Guy M. Washington, Author at

Independent Historian

Guy M. Washington is based in Oakland, California, where he is a regional manager for the National Park Service's National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. He works with individuals, community organizations and federal, state and local agencies to develop and tell stories associated with the Underground Railroad movement in the U.S. He has developed a widely distributed brochure, The Quest for Freedom Moves West 1848-1869, which provides a brief overview of Underground Railroad history in California, and his database of over 1,000 entries for California's African American pioneers has been useful to historians, researchers and educators.

William Thomas Shorey (1859-1919)

Known affectionately as the Black Ahab, William Thomas Shorey was born on January 25, 1859 on the island of Barbados in the British West Indies. He was the son of a Scottish sugar planter and a West Indian woman of mixed African and European ancestry. … Read MoreWilliam Thomas Shorey (1859-1919)

William Alexander Leidesdorff (1810-1848)

Although little remembered today, Leidesdorff was a social, economic and political force in pre-gold rush San Francisco, California with a number of “firsts” credited to his name. When he was named the U.S. Vice Consul to Mexico in 1845, he became the nation’s first African … Read MoreWilliam Alexander Leidesdorff (1810-1848)