The founder of Black History Month, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, created the observance to encourage research into African-American heritage. There are more than 28 state historic parks and hundreds of other locations where the continuing saga unfolds here in California. The guest curator, John William Templeton, is author of Our Roots Run Deep: the Black Experience in California, Vols. 1-4 and “Freedom is More Precious than Gold: Blacks in the West, 1500-1890” for the Oxford Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage.
