Book Description

Voices of the Golden Ghosts ¬- African Americans in the California Gold Rush (2022) edited by Mark Oliver. The book chronicles African American history during the Second Motherload of the California Gold Rush in far northern California.The beautifully designed and executed book, Voices of the Golden Ghosts, African Americans in the California Gold Rush, highlights a facet of the California Gold Rush that was either forgotten or intentionally ignored for being deemed unimportant. This 140-page publication is the culmination of a years' long project headed by editor Mark Oliver. Voices, in all its forms, was the creative solution to a research project that was stymied by a paucity of documentation. The first result was a series of live dramatic performances that ably filled in the blanks beyond known facts with studied imagination. A museum exhibition, and now a book, followed.Voices, the book, is a series of essays and short pieces on a wider variety of topics than you might expect. As such, the chapters do not need to be read consecutively but can be picked up and read on a whim. They were contributed by 18 different writers, many of whom have been involved in the project from the beginning. It is exquisitely illustrated with historic and contemporary photographs and historic maps. Noted authors, Stacey Smith, Freedoms Frontier, Sharon McGriff-Payne, John Grider's Century, and Sylvia Alden Roberts, Mining for Freedom.