Abstract
Jeremiah B. Sanderson, a free, New Bedford-educated Black man who was active within the abolitionist movement in the Northeast, moved to California during the Gold Rush era and became one of the most influential spokesman and educators in the state. He successfully petitioned to get public funding for "colored schools" in the 1850s-1870s in Sacramento, San Francisco, and Stockton, with Black families from across the state sending their children to his school in Stockton. Sanderson was effective in his letter-writing campaigns to get City Councils to provide funding for the colored schools, yet still felt the sting of racism in his efforts to gain civil and educational rights for Blacks. Sanderson was also a key organizer of state and district conventions during that time period that called for greater civil rights for Blacks in California. (Contains 39 footnotes.)