Diamond Jubilee - 2026 Negro Bar Heritage Reception & Symposium

Our Diamond Jubilee Negro Bar Heritage Symposium builds upon the 1966 Legacy of the Negro Museum and Library Association of Sacramento, Inc. Honorable William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr., U.S. Vice Consul to the Republic of Mexico, Alta California, in 1844 owned and operated Rancho Rio de Los Americanos, his 8 Mexican league or 35,521 acre successful cattle and wheat ranch. In Winter of 1848, large quanties of gold were being mined by "squatters" on his property as written documentation suggests. Negro Bar was on the Northeastern edge of his extensive property where he uniquely stipulated in his Mexican land grant not to disturb the Native population who lived for generations, at this site. A maricle mile long gravel bed filled with gold along the south bank of the American River grew into the townsite of Negro Bar, today's City of Folsom, where the largest Chinatown outside of San Francisco was centered along today's Leidesdorff Street in the Historic Folsom District. Soon, another round of research and preservation efforts may be possible at the actual location of the Negro Bar gold mining district that grew into a thriving1850 Negro Bar, Sacramento County town site. James Meredith, initial Chair of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, owned and operated Negro Bar Hotel and Store, anchoring a thriving business district to service the Gold Mining District and later the first Railroad in the West. In 2022, California State Parks Recreation Commission voted to temporarily rename Negro Bar State Park to Black Miners Bar State Park and reimagine a "fabricated modern Folsom Lake story" after the Folsom Dam was built by completely erasing authentic California Gold Rush Era history along the American River Parkway (1840 -1875) Recorded gold mining history along Coloma Road from Sutter's Fort, Negro Bar, Mormon Island, Massachusetts Flats, Negro Hill and Coloma have largely been erased, disparaged and/or distorted "through special secret 'DEI' political contracts, yet to see the light of day." Ongoing impacts from "Systemic Racism" as declared by Sacramento County is a Public Health Crisis; and the mental, political, financial and economic costs continue to mount, soon "Reparative Justice" will soon come. Together, we can learn lessons from the past and build a brighter future through open and honest discourse. 60 years ago, May1966, Folsom Mayor Jack Kipp and many other key City of Folsom supporters embraced leadership from the Sacramento Negro Museum and Library Association, Inc. to dedicate Leidesdorff Plaza, at the height of our US Civil Rights Movement, an accurate story towards world class historical preservation is celebrated on Leidesdorff Street and throughout Historic Folsom Station where the township of Negro Bar was established in 1848. Today, our interfaith path toward 2026 Negro Bar Heritage Reception and Symposium will help to open the archives, museums, libraries and official government records to launch a broad based International public/private Leidesdorff Research Partnership. Together, we must preserve the authentic heritage of early California Pioneers in the townsites of Negro Bar, Mormon Island, Negro Hill and surrounding mining camps during the California Gold Rush Era (1840-1875) for distant future generations. 2026 Negro Bar Heritage Reception and Symposium will keep world class historical preservation standards alive showcasing the largest known Historic Chinatown outside of San Francisco. What is documented beginning in 1848 became the townsite of Negro Bar, Sacramento County before the name City of Folsom was officially recorded in December 1855, after the untimely death of US Army Captain Joseph Libby Folsom. Folsom was President of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, Inc. who had acquired the very lucrative Estate of William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. and when he died, the town Negro Nar was renamed in his honor.