“The Black community of the gold rush California became one of the most culturally advanced and probably the richest black community in the country. Its wealth was placed at more than two million dollars in assets, with more than half of this located in San Francisco. This wealth acted as a precipitant of black demands for equal justice and was repeatedly used as a further argument in its favor.”

“General William Tecumseh Sherman liked to tell about his California friend, General Persifer F. Smith, who would ‘take off his cap and make a profound bow to every colored man who he met in San Francisco in 1849, because he said, they were the only gentlemen who kept their promises.’”