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Black Life in the Sacramento Valley (1919-1934) (36 pages)
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Page: of 36
Black Life in the Sacramento Valley Page 3 of 37
mighty Sacramento River which provides its lifeblood, flowing from the mountains of Northern
California to San Francisco Bay.
The valley played a pivotal role in the settlement of the West. In 1848, gold was discovered in the
American River, a tributary of the Sacramento River, triggering the California Gold Rush and sparking a
population explosion on the West Coast. Many towns in the valley trace their origin to that period.
Sacramento, on the southern end of the valley, became the state capital and the western terminus for the
transcontinental railroad. Chico, the setting for most stories in this volume, lies near the geographic
center of the valley. In a sense, the story of Chico is the history of the West.
Thomas C. Fleming was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1907. He lived in Chico from 1919-26, and
again from 1932-34. In 1944 he became founding editor of the Reporter newspaper in San Francisco,
which later merged with another black weekly, the Sun, to become the Sun-Reporter. The oldest
working black journalist on the West Coast, he continues to write editorials for the newspaper each
week from his home.
Thomas Fleming's Reflections on Black History first appeared in the Sun-Reporter during Black History
Month of 1996. The enthusiastic response from readers led to its continuation as a regular weekly
column.
The original series began with Fleming's memoirs dating back to 1926, when he graduated from high
school in Chico, California, moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and got his first full-time job, as a
bellhop on a ship of the Admiral Line.
In 1997, in collaboration with Max Millard, a former copy editor and staff writer for the Sun-Reporter,
Fleming started recording his memoirs on tape, going back to his earliest years. In more than 100 hours
of interviews, Millard probed for details missing from the original columns. Then he transcribed the
tapes and blended Fleming's writings with his spoken words. This volume is the result.
Fleming's other historical writings can be found on his web page at
http://www.freepress.org/fleming/fleming.html
Email: [email protected].
http://www.cmonline.com/boson/freebies/blackhistory/fleming2.html 12/28/04