A family and a home that still stands, turns into a more than 100-year legacy: The Pinkney family
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Whether it’s the parlor room, the bathroom, the bedroom or the patio, all you have to do is look around the home of this pioneering, black family to feel the history.
“Amanda Randolph Pinkney would have cooked for her whole family in this small, little area here,” said Kern County Museum Director, Mike McCoy. “It really reminds us how simple life was for people.”
The home, originally located on 812 H Street, belonged to William and Amanda Pinkney in 1900. Both apart of the migration of Black Americans escaping the south in hope of opportunity in the West, after the end of the Civil War. William Pinkney was one of the first African American employees of the city of Bakersfield. The family’s legacy has continued in Kern since and the family donated the home to the Kern County Museum in 1964.
McCoy said the Pinkney’s are a family of Bakersfield pioneers.
“The Pinkney’s were really integrated into Bakersfield and they really made Bakersfield a better place for everybody,” said McCoy.
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The house is constantly kept up, but the home is still the way it was when the Pickney’s lived in it.
McCoy said what seems small today, was everything then.
“They claim they were literally starving to death in South Carolina. When William Henry’s father came here, he was paid $12 a month to pick cotton and his wife got $8 a month,” said McCoy. “Each child got $6 a month to pick cotton but they got their house provided and food, so for them being from South Carolina, being emancipated slaves it was really an upgrade.”
The home has stood the test of time and McCoy says it shows how deep this family’s legacy is in this county.
“This little Pinkney house is pretty modest by today’s standards but it really tells a story of immigrants that came to Kern County from all these different places in the world, and they made a success out of it,” said McCoy.
To view the home and the history the lies in it, head to the Kern County Museum.
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