There is so much of Black history in the West that has yet to be discovered/uncovered/told. As always, I caution against hasty generalizations-even in the CNN article which states in a comment from the state historical officer
"where there were hundreds of salons, African-Americans had a place to go that was respected and dignified." Careful there-there is nothing intrinsic in the fact that the owner was Black that made his clientele Black. It may have been so, it may have been predominately white-I just need to see anywhere, documented proof of what that "clientele" was-which may not be possible. Making the leap from Black ownership to Black clientele-especially in a mining town is nebulous at best.

Case in point. In New England, there was a very popular tavern and coach house that was owned by a free Black. The travelers who stopped there were overwhelmingly white-very few Blacks or Natives would have had the money to stay there, or would have felt comfortable there. On one other point-Katz has written several popular volumes about Blacks in the West. Please be careful in reading them, the scholarship and research is often very much less than solid.

Sharon