Mary Ellen Pleasant, the Fillmore, Bayview-Hunters Point and MoAD.
Mary Ellen Pleasant
Mary Ellen Pleasant, who lived from 1814 to 1904, was a San Francisco entrepreneur, financier, real estate magnate and abolitionist, arguably the first self-made millionaire of African American heritage. She was a friend and financial backer of John Brown. In 1866, after she was thrown off a streetcar, she took on discrimination on the city's public transport, and her case reached the California Supreme Court. Her mansion stood at Octavia and Bush Streets, and its trees and plaque are now Mary Ellen Pleasant Memorial Park, the smallest park in the city.
The Harlem Of The West
The Second World War's shipyards and wartime economy brought a wave of jobs to San Francisco, and many Black Southerners escaping Jim Crow came with them. In the 1940s and 1950s the Fillmore became known as the Harlem of the West, with Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane and Billie Holiday playing its clubs. Jimbo's Bop City, on Post Street, was a club frequented by the leading jazz musicians of the day.
Urban renewal in the late 1960s and 1970s forced many African American residents out of the Fillmore, and its jazz scene declined. Many residents called the program Negro Removal. The old Bop City building, moved to 1712 Fillmore Street, later housed Marcus Books.
Bayview-Hunters Point
During the war many African Americans in the Great Migration came to work in the shipyards at Hunters Point, and the movement into Bayview grew substantially after 1945. Bayview-Hunters Point became the neighborhood with the highest share of African American residents in San Francisco.
City Hall And MoAD
Willie Brown was California's first Black speaker of the State Assembly, serving into 1995, and from 1996 to 2004 he was mayor of San Francisco, the first African American to hold the office. In 2005 the Museum of the African Diaspora opened at 685 Mission Street in the Yerba Buena arts district, celebrating Black cultures from around the world.
Black San Francisco Today
From the Fillmore to Bayview, San Francisco's Black history is part of the city's map, and Black-owned restaurants, salons, shops and brands are part of everyday San Francisco.
Shop Black-owned businesses in San Francisco on CashBlack.
Photo Credits
The Fillmore auditorium. Photo: total13, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons Bayview, Hunters Point and Candlestick Point from the air. Photo: Firstcultural, CC0, Wikimedia Commons The entrance to the Museum of the African Diaspora. Photo: BrokenSphere, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons