All Roads Lead to San Francisco: Black Californian Networks of Community and the Struggle for Equality, 1849-1877

Han, Eunsun Celeste

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Year:: 2015
Contributor:: Han, Eunsun Celeste (creator); Vorenberg, Michael (Director); Hamlin, Francoise (Reader); Higginbotham, Evelyn (Reader); Brown University. History (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: San Francisco (Calif.); 19th century; African American history; California--San Francisco; California
Extent:: 8, 290 p.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0SB444M

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Abstract:: In nineteenth-century San Francisco, black community leaders sought to reach beyond the geographical limits of the Bay Area in their battle for equal rights in California. Aiding them in this process were the circulation of two black newspapers, the Pacific Appeal and the Elevator, and the role of African American steamship employees. These mediums allowed black San Franciscans to weave a vibrant community web in the Far West, connecting settlers in locations as far up north as Vancouver Island, and as far down south as Panama City. This community building was nevertheless not limited to the confines of the Pacific coast. Quickly recognizing the benefits of establishing efficient channels of communication with African American communities of the East, black Californians used steamers, railroads, and newspapers to keep California prominent in national politics while using national politics to promote racial equality in their own state. With the launch of trans-Pacific mail steamship lines in 1867, the network actually expanded across the Pacific Ocean. Black Californian merchants and laborers created settlements in Japan, China, Australia, and New Zealand, communicating frequently with the black community of San Francisco through the Elevator and black steamship employees. While trying to elevate their economic status, these Pacific pioneers simultaneously used international politics and overseas experience to promote black first-class citizenship at home. Defining the boundaries of such an extensive community proved contentious, however, as black San Franciscans struggled with issues of class and race in a city where the largest minority racial group was not black, but Chinese. Interactions between black and Chinese San Franciscans comprised a complex and multi-tiered relationship, revealing tensions concerning black middle-class notions of respectability, gendered spheres, racial distinction, and citizenship and naturalization. As nineteenth-century black Californians fought, tenaciously and creatively, to gain the rights denied them by law and social custom, they created a vibrant black Pacific community that stretched across the largest ocean on the globe. At the center of this extensive web was the city nicknamed the Rome of the Far West, the strategic basecamp for black Pacific community activity – black San Francisco.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2015)

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Rights: In Copyright
Restrictions on Use: Collection is open for research.

Citation

Han, Eunsun Celeste, "All Roads Lead to San Francisco: Black Californian Networks of Community and the Struggle for Equality, 1849-1877" (2015). History Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0SB444M

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History Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the History department.
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