"THIS IS OUR FAIR and OUR STATE": African Americans and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition Author(S): Lynn M

"THIS IS OUR FAIR AND OUR STATE": African Americans and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition Author(s): Lynn M. Hudson Source: California History, Vol. 87, No. 3 (2010), pp. 26-45, 66-68 Published by: University of California Press in association with the California Historical Society

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This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "THIS IS OUR FAIR AND OUR STATE"

African Americans and the

Panama-Pacific International Exposition

By Lynn M. Hudson

It was an otherwise typical spring day in dous commitment to the progress of African San Francisco when the journalist Delilah Americans?landed her an extraordinary oppor Beasley made the journey across the bay tunity in theworld of journalism: writing for to the Panama-Pacific International Expo the leading white and black newspapers of the sition (PPIE) from her home in Berkeley on East Bay's largest city.A race woman2 and active June 10,1915. Beasley, writing simultaneously member of the black women's club movement, for northern California's mainstream daily and Beasley informed readers of thewonders of the largest newspaper, the Oakland Tribune, and for world's fair. But what did fairs?and their prom the black newspaper, the Oakland Sunshine, had ise of education and entertainment on a grand visited the world's fair before. But this time, she scale?mean for the state's African American went with a different purpose: towitness the population? And how would a black reporter Bay Area's African American citizens as they interpret their possibilities? marched in a parade at the state's most spectacu The year of the fair, 1915,marked a pivotal lar event of the year. Beasley and other African moment in the history of black Californians. In Americans believed that the PPIE was an ideal that year,African Americans formed northern setting to assert their presence as citizens. Black California's branch of the National Association Californians looked to Beasley, one of the state's for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) most influential black reporters, to convey news and organized a massive outcry against the about cultural events and the pressing political of African Americans in concerns a degrading portrayals of population living through the age Thomas Dixon's play, The Clansman, and D. W. of JimCrow. Griffith's newly released film version, The Birth Beasley had moved to California in 1910, already of a Nation. Beasley interpreted these events for a newspaperwoman. Born in Ohio in 1871, she a large California readership. Her viewpoint as career began her in journalism in theMidwest, a journalist and her role as a historian make her as a writing for the Cleveland Gazette teenager.1 a compelling figure through which to examine a nurse a She also studied to be and professional the convergence of these events in state history. masseuse, jobs that took her west to Berkeley Her commitment to thewomen's club move a a a with client. But lucky break?and tremen ment and the rights of black citizens provides a

26 California History volume 87 / number 3 / 2010

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ^^^^^^^^^^^^ IDelilah L. Beasley (1871-1934) achieved wide spread recognitionas a journalist and pioneering historian during a career spanning more thanfifty years.With her columnfor theOakland Tribune, 'Activitiesamong Negroes," she became thefirst black woman columnist in California at a major metropolitan newspaper. Throughout her career, Beasley worked tofight destructive representations ofAfrican Americans. In 1919, she self-published a historyof black Californians, The Negro Trail Blazers of California, inwhich she asserted, "The greatest literarywork done by theNegro is through his weekly papers."

Courtesy, African American Museum and Library at

Oakland (AAMLO)

provocative lens through which to rethink the fair they took the lead in the state's branches of the and the state of race and gender politics for black NAACP, moving seamlessly from theirwork in Californians. the black women's club movement and churches to the "race work" of the nation's earliest civil Like other U.S. world's fairs, the PPIE empha rights organization. Beasley and other African sized nation and patriotism for a Euro largely American women used the fair to carve out real Americans' pean-American audience. African and figurative spaces inwhich to articulate their participation in the fair underscored the ways in political agendas and challenge JimCrow. By har which all black citizens, and especially women, nessing the language and symbols of patriotism found themselves pushed to themargins in state so prevalent at the fair, black Californians?men and national women had been politics. Though and women?claimed the nation as their own granted full suffrage by California's male voters at the precise moment that the social and politi four years earlier, were not yet considered they cal influences of Dixon's and Griffith's works equal participants inmatters of state. Yet black attempted to erase their history as citizens. women refused to stand on the political sidelines;

27 This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions can do black Asserting citizenship was a gendered affair,how Americans?6 What the responses of to PPIE tell us ever, and the language and symbols available to Californians the about African women differed from those accessible tomen. American citizenship and gender in 1915, at the era of To counter negative stereotypes, Beasley and height of the JimCrow? other club women sought to convey a message While there has been a significant amount of respectable black womanhood. With imagery of scholarship about the PPIE, most of ithas that often invoked family and domesticity, race focused on the exhibits, the architecture, and the women pushed at the definitions of state, nation, planners. Less has been written about spectators and womanhood. In their efforts to redefine pos and next to nothing about African Americans. sibilities for black Californians, they used every This has partly to do with the difficulty in locat venue at their disposal: the press, the church, ing sources; we do not have records that indi and exhibitions.* public parades, cate the number of black men and women who or the names and When a new technology called motion pictures attended the fair backgrounds made itsworld's fair debut at the PPIE, media of the African American workers, for example. PPIE also sawy Beasley anticipated its revolutionary poten The story of black Californians and the in the the tial to change hearts and minds. From her desk, has been eclipsed historiography by she sensed the time was right to change African better known and dramatic history of African American history amid the intersection of two Americans and the 1893 Chicago exposition. But contested and highly visible cultural events: a given the lessons thatworld's fairs impart about race world's fair and a motion picture, both attended the place of in the state and the nation, the PPIE in bymillions and both launched in her new prominence of the California's history, home state. and the timing of the fairwith one of themost significant protests in California black history, Scholars often have looked toworld's fairs, such the response of African Americans to the PPIE as London's Great Exhibition of or 1851 Chicago's deserves further consideration. World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, to under stand particular societies at particular times. Rob ert Rydell, for example, has argued that fairs have JIMCROW FAIR, JIMCROW STATE helped tomake sense of the upheaval and social California conjured up dreams of a racial Utopia disorder of industrializing societies by providing for some African Americans, but the state was a "community of shared experience."4 Society's not immune to racial discrimination, having elites organized fairs in order to present particu passed a series of discriminatory measures that lar visions of a well-ordered hierarchy that, not are commonly known as JimCrow laws. Since incidentally,married the ideas of progress and the nineteenth century,African American Cali white supremacy.5 The sheer popularity of the fornians customarily had been denied access eleven international expositions that occurred in to streetcars, public schools, theaters, bars, and the United States between 1876 and 1916 dem courtrooms. Following statehood, black leaders onstrates thatAmericans were, at the very least, and organizations campaigned vigorously to halt attracted to this shared experience and its unique the spread of segregation. After much effort, combination of education and entertainment. If, they reversed the antitestimony ban, winning the as Rydell has posited, "elaborate racial fantasies right in 1863 for blacks to give evidence in court about California's history" permeated the PPIE, against white citizens. During Reconstruction, what were they and what did theymean forAfri

2(5 California History volume 87 / number 3 / 2010

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions These African Americans visited thePanama-Pacific International Exposition to see the LibertyBell, on loanfrom Philadel phia, inJuly 1915.The Oakland Sunshine encouraged its readers to view thepatriotic icon and link itwith thefugitive slave Crispus Attucks, a casualty of theBoston Massacre and "thefirst martyr of theAmerican Revolution." In a passionate plea on July 17, thepaper urged, "Let thisWestern world know that the blood of a Negro patriot has been largely instrumental inpre serving theprecious jewel ofAmerican independence."

Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

African Americans sought to reverse discrimi founded by the journalist and civil rights leader was nation through the courts, and black women in T. Thomas Fortune, established in 1891 and California initiated some of themost significant worked tomobilize voters, as did the Colored cases. Abolitionist and entrepreneur Mary Non-Partisan Leagues. Black women organized Ellen Pleasant sued the North Beach & Mission political associations and clubs, including the Railroad Company in the 1860s when a driver Woman's Afro-American League and branches refused to let her ride the streetcar.7 In the 1870s, of the National Association of Colored Women at a the parents of Mary Ward took legal action when (NACW) fervent pace.9 their daughter was denied admittance to her local Indeed, when Beasley arrived in the state in 1910, school in San Francisco due to her race.8 she encountered a well-developed women's club After the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment movement. Reporting in the NAACP's journal, in 1869, black men across the nation agitated for The Crisis, A.W. Hunton claimed that by 1912, "No more change through the ballot box, and Californians state had strongly and clearly demonstrated proved no exception. A host of black political the blessing of a united womanhood than Califor organizations formed chapters throughout the nia."10 Embracing themission of the NACW and state. The Afro-American League of San Fran itsmotto, "Lifting asWe Climb," clubs such as cisco, a branch of the national organization

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions African American club women attended theJuly 27-29, 1925,meeting of theCalifornia State Federation ofColored Women's Clubs in Oakland. In addition to theirwork in the social and educational spheres, the black women's clubsfully embraced opportunities to influence thepolitical climate and improve theprofile of theAfrican American community.

