The STCHS Monthly Programs are held at the Groveland Community Hall on the third Saturday of each month except for September when the programs are on Fridays due to the Saturday annual 49er festival.
Donations
are $2.00 for members and $3.00 for non-members.
DVD Videos of past Saturday evening programs going back as far as 2003 are available for weekly loan or for viewing in the museum theater.
They can also be ordered for purchase through the museum store at $10 each including S&H.
Click HERE for complete listings.
click below for details
August Program
Saturday the 21st at 7:00 pm
Sylvia Alden Roberts
Blacks in the Gold Rush
August Program
Saturday the 21st at 7:00 pm
Sylvia Alden Roberts
Blacks in the Gold Rush
The Gold Rush is commonly presented as an era of high excitement and grand adventure, populated with colorful characters—but precious few people of color. In truth, in a single decade the California Gold Rush affected the lives of thousands of blacks from extremely diverse backgrounds. They met the challenge of slavery and discrimination in the new, “free” state of California with dignity and determination and, in turn, their stories impacted Gold Rush history, California state history, American history and the history of women. These unsung pioneers left behind a proud legacy that has languished for a century and a half behind the shadowy curtains of time.
Sylvia Alden Roberts, author of Mining for Freedom: Black History Meets the California Gold Rush, will discuss her book and The Sugg-McDonald Project at the STCHS program on August 21 at 7:00 PM at the Groveland Community Hall.
In 1857 William Sugg, a slave who was allowed to purchase his freedom for the sum of one dollar, built a home that would become one of Sonora’s bedrock pioneer landmarks. The Sugg family occupied that home in the heart of the Mother Lode for one hundred and twenty-five years and it is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
The contents of the home, including documents, photos and personal effects representing over a century, remain intact. The Mother Lode Black Heritage Foundation is currently working on a project to catalog and archive this remarkable collection of African American Gold Rush history.
