Three Trailblazing Black Women in California by Zina Abbott

 

Biddy Mason (1818-1891)

Born into slavery August 15, 1818 in Hancock County, Georgia, Biddy was brought to San Bernardino, California, by her owner, Robert Smith. She won her freedom and that of her three daughters from a California court in 1856, at which time she chose the surname of Mason. A real estate entrepreneur, she was one of the founders of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. She gained knowledge of medicine, child care, and livestock care during her enslavement and used it to aid others during her travel from Mississippi to the West. While in Los Angeles, she became a real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist and was instrumental in founding a traveler's aid center, and a school and day care center for Black children. She died at the age of seventy-two on January 15, 1891. 

 

Elizabeth Thorn Scott Flood (1828-1867)

Elizabeth Thorn Scott Flood left a legacy in California as a 19th-century African American educator and activist. She is best known for being the first Black teacher in Sacramento. Born a freewoman in New York and educated in New Bedford, Massachusetts, she, her first husband, Joseph Scott, and their son moved to Placerville, California in 1852 during the gold rush. Mr. Scott died soon after, and Elizabeth chose to move to the larger African-American neighborhood in Sacramento. Due to his race, her son was not allowed to enroll in school. In 1854, Elizabeth opened her own school in her home and taught non-white children and some adults ranging in ages from four to twenty-nine. Shortly after, the Sacramento school board took over administration, but provided no funding.

          Elizabeth later attended the first California State Convention of Colored Citizens in Sacramento. She joined other activists in calling for better representation and civil rights. She soon met her second husband, Isaac Flood. They settled outside of Oakland, where she opened another school for non-white children operating out of her home. The couple started the first African Methodist Episcopal church in the area. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Thorn Scott Flood died in 1867 at the age of thirty-nine, leaving behind her husband, five children, and a legacy of advocating for education and civil rights for Black Americans in California.

Delilah Beasley (1867-1934)

Delilah Leontium Beasley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 9, 1867. When her parents died while she was still a teenager, she trained as a masseuse. In 1883, Delilah began writing about church and social activities for a black newspaper, the Cleveland Gazette.  Three years later, under the headline "Mosaics," she published her first column in the Sunday. Cincinnati Enquirer. She studied journalism under Daniel Rudd, a well-known newspaper publisher of Cincinnati’s Colored Catholic Tribune. 

At the age of thirty-nine, Delilah Beasley moved to Oakland, California, where she worked as a columnist for the Oakland Tribune, was a historian and the first African American woman to be published regularly in a major metropolitan newspaper. She also documented the struggles of California’s African-American pioneers in her book, Slavery in California (1918). 

She is also well-known for the publication, The Negro Trail-Blazers of California (1919), which included diaries, biographical sketches, poetry, photographs, old papers, transcripts of conversations, and a history of legislation that affected Black people in California. A journalist for over fifty years, Delilah Beasley died August 18, 1934 in San Leandro, California.

 

 

My most recent release is a boxset, Eclipsed by Love, of my first three of six romances inspired by the 1878 total solar eclipse. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

 

 

 

 

My next release is titled Jocelyn’s Wedding Dilemma which is scheduled for release on March 5, 2024. To find the book description and pre-order link, please CLICK HERE

 

 

 

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biddy_Mason

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Scott_Flood

https://aaregistry.org/story/elizabeth-thorn-scott-flood-educator-born/

https://californialocal.com/localnews/statewide/ca/article/show/26479-black-history-month-california-focus/

https://library.csun.edu/SCA/Peek-in-the-Stacks/delilah-beasley

https://library.csun.edu/SCA/Peek-in-the-Stacks/delilah-beasley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delilah_Beasley