Edmond Edward Wysinger
Encyclopedia
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Arriving around October 1849--the beginning of the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. California was annexed by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and was admitted to the Union as the thirty-first state on September 9, 1850.
California Supreme Court case
January 29, 1890 in the VisaliaVisalia
-California:* Visalia, California* Downtown Visalia* Greater Visalia Area** Tulare County, California* Visalia Municipal Airport-Fictional Places:* Visalia, California , a fictional version of Visalia where parts of Season 2 of 24 was set....
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
court case Wysinger vs. Crookshank, 82 Cal 588, 720, (1890), the California Supreme Court ruled that public school districts in California may not establish separate schools for African American and Native American children.
In 1862, Visalia
Visalia
-California:* Visalia, California* Downtown Visalia* Greater Visalia Area** Tulare County, California* Visalia Municipal Airport-Fictional Places:* Visalia, California , a fictional version of Visalia where parts of Season 2 of 24 was set....
was a community deeply divided by the American Civil War (1861–1865)
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, many sided with the South. Despite the turmoil, Wysinger stayed in the community. Edmond, a self-educated man, worked as a laborer, and part time preacher. He stressed the importance of education for his children. He tried to admit his son Arthur to a regular public school, he was refused admission, resulting in him being morally compelled to enter a suit against the county school board of education in the Supreme Court of the State California in October 1888. On March 1, 1890, the California Supreme Court, in Wysinger vs. Crookshank reversed a lower court decision and ordered 12-year-old Arthur Wysinger admitted to Visalia's regular school system.
If the people of the state desire separate but equal
Separate but equal
Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law that justified systems of segregation. Under this doctrine, services, facilities and public accommodations were allowed to be separated by race, on the condition that the quality of each group's public facilities was to...
schools for citizens of African descent, and Indians, their wish may be accomplished by laws enacted by the law-making department of the government in accordance with existing constitutional provisions. But this course has not been pursued, as the law stood in 1890, and the powers given to boards of education and school trustees, under section 1617 of the Political Code, do not include the right claimed by the board of education of Visalia. The laws segregating Chinese children, (see United States v. Wong Kim Ark
United States v. Wong Kim Ark
United States v. Wong Kim Ark, , was a United States Supreme Court decision that set an important legal precedent about the role of jus soli as a factor in determining a person's claim to United States citizenship...
), remained on the books probably because it was the general impression that only discriminatory laws aimed at African Americans and Indians were forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
.
Biography
Edmond Edward Wysinger was one of the first southern African American to migrate to California from the South. He was born in the year 1816, offspring of a Native American CherokeeCherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
Indian woman and a Black Man .
At the age of 32, and in the early part of 1849 with his German owner, they made the long perilous trip through Indian territory by ox-team Conestoga wagon
Conestoga wagon
The Conestoga wagon is a heavy, broad-wheeled covered wagon that was used extensively during the late 18th century and the 19th century in the United States and sometimes in Canada as well. It was large enough to transport loads up to 8 tons , and was drawn by horses, mules or oxen...
to Grass Valley, California
Grass Valley, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Grass Valley had a population of 12,860. The population density was 2,711.3 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Grass Valley was 11,493 White, 46 African American, 208 Native American, 188 Asian, 9 Pacific Islander, 419 from other...
by way of Donner Pass
Donner Pass
Donner Pass is a mountain pass in the northern Sierra Nevada, located above Donner Lake about nine miles west of Truckee, California. It has a steep approach from the east and a gradual approach from the west....
, arriving around October 1849—the height of the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. Edmond took on the last name of his slave owner. Edmond's original Indian name was Bush.
After arriving in the Northern mine area of California's Mother Lode Gold Belt, Wysinger with a group of 100 or more African American miners, were surface mining in and around Morman, Mokelumne Hill at Placerville and Grass Valley. Mokelumne Hill was called "Moke Hill." This region was first inhabited by a tribe of Miwok
Miwok
Miwok can refer to any one of four linguistically related groups of Native Americans, native to Northern California, who spoke one of the Miwokan languages in the Utian family...
