ALL-BLACK TOWNS
Town council, Boley, Oklahoma, ca. 1907–10
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African Americans left the South for the
"promised land" of the West in ever-increasing
numbers after the Civil War. Economic
hardship, racial violence, and intolerance
prompted this vast migration from states such
as Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas,
and Arkansas. With leadership from Pap Singleton
and Henry Adams, the "Exodusters"
settled mainly in Kansas in 1879–80, though
the movement had began a few years earlier
and lasted into the next decade. The opportunity
to own land attracted many of these
people to the Great Plains. Reports directed
back to the South claimed that landownership
was a simple and cheap prospect.
By 1881 African Americans emigrants had
established twelve agricultural colonies in
Kansas: Nicodemus, Hodgeman, Morton City,
Dunlap, Kansas City–area Colony, Parsons,
Wabaunsee, Summit Township, Topeka-area
Colony, Burlington, Little Coney, and the
Daniel Votaw Colony. Another settlement, the
Singleton Colony, seems to have never really
been a viable community. Many of the other
colonies lasted only a few years. The town of
Nicodemus, on the other hand, founded a few
years before the large exodus, prospered into
the twentieth century. African Americans also
established colonies in Nebraska, including
the town of Dewitty. They migrated to western
New Mexico, too, creating settlements
such as Blackdom and Dora. Oliver Toussaint
Jackson established the settlement of Dearfield,
Colorado, in 1910, one of the last African
American Plains agricultural communities.
Many African Americans dispersed elsewhere
throughout the Plains; most worked the land
like their white counterparts.
During a fifty-five-year period following
the end of the Civil War, African Americans
built more than fifty identifiable communities
in Oklahoma. Some sprouted and quickly
vanished; others still survive. Achieving freedom
after the Civil War, former slaves of
the Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Chickasaws,
and Choctaws also formed towns in Indian
Territory. When the U.S. government allotted
land to individual Native Americans,
most Indian "freedman" chose land next to
other African Americans. Their farming communities
sheltered self-governed economic
and social institutions, including businesses,
schools, and churches. Enterprising businessmen
set up every imaginable kind of business,
including publishing concerns whose newspapers
advertised in the South for settlers.
More African Americans settled in Oklahoma
Territory with the land run of 1889,
which ordered "free land" to non-Indians. E. P.
McCabe, former state auditor of Kansas,
helped found the all-black town of Langston.
By means of the Langston City Herald, which
his traveling agents circulated around the
South, he and other leaders hoped to bring in
large numbers of African Americans whose
growing political power would secure their
prosperity and safety. McCabe never accomplished
his goal of creating an African American
state. Nevertheless, dozens of black communities
sprouted and flourished in the rich
topsoil of the new territory and, after 1907, the
new state.
In Oklahoma and Kansas, African Americans
lived relatively free from the prejudices
and brutality common in racially mixed communities
of the Midwest and the South. Cohesive
all-black settlements offered residents the
security of depending on neighbors for financial
assistance and the economic opportunity
provided by access to open markets for their
crops.
Marshalltown, North Fork Colored, Canadian
Town, and Arkansas Colored existed as
early as the 1860s in Indian Territory. Other
Indian Territory towns that no longer exist
include Sanders, Mabelle, Wiley, Homer, Huttonville,
Lee, and Rentie. Among the Oklahoma
Territory towns that no longer exist are
Lincoln, Cimarron City, Bailey, Zion, Emanuel,
Udora, and Douglas in old Oklahoma
Territory. Surviving towns include Boley,
Brooksville, Clearview, Grayson, Langston,
Lima, Redbird, Rentiesville, Summit, Taft,
Tatums, Tullahassee, and Vernon. Boley, the
largest and most renowned of these was twice
inspected by African American educator
Booker T. Washington, who lauded the town
in
Outlook Magazine in 1908.
Immediately after statehood in 1907 the
Oklahoma legislature passed Jim Crow laws,
and many African Americans became disenchanted
with the new state. A large contingent
relocated to western Canada, forming colonies
such as Amber Valley, Alberta, and Maidstone,
Saskatchewan. Another exodus of African
Americans from the United States occurred
with the "Back to Africa" movements of the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
A large group of Oklahomans joined the illfated
Chief Sam expedition to Africa. Other
Plains African Americans migrated to colonies
in Mexico.
The collapse of the American farm economy
in the 1920s and the advent of the Great
Depression in 1929 spelled the end for most
all-black communities. The all-black towns
were, for the most part, small agricultural centers
that gave nearby African American farmers
a market for their cotton and other crops.
The Depression devastated these towns, and
residents moved west or migrated to metropolises
where jobs might be found. Black towns
dwindled to only a few residents.
