SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California State Parks Commission on Friday voted to temporarily rename Folsom’s lakeside Negro Bar recreation area, changing it at least for the time being to Black Miners Bar.
Folsom residents and visitors to the lake over the past several years have held conversations about changing the name, which some consider to be offensive. Visitors of the park were said to be appalled that the word "negro" was still used to describe a historically African American community.
“It’s understanding … it’s just a matter of listening and finding the right words, and explaining it in a respectful way,” said Barry Smith, District Superintendent at California State Parks.
The park got its name from a biracial Black man named William Leidesdorff, who owned the land prior to statehood and allowed Black miners to be the first people in the area to search for gold.
By 1850, many Black miners — both free and enslaved — had established campgrounds on the mining site, according to Sacramento historian Clarence Caesar’s “Historical Demographics of Sacramento’s Black Community, 1848-1900.”
Some want to retain the name, contending the preservation of history is imperative for the state park and to respect the memory of its early settlers.
Michael Harris of the Sacramento Historical Society told the commission that changing the name could strip the history and contributions Black civilians made to developing California, and Sacramento.
“We’re going to erase that legacy, we’re going to destroy, further disparage and discount the salient contributions of people of African descent so people can feel good,” he said. “We’re going to reduce the legacy of people of African descent.”
In contrast, many Folsom residents, park visitors, and other Black Sacramentans feel the word is offensive.
From the 1930s until 1960, the park was named with a racial slur, the N-word. Due to a federal law, the name was changed back to its original name, Negro Bar, in 1960.
Tracie Stafford of Elk Grove said the word ‘negro’ is not acceptable. She is running for an Elk Grove-based Assembly seat this year.
“If you can’t say it to me, then it should not be on monuments. It shouldn’t be all over the city. It shouldn’t be a place where we’re bringing our children with no explanation of what it is,” said Stafford, during the commission meeting. “I guarantee (it) you call a person a ‘negro’ and we’re going to have some problems.”
Stafford was among the over 60,000 people who signed and approved the temporary renaming of the park to Black Miners Bar.
State Parks Superintendent Smith told The Sacramento Bee during a phone interview that he expects to revisit the name change, finalizing it, toward the end of the year.
He said he expects the commission to conduct extensive research and gather more data before coming to a resolution.
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