The New York Times teaches us today:
Peter Burnett was the first governor of the State of California, ascending to the post on December 20, 1849. But his ignominious legacy is hardly known today.
Mr. Burnett came from Missouri via Oregon, settling near Sacramento amid the Gold Rush. Just as he had done in Oregon, Mr. Burnett pushed to exclude blacks from the state. While he seemed to couch his argument in antislavery terms, he was merely “disguising” his “equal opportunity racism,” said William Deverell, a historian and the director of the Huntington-U.S.C. Institute on California and the West.
“He was not particularly unusual at all at the time,” Mr. Deverell said. “That’s when the really vicious attacks on Native Americans started coming and gave way to genocidal violence. He was early opponent of the Chinese, which leads to the exclusion act. He really shows you can be antislavery and a racist to the core without any difficulty whatsoever.”
Though he is included in fourth grade state history, Mr. Burnett’s name has largely been erased from the public sphere. His name was on a San Francisco preschool as well as an elementary school in Long Beach, but was recently taken down and replaced at both schools after reports of his views and statements resurfaced.
“He talked in this undeniably ugly way about people, so we should talk about how we’ve honored him,” Mr. Deverell said. “These are not issues that are reserved for other parts of the United States without resonance in California.”
If it wasn’t for disgusting racists like this governor, California today instead of being about 35% white, would only be 10% white.
