In 1919, Joseph Griffin, a sharecropper in St. Landry Parish, La., unearthed a box of money buried in the fields he plowed. With this discovery, he and his family packed up and moved to Richmond, establishing a foothold for relatives and friends seeking better opportunities in the West.
So many stories like this, detailing the deep history of Richmond’s Black community exist, but are at risk of being lost or overlooked as the older generations pass away or move elsewhere. Historian Shirley Ann Wilson Moore, who earned her doctorate from UC Berkeley, spent more than a decade gathering oral histories such as Griffin’s for her book “To Place Our Deeds: The African American Community in Richmond, California, 1910–1963.”
Family connections were central to what became known as the Great Migration. Mildred Hudson Slocum, a great-niece of Griffin’s, recalled how news of his success spread through letters and word-of-mouth, inspiring her brother, Girtha Jr., and later the rest of the Hudson family to join them. Mildred Hudson, then 14, and her sister Mattie Hudson, arrived by train and, like many newcomers, crowded into a small apartment above the Griffin family’s North Richmond store until they could establish their own homes.
Before organizations such as the National Urban League or the NAACP were active in Richmond, these personal networks offered community support.
“The push of racial violence and poverty and the pull of California’s reputation for freedom and economic opportunity were important factors in the Black migration to Richmond,” Wilson Moore said in her book.
As an example of how history can easily be lost: No one knows the identities of many of the subjects of 1950s photographer Ellis Meyer, who died in June 2024. Courtesy of Richmond Museum of History and Culture
But by the 80s, crime and the crack epidemic, a dwindling of jobs, and grim economic times fell upon the city, sending many Black families to more white Bay Area suburbs in search of a safer life.
Since the 1980s, Richmond’s Black population had declined by more than 40% — a troublesome trend that puts this population’s history at risk of falling into obscurity. But today the seven-member Black Historical Legacy Committee, formed in 2024, has a new initiative, the Black Historical Legacy Project, aimed at infusing that history into the city’s present-day fabric.
Despite the population decline, “The history is still worth 100%,” said Linda Whitmore, a Richmond resident since 1990 and a member of the committee, in an interview with Richmondside.
The committee is devoted to ensuring the project is a true community effort, Whitmore said, and its website features a survey link to collect residents’ feedback.
Demnlus Johnson, a fourth-generation Richmond resident, committee member, and self-proclaimed Richmond historian, believes many of the contributions made by Black Richmond change-makers have been forgotten or distorted.
In response to Trump administration orders that suppress Black history, for example a directive to remove slavery-related interpretive panels at the site of George Washington’s former home in Philadelphia, Johnson says Richmond must “take control of [its] own narrative” by sparking dialogue around the city’s Black history.
Project envisions Black history museum, events and school curriculum
To that end, the group wants to open a Black history museum; install historical markers; create public art; host educational and cultural events, including lectures; develop school curriculum focused on Black history; strengthen both the Black community and the broader Richmond community; and cultivate partnerships with organizations to expand its reach — all to showcase and preserve Richmond’s history. The committee is applying for grants to bring these plans to fruition. As it does so, it’s compiling a list of historically significant places where it would erect historical markers.
Andrew Whitmore, Linda Whitmore’s son, is working to craft the project’s logo. Having attended the Academy of Art in San Francisco for graphic design, Whitmore brings passion and a keen eye for detail.
At his school in San Francisco, Andrew Whitmore said there weren’t a lot of Black people studying design. In fact, there was only one other Black student in his class. Now, he sees the field expanding and beckoning more people of all colors.
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“I believe you’ve got to know where you come from to know where you’re going.”
— Linda Whitmore, Black Historical Legacy Project
“I feel like when people are being more encouraged to tell their story, there’s much freer representation of culture,” he said. “So I think nowadays you see more diversity within the field of design and creativity.”
The committee is also collaborating with the Richmond Museum of History and Culture to bring its Black History Month exhibit to Richmond City Hall and expand its scope. In addition, the committee is pursuing partnerships with local social media influencers such Big Nu Energy and Pickin’ Up the Scraps, both of whom highlight Black history and many other unique aspects of Richmond life and culture.
