CALIFORNIA'S BLACK PIONEERS--
THE "OLD-TIMERS"

Most Black California families came to the state during the Great Migration of World War II. They were escaping from the Anti-Black Terror of the South and looking for jobs in the shipyards and otherwartime industries.

But a handful of African-Americans had been living in California for many years before the 1940's. Some had come West as far back as the time of the Civil War. They came by railway car. Or by automobile or on the bus. Before that, they came in covered wagons. Some traveled by steamship down the eastern coastline to Panama, walked across the Isthmus on foot, and caught another boat up the west coast to San Francisco. When they arrived in California, they had to build a home for themselves and their families in a land that often shunned and despised them. They were California's Black Pioneers. It is upon their rock that we now stand.

California's Black Pioneers Page is the homepage for two of those families: the Allens and Breaux's of Louisiana, the Reids of Georgia, and the Turners and Galts Virginia. It is both a documentary of their journey and a celebration of their spirit.

[Photo is of Leila Reid, daughter of Thomas Reid Sr. and Virginia Parker Reid, circa 1920's near Muir Woods in Marin County, California. The Reid children and their cousins and friends often hiked in this area.]

NOTE

This webpage is operated for the benefit of all members of the Allen/Breaux and Reid/Turner/Galt clans. The operators of this page know that we don't have all of the information...we're just sharing what we have. If you have anything to add, or if you think something we've said is incorrect, please let us know. We don't think we're the experts. We're just a couple of more stones, making a way for our families to step across the raging waters.

We are currently in need of pictures, narratives, birthdates, family trees, addresses, web links, and anything else related to the steadily growing branches of our two families. For further information, or to pass on information to us, please contact Betty Reid Soskin (cbreaux@earthlink.net), Bob Reid (bob@bobreidmusic.com), or Douglas Allen-Taylor (safero@earthlink.net). Thanks much.

It should not be surprising that the Allens and the Reids have come into frequent contact over the years, given the fact that for the first 50 years of the 20th century, they were two of the largest African-American families living in Northern California. Betty Soskin and Doug Allen-Taylor, the operators of this website, represent two of the four (known) links between these two clans. Betty, an Allen descendant, was originally married to the late Mel Reid, and their children, including Bob Reid, share ancestry in both families. Doug's father was the late Ernest Allen, Sr., and his mother is Maybelle Reid Allen.