Figure 1. Left: Colonel William C. Smith of the First Tennessee Volunteer Infantry. Right: Theophilus B. Morton, founder of the San Francisco Afro-American League. Photograph of Smith from Herman Justi, Official History of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition (Nashville, TN: Brandon Printing, 189... More

Figure 2. Photograph of First Tennessee volunteers in Camp Merritt by W. C. Billington. Soldiers strike a pose in front of a tent for Billington, a local photographer, as they pass time in camp. One man points a gun at his comrade and another has a pistol stuffed in the front of his pants. On the ... More

Figure 3. 1897 Rand McNally map of San Francisco, digitally edited by the author. Based on map in Rand, McNally & Company’s Indexed Atlas of the World (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1897), p. 446. More

Figure 4. Unlabeled photograph, possibly of James Thomas. In Virginia, Zero Thomas was previously married to Clara Thomas, who died at the age of eighteen in 1871. When Zero moved west, he brought along their young son James. James Thomas grew up in San Francisco with his six younger step-siblings... More