Michael Eissinger

African Americans in the Rural San Joaquin Valley, California:: Colonization Efforts and Townships Michael Eissinger

This ethnohistorical study examines rural 19th and 20th century African American enclaves across the agricultural landscape of California's Central Valley. Agricultural labor contractors, beginning in the 1880s, recruited large numbers of southern African Americans. This thesis focuses on several almost invisible black communities from that period. Eissinger differentiates planned colonies, such as Allensworth from other historically African American settlements like Cookseyville, Bowles, Fairmead, Sunny Acres, South Dos Palos, Home Garden, Teviston, and Lanare, which grew outside existing towns. Utilizing interviews, newspaper clippings, archival sources, and census data, the author sheds light on the impact of African Americans on the rural landscape of the Valley.