Courtesy, African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO)

theMother's Club and the Arts and Industry Club newspapers such as the Colored American also of Oakland provided the backbone of thismove sang the praises of the Golden State and encour ment. In the early years of the twentieth century, aged readers tomigrate there. Justfour years black women in California mounted an organized before the fair opened, one editor of a black attack on discriminatory practices, utilizing newspaper in Los Angeles, JeffersonEdmonds, judicial, nonviolent, and performative strategies claimed that California was "the greatest state for

decades before the official "beginning" of the civil the Negro."12 rightsmovement in the 1950s. But the very attributes that Du Bois, Edmonds, With the dawn of the twentieth century, black and others commemorated?homes and jobs? Californians anticipated the dissipation of the often were segregated. Where some African previous century's antiblack sentiment and Americans saw opportunity, many more saw dis hoped that newcomers to the statemight find crimination, and for them, race relations in the a more hospitable racial climate. In fact,when Golden State were not something to celebrate. NAACP patriarch W.E.B. Du Bois visited Califor Between 1900 and 1930, African Americans in nia in 1913, he found much to celebrate, includ the Bay Area had few opportunities for skilled ing the availability of single-family homes and or semiskilled jobs. In other U.S. cities, black jobs.11Du Bois was not alone. National black men had found work in large-scale manufactur ing, but these jobs did not exist in the Bay Area,

California History volume 87 / number 3 / 2010

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions which was home to themajority of the state's the NAACP secured a court injunction to ban black population. Black women found even fewer the screening, but the injunction was ignored. opportunities forwork and most often were The Northern California Branch pressured the restricted to domestic labor.1* mayors of San Francisco and Oakland to prohibit showing the film, a strategy thatwas adopted In fact, itwas the occasion of the PPIE itself by other area offices across the country. Indeed, that inspired the Oakland Sunshine towarn of California's NAACP branches set a precedent for the dismal employment situation?at least in the film's national protest. But despite several northern California. "We hope members of our meetings between the president of the North race will not come here expecting to find employ ern California Branch, JohnDrake, and the city ment, as the conditions are not favorable," the fathers of Oakland and San Francisco, the film editors announced.14 Depending on where in the played in the Bay Area the rest of the year and state one lived, housing could be equally bleak; throughout the entire exposition.1^ many black Californians who had the income to purchase property found restrictive housing Angered by the film's stereotypes and their covenants an increasingly common practice.15 For implications, Beasley juxtaposed the film and the renters, the situation might be worse. As early fair to highlight the fallacies of black inferiority. as 1907, black men and women in the Bay Area According to the black newspaper the Oakland found that "real estate agents do not care to rent Independent, '"The Birth of a Nation' was making to races Negroes."16 people of all very unhappy and promoting unfriendly feeling toward the Negro by playing In 1915, partly as a result of Du Bois' much in San Francisco during the entire period of the publicized visit, black Californians founded the exposition. In an effort to counteract the effect of Northern California Branch of the NAACP, with the [film]Miss Beasley began writing for The Oak its headquarters in Oakland. That very first year, land Daily Tribune, featuring the Negro exhibits in the branch's 150members made it one of the the Panama Pacific International Exposition.''20 largest in the nation; two years later,membership figures soared to over one thousand.17 As soon as This was no small feat. Through her columns members convened, they faced a significant chal in the Tribune, one of the state's largest daily lenge: the opening of The Clansman?the stage newspapers, and the Oakland Sunshine, Beasley adaptation of Thomas Dixon's 1905 novel of the reached a wide and interracial audience.21 But same name?that claimed to depict the history convincing her readers that race pride and racial of Reconstruction. D.W. Griffith's film version, uplift could be exercised at the PPIE would not The Birth of a Nation, soon followed. African be easy. For the nearly nineteen million people Americans found the depictions deplorable and who attended the fair between opening day themessages straightforward: black men and on February 20 and December 4?and who women were not fit for citizenship, and with the wandered through eleven major exhibit halls, aid of the Ku Klux Klan, white supremacy could twenty-one national pavilions, and over twenty be reinstated. five buildings devoted to states or regions?racial stereotypes would be hard to ignore.22 From the The film premiered in California in Riverside midway, or JoyZone, to the ethnological exhibits on January 1,1915. On February 8,1915, twelve and even the Palace of Food Products, visitors days before the PPIE welcomed its first visitors, witnessed a range of representations of racialized 2,500 filmgoers flocked to Clune's Auditorium in subjects, including caricatures of African Ameri Los Angeles.18 Black leaders and the black press cans. For many who crafted the vision of the called for a boycott. The Los Angeles branch of

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions PPIE, the key to national progress was something ers of the Race Betterment Foundation, "You called "racial progress" or "race betterment." represent the very spirit, the very ideal of this Coming as it did on the heels of the opening of great Exposition thatwe have created here."29 As the Panama Canal and in themidst of the First a reporter, Beasley was well aware of the eugenics World War, the fair celebrated national progress themes; the Race Betterment conference received and scientific triumph. With the input of anthro more press than any other meeting, more than pologists, ethnologists, and the state's leading one million lines of coverage by the Associated scientists, exhibitions and lectures featured the Press and the United Press.*0 The prominence new "science" of eugenics. In fact, thisworld's of racial discourse at the fair translated into fair became the first to host such a panoply of dire predictions for black Californians. African eugenics-related displays and conferences.23 Americans threatened racial purity, according to eugenicists, and their presence in the state could Fairgoers could attend lectures on the subject only be a hindrance. or visit the extremely popular Race Betterment booth in the Palace of Education. Recendy California had proven itself receptive to thismes race founded inMichigan by the cereal magnate sage long before the fair opened. Fears of JohnH. Kellogg, the Race Betterment Foundation mixing had led Californians to enact one of the enjoyed quite a receptive audience in California. earliest antimiscegenation laws in the nation David Starr Jordan, former president of Stanford in 1890. The NAACP, formed in 1909, kept a University, attended the National Conference of watchful eye on the state and monitored similar Race Betterment held that year at the fair and laws. Intermarriage, and its criminalization in soon became California's leading eugenicist.2^ states across the country, received its own col Members of the Ninth International Congress umn in the pages of The Crisis.^1 "Believing these of theWorld's Purity Federation convened at the laws to be unjust and degrade the colored race fair throughout Julyand August, and the lectures and especially the colored women, the branches delivered at a meeting of the Education Congress have taken an active part against such legisla addressed race betterment quite explicidy as tion," wrote W.E.B. Du Bois in the June 1913 A Minne well.2* The fair's official chronicler, Frank Morton issue. bevy of states?Kansas, Iowa, Todd, described the Race Betterment booth as sota, Illinois, Washington, and New York?con "one of the exhibits that caught the eye of every sidered passing antimarriage bills during the visitor."26 There, among sculptures of classical firstdecades of the twentieth century. The fear Greek figures, visitors could read charts warn of racial degeneracy and even "race suicide" ing against interracial marriage, ormixed-race intensified among middle-class white Califor breeding as itwas called. Messages about eugen nians. Indeed, the state embraced this fear and ics were not restricted to one display; another its popular solution, female sterilization, passing popular booth belonging to the Department of its firsteugenic-sterilization law in 1909, only Labor offered information about theweakening the second such law in the nation.*2 California of America's racial purity due to recent immigra was fast becoming a center of eugenicist thought tion trends.27As one historian explained, "The and practice, a place where racial purity was nucleus of California's eugenics movement con championed and race mixing despised. It is no verged at PPIE."28 coincidence, then, that a film celebrating white supremacy and a fair promoting the selective Fair organizers thrilled to the concentration of breeding of humans found such enthusiastic eugenicists at the fair and wrote to the organiz audiences in the Golden State.

California History volume 87 / number 3 / 2010 ^2

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was a meeting In themonths prior to the fair's opening day, place for thenation's practitioners of eugenics. The new "science" newspapers carried innumerable stories of the warned of thedangers of interracial contact, especially inter and the fair's the PPIE were preparations potential; racial sex, and lectures about eugenics delivered through to would bring thousands of jobs the state, and out thefair. The Race BettermentFoundation, established by H. the cereal such lectures in African Americans knew this. In January 1915, John Kellogg, magnate, sponsored this booth at thePalace Education. one month before the fair opened its gates, the of Colored Non-Partisan Leagues, a political organi San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library zation that helped to educate and organize black voters in the state, charged that hiring practices at the fair had been discriminatory.3* In a letter In his letter,Mash, an attorney, also reminded to PPIE president Charles Moore, S. L. Mash, Moore that the Leagues had lobbied to have the the organization's president, wrote that he had fair in California because of the state's antidis confirmed with the superintendent of the Service criminatory legislation.35 Further, he noted that Building, a Mr. Flynn, that "the [color] line had black voters were "a great factor" in securing the been drawn to the extent that no Colored Man fair for the state, as was the black press. "There [sic]would be allowed to be employed as Guards is no question, but that all the Colored Newspa and other various positions at the Fair Grounds, pers of the United States, as well as the Colored and that itwould be a waste of time for any Col Press Association of which I am a member ... ored Man tomake any such application."*4 assisted greatly in thismatter, to the success of San Francisco."36 Mash closed his letterwith a

