This talk will be the second of three focusing on specific periods in Sacramento history when African American civil rights organizations worked collaboratively, with Black organizations, other communities of color, and white allies, to advocate for their rights and their community's economic and social well-being. This talk will focus on the period from 1900 to the early 1920s, an era when Sacramento struggled to maintain its position among California cities, and also an era of ascendant racism and intolerance.

While this is not a comprehensive history of Black Sacramento, it will include some of the following, and more:
-The emergence of Sacramento's original Black business district downtown, which paralleled the growth of Japantown and other communities of color along Sacramento's growing industrial waterfront.
-The roles played by Black churches (Shiloh Baptist and St. Andrew's AME) in community leadership, especially their pastors, and their responses to community threats, including showings of the infamous film "Birth of a Nation."
-The political forces at work in Sacramento in the late 19th and early 20th Century, Sacramento's newly formed Chamber of Commerce, Southern Pacific Railroad, the Republican and Democratic parties, and the middle-class Progressive movement.
-Establishment of the Frederick Douglass Improvement Association, later known as the West End Club and the Eureka Club, an organization intended as a Sutter Club for Black men, that combined political organizing, activism, sponsorship of sporting events, and a new style of music that drew white audiences to Black events.
-Early history of the Black community in Sacramento's first suburb, Oak Park, including the story of Sacramento's first Black candidate for public office, and one of the city's most legendary restaurant operators.

The West End Club was a temporary installation held at ArtStreet, a combination interpretive display, education venue, entertainment venue, and bar. This event is hopefully the first of many that create an online West End Club where Sacramento's rich and diverse culture, past and present, can be explored. It is not affiliated with any organization, museum, or municipality. This event is ONLY online: it does not take place at the West End Club installation of ArtStreet, which was demolished in 2017. William Burg is a historian who writes about Sacramento as a hobby; he is not affiliated with the city of Sacramento, or any archive or museum, and the works presented are a result of his own research and a synthesis of others who have written about Sacramento's history.