A team of student researchers at the University of California, Davis have discovered a historical archive regarding a little-known settlement of formerly enslaved African Americans in Yolo County, California.
At the Yolo County Archives, the team found photos, maps, and other documents about the historically Black community and the African American people who lived there during the mid-1800s and early-1900s. In their research, they found the residents had been brought with their enslavers to Yolo County – even though California was legally a free state. Although California’s constitution banned slavery in 1849, historians have found evidence slavery still occurred throughout the state until the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in California in 1865. Around this time, the formerly enslaved people formed their own churches, schools, and communities in Yolo County. Today, some of the original residents’ descendants live in the area.
As part of their research project, the students partnered with the Woodland Opera House last year to install a display honoring the Yolo Singing Club – a group of African American singers who performed at the venue and in the surrounding area from 1894 to 1905. The installation featured a collection of materials documenting the club’s performances, as well as fire maps of the Yolo County community’s housing, historic census materials, and photos of church congregations.
The students conducted their research with guidance from faculty advisor, Cecilia Tsu, associate professor of history. With support from the university’s California History-Social Science Project, Dr. Tsu and her students used their findings to develop elementary school lesson plans about the history of Yolo County to share with local K-12 teachers and their students.
