Beyond Jim Crow: Black Freedom in the American West

The project explores the unprecedented successes of African Americans in the U.S. West (1850-1900), with a focus on the vibrant Black community of Los Angeles. It challenges the common consensus that this period represented what scholars call the 'nadir' of modern African American history. This was the beginning of the Jim Crow era, which witnessed the segregation and political disfranchisement of Black people across the American South and parts of the North. Yet in the U.S. West, African Americans successfully combatted the worst effects of Jim Crow. Through a study of Black political activism, property ownership, and business practices, my project reveals the surprising power of African Americans in late 19th-century California, as well as the limits of Jim Crow.

Biddy Mason was the principal enabler and architect of this community, and thus the project centres on her career. Born into slavery in Georgia, Mason was forced across the country in the mid-1800s. She won her freedom in L.A. in 1856, and then began investing in local real estate with money she earned from her work as a nurse and midwife to the growing city. Those investments seeded a family fortune worth $300,000 (roughly $9 million today). She also supported charities, hospitals, and prisons, and co-founded LA's first Black church, a pillar of the community to this day. Mason's personal history explains the rise of one of the most successful Black communities in America.

The project will result in three major outputs: 1) the first book-length study of Biddy Mason's career and the origins of Black Los Angeles; 2) a graphic history of Mason's journey from slavery to freedom and fortune; 3) an application to induct six sites - all related to the history of slavery and emancipation in the American West - into a US register of historic landmarks.

Major political developments and new initiatives make this project particularly timely and important. The 2020 murder of George Floyd has prompted a reckoning over race and the legacies of enslavement, not only in the U.S. but across the globe. In response, the National Park Service and the City of Los Angeles have launched separate (time-sensitive) initiatives to identify, register, and protect historic sites related to the African American experience. Drawing on this project's research, I will write reports for both organisations on historic Black sites in California. My work also joins a growing discussion over the legacies of slavery and the possibility of restitution. The state of California recently launched a task force - the first of its kind within the US - to recommend a reparations programme for descendants of slaves. My research into the early Black community of Los Angeles will inform that debate, by detailing the challenges that former slaves faced in California. In short, this project contributes toward a fuller, richer understanding of the struggle - and some of the hard-won successes - against racial oppression in America.

Although ambitious, the project is feasible within the two-year fellowship period, as my past research leadership makes clear. I have already secured a book contract for the project's monograph (though more research remains to be done). The graphic novel will be based on research from the monograph, and thus I will be able to complete a full storyboard - i.e. a detailed panel-by-panel outline - by the end of the fellowships period. I also have extensive grant management experience. From 2019-2022, I co-directed a Collaborative Research Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), through which I built a network of scholars, advocates, and public officials who will be instrumental to this project. Funding from the AHRC would not, however, duplicate any of the work funded by the NEH. Rather, it would deploy the skills learned and networks formed from that past grant toward a major new study, with numerous engagement opportunities and pathways to impact.