{"id":198899,"date":"2026-03-01T04:19:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/198899\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T04:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:19:18","slug":"bayview-black-history-bike-ride-combined-history-and-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/198899\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayview Black history bike ride combined history and exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Bayview resident Janet Allen-Williams has been to 19 Black History Month events this year, but this was the first in which she spent the whole time sitting on a bicycle seat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 63-year-old was one of around 150 people who attended San Francisco\u2019s first-ever Bayview Black History Month bike ride on Saturday. The 4-mile ride, which went from the Martin Luther King Jr. Fountain in Yerba Buena Gardens to the Ruth Williams Opera House in Bayview, started at 10 a.m. and ended at around 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Kat Fernando and her boyfriend Michael traveled from Salinas to attend. Fernando said it was their first time biking in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe should get our bikes an award or something,\u201d she said, noting the accomplishment. \u201cBut they gave us pinwheels and a bell, so those are never coming off now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Close-upKat Fernando\u2019s bike, Wallace plushie included. Photo by Sophia Rerucha. <\/p>\n

The event was part-exercise, part-history. At each stop, cyclists learned about historical Black figures.<\/p>\n

At South Park in the South of Market,<\/a> Shariff Wynn from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, a co-organizer of the event, taught the crowd about Mary Ellen Pleasant, a Black woman born in 1814 who became a multi-millionaire and, in 1859, funded John Brown\u2019s famed raid<\/a> on Harper\u2019s Ferry, according to an interview she gave a reporter in her later years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Brown was hanged, a note in his pocket read: \u201cThe ax is laid at the foot of the tree. When the first blow is struck, there will be more money to help.\u201d It was reportedly from Pleasant.<\/p>\n

Pleasant became a financier and key part of the Underground Railroad in California; she was known as the mother of the California civil rights movement<\/a>. Pleasant owned property across San Francisco and was called \u201cMammy Pleasant\u201d in the city because she worked as a domestic servant, reportedly to hide her wealth. She listed her occupation on the 1890 census as \u201ccapitalist,\u201d according to the National Park Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AShariff Wynn speaks out of a bullhorn at South Park in SoMa. Al Hawley points out a person who correctly guessed a trivia question. Photo by Sophia Rerucha. <\/p>\n

After sharing facts, Wynn challenged the crowd to trivia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo who was one of the African pioneers that lived here in South Park?\u201d asked Wynn. When a crowd member answered, \u201cMary Ellen Pleasant,\u201d Wynn cheered. \u201cYou get a prize!\u201d she said, gifting them a zine designed by Oakland-based artist Fred Noland.<\/p>\n

At Crane Cove Park, Noland, who also designed the event\u2019s art<\/a>, spoke about William Alexander Liedesdorff, a ship merchant and captain who was born in St. Croix in 1810.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Liedesdorff traveled widely in his youth and eventually launched the Bay Area\u2019s first steamboat, said Noland. The businessman was appointed consul to Mexico in 1845, making him the first Black diplomat in the United States \u2014 and perhaps one of its first Black millionaires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was instrumental in establishing San Francisco, according to a profile in the San Francisco Examiner<\/a>, and a two-block stretch of the Financial District still bears his name.<\/p>\n

For Derek Lockett, these and others were new names.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Locket particularly mentioned learning about the \u201cBig Five:\u201d five Bayview women who spearheaded affordable housing efforts in Bayview in the \u201860s and \u201870s \u2014 Eloise Westbrook, Ruth Williams, Rosielee Williams, Osceola Washington, and Julia Commer. In 1973, the women secured $40 million<\/a> from the federal government to create affordable housing in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of history here that doesn\u2019t get talked about,\u201d Lockett said. \u201cIt gave people who didn\u2019t know how much Blacks contribute to San Francisco more information.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeopleCyclists pedaling in an ant-like formation along India Basin Shoreline Park. Photo by Sophia Rerucha. <\/p>\n

The event was organized by the Bicycle Coalition and the group Livable Cities. Al Hawley of the online show Spokes & Folks<\/a>, who served as one of three tour guides, said organizers \u201cwanted people to be intrigued by their city.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Noland, the ride was also a way to get Black people out to \u201cenjoy the outdoors more.\u201d Black people tend to bike \u201cbecause of necessity,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I think it\u2019s good to do it for enjoyment as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Future Tissere Edwards, a Bay Area native and lifelong cyclist, noted that although the event was to celebrate Black History Month, the crowd itself wasn\u2019t exclusively Black \u2014 in fact about a quarter appeared to be so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, cycling is something so universal that we all need to get back to,\u201d he said. \u201cIt keeps us together and unified, no matter the color, the skin, the nationality, we are all brothers and sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The riders went down city streets, up steep hills, and through crowded bike lanes. Many were meeting for the first time: Jonathan Jones and Tyna Moore sat on a rickshaw tricycle in the morning after getting to know each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s gonna drive it, I\u2019m gonna race in it,\u201d said Moore. \u201cWe\u2019re getting acquainted.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ATyna Moore and Jonathan Jones pose for a picture ahead of the bike ride. Photo by Sophia Rerucha. <\/p>\n

The ride was generally safe, although at one point in Bayview a blue car impatiently pushed through the street, ignoring the crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of shocking,\u201d said Maureen Persico, a volunteer for SF Bicycle Coalition. \u201cThere was a little kid pedaling away and some guy couldn\u2019t wait.\u201d It was a reminder that, despite San Francisco\u2019s pledge to zero-out traffic deaths<\/a> by 2024, the city has failed in its promise.<\/p>\n

\"AThe hill that brought a biker down and led others to walk their bikes. Photo by Sophia Rerucha. <\/p>\n

As the ride came to a close, cyclists pedaled up the steep hill on Mendell Street in Bayview. Volunteers held up signs saying, \u2018Almost there!\u2019 and \u2018Hills are hard!\u2019<\/p>\n

The event ended at Smoke Soul Kitchen for a block party. Wynn and other members of the SF Bicycle Coalition and Livable Cities raffled prizes, including coupons for free bikes at Mission Shop and free vouchers for tacos at Tatos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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