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions warning: should the discrimination continue, Buffalo Soldiers?in the Spanish-American War. "[T]he same influence thatwas used favorably to Mash continued: "And in the hope that all mark a San Francisco, might be themeans of causing of discrimination may be removed, both in fact ... great injustice to the fairminded good citizens of and in appearance we most readilymeet your the State of California." suggestion, that a Colored Company of Guards be formed."*1 Unfortunately, there is no record Moore never replied to this accusation of dis of Taussig's response to this letter, and despite crimination. Unbeknownst to the Colored Non Mash's offer to organize that unit of veterans partisan Leagues, Moore's attorney assured himself it seems unlikely that anyone took him Moore in a memo that "a few tactfulwords will up on his proposal. quiet these 'wards of the nation.'"37 Two weeks afterMash's letter,PPIE Secretary R. J.Taussig This exchange of letters is a strong indication sent those tactfulwords toMash, declaring that, that black Californians consistently and quite "speaking officially, the Exposition has not at pointedly voiced their concerns about segrega any time drawn a color line."38As for the com tion and racial discrimination at the fair.Whether plaint about employees, Taussig had conducted the complaints from the Colored Non-Partisan a a personal investigation and had found "quite Leagues made a difference in hiring practices is number of colored men employed in the build unclear. But the records tell us that the PPIE, the ings and on the grounds_So you must admit," city of San Francisco, and the state of California he wrote, "that there is no discrimination based came under intense scrutiny and that JimCrow on race." When it came time to address the practices did not go unnoticed?indeed, they absence of black guards at the fair,Taussig's were advertised nationwide. By March, San Fran excuse amounted to the fact that only "veterans cisco's mayor, James Rolph, had a letter on his of the Spanish war" had been hired in this capac desk from a different lawyer, James C. Waters Jr., ity; and while the fairmight entertain hiring a an alumnus of Howard University Law School, men as segregated unit of black "just it is done in training ground of the nation's top civil rights the U.S. Army," it "was out of the question at the attorneys.Waters made his requests quite simply: Moore's present moment."39 responses perhaps "What the colored folks want is equal treatment were meant to quiet Mash and concerned black in all the purely public and quasi-public places citizens, but they offered little comfort. such as are commonly open to all comers in the city of San Francisco. For instance, if they find As confident as the secretary sounded, Mash themselves in need of food or drink, or both, they was not fooled. In his letter replying to Taussig's want to be able to enter the first restaurant they assertion of a JimCrow-free fair,he offered to come to, and not have to trudge,mile aftermile print Taussig's assurances in the black press: until they come to some 'JimCrow snack house' "A copy of your letterwill be sent to our Eastern or 'chit'lin den'... before can a mouthful ... they get correspondents and our people may be made to eat or a glass ofmilk."*2 to feel welcome by the Officials of the Great Panama Pacific International Exposition."40 But Waters, an attorney at theWashington, D.C, Mash did not leave it at that. He happily took firmWilson & Waters, pulled no punches as he serv up the secretary's point about veterans described themyth of racial equality in San Fran as ing guards, reminding the secretary of the cisco: "[C]olored persons who propose to visit the valiant service of the black soldiers of the Ninth Panama Pacific World's Exposition in San Fran and Tenth Cavalry and the Twenty-fourth and cisco during the current year, believing theywill Twenty-fifth Infantry?commonly known as the be accorded the same civil treatment accorded

California History volume 87 / number 3 / 2010

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Following the Spanish American and Philippine wars, soldiers of theNinth Cavalry (above) and theTwenty-fourth Infantry, part of the black regimentsknown as theBuffalo Soldiers, were garrisoned at thePresidio. In herMarch 1918 article inThe Crisis, Beasley recalled thehonor of a "special day, which theycalled the 'LincolnDay'" bestowed upon theBuffalo Soldiers by officialsof thePanama-Pacific International Exposition. "The exerciseswere opened by a Military Parade which was led by ...... the entireTwenty-fourth Infantry headed by a Negro band and bandmaster. The Negroes led the day."

Courtesy, U.S. Army Military History Institute

decent, responsible members of other races, will presence of segregation at the fairM Unfortu find they are entertaining a wild notion."43 Waters nately, there is no indication that any further requested an honest assessment of the situation action was taken. The fair proceeded with a very from themayor. limited presence of African Americans as work ers; in addition, black fairgoers found themselves Rolph chose not to respond personally to this unwelcome at a variety of concession stands and matter and instead referred it to Secretary restaurants inside and outside the fairgrounds. Taussig. Waters, likeMash, seemed singularly unimpressed with Taussig's handling of the situ Knowledge of JimCrow practices at the fair at ser ation: a "32 word" letter that he "so generously every level?employment, representation, sent" on March 15.Though no record exists of vices, and management?strengthened Beasley's Taussig's letter, it is clear fromWaters' response commitment to integrate the PPIE and claim that the secretary resorted to the same policy he it as an event that belonged equally to African initiated when addressing the concerns expressed Americans. Like Mash and Waters, she worked to by the Colored Non-Partisan Leagues: deny the expose discrimination. Whereas fair organizers

35 This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions sought to erase the presence of African American Fannie Barrier Williams, the only African Ameri workers or exhibitors, Beasley sought tomake can to hold an administrative position in the fair, black people visible. In thisway, she joined the believed that the exposition could showcase the ranks of other African Americans, including achievements of the nation's black population Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, who and was a tremendous opportunity that should recognized fairs and expositions as essential loca not be missed.45 Others found the very notion tions for demonstrating and representing the of a single day devoted to black achievements talents of black Americans. patronizing and offensive.

The 1890s marked a period in post AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE Reconstruction America characterized by the WORLD'S FAIRS worst offenses of JimCrow: lynching, violence, and the erosion of rights thatAfrican Americans African Americans have a long and complex had achieved during Reconstruction. Not sur history with U.S. world's fairs. As spectators, prisingly, black men and women did not always exhibitors, workers, performers, and activists, agree on how best to stand up for their rights at they shaped the outcome of fairs and often coun the fair or otherwise. And Colored American Day tered themessage that the elite white planners became the focal point for voicing some of these intended audiences to receive. In the nineteenth disagreements. Addressing an exuberant crowd century, fairs were places where black Americans of over 2,500 people on August 25,1893, Fred attempted to control their histories. The period erick Douglass delivered a blistering critique of from 1877 to 1915, the heyday ofworld's fairs, slavery and the treatment of African Americans coincided with some of themost offensive repre in the United States. The publication and dis sentations of black Americans in history, fiction, tribution of the pamphlet "The Reason Why the and film. Building on the antebellum tradition of Colored American Is Not in theWorld's Colum black abolitionists such as William Wells Brown, bian Exposition" helped some black who traveled the world with his diorama of slav galvanize Chicagoans against the segregation and exclusion ery, postbellum black Americans understood the of black Americans at the fair. In the pamphlet, power of display. Fairs presented an extraordinary Ida B. Wells, who had led an international cru opportunity to counter the onslaught of damag sade against lynching, and her future husband, ing beliefs about the benefits of slavery and the Ferdinand Barnett, exposed the history of racism impossibility of African American citizenship. that had successfully disenfranchised African The best-known example of African American Americans and encouraged a boycott of Colored a participation in world's fair occurred in 1893 American Day.46 in Chicago at theWorld's Columbian Exposition, Perhaps no fair better illustrates the significance which was designed to commemorate the 400th of expositions as platforms for black political anniversary of Christopher Columbus' "discov thought than the Atlanta Cotton States and Inter ery" of America. There the journalist Ida B. Wells national Exposition of 1895. Held only two years and senior statesman Frederick Douglass debated after the Chicago exposition, it sparked intense publicly about the role of black Americans in debate among black Americans. This time itwas the fair, particularly their participation in the not Douglass who delivered the signature oration so-called Colored American Day. The debates but Booker T. Washington. In what came to be revealed significant differences inwhat black known as the Atlanta Compromise, Washington people thought fairs could be and do. Members laid out his vision for a new and unified South, of the elite class of black Chicagoans, including which many African Americans, most notably

California History volume 87 / number 3 / 2010 ^6

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions W.E.B. Du Bois and the founders of the NAACP, found accommodationist at best. By focusing on the political rift that developed between Du Bois and Washington, some have overlooked the com monalities of their approaches. Before he deliv ered his biting critique ofWashington's Atlanta exposition speech in his Souls of Black Folk, pub lished in 1903, Du Bois chose another venue to fight the oppressive depictions of African Ameri cans: the 1900 Paris exposition.

