In California, Mary Pleasant was known for her daring and determination. She rode off in her wagon to rescue slaves in rural areas. Some say she ran a station on the underground railroad. As a businesswoman, she helped build the Atheneum as a cultural center and invested in the saloon on the first floor.

During the Civil War, Mary Pleasant was active in the struggle to gain full civil rights for her people. She went before a California court and won the right for people of color to testify in cases involving whites. In 1866 she personally challenged a San Francisco streetcar company's policy for segregation in court and won a $600 judgment.

Some scholars, however, have seen another side to Mary Pleasant's impressive victories for humanity, and say she had a shady personal life as a money lender and a bordello owner who catered to the state's wealthiest men. Some historians have called her a financial meddler, a con artist, and a "crafty survivor." She was successful at business, that much is sure, and in the long fight to win equal rights for African Americans in California. The full truth may never be known about the extrordinary woman named Mary Pleasant.