After leafing through local newspapers from the 19th century, local author Jan Batiste Adkins found stories of African Americans who helped shape San Francisco. She dug deeper and decided to write a book about the city’s black history, African Americans of San Francisco. The photo book chronicles the lives of significant black pioneers from the Gold Rush to today, covering everyone from escaped slaves who landed in the city, to the Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris. Jan Adkins joined KALW’sHana Baba to talk more about that history.
Click the audio player above to listen to the interview.