As population dwindled, so too did the tax
base. In the 1930s many railroads failed, isolating
small towns from regional and national
markets. This spelled the end of many of the
black towns. During the Depression, whites
denied credit to African Americans, creating
an almost impossible situation for black
farmers and businessmen. Even Boley, one of
the most successful towns, declared bankruptcy
in 1939. Today, only a few all-black
towns survive, but their legacy of economic
and political freedom is well remembered.
Larry O'Dell
Oklahoma Historical Society
Crockett, Norman. The Black Towns. Lawrence: Regents
Press of Kansas, 1979.
Hamilton, Kenneth Marvin. Black
Towns and Profit: Promotion and Development in the
Trans-Appalachian West, 1877–1915. Urbana: University
of Illinois Press, 1991.
Taylor, Quintard. In Search of the
Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West,
1528–1990. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.
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http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/A/AL009.html
ALL-BLACK TOWNS
The All-Black towns of Oklahoma represent a unique chapter in
American history. Nowhere else, neither in the Deep South nor in the Far West, did so many
African American
men and women come together to create, occupy, and govern their own
communities. From 1865 to 1920 African Americans created
more than fifty identifiable towns
and settlements, some of short duration and some
still existing at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
All-Black towns grew in
Indian Territory after the
Civil War when the former
slaves of the
Five Civilized Tribes settled together for mutual protection and economic security. When the
United States government forced
American Indians to accept individual land
allotments, most Indian
"freedmen"
chose land next to other African Americans. They created cohesive,
prosperous farming communities that could support businesses,
schools, and churches, eventually forming towns.
Entrepreneurs in these communities started every imaginable kind of
business,
including newspapers, and advertised throughout the
South for settlers. Many African Americans migrated to Oklahoma,
considering
it a kind of "promise land."
When the
Land Run of 1889 opened yet more "free" land to non-Indian settlement, African Americans from the Old South rushed to newly created Oklahoma.
E. P. McCabe, a former state
auditor of Kansas, helped found
Langston and encouraged African Americans to settle in that All-Black town. To further his cause, McCabe established the
Langston City Herald and circulated it, often by means of traveling agents, throughout the South. McCabe hoped that his tactics would create an
African American political power block in
Oklahoma Territory.
Other African American leaders had a vision of an All-Black state.
Although this dream was never realized, many All-Black
communities sprouted and flourished in the rich
topsoil of the new territory and, after 1907, the new state.
In these towns African Americans lived free from
the prejudices and brutality found in other racially mixed communities
of
the Midwest and the South. African Americans in
Oklahoma and
Indian Territories would create their own
communities for many reasons. Escape from discrimination and abuse would
be a driving
factor. All-Black settlements offered the advantage
of being able to depend on neighbors for financial assistance and of
having
open markets for crops. Arthur Tolson, a pioneering
historian of blacks in Oklahoma, asserts that many African Americans
turned
to "ideologies of economic advancement, self-help,
and racial solidarity."
Marshalltown, North Fork Colored, Canadian Colored,
and Arkansas Colored existed as early as the 1860s in Indian Territory.
Other Indian Territory towns that no longer exist
include Sanders, Mabelle, Wiley, Homer, Huttonville, Lee, and Rentie.
Among
the Oklahoma Territory
towns no longer in existence are Lincoln, Cimarron
City, Bailey, Zion, Emanuel, Udora, and Douglas. Towns that still
survive
are
Boley,
Brooksville,
Clearview,
Grayson,
Langston,
Lima,
Red Bird,
Rentiesville,
Summit,
Taft,
Tatums,
Tullahassee, and
Vernon. The largest and most renowned of these was Boley. Booker T. Washington, nationally prominent African American educator,
visited Boley twice and even submitted a positive article on the town to Outlook
Magazine in 1908.
The passage of many Jim Crow laws by the Oklahoma Legislature immediately after
statehood caused some African Americans to become disillusioned with the infant state. During this time
Canada promoted settlement
and, although the campaign focused on whites, a large contingent of
African Americans relocated to that nation's western
plains, forming colonies at Amber Valley, Alberta,
and Maidstone, Saskatchewan. Another exodus from Oklahoma occurred with
the
"Back to Africa" movements of the early twentieth century. A large group of Oklahomans joined the ill-fated
Chief Sam expedition to Africa. A number of other African Americans
migrated to colonies in Mexico.
White distrust also limited the growth of these All-Black towns. As early as 1911 whites in
Okfuskee
County attempted to block further immigration and to force African
Americans into mixed but racially segregated communities
incapable of self-support. Several of these white
farmers signed oaths pledging to "never rent, lease, or sell land in
Okfuskee
County to any
person of Negro blood, or agent of theirs; unless
the land be located more than one mile from a white or Indian resident."
To further stem the black migration to eastern
Oklahoma a similar
oath was developed to prevent the hiring of "Negro
labor."