The committee even hosts a book club where members read about and discuss historical events in Richmond. They’ve read “Place Our Deeds” by Wilson Moore, which Johnson considers to be the ultimate historical guide to Richmond’s Black history, and “Through a Trail of Tears: A Family’s History of Generational Wealth” by Gloria Petgrave Scoggins. Johnson was able to get Scoggins to attend a meeting where she answered questions in costume as book characters.
Ultimately, the committee envisions the Black history museum as a year-round cultural experience and community-centered gathering space where local schools can visit on field trips. Plans include interactive exhibits featuring oral histories and stories from community members; artifacts from groups such as the Richmond Black Panthers and the Richmond chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); and music from the birth of the blues in Richmond — an era Johnson refers to as the “Beale Street of the West.”
“I believe you’ve got to know where you come from to know where you’re going,” Linda Whitmore said.
Whitmore was recently inspired at a Richmond Neighborhood Coordinating Council meeting, where four Black former city council members were recognized for their contributions. All were in their 70s or older. One spoke about Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous visit in 1961.
Whitmore realized that their stories need to be recorded and archived and that a Black history museum is exactly the place to do so.
“If we don’t get the history from them, it’s gone,” she said.
Richmond’s 1900s Pullman Company played pivotal role in city history
Not many people realize that Richmond’s Black history dates back to the early 1900s. The city was once a hub for the Pullman Company, a railroad car manufacturer that employed Black men, many of them formerly enslaved, as Pullman Porters serving passengers. After being barred from staying in white-only hotels, these porters found lodging at the International Hotel at 396 South St., where in 1925 they formed the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black-led labor union to receive a charter from the American Federation of Labor.
During World War II, Richmond became the most productive shipbuilding site in the world. Between 1940 and 1945, the city’s Black population surged from 300 to 14,000, marking a significant wave of the Great Migration. In the shipyards, Black men and women broke industrial barriers, excelling in their work despite discrimination and segregated unions.
In 1942, Betty Reid Soskin took a job as a file clerk in the all-Black auxiliary of the Boilermakers Union, known as Boilermakers Auxiliary 36. Soskin later reflected that while “Rosie the Riveter” propaganda often highlighted white women, Black women had to fight tirelessly for the opportunity to work in the shipyards and join the unions.
Richmond was once home to one of the largest NAACP chapters on the West Coast and achieved significant breakthroughs in housing discrimination in 1952, after a Black family moved to a Richmond suburb and was harassed by a mob of 300 white residents. The chapter worked with Civil Rights advocates to protect the family’s right to remain in their home.
Nystrom Village, now predominantly home to Black families, was once restricted to white shipyard workers before the NAACP successfully challenged the Richmond Housing Authority.
From the 1940s through the 1960s, Richmond’s vibrant nightlife flourished. North Richmond emerged as an early cultural hotspot, and clubs such as Minnie Lue’s and the Trocadero became must-sees on the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” a network of safe, Black-owned or Black-friendly venues operating across the segregated United States from the 1930s to the 1960s. Musicians who performed there included B.B. King, Ray Charles and T-Bone Walker.
In the postwar years, Richmond became a battleground for Civil Rights and political representation. Built in 1949, Parchester Village was one of the first in the state where Black families could purchase new homes in a master-planned community. In 1964, George Carroll became the mayor of Richmond — the first Black mayor of a major U.S. city.
In the 1980s and 1990s, James “Jim” McMillan, a Black Richmond pharmacist and three-term city council member, played a leading role in establishing the city’s first police commission. He advocated against racism and excessive force within the police department, particularly in response to the “Cowboy Squad,” a group of Richmond police officers accused in the 1980s of targeting and abusing members of the Black community.
Johnson noted that many people have never heard of McMillan. He would like to see history walks incorporated into the Black history museum experience, including a stop marking the site of McMillan’s pharmacy at 3601 Cutting Blvd.
But the project is not only for the Black community. “The history impacts everyone. So the goal is to draw in everyone,” Johnson said.
In the coming weeks, an application to get involved will be posted on the project’s website.
Johnson hopes the project will inspire other groups to tell their stories, grab onto their narratives and never let go.
