Two oil tankers collided beneath the Golden Gate Bridge in 1971, spilling 840,000 gallons of crude oil into San Francisco Bay and killing countless fish and seabirds. Thousands of volunteers tried in vain to save the wildlife. John Francis, a 20-year-old Black environmentalist disgusted by the loss and suffering, chose another response: “stop driving cars” and “use my life for change.”
For the next 22 years, Francis walked everywhere he went to set an example that people can travel without fossil fuels and help the great outdoors.
Francis walked 1,000 miles from Marin County to Oregon and back to study the environment and earn a bachelor’s degree, exploring the Siskiyou Mountains and summiting high peaks as he traveled. He later completed a seven-year march across the U.S. while he earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in land resources.
Francis does not fit the profile of a modern outdoor enthusiast who runs marathons or breaks records, but his exploits focused on improving the world rather than chasing personal glory, fame or sponsorships.
After moving to San Francisco in 1852, Mary Pleasant planted eucalyptus trees and purchased and preserved a 1,000-acre ranch in Sonoma County that became the scenic Calabazas Creek Open Space Preserve. There’s no record of her climbing mountains or performing other athletic feats but Pleasant made up for limited outdoor credentials by overachieving as an abolitionist and civil rights crusader.
Pleasant led escaped enslaved Americans to freedom on the Underground Railroad and arrived in California one step ahead of the law which hunted her for that brave pursuit. A century before Rosa Parks refused to vacate her seat on a bus, Pleasant filed lawsuits which overturned segregation on San Francisco’s streetcars.
“My cause was the cause of freedom and equality for myself and for my people and I’d rather be a corpse than a coward,” wrote the so-called “Mother of Civil Rights.”
Pleasant’s admirers today can still hike through Calabazas Creek Open Space Preserve and San Francisco’s Mary Ellen Pleasant Memorial Park; the six eucalyptus trees she planted still grow beside it on Octavia Street.
In the days before Yosemite became a national park, stage coach driver George Monroe helped three American presidents and countless others discover the incomparable valley. Born in Georgia, Monroe endured a childhood of slavery before his family was able to buy his freedom and bring him to Mariposa in 1856. Monroe developed an affinity for horses and worked for 20 years as a tour guide and stage coach driver. “I have never known another such an all-round reinsman as George Monroe. He was a wonder in every way,” claimed his employer Henry Washburn.
James Beckwourth survived slavery in his native Virginia and made his way across the continent as a trapper, trader and scout. The Gold Rush drew him to California, where he found a pass over the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Reno, and established a trail between there and Marysville. The pass, trail and a nearby mountain all now bear his name.
Buffalo Soldiers, an all-Black U.S. Army unit, supervised Yosemite in 1899 and then watched over Sequoia National Park in 1903. While there, they climbed 14,505-foot tall Mount Whitney and built the first trail to its summit. “The Mount Whitney country will convince even the least thoughtful man of the needfulness of preserving these mountains,” wrote Capt. Charles Young. A century after Young became the first Black national park superintendent, Sequoia named one of its magnificent trees for him.
The West has seen a rush of Black outdoor firsts, records and achievements in the 21st Century. Chelsea Griffie accomplished a breakthrough climb on Yosemite’s El Capitan. Manoah Ainuu broke barriers in Yosemite and elsewhere while climbing on both rock and ice. Both Akuna Robinson and Elsye Walker completed not just the Pacific Crest Trail, but also Continental Divide and Appalachian trails, which form long-distance hiking’s triple crown.
Yosemite Ranger Shelton Johnson revived the story of the Buffalo Soldiers who protected Sierra Nevada treasures. Oakland’s Rue Mapp created Outdoor Afro which has grown into a nationwide organization that encourages outdoor activity and fellowship. Distance runners Futsum Zienasellassie and Grace Kahura each won the prestigious California International Marathon recently.
These outdoors standouts and all Americans owe a debt of gratitude to California’s Black pioneers who led the way.
One of those pioneers still blazes trails. After his first cross-country trek, Francis recreated his odyssey in 2005. He’s walked across Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile, and taught and spoken to groups around the world. Now in his late 70s, Francis is walking 6,000 miles across the length of Africa, from Capetown to Cairo.
“Every moment of the present contains the seeds of opportunity for change. Your life is an adventure. Live it fully,” Francis wrote in his book, “Planetwalker.”