Fort Point, a Civil War-era fortification beneath the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, opens the exhibition "Black Gold: Stories Untold" today through November 2. The show features works by 16 contemporary artists and one collective, exploring 19th-century African American life in California—from the Gold Rush onward—highlighting little-known entrepreneurs, activists, soldiers, and musicians. Curated by Cheryl Haines of the non-profit For-Site, the exhibition includes recent works by artists such as Carla Edwards, Isaac Julien, Alison Saar, Yinka Shonibare CBE, and Hank Willis Thomas, alongside new commissions by Demetri Broxton, Adrian L. Burrell, Mildred Howard, and others. The project was two years in the making, privately funded, and developed with a nine-person advisory committee of Black historians and curators.
This exhibition matters because it reclaims overlooked Black histories within a historic military site, directly challenging contemporary political efforts to limit multi-perspective approaches to American history in cultural institutions. By activating a national park setting as a platform for storytelling, "Black Gold" demonstrates how art can reframe public memory and address systemic erasure. The show also highlights the legacy of figures like Mary Ellen Pleasant, a Black abolitionist and entrepreneur who fought for civil rights a century before Rosa Parks, connecting 19th-century struggles to ongoing conversations about race, justice, and representation in the arts.