Mary Ellen Pleasant resolved to fight slavery once she escaped servitude.  She became an Underground Railroad conductor before moving to California in the early 1850s. She passed for white until the mid-1860s, but clandestinely worked through the African-American churches in San Francisco and elsewhere in the state to support court cases to free ex-slaves and to raise funds for John Brown and other anti-slavery activities. As an entrepreneur, her boarding houses in San Francisco and associated enterprises made her a millionaire.  In 1864, she declared herself black and filed a lawsuit to overturn streetcar segregation in San Francisco.  Musician/scholar Dr. Susheel

Bibbs has presented re-enactments of Pleasant’s life, including

a program this month at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento

and a March documentary on KVIE-TV.