When the African American lawyer Thomas Cal state commissioner for the Cotton loway, 1895 This double portrait is among 500 photographs ofAfrican Americans States and International Exposition in Atlanta, and their homes, churches, schools, and businesses assembled by W.E.B. Du Bois and Thomas theExhibit American looked for assistance for a new project?a Negro J. Calloway for of Negroes at the 1900 Paris exposition. The exhibit,which won several awards, exhibit in the Paris exposition?he turned to was "a carefully thought-outplan, according towhich the exhibitorshave Du Bois, his classmate from Fisk University. tried to show (a) the historyof theAmerican Negro, (b) his present con Convinced that an of black impressive display dition, (c) his education, (d) his literature,"Du Bois wrote. churches, clubs, schools, farms, and homes Library of Congress would dispel themyths that circulated about African Americans, Calloway lobbied the black elite and Congress to support the special exhibit. thatwould occur five years later in The Birth of In defense of his idea of a Negro pavilion at the a Nation, as millions of viewers watched a white fair,he wrote to black colleagues, "Everyone who female jump to her death while fleeing from knows about public opinion will tell you that the the black male who pursued her. Beasley, like Europeans think of us as a mass of rapists ready Du Bois and Calloway, thought Negro exhib ... to attack everywhite woman exposed how will itsmight be an effectiveway to "answer the we answer these slanders?"47 slanders."*8

Securing $15,000 from Congress, Calloway By the time of the PPIE, Washington and come was able to advance Du Bois $2,500 to prepare Du Bois had to represent distinct schools the bulk of the visual display for the Negro of black intellectual and activist thought. Du Bois exhibit. Du Bois thought itbest to counter the embodied the civil rights and protest wing of slanders with a small but fastidious display of black America, Washington the self-help school photographs of African Americans and charts of thought. Though scholars consider this dual and graphs prepared with the help of his sociol framework for black Americans' responses to ogy students at Atlanta University. Whether this JimCrow?resistance and accommodation to approach altered racialized notions is not clear, racism?a drastic oversimplification, it often has but the exhibit earned Du Bois a gold medal for shaped theways inwhich we interpretAfrican his role as "Collaborator and Compiler of the American history of California, as well as of the Georgia Negro Exhibit" that did not go unnoticed nation.49 This false dichotomy obscures the com by the black press in the United States. Though plexities of club women, such as Beasley, who exhibits like those in Paris were intended to objected to antiblack representations, embraced counter racial caricatures, the stereotype of the civil rights, and championed African American black male rapist had not yet reached its zenith;

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions achievements while seeking ways to position the the Negroes to begin planning for a Negro Day at black American experience at public, mainstream the Exposition, when the whole grounds will be venues. Beasley cannot easily be placed in either turned over to the Colored People of the United we a theWashington or Du Bois camps; although she States_But do reallywant Negro Day worked for a decidedly Washingtonian news and would it be a JimCrow Day?"*1 Readers were paper, the Oakland Sunshine, she also champi encouraged tomail in their "25 word answer" to oned the NAACP. Beasley's story?and those of this question for publication in the next issue. women like her?illustrates the problems with Negro Day promised to be a grand affair, a dis oversimplifying African American resistance to play of sports, singing, reciting, and all sorts of JimCrow. talents. According to the Sunshine, fifty "min isters, business and professional men" were RACE PRIDE, PARADES,AND "THE JEWELCITY" appointed to a committee by the fair's president and directors tomake arrangements.52 Attempts The PPIE elicited mixed reactions from black were under way to organize a choir of one thou men and women throughout the state. The dis sand schoolchildren to perform in a singing cussion in the black press reveals that not every contest. Races of all kinds were planned, includ one embraced the possibilities of the fair, and, in ing a "fatmen's and shortmen's race." And per fact, some worried it could reinforce messages haps most significantly, themouthpiece of racial of racial inferiority.50In addition to the discrimi uplift, Booker T. Washington, was invited to be natory hiring practices, stereotypical displays of the orator of the day. Members of the black elite Africans and African Americans were difficult took the fair, and the committee, quite seriously. for fairgoers to ignore, none more powerful than "Let every race-loving, patriotic citizen join the the attraction called the African Dip. Nesded committee in their endeavors to show theworld between a concession stand selling orange blos thatwe have brainy, talented and skillful artists, som candles and a fruit pavilion, the African Dip, poets, and musicians, both men and women in an enormous booth in the JoyZone, recalled our race. To the thirtymen in and around San popular images of savage Africans. To experience Francisco and Oakland towhom this day's pro the African Dip, fairgoers approached and almost gram has been entrusted (in themain), do your entered the enormous body of a pierced African full duty. This is a service you owe the race," the of indeterminate gender; then they tried to toss Sunshine reported.53 a ball at a target,which if successfully hit, would dunk or dip the African American who sat in the But Negro Day did not occur. Interest faded and booth into a pool ofwater. Demeaning carica attention shifted to other ways inwhich African tures of African Americans at the fairwere not Americans might participate in the fair. The restricted to the African Dip; at the Sperry Flour Sunshine never published any readers' responses booth, women dressed as the stereotypicmammy to its question about holding a Negro Day. Most figuremade pancakes for the hungry crowds. likely, itwas too late to organize the event, as the Afro-American League suspected. Special days On March 27, in response to a proposed "special happened with much fanfare, but as the Sunshine day" devoted to black Americans, the leaders of warned, they required "elaborate preparation the Afro-American League, in the pages of their and expense." It could be that black leaders had paper, the Oakland Sunshine asked its readers, difficultymustering up the funds and the enthu "Do We Want a Negro Day at the Exposition?" siasm that Negro Day demanded.54 Among PPIE The editors seemed skeptical about themerits planners, Negro Day was not a priority either; of such a day and its feasibility: "Is it too late for

California History volume 87 / number 3 / 2010 ^8

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attendedthe exhibits in the Millionsof visitors ^^^^^^^^^^H^^^^H||H|^^^^|^^HH|^^|^ftriHtafc^Z^ JoyZone, an amusement thoroughfare with ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H^^^^^^^^BHfiSll^l^ morethan includingthe ^^^^^^^^B^^^^^^^K^^^^^^^^^SSf^^^ popularAfrican Dip. Countering such negative ^^^^^^^QN^^^^^^^^^B^^^^^^^HHH^^^^^^'^^^^^te^T^^^ÎII^^^Î at enu- stereotypesprevalent thefair, Beasley ^^^^^BBjpB^^^^^^^M|l^^^^^B|^^^Wjj^ - meratedthe exhibits that refected "credit upon ^^^^H^Bfc^jfl^^^^^^^H^^^^^^V* I*Pb^,,fasÎ tfJ^B^^KKSEm^^^^. "^^1 therace" including artexhibits; charts and ^^^^Hp^l^'II^^^^^^^^H^Bfl^B^ ?**j^2flMMFfe^^^^P^^^^^^lBH picturesnoting advances byAfrican Americans '* ^hb *-~mI^^^PE^^B^B^|^^B ^H.^ IbL Hl^^B ^^^^^^^^^1 ineducation, science, and industry;and the ^HB& 4|^^^Bh^^^|^HK|^H^, ^^îj^^L, _ "^||^Bjj^B| inventionofthe "citrus press" by an African ^^^Ê^Mf *^^Ê1^^^^H5^^K^ SB^h^^jj^^^^^^Ê Americancouple inOakland. ^^BK2fc^^^n^^^|,'^Bl^^^^B 'J^^^^^^^^K 1 fll^^^^fl SanFrancisco History Center, San Francisco ^^^^^^^^FflB^^^R J^^Bk ? J^^^ktwil^^^^HIV^^^k f^^^^^^^^^^H PublicLibrary ^^^^^^HhI^^K^^^B 'fll^^H^ ^^^^ÎH^^^Î

Booths edible luredvisitors distributing samples ^^^^KbFzElJSR tothe Palace ofFood whoseDome ^^^Hl^^^^^^^^^H^H^^^^^^B^^B^^Î^^^Bi^S^^B^^^^^^Î ofPlenty "signifies thesource ofvigor the ^^^B^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B^^^^^VÎIi^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B^HBKÎ fruitsofthe asa popular the ^^^BW^^^^^^^^^^^^âJ^^^^lil^^^^^^^^^^^B^^^^^^^^^^B^^B fairreported. Atthe Sperry Flour ^^H^BI^^Û^^^^^^^^^SH^^^^^^^^^^^^feS^^HP^^^^^^^^^^^Î^Î womenmammy outfits ^^^M|^H^^^^^^^^^B|^^^^^^^^B^^^^^^^^^^^Bj^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l madepancakes. Thefair thousands ^^BHÊS^^Ê^^^SI^^^^^^^Hl^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l tothe veryfew ^^^^^^^K^^^H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H were^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B Courtesy www.san franc iscom emori es.com

