Peter Hardeman Burnett (November 15, 1807 – May 17, 1895) was an American politician who served as the first elected governor of California from December 20, 1849, to January 9, 1851.

[a] Raised in a slave-owning family in Missouri, Burnett moved westward after his business career left him heavily in debt.

In this capacity, Burnett ordered the extradition of Archy Lee, a formerly enslaved man living in Sacramento, back to Mississippi.

[8] As Governor, Burnett signed into law the so-called Act for the Government and Protection of Indians, which enabled the enslavement of Native Californians and contributed to their genocide.

"[9] Efforts by federal negotiators to preserve some Native land rights were fought by the administration of Burnett, who favored the elimination of California's indigenous peoples.

Defending a group of Mormons—including Joseph Smith—who were accused of treason, arson, and robbery, Burnett requested a change of venue for the court proceedings.

In 1843, having failed as a merchant and heavily in debt,[4] Burnett became part of the departure of Easterners moving westward, moving his family from Barry, Missouri to Oregon Country (now modern-day Oregon) to take up farming to solve growing debts in Missouri, an agricultural endeavor that failed.

[14] It was during his time in Oregon that Burnett, a traditional Southern Protestant, began to question the practices of his faith, his religious views drifting more to Catholicism.

Upon news of the discovery of gold in Coloma, California on January 24, 1848, Burnett and his family moved south to participate in the rush.

Californians did not learn of their official statehood until one month later, when on October 18, the steamer Oregon entered San Francisco Bay with a banner strapped to her rigging reading "California Is a State".

Relations between the Legislature and Burnett began to immediately sour in early 1850, when bills pressing for the incorporation of Sacramento and Los Angeles as city municipalities, with Los Angeles being a special incorporation due to its earlier pueblo status during the previous Spanish and Mexican rule, passed the State Assembly and Senate.

[19] Characterized as an aloof politician with little support from the Legislature by the San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles press, Burnett grew frustrated as his agenda ground to a halt, and his governance style was increasingly criticized.

[20] As Governor, Burnett pushed for the exclusion of African Americans from California, raising the ire of pro-slavery supporters who wanted to import the Southern slave system to the West Coast, but his proposals were defeated in the Legislature.

From Burnett's First Annual Message to the Legislature, December 21, 1849:[8] For some years past I have given this subject [African-American settlement in California] my most serious and candid attention; and I most cheerfully lay before you the result of my own reflections.

There is, in my opinion, but one of two consistent courses to take in reference to this class of population; either to admit them to the full and free enjoyment of all the privileges guaranteed by the Constitution to others, or exclude them from the State.

They would be placed in a situation where they would have no efficient motives for moral or intellectual improvement, but must remain in our midst, sensible of their degradation, unhappy themselves, enemies to the institutions and the society whose usages have placed them there, and for ever fit teachers in all the schools of ignorance, vice, and idleness.

In 1844, one of his Oregon proposals was to force free black people to leave the state and to institute floggings of any who continued to remain.

It is now named after Bobbi Smith, the first African American member of the Long Beach Unified School District's board.