
Keko Jackson: Restored/Access
March 2022, English, 7 x 10 in, 88 pages, spiral bound, softcoverEdition of 300Design: Sming Sming Books With texts by Keko Jackson and Matthew Grumbach "Allensworth is the first town in California to be founded, financed, and governed exclusively by Black people. Founded in 1908 as a symbol of freedom in the West, it is part of a long legacy of independent and autonomous communities created by revolutionaries and people who escaped enslavement. The town was started by Allen Allensworth, who was himself born into enslavement, and saw the land as an opportunity to live out a version of the American Dream. In its early years Allensworth saw a lot of success and self-sufficiency, establishing a free public library, access to inexpensive land and resources and a system of cooperative economics. However by 1915, a variety of causes including severe drought, racially motivated attacks, and the discovery of arsenic in the ground water ultimately led to the town's decline. Today, Alle