Events of the 1920s and 1930s spelled the end for
most black communities. The All-Black towns in Oklahoma were, for the
most
part, small agricultural centers that gave nearby
African
American farmers a market. Prosperity generally
depended on
cotton and other crops. The
Great Depression devastated these towns, forcing residents to go west and north in search of jobs.
These flights from Oklahoma caused a huge population decrease in black towns.
As people left, the tax base withered, putting the towns in financial jeopardy. In the 1930s many
railroads
failed, isolating small towns in Oklahoma from regional and national
markets. As
a result, many of the black towns could not
survive. During lean years whites would not extend credit to African
Americans,
creating an almost impossible situation for black
farmers and
businessmen to overcome. Even one of the most
successful towns, Boley, declared bankruptcy in 1939. Today, only
thirteen All-Black
towns still survive, but their legacy of economic
and political freedom is well remembered.
SEE ALSO: AFRICAN AMERICANS,
BOLEY,
BROOKSVILLE,
CLEARVIEW,
FREEDMEN,
LANGSTON,
LINCOLN CITY,
EDWARD
McCABE,
RED BIRD,
RENTIESVILLE,
SEGREGATION,
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS,
SUMMIT,
TAFT,
TATUMS,
TULLAHASSEE,
VERNON
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Black Dispatch (Oklahoma City), 8 March 1923. Norman Crockett,
The Black Towns (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1979). Norman Crockett, "Witness to
History: Booker T. Washington Visits Boley,"
The Chronicles of Oklahoma 67 (Winter 1989-90). Kenneth Lewallan, "Chief Alfred Sam: Black Nationalism on the Great Plains, 1913-14,"
Journal of the West 16 (January 1977). Bruce Shepard, "North to the Promised Land: Black Migration to the Canadian Plains,"
The Chronicles of Oklahoma 66 (Fall 1988).
Larry O'Dell
© Oklahoma Historical Society
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Magazine | Okiecentric
Oklahoma’s All-Black Towns
Posted 06.05.10
Prominently in Kansas,
and then principally in Oklahoma, towns founded by black trailblazers
swelled in the post-Reconstruction era. Black Southern migrants,
“Exodusters,” formed their own rural, frontier communities. They sought
economic opportunity, full citizenship rights, and self-governance:
socioeconomic uplift, sprinkled with a generous measure of hope.
In addition to black homesteaders, some persons of African ancestry
prospered because of Native American affiliations—through the bonds of
slavery, by blood, and in affinity relations. All-black colonies
populated by these “Natives” sprang up in Indian Territory, the eastern
portion of modern-day Oklahoma.
Edward Preston McCabe emerged as the father of the Oklahoma all-black
town movement. McCabe, a Republican, served as Kansas State Auditor in
the State of Kansas from 1882 – 1886. He once lived in Nicodemus,
Kansas, a seminal all-black town.
On April 22, 1889, McCabe joined 50,000 homesteaders in the Oklahoma
Land Run. This was the opening of “Oklahoma Territory,” Indian Country
land appropriated by the federal government for general settlement. On
these acres of aspiration, McCabe hoped to germinate an all-black state.
In 1890, McCabe called on President Benjamin Harrison to press the
case for an all-black state. McCabe believed that a self-governing,
all-black enclave would offer his people the freedom and opportunity
routinely denied them elsewhere in America. In the end, his entreaties
failed.
McCabe soldiered on. He founded Langston, Oklahoma, on October 22, 1890, and established the McCabe Townsite Company and the
Langston City Herald newspaper
to promote its growth and development. McCabe developed recruiting
bulletins and hired agents for his Oklahoma “boosterism” efforts.
McCabe drew throngs to unspoiled Oklahoma—“land of the red people” in
the Choctaw language. These pioneers founded more than fifty all-black
towns in Oklahoma.
Despite an auspicious beginning, the all-black town movement crested
between 1890 and 1910. Oklahoma attained statehood in 1907 and, with it,
roundly embraced “Jim Crow.” By 1910, the American economy had shifted
from agricultural to industrial-based. These developments (
i.e.,
the rise of racism; the demise of agrarianism) doomed many of these
unique, historic oases. The few that remain serve as monuments to the
human spirit.
Oklahoma’s pioneering black forefathers and foremothers planted the
trees under whose shade we now sit. The value of their legacy to us—the
likes of Boley, Clearview, Langston, Red Bird, Rentiesville, Taft,
Tatums, Tullahassee—is inestimable. We owe them a tremendous debt of
gratitude.
Oklahoma’s all-black towns, some still viable, others long gone,
represent a significant aspect of the African-American struggle for
freedom, justice, and equality. This rich history should be resurrected,
reclaimed, and remembered.
Photo of Langston, Oklahoma by George Thomas
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