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions to our visi theywere, perhaps, more concerned with other announced the Sunshine, "and show our our special days?and therewere hundreds at the tors that this is Fair and State."5? fair?such as Glacier National Park Day, Raisin Black women enthusiastically embraced the Afro Day, orWells Fargo Day. Perhaps recalling that American League's challenge to claim the fair black Chicagoans viewed Colored American Day and the state. Despite a forceful call to action in as a way for the organizers of the 1893World's the black press and at the forum, the only orga Columbian Exposition to appease African Ameri nizations that planned to partake in Alameda cans protests,55 black Californians in 1915 pre County Day were the black women's clubs?espe ferred to participate in a different kind of event, cially the Civic Center, which intended to com one thatmarked them as citizens, not "Negroes." mission for the parade a decorated car that could Finally, it is quite likely that the plan to secure hold fiftywomen, the Fannie J.Coppin Club, Booker T. Washington as themain speaker fell and the Household of Ruth. Planning proceeded through;Washington had been ill and died in at a frenzied pace: a general committee formed, November of that year. choirs rehearsed, children decorated floats. All were By May, plans for Negro Day had been aban fraternal organizations and political clubs or doned and a new avenue for black participation encouraged tomarch ride in the parade. emerged. This time, itwas not a race-specific Indeed, members of the organizing committee as a day, but a matter of civic pride. The proposed framed involvement responsibility thatAfri as Alameda County Day and its centerpiece "indus can Americans should embrace a matter of trial parade" were considered a more appropri race pride. According to the press, James Hack ate venue for black Californians to demonstrate ett, chairman of the committee, said that he "con

their contributions to the county and state. Black siders it the duty of every colored resident to rally women women took the lead, immediately organizing at this time."58 Clearly, black club viewed a forum to discuss the new event, which was participation in the parade as an extension of on race. to planned for June 10. Myra V. Simmons, president their activism behalf of the Prior the of the Civic Center, a black women's club, called fair, the Civic Center had taken center stage in a meeting at the Cooper Zion Church on Camp a protest against the dismal conditions faced by bell Street in Oakland to decide thematter. African American prisoners at San Quentin; the club also led theway in the protests against The The Afro-American League supported the idea: Clansman.^ "Now, to our mind we could, with a degree of pride go right into this day's festivities with all The Alameda County Day parade began at 10 a.m. our might as loyal citizens of Alameda County, sharp at the San Francisco Ferry Build not as Negroes or any other race, but as citizens, ing; it then proceeded along Market Street to march together, ride together, sing ifnecessary Van Ness Avenue, which led to the eastern together, and still be citizens of the county."56 gates of the fair at the JoyZone. Once inside the Perhaps, some believed, attending Alameda fairgrounds, the parade moved through the Joy County Day might impress upon fairgoers that Zone, past the African Dip, and down the Ave African Americans considered themselves citi nue of Progress, eventually finishing at the Band zens, even though theymay not be treated as Concourse.60 The event drew hordes of specta such. Indeed, participation might convince some tors, and if the Sunshine accurately assessed the of the rightful place of black people in the state. extent of African American participation, itwas "So we are quite in favor of just as many of our sizable. "Everybody shut up shop and [got] them colored citizens turning out on Alameda Day," selves across the channel to the big Exposition

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grounds."61 Indeed, the San Francisco Chronicle A,M. E. Zion Street qgyJfej^r claimed that the parade was "a revelation," one Church, Geary of the best parades of the fair since its opening in December.62 The fair's official band led the &mtim?Ntgtjt Nou. 21at 1915 ?JL*'*}** parade, and women of the Grand Army of the IN MEMORY OF OUIt CHIEFTAIN Republic marched behind it. Following in the tradition of Pasadena's Tournament of Roses, lav ishly decorated floats dominated the day. Every Dr. Booker T. W ashinoton one praised the entries from San Leandro, which of Ala., who died Nov. 14th at his home in the South were covered in cherry blossoms and "ripe cher Tuskeegee, ries the size of plums."63 Black women's clubs had their own plan to impress the crowd. Two Students from his institution will deliver principal addresses, and a race will mourn the loss of its leader. floats, one sponsored by the Colored Women's great Mr. RITCHIE and Mr. JAMES of Clubs and the other overflowing with seventy-five BROWN, Tuskeegee Institute, will speak. schoolchildren dressed in uniform and waving American and Bear flags, carried African Ameri Poem.Mr. A. P. cans across the city and through the fairgrounds. Alberga Special Soloists.Miss Emma Scott and Black women also had a Earlier that Mrs. Thomas Hunter surprise: " Life of Booker Washington".Mr. Mabsom year, PPIE officials and the Call-Post newspa Thanatopsis.Mrs Corine Wells per had announced a contest to name the fair. Quartet.24th U.S. Infantry Unbeknownst to them and tomost an others, Master of Ceremonies, Counselor Oscar Hudson African American girl, Virginia Stephens, had Appropriate Music by Church Choir won the contest with her submission, the Jewel City. The Civic Center and other black women's E. D. W. JONES. PASTOR clubs decided there could be no better way to enforce themessage of black equality than to celebrate the winner by including her on the float Ideologies of self-helpfor African Americans were promoted by educator, of schoolchildren along with a showy banner philanthropist, and founder of theTuskegee InstituteBooker T. Washing declaring her patriotism. Members of the Afro ton (1856-1915), whose death was observed in a serviceat San Francis American it "As few of League put thusly: very co'sAfrican American Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Members of the our was white friends knew thatMiss Stephens Oakland chapter of theAfro-American League had hoped Washington colored, the clubs took thismeans to inform the would deliver the keynoteaddress for theproposed Negro Day at the International public by a large banner of her presence in the Panama-Pacific Exposition. float of her nationality."64 California Historical Society

African American women seized upon the fair and its very public?and newsworthy?oppor black club women indicated their desire tomerge to tunities draw conspicuous attention to black the politics of family and respectability with the so Californians. That they did through the spec tropes of nationalism and patriotism. For African not seem tacle of children might surprising given American women, emphasizing their roles as gender constructions of the time that associated mothers and caretakers of the domestic realm women with domesticity and mothering in par must be done in conjunction with their insis on ticular. But by featuring children the float tence on citizenship. along with Virginia Stephens riding "in state,"

41 This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Delilah Beasley understood, as all club women reminded her readers that black people's pres did, that notions of black womanhood framed ence in previous civic parades had rattledmore all their social and political work; after all, the than a fewmembers of the Bay Area's elite.6^ NACW had formed in response to a white editor's "There was a time," she wrote, "when themere claim that black women "were devoid of virtue."6* mention of the colored people to even want to As historian Michele Mitchell has noted, the participate in a Fourth of Julycelebration with "turn towards domesticity" in this era was "a the white people called forth some very harsh surrogate for electoral politics in [the]quest for criticism from one of the largest papers in San self determination."66 The presence of scores of Francisco."70 children atop flowery floats signaled a refutation Referring to the Chronicle and its legendary dis of the claims of eugenicists thatAfrican Ameri dain forAfrican Americans, Beasley set out to cans were incapable of "healthy" reproduction counter this hostility. For her, Alameda County and bred deficient racial stock. Four years ear Day signified nothing short of intervening in lier,Du Bois attempted to counter these claims white people's inclination tomake exclusive himself by publishing an annual children's issue claims not just to the county, but to the state, the ofThe Crisisfilled with photographsof healthy nation, and patriotism. In her accounts, Beasley black children. In addition, themost popular not only reminded readers of the fair's patriotic fundraiser in the NAACP's early years was the possibilities, but provided history lessons on the baby contest.67 That club women filled their long and devoted service of African Americans to floats with children signifies political strategy and the nation and the state.71While she was not the intentionality. firstAfrican American to utilize fairs as oppor Though a record number of spectators witnessed tunities to interpret the role of black America in Alameda County Day, therewas not one mention the nation at large, Beasley offered a different of African American participation in the Chroni context: This fair occurred during a world war, cle's extensive coverage of the parade. Instead, the on the eve of national women's suffrage, and in paper's front page depicted a women's float from the same year as the antiblack productions of The the California Cotton Mill Company, whose enor Clansman and The Birth of a Nation. mous banner read "Cotton Is King." For black Beasley's first special feature on the fair, pub Californians only a generation or two removed lished on June 26, was simply called "Colored from slavery, the reference to King Cotton did not Race at the Exposition." It began by directing conjure up happy memories. Itwould be up to readers to an earlier concern and campaign: the Delilah Beasley to emphasize black involvement staging of The Clansman in California theaters. in the parade and at the fair and to interpret its Beasley had written repeatedly, as had her Los significance while drawing attention to a differ Angeles counterpart, Charlotta Bass, editor of the ent history and memory?that of black citizen California Eagle, to encourage black Californians ship, domesticity, and patriotism.68 to protest and, ifpossible, ban the performances of both the play and film. She reported that the DELILAH BEASLEY'S CAMPAIGN play was enjoying a "return engagement" in San as a Francisco and "we people will have to grit Delilah Beasley, who was hired by the Sunshine our teeth and ignore" it. But she did not feel as a special feature writer in June 1915, cham that protests against the play by black Califor pioned African American participation in Ala nians were in vain; in fact, she believed "and not meda County Day. In the pages of the press, she without a reason" that the invitation to African

