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Entrepreneurs & Business Pioneers

Mary Ellen Pleasant

c. 1814 – 1904

San Francisco and Oakland, California, United States

Gold Rush-era San Francisco entrepreneur who invested in laundries, boardinghouses, real estate and mining, called herself a 'capitalist', and sued a streetcar company over racial exclusion in the 1860s.

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1851 lithograph view of Gold Rush-era San Francisco from Telegraph Hill, Library of Congress
Credit: Henry Bainbridge and Geo. W. Casilear; lith. Sarony & Major. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. License: Public domain (no known restrictions).

Content pending: verified research needed.

Sources

  1. National Park Service, "Mary Ellen Pleasant" (Primary source)
  2. California Secretary of State, California State Archives exhibit, "Breaking Barriers: African Americans" (Primary source)
  3. E. Nicole Vines, "Mary E. Pleasant: Reshaping the Landscape of Segregation in California," Black Perspectives (AAIHS) (Scholarly)

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