Californians pack Allensworth park for a 50th rededication of Black self-determination

An estimated 1,000 to 1,500 people traveled by train, bus and car to California's Central Valley on Oct. 10 to mark the 50th rededication of Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, the town founded by Buffalo Soldier Col. Allen Allensworth.

A day of memory and celebration

Families, veterans and descendants filled the 3,715-acre park near Earlimart. Vendors lined the grounds. The West Coast Blues Society played. Members of the Buffalo Soldier Association appeared in period uniforms with horses. Speakers were asked to keep remarks to five minutes under the afternoon heat.

Charles Blatcher III, chairman of the National Coalition of Black Veteran Organizations, returned for the first time since the park opened to the public in 1976. He urged a renewed commitment to telling the story of the people who built the community.

From slavery to a self-determined town

Allensworth was born into slavery in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1842. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War, became a minister and educator and rose to lieutenant colonel as an Army chaplain with the 24th Infantry. In 1908 he and other pioneers founded a town where African Americans could own land, run businesses, educate their children and govern themselves.

"They built homes, a school, a church and a library," Blatcher said. "They put their belief in self-determination into practice, here in California's Central Valley."

Keeping the park alive

Water shortages and Allensworth's death in 1914 helped the town decline but former residents and supporters preserved the history that made the state park possible. Blatcher thanked California State Parks, Friends of Allensworth and descendants. He is pressing the Black community to visit more often and exploring gospel and blues festivals that could draw new audiences. The coalition also asked Gov. Gavin Newsom for a posthumous honorary promotion of Allensworth to brigadier general in the California National Guard to coincide with the rededication.