California History volume 87 / number 3 / 2010 2^.2,

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Americans to participate in Alameda County Day butions. In the Educational building, a display was a direct result of their protests. According of historically black colleges and universities to Beasley, black resistance to demeaning stereo impressed visitors, she reported. Similar to the types had paid off; the state's elite, as represented photos compiled by Du Bois for the Paris exposi by the fair's organizers, had taken heed of black tion, these images brimmed with "proof* of black Californians and their numbers, ifnot their po achievement. It is also likely that this type of pre litical presence. As far as Beasley was concerned, sentation did litde to threaten themosdy white "themere fact that colored children marched audience of the fair, since black men and women through the streets of San Francisco, carrying the were safely contained in the segregated spaces Stars and Stripes, showed a decided advance and of "colored colleges." The same building housed race change of feeling toward the colored race in these an exhibit that "showed the progress of the parts."72What may have looked like a cavalcade from the cotton fields to a clinic of Negro doctors nurses a of cherry blossoms to some people to Beasley sig and in colored hospital."74 naled a reinscribing of the rights of citizenship. Beasley found these exhibits "splendid" probably But Beasley's initial report of the fair?and her because they proved to be the places where the account of the parade?ended on a less than history and contributions of African Americans positive note: the acknowledgment that in its were most visible. The article included lengthy appropriations for the PPIE, the U.S. Congress descriptions of the art of expatriate Henry O. Tan a a "adjourned without voting an appropriation ner, favorite of France and world-renowned for a colored exhibit and building."73 Despite artistwhose painting Christ at theHome of Laza the fact that Congress had appropriated money ruswas exhibited in the Palace of Fine Arts and earlier for the Negro exhibit at the 1900 Paris won a gold medal. But Beasley's glowing account was exposition, money was not forthcoming for one of Tanner's work not without blunt observa even at this fair. Putting a positive spin on this nega tion; after graduating from Harvard, she tion of African American contributions to arts wrote, "because of the one drop of negro blood in never and industry proved difficult for the journalist. his veins," he received the recognition he "We often saywe have no building, no exhibits," deserved in the United States.75 she wrote. Arguing that this fact should pose no In addition to black history lessons, Beasley's impediment to black participation, she contin coverage of African Americans' presence at ued: "I oftenmake the remark that Old Glory the fair included commentary on what some is good enough forme." According to Beasley, might describe as the domestic arts. Her lengthy attending the fair under the patriotic symbol of description of Margaret Hatton's prize-winning the flag should suffice. Stating that the "Stars Persian cats, forwhich Hatton received a first and Stripes" flew at the fair and would "protect" prize blue ribbon and a "handsome silver cup," tried, rather Negro exhibits, Beasley awkwardly, race seemed designed not only to inspire pride to encourage black Californians to claim patrio but also to draw attention to a domestic pursuit. tism at the fairgrounds as their own. Her report about the "two colored people living a The headline of Beasley's next article, and the in Oakland" who invented fruit juicer?which was in Products paper's lead editorial, "Negro under the Ameri displayed the Palace of Food all the fruit consumed can Flag at the PPIE," helped to drive Beasley's and which supplied juice at of not point home. In it, she offered detailed descrip the fair?surely conjured up images tions of some of the cultural and industrial only California's abundant produce but also the exhibits highlighting African American contri couple's domesticity.

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Following these glowing reviews, Beasley had not one day of his own and no building, etc., returned to her other pressing concern: the and derived but very litde benefit outside of a few protest of The Birth of a Nation. Indeed, as her minor jobs as maids and helpers. The manage reports make clear, she saw these campaigns ment did not solicit very largely of Negro product. as one and the same and used her coverage of The Hampton Quartet sang a few weeks, but our black accomplishments to counter the degrading local promoters were not given any financial aid portrayals of African Americans on the stage and to put on a single production."78 screen. In her September 4 column, she reviewed Perhaps part of this disappointment stemmed at length an August 26 benefit concert, held at from the vanquished hope that Negro Day would Hamilton Auditorium in Oakland, in protest have made a difference or that Booker T Wash of the play. There could be no doubt about the ington would have appeared at the fair. In the concert's goal: "to change public opinion from fair's closing months, in a column headed "What the damaging effect of The Clansman" Beasley the Sunshine Would Like to See," the paper's also reported on the choir formed by the Bay editor had included in a wish list the following: Area's finest singers who sang a series of hymns, "Booker T. Washington visit the Fair this year."7^ folk songs, and spirituals at the concert, closing Itwas not to be. with the theme song of the exposition, "I Love You, California." Written just two years before the PPIE, the song was played in 1914 aboard A DIFFERENT PLACE the steamship Ancon, the firstmerchant ship to African Americans in California played marginal pass through the Panama Canal (whose open roles at the PPIE, but the story is not as simple as ingwas the occasion for the exposition), and is that. Black men and especially women did much now California's official state song. Beasley noted tomake the fair a messier place to "read race," the opportunity to demonstrate patriotism at the raising the ugly specter of JimCrow in public dis concert with the song: "It required a genius to be cussions of Negro Day, commandeering consid able towrite such a clever little verse just at the erable public and civic space forAlameda County right time."76 Day, buttonholing fair organizers, and upending was But when all said and done, what had black notions of racial progress and race betterment by Californians gained in 1915? Neither the play nor winning the fair-naming contest. Never as simple the filmhad closed during the exposition. In fact, as the charts in the Race Betterment booth, the D. W. Griffith proceeded with his plans to distrib meanings of race and segregation were contested ute the film nationwide, where it enjoyed tremen daily in California's press and shaped in streets, success. dous Had black people benefited from universities, and parades. It is not surprising the fair in any tangible ways? Many called atten that thousands of California's African American to tion the fair's fewmeasurable benefits and its residents might have seen the PPIE as a chance one many detrimental effects.At least scholar has to reinscribe racial hierarchies and challenge pointed to the PPIE as amarker for job cuts for the tenets of JimCrow at the same time as their Bay Area African Americans.77 Even the Sunshine, rights were mocked in the theater and on film. the standard bearer of the Afro-American League, Staging race happens on and off the stage, as expressed bitter disappointment: "The great Pan Beasley understood so well. ama-Pacific fair is over," the paper reported. "The The fair itsmillions of visitors, includ are provided radiant lights out. The sparkling and rippling ing African Americans, a world of information fountains have ceased to pour forth_The Negro about the country's black citizens. Though some

California History volume 87 / number 3 / 2010

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions of the sites, lectures, and exhibits reflected a most momentous court decisions in the state's deep commitment to racial hierarchies and white black history up to that point. This is not surpris supremacy?especially the native villages, the ing, as Beasley had studied history at the Univer African Dip, and the Race Betterment booth? sity of California, Berkeley, and had honed her othermessages about race and black people were skills gathering data and interviewing subjects offered. Visitors could learn about black colleges as a journalist.80 In addition to traditional meth and universities, sample themusical expertise of odologies, she utilized folklore and oral sources a number of ensembles, and witness the power to record the history ofwesterners oftenmissing and tenacity of black women's clubs as they from official histories. In this way, she practiced paraded through the fairgrounds. At least one new modes of social and public histories before black Californian, Delilah Beasley, hoped these the profession welcomed such efforts.81 exhibits of African American accomplishments Sometimes characterized as an accommodation would turn the tide and convince nonblack Cali ist and often ridiculed as an amateur historian, fornians thatAfrican Americans deserved the Beasley nevertheless made significant interven respect due all the state's citizens. Despite the tions in the stories we tell ourselves about the his fair's explicitly racist imagery and messages, toryof black Californians.82 While her coverage Beasley believed that JimCrow California should of the PPIE fits squarely in the tradition of those be challenged wherever it appeared. like Booker T. Washington, who championed the But as memories of the fair faded?and with it accomplishments ofAfrican Americans and pro the opportunity to alter presiding notions about moted racial uplift, it also adhered to her broader African Americans?Beasley turned her attention philosophy: countering white supremacy and and skills as a reporter and researcher to a much antiblack sentiment in California by chronicling broader project and one thatwould have a more the actual histories of African Americans living public and sustaining legacy: a history of black and working in the state. The fact that black Oak Californians. Four years after the fair's lights landers invented the first juicer or thatVirginia were extinguished in 1919, she self-published Stephens won the fair-naming contest may not her most ambitious work, The Negro Trail Blazers strike the contemporary reader as transforma some men ofCalifornia. In a remarkable effort,Beasley had tive in state history, but to black and conducted oral histories with African American women, these achievements in the face of Jim pioneers, combed the archives of The Bancroft Crow made theworld?which the fair purported Library at the University of California, and que to replicate?a different place, one where African ried scores of archivists and researchers in her Americans could imagine themselves equal. quest to document the story of black Califor nians. Unlike her reportage of the fair, the book Lynn M. Hudson is associate professor and chair of the at Macalester She earned her was not a laundry list of the accomplishments of History Department College. B.A. at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her black men and women; Beasley included copious Ph.D. at Indiana University, Bloomington. Prior to joining material about antiblack sentiment, Crow Jim the Macalester faculty, she taught in the History Department laws, and white supremacy in the state. She paid at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is the author of The Making of "Mammy Pleasant": A Black particular attention to the ways black Californians Entrepreneur inNineteenth-Century San Francisco (2003), win were to unjust laws, including the fugi subject ner of the Barbara Penny Kanner Prize from theWestern the and tive slave law of 1852, antitestimony law, Association ofWomen Historians. Currently she is working the establishment of the state's branches of the on a project about segregation in California. NAACP. Indeed, her text records verbatim the

