Allen Allensworth. Born in slavery in 1842.

Retired as the first black Colonel from the US Army.

Founded, financed and governed California’s only all-black community in 1908. Allensworth is in the San Joaquin Valley. Arid and arsenic soil make life difficult. When nearby farming sucked the water table dry, Allensworth was doomed to become a ghost town. Now the abandoned dream is a State Park. Closed most of the time for lack of funds.