Los Angeles' new Biddy Mason Park

What this country needs is a free Black woman like Biddy or Harriet Tubman on the face of cash

Pershing Square, DTLA, California

Pershing Square is perishing. Many Angelenos (people living in the megalopolis of the "City of Angels" aka Spanish Ciudad de Los Angeles) have visited downtown’s Bradbury Building, but not everyone knows about the nearby Biddy Mason Memorial Park located on the south side of the building, between Broadway and Spring Streets.

I'm smiling because I'm finally free!

Bridget “Biddy” Mason was born into slavery in 1818. Not much is known of her early life, but by the time she was a young adult she was enslaved in the household of Robert Smith.

• Bye-bye Pershing Square (LA) 
• L.A. renames Pershing Square after Biddy Mason, founder of L.A.'s First AME Church (LAT)
• First A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) Church of LA
• The Metro board voted unanimously Thursday to honor Biddy Mason | LAist

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In 1847, she traveled, mostly on foot, from Mississippi to Utah with the Smith household. The household lived in Salt Lake City for two years, then resettled in San Bernardino, California in 1851.

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California was admitted to the Union in 1850 as a free, non-slave state, which meant [human trafficker] Smith was holding Biddy Mason illegally. Mason fought for her freedom in court, with the trial ruling confirming her freedom in 1856.

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As a free woman, Biddy Mason settled in Los Angeles with her children and found work as a nurse and midwife.

In 1866, she purchased a nearly one-acre site between present-day Broadway (then Fort Street) and Spring Street, between 3rd and 4th Streets.

The Black female owner of Los Angeles

(MIDNIGHT TALES) Born enslaved, died a millionaire: The untold story of Biddy Mason

On this, the present location of the park, she built her homestead. Throughout the years, this pioneering Black woman purchased more property. And as the value of her [real estate] holdings escalated, she eventually became a relatively wealthy woman and a tireless philanthropist.

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• VIDEO: How Biddy Mason changed LA forever: Biddy Mason’s story is one of the most powerful hidden chapters in American history. Born into slavery, she fought for her freedom and went on to become one of the first Black women to own land in Los Angeles. Through real estate, business, philanthropy, and founding First A.M.E. Church, she helped shape the city we know today. How did she build her legacy, inspire generations, and truly become "the woman who owned LA"?

Today's Pershing Square in DTLA

(Unique Coloring) From slave to richest Los Angeles resident | Biddy Mason | Black History

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This mini-park was designed by landscape architects Katherine Spitz and Pamela Burton. The artwork Biddy Mason Time and Place is an 80-foot-long poured concrete wall by artist Sheila Levrant de Bretteville.

The wall is a timeline of Biddy Mason’s life, illustrated by impressions of objects such as agave leaves, wagon wheels, and a midwife’s bag, as well as simple text and images such as an early survey map of Los Angeles and Biddy’s freedom papers.

The history begins at the right (northernmost) end of the wall with the text “Biddy Mason born a slave,” and progresses in time to the inscription: “Los Angeles mourns and reveres Grandma Mason.” More

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