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22 27 On I am to the Mazor, Meeting Jimmy Rodgers, 279. this point, indebted Humbugs andHeroes: A Galleryof California 23 historian and minister, Velma Maia Pioneers York: & Co., Inc., See The SecondGold public (New Doubleday Marilynn Johnson, a Thomas, native of Detroit who moved to 1970), 32-36; Elsa Barkley Brown, "Intro Rush: Oakland and the East Bay inWorld " Atlanta in the 1990s. In an autobiographi duction, in Delilah L. Beasley, The Negro War II (Berkeley: University of California cal presentation at Georgia Tech in March Trail Blazers of California (New York: G. K. Press, 1993); Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, 2000, she emphasized the "Who's Your Hall, 1998), xvi. Abiding Courage: African American Migrant People?" phenomenon. 2 Women and the East Bay Community The terms "race man" and "race woman" (Chapel 28 Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Geoff Boucher, "'Sin City' Flying Burrito describe members of what W.E.B. Du Bois 1996); ShirleyAnn Wilson Moore, The Brothers, 1969," Los Angeles Times, Apr. 22, called "The Talented Tenth," the elite 10 African American Community in Richmond, 2007. percent of the African American popula 29 tion who fashioned themselves leaders California, igio-1963 (Berkeley: University ma. of California Press, 2001). and reformers in the early decades of the 30 24 Los Angeles swallowed Gram Parsons twentieth century. For more information, See JacquelineCogdell DjeDje and Eddie because he tried to swallow it. Parsons' see Kevin K. Gaines, Uplifting the Race: Black S. Meadows, eds., California Soul: Music appetite for drugs and alcohol surpassed Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twenti ofAfrican Americans in theWest (Berkeley: other rock luminaries of the era. With ethCentury (Chapel Hill: Universityof North of California Press, University 1998), esp. a money to burn from buoyant trust fund Carolina Press, 1996). chaps. 3 and 4. and well-connected friends (including Peter 3 25 On race women and see, for a citizenship, Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race Fonda and Keith Richards), Parsons found example, Elsa Berkeley Brown, "Womanist and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princ West of fatal abundance. Consciousness: Maggie Lena Walker and eton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003); 31 Virginia Scharff provided the introduction the Independent Order of St. Luke," Signs Elaine Brown, A Taste of Power. A Black to this song our In 14, no. 3 Woman's York: Anchor during performance. (Spring 1989): 610-33; Stephanie Story (New Books, as our tune with the mood of the audience J. Shaw, What a Woman Ought to Be and To 1992). was session winding down, she ad-libbed Do: Black Professional Women Workers Dur 26 see On Redding, Peter Guralnick, Sweet her remarks. Gingy has written about Janis ingthe Jim Crow Era (Chicago:University we Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the South in several works, and have drawn from of Chicago Press, 1996); Glenda Elizabeth to ern Dream of Freedom (Boston: Little Brown those writings here suggest the impor Gilmore, Gender Jim Crow: Women and the tance and Co., 1999), esp. chaps. 4 and 10. From of Joplin and the larger theme of the Politics ofWhite Supremacy in North Carolina Sept. 2007 to Apr. 2009, the Georgia Music song. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Hall of Fame, located in Macon, held a spe 32 Press, 1996); Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Scharff, "Lighting Out for the Territory," cial exhibit titled, "Otis Redding: I've Got Righteous Discontent: The Women's Move 299. Dreams to Remember." The lead quote in ment in the Black Baptist Church, 33 1880-1920 the exhibit program reads, "Otis Redding Scharff, Twenty Thousand Roads, 161. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, was soul, but Otis Redding was country, 34 1993) Bound Freedom, xiv. was Flamming, for too. That a point on which he always 4 Robert W. Rydell, All theWorld's a Fair. insisted, and that was the way others saw Visions of Empire at American International him. His strength was his simplicity, even "THIS IS OUR FAIR AND OUR STATE": Expositions, 1876-1916 (Chicago: The Uni if the simplicity was hard-won_He was AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE PANAMA of Press, PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL BY versity Chicago 1984), 3. according to [Atlantic Records producer] EXPOSITION, 5 LYNN M. PP JerryWexler, 'a pure man,' a natural man, HUDSON, 26-45 Ibid., 4. not only in his music but in his life, clear 6 Ibid., on as as sources: Delilah L. The 209. what he wanted much anything Caption Beasley, Negro 7 never TrailBlazers because he tried to lose his rural ofCalifornia (LosAngeles: Lynn M. Hudson, The Making of "Mammy Times Mirror Print, and roots." [For this quotation, the program cites Binding House, Pleasant": A Black Entrepreneur in Nineteenth The Crisis no. Peter Guralnick, Georgia Music Magazine 1919), 250, 301-4; 15, 5 Century San Francisco (Urbana: University of (Summer 2007). The magazine, including (March 1918): 240; http://books/google. Illinois Press, 2003). com; W. E. Du "The Ameri back issues, is available for sale through the Burghardt Bois, 8 On education see, Charles All can at The American Wollenberg, Georgia Music Hall of Fame website: www. Negro Paris," Monthly Deliberate and Exclusion For of Red Review Reviews 22, no. Speed: Segregation georgiamusic.org.] photographs of 5 (November in see Ben The CaliforniaSchools, 1855-1975 (Berkeley: ding on his ranch, the Gallery section of 1900): 575-77; Macomber, Jewel University of California Press, 1977); Irving the officialRedding website, establishedby City: Its Planning and Achievement; Its Archi G. Hendrick, "From Indifference to Impera his wife, Zelma who still lives at tecture, and Music; Its Redding, Sculpture, Symbolism, tive Children in Cali and Exhibits Francisco Duty: Educating Early the "Big O" Ranch: http://www.otisredding. Gardens, Palaces, (San fornia," California History (Summer 2000): com. At this site, see "CNN Exclusive: The and Tacoma: John H. Williams, Publisher, 226-49. Legacy of Otis Redding," which reprints a i9i5)> 35 9 1 2009 CNN article about Redding's "coun Program, First Meeting of the Afro Lorraine J.Crouchett, Delilah Leontium try" side and provides CNN's video inter American Congress, San Francisco, July Beasley: Oakland's Crusading Journalist view with Zelma Redding, accessible via the 30-Aug. 2,1895, California Historical Soci (El Cerrito, CA: Downey Place Publish as 2010. site's homepage of Apr. 9, ety, San Francisco, CHS: 13161. ing House, Inc., 1990), 3; Richard Dillon,

