Delilah Beasley chronicled African American "firsts" and notable achievements in early California in her book The Negro Trail-Blazers of California (1919), which is a compilation of records from the California Archives in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, found in newspapers from 1848 to the 1890s, and most particularly all the black newspapers from the first in 1855 through 1919.
Beasley's Trail-Blazers book included diaries, biographical sketches, poetry, photographs, old papers, conversations with old pioneers, and a comprehensive history of early legislation and court cases.
Beasley's informative compilation of records is full of success stories.
It gives many hundreds of names of blacks in California from the pioneer period to the late 19th century.

Beasley writes about the black gold miners of the late 1840s:
"A history of the Negro people of California would be incomplete without mention of the mining men who came in 1849.
There were at one time several hundred Negro miners working claims on Mormon and Mokelumn Hill, at Placerville, Grass Valley and elsewhere in California mountains.
One such man was Moses Rodgers a mining expert and was considered one of the best mining engineers in the state.
He was also a metallurgist and owned a group of mines at Hornitus.
The colored miners rarely took a chance in buying mining stock.
He had more sacred duties to perform with his money.
He either used it to pay for the freedom or liberty of himself, his family or other loved ones in faraway "Dixie-Land".
If not that, then he contributed largely from his diggings to assisting the "Executive Committee of the Colored Convention" in their struggles to secure legislative enactments in the interest of the Negro race in California".

Beasley spent nine years writing her book, which is important to historians of California and the West, and of African American western history.
She knew many people who had been in California from the beginning of statehood and before.
So much of what we know of California black pioneers grows out of her book.
One of her possible heroes in the book was Lt.
Col.
Allen Allensworth, in 1908 founder of an all African American town in Allensworth, California, now a state park, Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.
Beasley wrote, "The late Colonel Allensworth was born a slave, and yet there are few, if any, who have made more out of life and done more for their fellow man".

Delilah Beasley placed women prominently in her book.
Over the next four decades, no other major works followed Beasley's volume.
One might expect a plethora of articles and books concerning various aspects of black women's history during and immediately following the civil rights movements of the 1910s.
Yet western black women received little attention.
Delilah Beasley chronicled African American "firsts" and notable achievements in early California in her book The Negro Trail-Blazers of California (1919), which is a compilation of records from the California Archives in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, found in newspapers from 1848 to the 1890s, and most particularly all the black newspapers from the first in 1855 through 1919. Beasley's Trail-Blazers book included diaries, biographical sketches, poetry, photographs, old papers, conversations with old pioneers, and a comprehensive history of early legislation and court cases. Beasley's informative compilation of records is full of success stories. It gives many hundreds of names of blacks in California from the pioneer period to the late 19th century.
Beasley writes about the black gold miners of the late 1840s:
"A history of the Negro people of California would be incomplete without mention of the mining men who came in 1849. There were at one time several hundred Negro miners working claims on Mormon and Mokelumn Hill, at Placerville, Grass Valley and elsewhere in California mountains. One such man was Moses Rodgers a mining expert and was considered one of the best mining engineers in the state. He was also a metallurgist and owned a group of mines at Hornitus. The colored miners rarely took a chance in buying mining stock. He had more sacred duties to perform with his money. He either used it to pay for the freedom or liberty of himself, his family or other loved ones in faraway "Dixie-Land". If not that, then he contributed largely from his diggings to assisting the "Executive Committee of the Colored Convention" in their struggles to secure legislative enactments in the interest of the Negro race in California".
Beasley spent nine years writing her book, which is important to historians of California and the West, and of African American western history. She knew many people who had been in California from the beginning of statehood and before. So much of what we know of California black pioneers grows out of her book. One of her possible heroes in the book was Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth, in 1908 founder of an all African American town in Allensworth, California, now a state park, Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park. Beasley wrote, "The late Colonel Allensworth was born a slave, and yet there are few, if any, who have made more out of life and done more for their fellow man".
Delilah Beasley placed women prominently in her book. Over the next four decades, no other major works followed Beasley's volume. One might expect a plethora of articles and books concerning various aspects of black women's history during and immediately following the civil rights movements of the 1910s. Yet western black women received little attention.
Delilah Beasley