UCLA

This thesis focuses on the political activism of Black women in California from the onset of the California Gold Rush through the beginning of the Civil War. Black people migrating to California during the Gold Rush encountered an anti-Black environment and responded by engaging in abolition work and organizing; seeking voting rights, the right to testify against white people in court, and the desegregation of schools and public transportation. Though activism performed by Black men in the nineteenth century is documented, the political work of Black women during this period has often been overlooked, minimized, or uncredited. This thesis reveals the creative tactics and strategies Black women in the nineteenth century utilized in the struggle for civil rights, identifying Black women as equal partners with Black men in the political achievements of that era.