Author Visits West Sac Students, Shares Lesson On Black Gold Rush History
Author, Jonathan Burgess, speaks to more than 100 students at Elkhorn Elementary School in West Sacramento. Verbal Adam, OBSERVER More than 100 fou...
Author, Jonathan Burgess, speaks to more than 100 students at Elkhorn Elementary School in West Sacramento. Verbal Adam, OBSERVER More than 100 fourth- and fifth-graders at West Sacramento's Elkhorn Elementary School were treated to a book reading by author Jonathan Burgess on Feb. 23. The author's new children's book, 'Gold Rush Burgess Descendants,' tells the story of Black Americans who were part of the gold rush of 1849. Among those discussed in the book is his great-great-grandfather Rufus Burgess, a slave who traveled on foot across the great plains from Maryland to California in 1848 and was present when gold was discovered in 1849.