Unearthing the hidden history of African Americans in northern California's Gold Rush

The Jefferson Exchange

( Mark Oliver)

"Voices of the Golden Ghosts – African Americans in the California Gold Rush" is a unique book introducing previously unknown historical material documenting African American history in far northern California during the gold rush period.

This book brings together authors for the first time who have independently told these stories. They now appear in a collection for the first time.

Author Mark Oliver joins the Exchange to talk about his work (art, book and film) and how a small group of community members created the Golden Ghosts project to reveal this history to the public.

MARK OLIVER Voices of the Golden Ghosts discoveries started in 2010 while Mark Oliver was working on a documentary about black workers migrating to Northern California logging towns in the 1920s. During that work he discovered many African Americans in the 1850-1870 census records in Siskiyou County, California. Siskiyou County was considered the “Second Motherload” of the California gold rush, according to Mark's research.

“I was aware of Alvin Coffey’s story from Shasta County arriving as a slave and purchasing his freedom, but researching further, reading Rudolf Lapp and Delilah Beasley, it was apparent that information about far northern California has been absent from the contemporary record of the African American experience and contribution during the gold rush.”