From George Washington High School to the National Maritime Museum to Bayview, the public art of Sargent Claude Johnson made him the most celebrated artist of the New Negro era. He is not unusual. Along Leidesdorff Street, the beginnings of San Francisco’s Financial District show the traces of an African-American millionaire who decided to commercialize the San Francisco Bay in the 1830s. Historian John William Templeton shows the centrality of the black experience in California history with a photo display of the ways that black Californians left their imprint on the built environment in San Francisco while describing their impact on the Civil War, Reconstruction, birth of the labor movement and end of Jim Crow and apartheid. He is the curator of the 6,000 site California African-American Freedom Trail and author of Our Roots Run Deep: the Black Experience in California, Vols. 1-4. His tours of California black history has wowed visitors for 25 years.

About John William Templeton

John William Templeton has mapped 6,000 sites of historical, cultural and architectural significance in the California African-American Freedom Trail. He is the leading historian of African-Americans in the Golden State as editor of Our Roots Run Deep: the Black Experience in California, Vols. 1-4, first published in 1991 and author of Come to the Water: Sharing the Rich Black Experience in San Francisco and Cakewalk: unsung creators of jazz music.

His primary source work includes the context statements for blacks in San Jose and San Francisco, an oral history of 300 informants in the Western Addition, preserving the personal belongings of Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett; cataloguing two photo collections of 25,000 images and the trilogy on the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments that found the resolutions of ratification for each state between 1865 and 1870.

For the Songhoy people of West Africa, from whom 75 percent of today’s African-Americans are descended, he has served as wanadu aroo or history advisor for 25 years. Before moving to California as editor of the San Jose Business Journal in 1987, he was editor of the first black newspaper to publish a centennial edition, the Richmond AFRO-AMERICAN and president of the Jackson Ward National Historic District Project Area Committee.

With civil engineer Frederick E. Jordan Sr., he launched National Black Business Month in 2004 and writes the annual State of Black Business report. His educational network, ReUNION: Education-Arts-Heritage distributes four hours daily for the black children’s educational channel. A Presbyterian ruling elder for 38 years, he represents the denomination as chair of educational affiars on the board of trustees of Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, AL. He is chair of the board of the Central Brooklyn Economic Development Corp. in New York City. His scholarly presentations have been to the American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch; American Educational Research Association, California Council for the Social Studies; California Council for the Promotion of History, Association for the Study of African-American Life and History and American Library Association.

About the Architecture + the City Festival (September 11-30)

Co-presented by AIA San Francisco and the Center for Architecture + Design, the 17th annual Architecture + the City goes virtual and will continue to offer behind-the-scenes programs, walking tours, literature, live presentations and more that provide an excellent opportunity for all communities to experience architecture and design in a myriad of ways throughout the city. Every September, the festival reveals the many facets and layers of San Francisco, and how ­architecture and design play a key role in this ever-changing urban landscape.

For more info visit www.archandcity.org