COLOMA, Calif. — In the small town where the California Gold Rush began, Black families are seeking justice for land taken from their ancestors to make way for a state park now visited by schoolchildren learning about the state’s history.
Coloma, with a population of around 300, is about 36 miles northeast of Sacramento. The town is now a focal point in the ongoing struggle of Black Americans seeking restitution for historical injustices that hindered their progress long after the abolition of slavery.
The debate over reparations often revolves around land. This stems from a broken promise by the U.S. government in the mid-1800s to provide up to 40 acres to formerly enslaved Black people as restitution. For many, this promise remains unfulfilled, akin to Fool’s gold, symbolized by a stalled bill in Congress from the 1980s aimed at studying reparations.
In California, a state where the governor has signed a landmark law to study reparations, advocates in Coloma are pushing for further action. The town’s history is rooted in the discovery of gold by James W. Marshall in 1848, triggering the Gold Rush that brought diverse groups, including free and enslaved Black people, to the state.
Decades later, Black and white families in Coloma saw their land taken by the government to establish the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, which opened in 1942. The park now features a museum, churches, cemeteries, and a towering monument of Marshall, yet the history of Black families in Coloma has only recently received more attention.
In 2020, California State Parks initiated a project to reexamine its past and present a more inclusive history. This included creating a webpage detailing properties owned by Black families in Coloma.
Elmer Fonza, a retiree now living in Nevada, is the third-great grandson of Nelson Bell, a formerly enslaved man who became a landowner in Coloma. After Bell’s death in 1869, his estate was sold at auction under the presumption he had no heirs in the state. Fonza believes the land should be returned to his family.
“We rightfully believe that we have been denied the generational wealth that our family may have been entitled to if given our rightful inheritance,” Fonza stated at a meeting of California’s reparations task force.
Jonathan Burgess, a Sacramento resident and barbecue business co-owner, is also claiming land in Coloma that belonged to his descendants. His family story includes Rufus Morgan Burgess, a writer brought to Coloma as an enslaved person. Burgess emphasized the importance of truth and reconciliation, advocating for compensation or the return of seized property.
Cheryl Austin, a retiree in Sacramento, claims descent from John A. Wilson and Phoebe Wilson, a free Black couple who moved to Coloma in the 1850s. Their property was also sold through probate, and Austin insists the state must address the harm done to such families.
The fight for restitution in California coincides with state legislative debates on reparations. Proposed bills include creating the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency to help Black residents research their lineage and ensuring families whose land was seized unjustly can get it back or receive compensation. These bills reflect a broader push against the misuse of eminent domain, highlighted by the recent return of beachfront property to a Black couple in Los Angeles County nearly a century after it was taken from their ancestors.
Governor Gavin Newsom recently allocated $12 million in the state’s 2024 budget for reparations, though specifics on its use are unclear. State Senator Steven Bradford, who authored the proposals, emphasized the critical role of land ownership in building wealth, asserting, “Reparations was never about a check. It was about land.”