66 California History volume 87 / number 3 / 2010

This content downloaded from 64.71.13.50 on Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:06:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 10 were A. W. Hunton, "The Club Movement in in 1915 to Commemorate the Discovery of the which reprinted in her 1919 book The California," The Crisis (December 1912): 90. Pacific Ocean and Construction of the Panama Negro Trail Blazers of California, Beasley took 11 Canal, vol. 5 (New York: G. P. Putnam's note of the "Negro Expositions'' held across W.E.B. Du Bois, "Colored California," The Sons, Knickerbocker Press), 38-40. the country, most notably the "exposition Crisis (August 1913): 192-95. 27 thatwas being held in theCity ofChicago, 12 RobertW. Rydell, JohnE. Findling,and Lonnie Bunch, "The Greatest State for by the colored citizens throughoutthe Kimberly Pelle, eds., Pair America: World's the Negro': Jefferson L. Edmonds, Black Nation, in celebration of the Fifty Years of Fairs in the United States (Washington, DC: Propagandist of the California Dream" in Freedom." She felt that there might have Smithsonian Books, 2000), 66. Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in Cali been more Negro exhibits at the PPIE had 28 fornia, ed. Lawrence B. De Graaf, Kevin Mul Stern, Eugenic Nation, 55. it not been for the 1915 Chicago exposition; and 29 The Trail Blazers roy, Quintard Taylor (Seattle: University a Beasley, Negro of California, As cited in Kline, Building Better Race, ofWashington Press, 2001), 129-48. 303. 14 13 Albert Broussard, Black San Francisco: 30 See, for example, Gaines, Uplifting the Ibid., 15. The Racial in theWest, Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture Strugglefor Equality 31 1900-1954 (Lawrence: University Press of See, for example, The Crisis, Apr. and June in the Twentieth Century. Kansas, 1993), 40. 1913. 50 See, for example, Oakland Sunshine, June 14 32 a Ibid., 39. Kline, Building Better Race, 50. 19, Dec. 11,1915. 15 33 51 JoshSides, I.A. CityLimits: African S. L. Mash to Chas. Moore, Jan. 14, Sunshine, Mar. 27,1915. American Los Angeles from the Great Depres 1915, PPIE collection, box 23, The Bancroft "ibid, sion to the Present (Berkeley: University of Library, University of California, Berkeley as California Press, 2003), 17. Sides notes that (hereafter cited PPIE). "iwd. restrictive covenants were used in the state 34 Ibid. Sunshine, May 29,1915. as early as the 1890s. 35 55 16 Mash is most likely referring to the fact Reed, All theWorld Is Here!, 31. Oakland Sunshine, Dec. 21,1907. that in 1893 the California legislature passed 56 17 Sunshine, May 29,1915. Broussard, Black San Francisco, a bill that racial discrimination in 76. prohibited 57 18 places of public accommodation. iwd. Melvyn Stokes,D. W. Griffith'sThe Birthof 36 58 a Nation: A History of theMost Controversial Mash to Moore, Jan. 14,1915, PPIE. Sunshine, June 5,1915. Motion Pictureof All Time (London:Oxford 37 59 R. J.Taussig to S. L. Mash, Feb. 6,1915, Sunshine, Aug. 28, June 5,1915. University Press, 2008), 15-16. PPIE. 60 19 San Francisco Chronicle, June 11, 1915. Broussard, Black San Francisco, 77-78. 38 Ibid. 61 20 Sunshine, June 12,1915. Oakland Independent, Dec. 14,1929. 39 Ibid. 62 21 Chronicle, a June 11,1915. In 1923, Beasley began writing regular 40 Mash to Moore, Feb 13,1915, PPIE. 63 column for the Oakland Tribune, "Activities iwd. 41 Among Negroes," which ran until her death Ibid. 64 Sunshine, June 12,1915. in 1934. See Crouchett, Delilah Leontium 42 Wilson & Waters, Mar. 8,1915, PPIE. 65 Beasley, 46. Michelle Mitchell, 43 RighteousPropagation: 22 Ibid. African Americans and the Politics of Racial Rydell, All theWorld's a Fair, 209. 44 Destiny after Reconstruction (Chapel Hill: 23 Wilson & Waters, Mar. 24,1915, PPIE. Kline, a Better Race: Gen of North Carolina Press, Wendy Building 45 University 2004), der, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of ChristopherRobert Reed, All theWorld Is 123. the Century to the Baby Boom (Berkeley: Uni Here!: The Black Presence in theWhite City 66 Ibid., 136. of California Press, 14. Indiana University Press, versity 2001), (Bloomington: 67 24 On the NAACP and children, see, Susan see 2000), 17. On eugenicists at the fair, Alexan 46 the Modern Race, came Bragg, "Marketing Negro: dra Minna Stern, Eugenic Nation: Faults Reed points out thatWells to regret Gender, and the Culture of Activism in the a and Frontiers of Better Breeding inModern her call for boycott of Colored American NAACP, 1909-1941," PhD diss., University America (Berkeley: University of California Day. ofWashington, 2007; Daylanne K. English, Press, 2005); Matthew F. Bokovoy, The San 47 As quoted in David Levering Lewis, "A Unnatural Selections: Eugenics in American Diego World's Fairs and Southwestern Memory, Small Nation of People: W.E. B. Du Bois and Modernism and theHarlem Renaissance (Cha 1880-1940 (Albuquerque:University of New Black Americans at the Turn of the Twen pel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Mexico Press, 2005). tieth Century,'' in A Small Nation of People: 2004). On the popularity of baby contests 25 a in of Rydell, All theWorld's Fair, 224. W.E.B. Du Bois ei African American Portraits California branches the NAACP, see, the of the Pasadena 26 of Progress (New York: Amistad Press, 2003), for example, records FrankMorton Todd, The Story the of Expo 26. branch; Branch Files, NAACP, Part I, Box sition:Being theOfficial History of theInter 48 G-21, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. national Celebration held at San Francisco In her newspaper columns about the fair,

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68 2 a For fascinating discussion of how Afri Henry George, "The Kearney Agitation Higher Education (Stanford, CA: Stanford can Americans fashion patriotism at fairs, in California," Popular Science Monthly 17 University Press, 2000), 31-32. see Adam Green's analysis of the American (1880): 433, 445. On the lengthof thedocu 9 U. S. Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters a Negro Exposition in Chicago in 1940. Adam ment, see Briefs on Long Constitution: A (New York: Library of America, 1990), 136. Green, Selling the Race: Culture, Community, New Look at California's Constitution (San Twain later drew on his impressions of and Black Chicago, 1940-1955 (Chicago: Uni Francisco: League ofWomen Voters, 1964), 1864-65 Angel Camp in "The Californian's versity of Chicago Press, 2007). 1.Major sections were eliminated in the Tale," in The Short Stories Mark new ones Complete of 69 1960s, but took their place. A Sunshine, June 19,1915. Twain, ed. Charles Neider York: Ban mandamus is an order of a court to a lower (New 70 tam Classics, 1958), 318. Sunshine, June 26,1915. court or government official to do what the 10 a or 71 law commands, perform duty, restore to Douglass, The California Idea and Ameri See, for her discussion of the example, a a right to complainant. can Higher Education, 47, 63, 44. Civil War in Oakland Sunshine, June 26, 3 11 1915. E. Dotson Wilson and Brian S. Ebbert, Cal Ibid., 44. 72 ifornia's Legislature (Sacramento: California 12 Ibid. Henry George, Progress and Poverty (New State Legislature, Office of the Chief Clerk 73 York:Modern Library,1938), 389; McWil Ibid. of the Assembly, 1998), 16. Constitutio liber liams, The Great was California: Exception, tatis (establishment of liberty) Bracton's Sunshine, June 17,1915. 94-97 term for describing part of the Magna Carta 75 13 Sunshine, July 17,1915. in the thirteenth century. P. W. Gates, "The Suscol Principle," 76 4 Pacific Historical Review 39, no. 4 (1970): iwd. James Bryce, The American Commonwealth 471. Gates also noted that 60 percent of the 77 (New York: Macmillan & Co., 1917 [orig. Broussard, Black San Francisco, 39. total farm acreage in the state was held by pub. 1888]),443, 445.William Deverell 78 620 farms or ranchos averaging 22,000 Sunshine, Dec. 11,1915. takes a similar view in Railroad Crossing: acres each. In "Public Land Disposal in 79 Californians and the Railroad, 1850-1910 Sunshine, Sept. 18,1915. California," he noted that 50,000 farms University of California Press, 80 (Berkeley: of 160 acres could have been created from Beasley, The Negro Trail Blazers of Califor 1994), 55-56. The modernizing view is from public lands in the 1860s ifthe intentof nia, Preface. David Alan Johnson, Founding the Far West: the federal acts had been followed; in fact, 81 California, Oregon, and Nevada, 1840-1890 On this point about Beasley's historical were recorded the 8.8 of California Press, only 3665 (beyond see (Berkeley: University acres practice, the excellent study by Julie des million transferred via the old 588 1992), 255. Jardins, Women and theHistorical Enterprise Mexican land grants and the lands given in America: Gender, Race, and the Politics of Carey McWilliams, California: The Great to railroads) "The present-day pattern of Memory, 1880-1945 (Chapel Hill: University Exception (New York: Current Books, 1949), ownership of farmland in California is to a of North Carolina Press, 2003). 17 substantial degree the result of early land 82 6 policies and their administration"; Gates, Roger Streitmatter, Raising Her Voice: Carl B. Swisher, Motivation and Political "Public Land Disposal in California, Agricul African American Women Journalists Who Technique in the California Constitutional turalHistory 49 (Jan.1975): 158, 176.McWil Changed History (Lexington: the University Convention, 1878-79 (Claremont, CA: liams added that critical aspects of the social Press of Kentucky, 1994). Pomona College, 1930), 24, 34. Harry N. structure were too; California: The Great Scheiber, "Race, Radicalism, and Reform: 100-1. on Exception, Historical Perspectives the 1879 Consti PRIVATE RIGHTS AND PUBLIC PURPOSES: 14 tutional Convention," Constitutional and CALIFORNIA'S SECOND CONSTITUTION Hastings George, Progress Poverty, 296; no. 1 Law Quarterly 17, (Fall 1989): 40. The Debates, 1:19 From this view, land was not RECONSIDERED, BY R. JEFFREY LUSTIG, communism in Californians' minds in a market but the PP 46-64 1879 commodity precondition was ... that of the 1871 Paris Commune. for "maintaining one's independence 7 from the caprices of the market"; Gordon Thanks to Charles Postel, Arthur Rolston, E. B. Willis and P. K. Stockton, Debates Wood, The Radicalism of theAmerican Revo and the anonymous reviewers for their help and the Constitutional Conven Proceedings of lution York: to (New Vintage Books, 1991), ful remarks, and Shelly Kale for her skill tionof theState ofCalifornia, Convened at ful The 269. editing suggestions. responsibility the city of Sacramento, Saturday, September 15 for the final version is the author's alone. 28,1879, vols. I?III (Sacramento, CA: State Within the terrain it dominated, its heir, 1 Office of Printing, 1880-81), I: 17, 550 the Southern Pacific, also promoted settle California's History-Social Science con as (hereafter cited Debates). Swisher, Motiva ment and financed civic improvement tent standards do not require that the 1879 tion and Political Technique, 40. projects. Richard Orsi, Sunset Limited: The constitution be taught to students and the 8 Southern Pacific Railroad and the Develop major textbooks spend no more than a Other states used the lands to start state ment of the American West, 1850-1930 (Berke sentence on it. And California requires no universities. If utilized as intended in of California instruction in state after the fourth ley: University Press, 2005). history California, they would have yielded almost 16 grade. $700,000 for that purpose instead of the From Sept. i-Oct. 13,1849, forty-eight or $57,000 they actually secured; John A. delegates (eight of them Californios, Douglass, The California Idea and American

66 California History volume 87 / number 3 / 2010

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