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"Black History Tour"
at Evergreen Cemetery
204 No. Evergreen Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90033
Ticket Donation: $20
Our educational tour guides are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about Boyle Heights. They take pride in the community where they were brought up and are committed to giving back. Throughout the tour, they will share their love for Boyle Heights with you and provide valuable insights about the many who remain connected.
One of the remarkable people we will be discussing during the tour is Bridget "Biddy" Mason. She was a former slave, philanthropist, and humanitarian. She was also a founding member of the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles in 1872. Her life motto was, "If you hold your hand closed, nothing good can come in. The open hand is blessed, for it gives in abundance, even as it receives." Biddy Mason was one of the first Black women to own land in the city.
During our tour, we will visit several notable gravesites, including those of Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, who appeared on the Jack Benny radio show, Louise Beavers, who played the lead role on the Beulah television show, which was the first TV sitcom to star a black person. We will also see the grave of William Nickerson Jr., who founded and was the first president of Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Co. This was the first African American life insurance company on the West Coast and the largest in California, and James Herman Banning's grave, who, in 1932, became the first African American to fly coast to coast, along with his partner Thomas Cox Allen.
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Boyle Heights Community Partners is a California 501(c)(3) Nonprofit #32-0628921
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