Edmond Edward Wysinger

Edmond Edward Wysinger (1816-1891). African American pioneer of California. Arriving around October 1849--the beginning of the California Gold Rush. California was annexed by the United States and was admitted to the Union as the thirty-first state on September 9, 1850.

The California Supreme Court Case

January 29, 1890 in the Visalia, California court case "Wysinger vs. Crookshank", 82 Cal 588, 720, (1890), the California Supreme Court ruled that public school districts in California may not establish separate schools for African American and Native American children.

In 1862, Visalia was a community deeply divided by the American Civil War (1861–1865), many sided with the South. Despite the turmoil, Wysinger stayed in the community. Edmond, a self-educated man, worked as a laborer, and part time preacher. He stressed the importance of education for his children. He tried to admit his son Arthur to a regular public school, he was refused admission, resulting in him being morally compelled to enter a suit against the county school board of education in the Supreme Court of the State California in October 1888. On March 1, 1890, the California Supreme Court, in "Wysinger vs. Crookshank" reversed a lower court decision and ordered 12-year-old Arthur Wysinger admitted to Visalia's regular school system. [ [http://sshl.ucsd.edu/brown/calcode.htm California Segregation Laws] ]

If the people of the state desire separate but equal schools for citizens of African descent, and Indians, their wish may be accomplished by laws enacted by the law-making department of the government in accordance with existing constitutional provisions. But this course has not been pursued, as the law stood in 1890, and the powers given to boards of education and school trustees, under section 1617 of the Political Code, do not include the right claimed by the board of education of Visalia. The laws segregating Chinese children, (see United States v. Wong Kim Ark), remained on the books probably because it was the general impression that only discriminatory laws aimed at African Americans and Indians were forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Biography

Edmond Edward Wysinger was one of the first southern African American to migrate to California from the South. He was born in the year 1816, offspring of a Native American Cherokee Indian and a Black slave girl on a plantation in South Carolina.

At the age of 32, and in the early part of 1849 with his German owner, they made the long perilous trip through Indian territory by ox-team Conestoga wagon to Grass Valley, California by way of Donner Pass, arriving around October 1849--the height of the California Gold Rush. Edmond took on the last name of his slave owner. Edmond's original Indian name was Bush.

After arriving in the Northern mine area of California's Mother Lode Gold Belt, Wysinger with a group of 100 or more African American miners, were surface mining in and around Morman, Mokelumne Hill at Placerville and Grass Valley. Mokelumne Hill was called "Moke Hill." This region was first inhabited by a tribe of Miwok Native Americans who were called "Mokelumne," which means people of Mokel. "Moke Hill" began to grow after gold was discovered in 1848. Place names like [http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/hs/im/negrohill.asp Negro Hill] , [http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/hs/im/negrobar.asp Negro Bar] a large sand bar located on the south bank of the lower American River, and Negro Flat attest to the presence of blacks in California. Wysinger mined at Mokelumne, Murphy's Camp, Diamond and Mud Springs, Grass Valley, Negro Bar, and elsewhere in the mining districts of California. It took Wysinger about a year to buy his freedom for $1000. [ [http://www.calgoldrush.com/part3/03blacks.html Fortune smiled on many black miners] ]

In 1853, widow Susan (Suzie) Wilson, arrived in Miles Creek, Mariposa County, California from Wayne County, Missouri, going first to Texas then to California by way of ox-team. There were more than a 100 wagons in the ox-driven team lasting from March 1853 to December of that year. Edmond met and married Susan's daughter Pernesa.

In the year of 1862 the family moved to Visalia, California where to this union eight children were born; six boys Jesse, Arthur, Walter, Reuben, Harvey, Marion, and two girls Martha and Bertha.

Young Arthur Wysinger

From the United States Census reports of 1900 & 1910 Arthur age 22 was living in Oakland, California, his occupation was Assistant Shipping Clerk for an iron works company. In 1910 he lived in Berkeley, California and states his occupation as a Porter [ [http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition/exhibition_9_6.html Porter (railroad)] ] for the Pullman Palace Car Company. The 1900 US Census report list four of Edmonds sons as railroad porters and coachmen. [ [http://www.wysinger.homestead.com/uscensus1900.html Cenus Report 1900] ]

The Pullman Palace Car Company, founded by George Pullman, manufactured railroad cars in the mid to late 1800s through the early decades of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. After George Pullman's death in 1898, Robert Todd Lincoln (1843–1926), first son of Abraham Lincoln became company president. In 1927 Pullman Porters were unionized in the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters under an African American A. Philip Randolph, and C. L. Dellums, its vice president the uncle of the now Mayor of Oakland Ron Dellums. It should also be noted that the Pullman company was the largest employer of African Americans in the U.S. "At a time when most middle class jobs were closed to blacks by a racist society, Pullman Porters had a degree of economic stability and respect that most other lacked. They became one of the building blocks of the African American middle class."

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/edmundwysinger.html Edmond Edward Wysinger website]
* [http://wysinger.homestead.com/valleyvoice.html The Wysingers of Visalia]
* [http://www.wysinger.net History Lost: One Man's Legacy, Porterville Recorder (California), By Nick Gayton]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/peopleevents/p_hill.html PBS: Slavery in the California Gold Rush]
* [http://www.aphiliprandolphmuseum.com A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum]
* [http://www.csrmf.org/doc.asp?id=280 A. Philip Randolph / Sleeping Car Porters]

Documentaries

* View video clip: [http://kvie.vo.llnwd.net/o1/aahl/gold_rush_facts.asx African Americans in California's Heartland: Gold Rush Facts,] KVIE PBS station, [http://www.kvie.org/programs/kvie/africanamericans/trans.htm website]
* [http://www.risingfromtherails.com/ Rising from the Rails: The Story of the Pullman Porter]

References

*California Reporter [Law] , 1890;
*Delilah L. Beasley, "The Negro Trail Blazers of California", 1919, pp. 105 & 183 (has been reprinted in 1997 and 2004 - ISBN 1417920807;
*Lawrence B. De Graaf, "Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in California", 2001, p. 110 - ISBN 0295980826;
*Randell Kenan, "Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century", p. 44, 2000, - ISBN 0679408274
*Rudolph M. Lapp, "Blacks in Gold Rush California", 1977, pp. 115-116, 184 - ISBN 0300065450;
*Charles A. Mangum Jr., "The Legal Status of the Negro", The Lawbook Exchange , Ltd., 1940 - ISBN 1584770813;
*Gilbert Thomas Stephenson, "Race Distinctions in American Law", D. Appleton and company, 1910;
*Charles Wollenberg, "All Deliberate Speed: Segregation and Exclusion in California Schools", 1855-1975, published in 1976 - ISBN 0520031911