Progress to Date

Research for the London Nelson Legacy Initiative is currently underway in the MAH archives, led by Luna HighJohn-Bey with assistance from Gabrielle Middlebrooks, Theresa Bostic, and MAH staff. This phase has also involved planning and promoting the project, assembling the team of partners and supporters, and meeting with prospective funders.

Initial research has resulted in discoveries that clarify aspects of Black history in Santa Cruz and suggest exciting new avenues of inquiry. We have learned that there are at least 11 Black individuals buried in plots 6 and 7 of Evergreen Cemetery, including a 5-year-old child. Assuming each is associated with at least one other person, we expect we will be able to create a full historical narrative for around 20-22 people. For example, London Nelson’s materials include a line of credit from a black barber originally from New Granada. We want to know—What is his name? Where was his barbershop? How did he get to Santa Cruz? Where did he live? Where is he buried? Who were his parents? Did they have businesses? With whom did they interact? We found an article on Andrew Grant, a Black man who had just built a house in Santa Cruz, and information on George Andrew Chester, who owned multiple businesses here.

Information on the state-wide pipeline includes the fact that the wealthy Black community in San Francisco was funding Black people to come to Santa Cruz—in one case, a family married several daughters to people living here. George Andrew Chester’s wife would roll out the welcome wagon for Black visitors, showing them around town and taking them to the beach. Not only were there connections between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, but also between the two cities and mining claims on the American River at what was then called Little Negro Hill, as well as nearby Watsonville—more evidence that Black communities were not isolated but existed as part of a robust statewide network.

There is a deeper story here that needs to be told, one that not only connects Black communities in post Gold Rush-era California, but also the communities of yesteryear with the Black community today. Santa Cruz had a thriving Black community, and then it disappeared. What were the conditions that made it so appealing to early Black pioneers? And then, where did those people go, and why? Answering these kinds of questions is tantamount to providing a place of safety, welcome, and connection for Black people in Santa Cruz today.