Sam McDonald

Emanuel B. Sam McDonald was an African American from Monroe Louisiana who journeyed West to make a life in California. Against all odds and the racial restrictions of his time Sam became one of the earliest Black lawmen in the state as well as the superintendent of athletic buildings and grounds at Stanford University making him one of the first Black administrators at a major university in America. Along the way he purchased 430 acres of California land preserved for the public forever as Sam McDonald Park. This book shares his remarkable story as a man of firsts.