Sacramento County History Digest

What's the story on the 10-story pyramid adjacent to the Tower Bridge over the Sacramento River?

On May 22 the US Senate confirmed Sacramento native Dena M. Coggins as a U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of California which includes Sacramento.

The Sacramento City Council voted to designate a part of South Land Park Hills as a new historic district, preserving 48 homes designed by Joseph Eichler.

Some residents fear development could destroy parts of the historic land.

“An apology is just cotton candy rhetoric,” said the Rev. Amos C. Brown, a member of the San Francisco reparations advisory committee. “What we need is concrete actions.”

Members of the board gathered to put forward a resolution that takes responsibility for the history of discrimination against Black San Franciscans.

While lectures on Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman are important, some educators are eager to learn more about underrepresented trailblazers like Lewis Latimer and Marsha P. Johnson.

For Jonathan Peter Jackson, revolutionary thought and family history have always been intertwined, particularly in August. That’s the month in 1971 when his uncle, the famed Black Panther George Jackson, was killed during an uprising at San Quentin State Prison in California.

The Crocker Art Museum’s new exhibition, “Black Artists in America, from Civil Rights to the Bicentennial,” showcases over 60 works from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, offering an artistic glimpse into a compelling era.

She toured the world wowing audiences, and she captured the public’s imagination for decades. No, not Taylor Swift; Ellen Beach Yaw, also known as Lark Ellen.

NBA stars Matt Barnes and James Donaldson, baseball players Leon Lee and Nick Johnson, and Team USA paracyclist Jamie Whitmore will be inducted on Feb. 4 at Thunder Valley Casino.

The Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe has a time-limited opportunity to purchase 232 acres on a Nisenan Village site called Yulića—the tribe’s best opportunity to re-establish a homeland in more than half a century.

An extinct species of walrus was unearthed in Santa Cruz County, evoking a time when California was teeming with odd creatures that feel closer to fantasy than reality, researchers said.

James Dean’s last stop before he died in a car crash was at Blackwell’s Corner, a gas station in rural Kern County. His memory isn’t the draw it once was.

Lawmakers introduced a package of bills designed to tackle some forms of reparations. The measures may face budget constraints and opposition.

The California Legislative Black Caucus released a list of 14 bills as a first set of reparations for the descendants of African Americans who were enslaved.

Lauren Hammond, the first Black woman elected to the Sacramento City Council, died in her sleep Jan. 18 at the age of 68. Representing District 5, Hammond served from 1997 to 2010.

Applicants now have the option to check boxes under Black or African American that declare whether or not they are a descendent of persons who were enslaved in the United States.

While the fate of reparations for African Americans in California awaits decisions from the governor and other lawmakers, the state already is setting the stage for progress with new disaggregated data collection.

In mainstream accounts of the Civil Rights Movement, names like King, Parks, and Du Bois are synonymous with resistance. But if other names like Hamer, Diamond, and Colvin sound less familiar to you, you’re not alone.

Pea Soup Andersen’s, a Buellton, Calif., restaurant just shy of its 100th birthday, closed suddenly. The restaurant's other location, near Interstate 5 in Santa Nella, remains open.

Sacramento Observer columnist reviews five events that made an impact in the community in 2023.

From elders and entertainers to victims of mass shootings and other violence, the Black community saw an exceptional amount of loss this year.

Under new state laws, five cities will test cameras to catch speeding drivers and cruising bans will be lifted statewide. The first is supposed to improve road safety, but critics of the second say it will endanger the public.

State audits of the University of California and the California State University found both systems have failed to comply with decades-old state and federal laws mandating the return of Native ancestral remains and cultural artifacts. Only UCLA and Cal State Long Beach have returned a majority of their collections.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe announced it is acquiring about 10,000 acres of land in Northern California for $14.1 million. As part of this, the tribe will remove dams along the Klamath River and restore salmon runs.

Water fights have shaped California since its infancy as a state, when its abundance seemed limitless. Now, Californians are being forced to confront limitations, and the state that prides itself on creating the future is now reckoning with its past.

Relying on newly digitized federal records and other sources, Black Americans are discovering direct bloodlines to Native American ancestors.

The Fort Independence Indian Community is getting the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife at no cost in 2024. Native Americans had lived on this land for centuries before the hatchery’s construction.

The 40-foot holiday-themed bus celebrates SacRT’s 50 years of service and brings holiday spirit throughout the Sacramento region.

In conversations about the history and present of Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ communities, the Lavender Heights district in Midtown is often the first area to come to mind.

Political wonks in California, Florida and maybe a few states in between, will be glued to their screens Thursday night to watch Gov. Gavin Newsom and Gov. Ron Desantis square off in a highly-anticipated Blue vs. Red State debate that’s been brewing since the summer.