Kevin Ashley shared his first story online about pioneering Black families in Coronado a year ago, and now he’s launched The Coronado Black History Project with help from the city library.
Ashley, 56, intends to document the remarkable lives and experiences of Coronado’s African American community from 1886 to the present through the project.
Nearly 50 people gathered at the Coronado Public Library in early February to learn about the city’s “Hidden Black History” from Ashley, a local historian and resident.
“I made a decisive choice in my presentation to kind of give a more comprehensive view,” he said in an interview with The Coronado News. “Some of the slides were rough.”
Black History Month in February is designed to focus on the positive aspects rather than the negative of African-Americans, said Ashley. For this reason he does not consider his presentation a BHM presentation since it included the hardships that Black people faced in Coronado.
“We are telling a story of Black excellence…”
-Kevin Ashley, local historian leading The Coronado Black History Project.
“In telling these stories about what people endured,” he said. “We are telling a story of Black excellence because they endured it … In spite of what they were up against, they still achieved.”
The goal is to build on our common humanity by helping people appreciate the experiences of other communities, he said.
The research books Ashley used to learn about these families’ histories are showcased at the library, 640 Orange Ave.
Curator of the special collections, local history collection, and cultural and educational exhibits Candice Hooper, has worked at the Coronado Public Library over 34 years.
“Kevin provided us with a list of books he used in his research. Most of the titles were already in our collection along with many others,” she said. “Because of their importance to our local history, library staff have done our best to add any book currently on display to the library’s circulating collection.”
Hooper said the books on display have the ability to help individuals understand more about Black history and the lives of Coronado’s pioneering Black residents who arrived between 1887 to 1921.
“With regards to exhibits, it’s almost impossible to tell the whole story on any subject through this type of visual learning,” she said. “However, if your curiosity is sparked by one of our exhibits, you’ll find yourself in the right place to learn more about any number of topics”
She said Ashley deserves all the credit for his exhaustive research into an area of history that has not previously been explored in-depth.
Hooper said the library’s digital newspaper collection was one of Ashley’s key sources of research.
“In 2013, the library digitized our newspapers from 1887 – 2013,” she said. “We continue to update this collection which is hosted by UC Riverside on the California Digital Newspaper Collection website.”
Historical work
Ashley said he began the project when he saw a picture of an early basketball championship for Coronado High School.
“I didn’t realize that there were African Americans here, in this early history of Coronado until 2020 while doing research on Coronado’s first basketball championship in 1956,” he said. “I was shocked to see that three of the players in that photograph were African American.”
This defied the conventional narrative of Coronado as a white enclave, and he said he realized there’s a far deeper history in Coronado of African Americans than even that group of basketball players.
Ashley said that Elisha Babcock, one of the founders of modern Coronado, brought African Americans from Henderson, Kentucky to help build the Hotel del Coronado in 1887.
He said they worked with Babcock for decades and became well-known leaders in the San Diego Black community.
“They were highly respected, highly influential, extremely community minded, politically minded,” he said. “Both the white people and the African-American people of Coronado had influence.”
He said the aim now is to provide “a forward view” of the history of Coronado in telling the stories of African Americans who lived here.
“When a Black child looks at a photograph, they look for somebody that looks like them,” he said. “There is no photo in this whole city that shows representation,” he said.
Ashley said he is privileged to be in contact with Librarian Emeritus at San Diego State University Robert Fikes, Jr., who has written some of the most compelling and important pieces on Black history in San Diego.
Ashley has also helped with book facilitation, publication, and launch of “The Other Side of the Fence: Life on Both Sides of the Color Line” by Cynthia Hudgins, who provides a primary source of information about life in Coronado about 100 years ago, he said.
Ashley said in the 1940s, Hudgins was denied the opportunity to buy a house in Coronado because of having Black ancestry.
He said that’s one of the reasons there’s a low Black population today in Coronado.
U.S. Census records show that Black people compose 4.3% of Coronado’s population, while white people compose 81%. Black people compose 6% of San Diego’s population, while white people make up 58% of that city’s population.
Hooper, the library curator, shared that Cynthia Hudgins’s book is “a valuable addition to the library” and it helps readers understand local history and Black history in Coronado.
Ashley estimated that the Black community in Coronado between 1887 and 1934 consisted of 10 to 12 families with significant accomplishments.
For example, Edith Thompson and her brother Edward were among the first Black students to graduate college in San Diego County.
He said the Thompson house at 832 C Ave. is from the 1900s and should be a historic landmark.
Intentionality about project’s purpose
Being raised in Perris, an old railway city in Riverside County, exposed Ashley to African American culture, he said.
After college, he traveled to Africa, got married, started a family, and lived there 25 years.
Now retired in Coronado, he works on The Coronado Black History Project as a hobby.
“I’ve only done six or seven stories,” he said. “Some of them have been reprints of other people’s stories… It’s still very early in the life of the project.”
Ashley said he is particularly focused on Black history because his wife and kids are Black – yet he’s white.
“They have a history here, even though it’s not presented in public space.”
-Kevin Ashley
“It’s important to me that they know that other African-Americans have been in Coronado from day one,” he said. “It’s very important that they know that and other African-Americans know that. They should feel that this is just as much their right to be their home as anyone else … That they have a history here, even though it’s not presented in public spaces.”
He said many residents have been supportive of the project, but history is never complete.
“As I write, more and more people just email me with these incredible stories,” he said. “That’s why I say it’s a project… It’s constantly a work in progress to try to present as many of the stories as I can gather.”
Ashley said the city should consider honoring African-American military veterans in the avenues of heroes banner program, and the city should continue to be supportive of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Ashley also considers California requiring that all high school students take a course in ethnic studies by 2028 as a new graduation requirement will be a change for Coronado schools as it implements the curriculum for its ethnic studies program.
Ashley said he plans to have other stories on his blog at https://kevinashley.substack.com/.
“I want people to read about these Coronado African American pioneers on my blog,” he said. “I just want people to be more aware.”