Native Americans who were called "Mokelumne," which means people of Mokel. "Moke Hill" began to grow after gold was discovered in 1848. Place names like Negro Hill, Negro Bar a large sand bar located on the south bank of the lower American River
American River
The American River is a California watercourse noted as the site of Sutter's Mill, northwest of Placerville, California, where gold was found in 1848, leading to the California Gold Rush...
, and Negro Flat attest to the presence of blacks in California. Wysinger mined at Mokelumne, Murphy's Camp, Diamond and Mud Springs, Grass Valley, Negro Bar, and elsewhere in the mining districts of California. It took Wysinger about a year to buy his freedom for $1000.
In 1853, widow Susan (Suzie) Wilson, arrived in Miles Creek, Mariposa County, California
Mariposa County, California
Mariposa County is a county in the U.S. state of California, located in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It lies north of Fresno, east of Merced, and southeast of Stockton. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,251 up from 17,130 at the 2000 census...
from Wayne County, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, going first to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
then to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
by way of ox-team. There were more than a 100 wagons in the ox-driven team lasting from March 1853 to December of that year. Edmond met and married Susan's daughter Pernesa.
In the year of 1862 the family moved to Visalia
Visalia
-California:* Visalia, California* Downtown Visalia* Greater Visalia Area** Tulare County, California* Visalia Municipal Airport-Fictional Places:* Visalia, California , a fictional version of Visalia where parts of Season 2 of 24 was set....
, California where to this union eight children were born; six boys Jesse, Arthur, Walter, Reuben, Harvey, Marion, and two girls Martha and Bertha.
Artists' model Florence Wysinger Allen
Florence Wysinger Allen
Florence Wysinger Allen was an African American artists' model for more than 30 years. She was called "San Francisco's best loved artists' model".-Personal life:...
was the daughter of Marion.
Young Arthur Wysinger
From the United States CensusUnited States Census
The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census...
reports of 1900 & 1910 Arthur age 22 was living in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, his occupation was Assistant Shipping Clerk for an iron works company. In 1910 he lived in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
and states his occupation as a Porter for the Pullman Palace Car Company. The 1900 US Census report list four of Edmonds sons as railroad porters and coachmen.
The Pullman Palace Car Company, founded by George Pullman
George Pullman
George Mortimer Pullman was an American inventor and industrialist. He is known as the inventor of the Pullman sleeping car, and for violently suppressing striking workers in the company town he created, Pullman .-Background:Born in Brocton, New York, his family moved to Albion,...
, manufactured railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. After George Pullman's death in 1898, Robert Todd Lincoln
Robert Todd Lincoln
Robert Todd Lincoln was an American lawyer and Secretary of War, and the first son of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln...
(1843–1926), first son of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
became company president. In 1927 Pullman Porters were unionized in the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was, in 1925, the first labor organization led by blacks to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor . It merged in 1978 with the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks , now known as the Transportation Communications International Union.The...
under an African American A. Philip Randolph
A. Philip Randolph
Asa Philip Randolph was a leader in the African American civil-rights movement and the American labor movement. He organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly Negro labor union. In the early civil-rights movement, Randolph led the March on Washington...
, and C. L. Dellums
C. L. Dellums
Cottrell Laurence “C. L.” Dellums was one of the organizers and leaders of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.He was born in Corsicana, Texas on January 3, 1900, and died on December 6, 1989, in Oakland, California...
, its vice president the uncle of the now Mayor of Oakland Ron Dellums
Ron Dellums
Ronald Vernie "Ron" Dellums served as Oakland's forty-fifth mayor. From 1971 to 1998, he was elected to thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S...
. It should also be noted that the Pullman company was the largest employer of African Americans in the U.S. "At a time when most middle class jobs were closed to blacks by a racist society, Pullman Porters had a degree of economic stability and respect that most other lacked. They became one of the building blocks of the African American middle class."
Documentaries
- View video clip: African Americans in California's Heartland: Gold Rush Facts, KVIE PBS station, website
- Rising from the Rails: The Story of the Pullman Porter