Well over 100 descendants from some of La Jolla’s pioneering Black families recently came together to celebrate their collective histories and local ties.
On Aug. 8, members and descendants of the DeBose, Shannon and Ritchey families held a reunion at the Marina Village Conference Center near Mission Bay. The theme, event organizer and DeBose descendant Sabrina Goosby said, was “Honoring Our Ancestors.”
As part of the event, approximately 140 descendants — some of whom had never met — gathered to talk to one another, learn more about their collective family history, see family heirlooms such as old sewing kits and tobacco holders, view old photos and more.
“The energy was excitement,” Goosby said. “Many people hadn’t seen one another in a long time or never met, so there was a buzz. You couldn’t hear anything most of the time because everyone was talking, laughing and hugging. But when we shared the family history, you could hear a pin drop.”
Either by birth or by marriage, everyone in attendance was a descendant of Thomas DeBose, considered a Black pioneer in La Jolla’s early days.
According to the 2010 book “La Jolla, California Black Pioneers and Pioneer Descendants 1880-1974,” Thomas Debose was an African-American man born during the time of slavery and the first Black person to buy land in La Jolla. It was in 1904 that DeBose purchased two lots on Draper Avenue.
The La Jolla house once occupied by Thomas DeBose, the first Black person to own land in La Jolla. (Provided by Sabrina Goosby)
Thomas DeBose and his wife Christina Moss had five children, some of whom married into the Ritchey and/or Shannon families.
“The DeBose, Shannon, and Ritchey families have deep historical ties to San Diego County, including (being part of) the early African American community of La Jolla,” Goosby wrote in a press statement. “Family ancestors established homes, raised families, worked, worshipped, and contributed to the growth of the region during a period when African Americans faced significant social and economic barriers.”
Having since dispersed across California and the country, some of these descendants were unaware of their family histories — or one another. But all that changed when Goosby saw a social media post and the idea for a reunion was born.
“Two people who turned out to be my distant cousins responded to a Facebook post about Johnny Ritchey (a descendent of the Ritchey family and the first Black baseball player signed by the San Diego Padres), and I realized they were both related to me,” Goosby said. “I reached out and we connected by phone and realized we were all living in San Diego. It didn’t make sense that we lived so close but did not know each other.”
After meeting, the small group of cousins decided to host a family reunion. They put out messages on social media and within their immediate family groups. Ultimately, they found other relatives in Texas, New York, Alabama, North Carolina and across California, all of whom were willing to come to San Diego for the Aug. 8 reunion.
“It was an absolutely incredible day,” Goosby said. “It was amazing that we were able to bring all these people together. I got chills that day. I looked around the room and saw aunts and cousins and people who hadn’t seen one another in years. One cousin didn’t know her father, but had just done her genealogy and found him and us. So to look at her and see her being loved by people she didn’t know existed, I can’t explain how amazing that felt.”
Antoinette Gordon, DeBose’s great-great-granddaughter and so-known “family historian,” added, “It was fun to figure out who was related to who, because some people didn’t know how they were related. Some members of the Ritchey family knew that family history, and some members of the Shannon family knew that history, but some didn’t know they were descendants of Thomas DeBose.
Jeanette McKinney, Joann Logans, Ed Fletcher and Antoinette Gordon are among the elders at the DeBose, Ritchey and Shannon family reunion. (Provided by Sabrina Goosby)
“It was just a fun day,” she continued. “It was a dream come true for me. It was a beautiful expression of remembrance and love, it made me tear up. It just made me feel so happy, excited and proud to be in this family.”
Going forward, Goosby’s son and his cousins have agreed to carry the torch by keeping their family history and heirlooms, as well as hosting future reunions.
“We want this to continue because it’s important to us that we all remember our family history,” she said. “I’m glad (the next generation) is going to pick it up and run with it.”