started my research, the library apparently at some time period which probably was, I would think the 90s 80s 90s and 2000s solicited families to share their family documents and the library at one time was housing that that information was. And so that was a place where families could store some of those family photographs and some of those original documents and things like that. Because what I was able to to go through some of those files and look at some of the photographs and read some of the family stories and some in some cases families have have preserved oral histories and so they and they take recorded those oral histories. For me, I use the libraries the archivists are so helpful, the California Historical Society, the African American Historical Society, the state, the state of California libraries the African American Museum and library in Oakland. Every city has an historical an historical society of the San Francisco pioneers. There are so many organizations who, who, who decided that it's their job to, to maintain to collect and to maintain this local history information and it's there and and the first place to start is with the librarians because the librarians have a resource, a reservoir of information about where to go to find this information. Maybe I set you up for that question. Thank you for that library love and we definitely have so much information and I put a lot of links into the chat box. And we even have the newspaper that you mentioned. Oh, what was it called again, I'm blank. Well you do you you have the Pacific appeal because when I researched for my master's degree. I just about made my, I had my own desk up in the library, and I was able to read the newspapers on microfilm. So, excellent. Yeah, elevator newspaper that's the elevator specific appeal. Yeah, you have both of those there. Excellent. All right friends if there's any more questions let's get those in the box I see lots of chat lots of love. Thanks so much for this history of blacks in San Francisco, and I'm going to come back on screen so Jen's not alone. As I mentioned, I put the link to today's document in the chat box I'm going to do it again. And a number one question that always comes up is can we see this event again. The answer is yes this event will be on the SF PLS YouTube channel. You can pick up Jan's book at our library or like I said, your local bookstore please do that and you know any library you're at in the Bay Area will also submit that request to purchase these books for the library as always patron request is number one in our world. So Jan, I don't see any more questions I thank you so much for your knowledge and your history and sharing it today. And, like I said I'll be calling you again. I've enjoyed sharing my research with so many of you. I'm sorry I can't see your faces but I know you're there I see your the questions in the chat and I just want to say thank you so much for for spending an hour with me to talk about my research and I look and I and if you have questions don't forget to contact the library. All of this information is available at the library the redevelopment files I was able to find at the library. And, and of course then there's also the bankrupt library which is another great resource, but all the photographs I want to say that in my book I have about 185 photographs in each of the books there's three books I've written and the photographs come from on archivists. I, they're, they're original, they are original photographs. So, I just think, thank you so much and he said that the library is has devoted has become a resource for families to go to to share their their family stories and family history. Yes, absolutely I'm putting your website in the chat box one more time. But friends I will send you out a follow up email that consists of all of this stuff we talked about and lots of great stuff I put in the notes while Jan was talking. And everyone thanks you, and thanks you for your knowledge and sharing it. And we do we see you out there. We virtually see you we miss you we love you. Thank you Jan and have a wonderful rest of your Saturday. Thank you everybody.