Black Towns and More

Rentiesville is one of the remaining 13 All-Black towns in Oklahoma and they 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 like Rentiesville grew in Indian Territory after the Civil War when the former slaves of the Five 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 “promised 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 those 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 historical All-Black towns still survive, but their legacy of economic and political freedom is well remembered. A fourteenth town, IXL, is new, incorporated in 2001.

Boley, Oklahoma

Boley is the largest and most prominent of all historically Black towns of Oklahoma. Boley was allotted to Abigail, the daughter of Muscogee (Creek) Freedman, James Barnett, and was named after J.B. Boley, a white man who believed Black people could govern themselves. The town was founded in 1903 and incorporated in 1905. The Boley Progress newspaper (1905) spread the word through the South. By Oklahoma’s 1907 statehood, Boley had blossomed to a population of 824 people. At its height in 1911, it had a population over 4,000 and consisted of five grocery stores, five hotels, seven restaurants, four cotton gins, and more. Boley had the first Black-owned electric company and one of the first Black-owned banks. The town also supported two colleges, Creek Seminole College and Methodist Episcopal College. Today, the population has dwindled to just over one thousand, but the town still hosts the nation’s oldest African American community-based rodeo, the Boley Rodeo and Barbeque Festival, on Memorial Day weekend. The downtown business district is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NR 75001568) and has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service (1975).

www.thetownofboley.org

Brooksville, Oklahoma

Located in Pottawatomie County four miles southwest of Tecumseh, Brooksville was established in 1903. The town was initially named Sewell, after a white doctor who owned much of the surrounding land. The name was changed to Brooksville in honor of the first African American in the area, A. R. Brooks, a cotton buyer and farmer. His son, W. M. Brooks, became the town’s first postmaster. In 1906 Rev. Jedson White organized St. John’s Baptist Church. Soon afterward, the congregation built a church that still exists today. The Banneker School was built in 1924, with the aid of the Rosenwald Fund. George W. McLaurin, the first Black graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, taught at the school. A declining cotton market and the Great Depression made life difficult in Brooksville, as in many Oklahoma communities. Most of the residents departed, but the town survived. It was incorporated in October 1972, and the census reported populations of 46 and 69 in 1980 and 1990, respectively. At the turn of the twenty-first century Brooksville had 90 residents, but by 2010 the number had dropped to 63.

Clearview, Oklahoma

Clearview (Okfuskee County) was founded in 1903 by J. A. Roper, Lemuel Jackson, and John Grayson, the three men forming the Lincoln Townsite Company to attract settlers. Originally named Lincoln with the original post office, the name was changed to Abelincoln in 1904 and rescinded a month later. Clearview was home of the Lincoln Tribune that would later become the Clearview Patriarch. John Grayson became the first postmaster. By 1904, the town was home to a two-story hotel and a print shop as well as a brick school building and two churches. By 1911, J. E. Thompson moved to Clearview after Roper and Jackson departed. The 1907 population of 618 declined to only 48 in the 2010 US Census. Although small in population, Clearview still hosts its annual rodeo. Clearview is the home of the Oklahoma African American Educators Hall of Fame (OAAEHOF).

https://www.facebook.com/groups/265956723753806

Grayson, Oklahoma

Grayson is located in Okmulgee County and was originally known as Wildcat. The town was named for Muscogee (Creek) Chief George W. Grayson. Its post office was established in 1902 and closed in 1929. By 1909, the town was the home of five general stores, two blacksmiths, two drug stores, and more. At statehood the population was 375 residents but the population declined to 159 in the 2000 census.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100078834524517

IXL, Oklahoma

IXL in Okfuskee County was the name of a widely dispersed African American community located on four sections of Muscogee (Creek) Freedmen land allotments. The cemetery records the internments of African Americans whose descendants remained in the area. The town received a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund in 1926-27 to build a school building to serve the IXL District School 12, a separate school. IXL was also granted funds for a teacherage for the faculty. Residents created a fire department and built a fire station, and on October 24, 2001, citizens incorporated a four-square-mile area and set up a town form of government with a mayor and council. The schoolhouse, funded by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, was demolished to make way for a Community Building erected in 2012. IXL had a population of 51 in the 2010 census.

Langston, Oklahoma

Named after John Mercer Langston, African American educator and US representative from Virginia, Langston was founded April 22, 1890, by E.P. McCabe on the land of Charles Robbins. Both men filed a plat in 1891. E.P. McCabe began the Langston City Herald and used it to promote African American migration to Oklahoma and Langston. A Roman Catholic mission was established in 1893 by Reverend Bishop Theophile Meerschaert. In 1897, the Colored Agricultural and Normal University was established and later became Langston University, Oklahoma’s historically Black University. Langston has been the home or chosen educational location of many Oklahomans, including Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, Clara Luper, E. Melvin Porter, Zelia Breaux, and Inman Page. Langston University Cottage Row Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. The Morris House was listed in 1994 and the Ozark Trail Indian Meridian Obelisk was listed in 2017. The 2010 census listed 1,724 residents still in Langston.

History

Lima, Oklahoma

Located between Seminole and Wewoka in Seminole County, Lima was named for the local limestone quarries and was occupied by Seminoles and Seminole Freedmen at the turn of the twentieth century. The first postmaster was Grudge V. Gross, and the town of Lima was incorporated in 1913. The town was home to the Lima Observer. Lima is home to Rosenwald Hall, one of the few remaining All-Black pre-WPA-era schools. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The discovery of the Greater Seminole Oil Field in 1926 brought white settlers to a separate village east of Lima called New Lima. Following the decline in the oil boom, the population dropped, and only 53 residents remained in 2010.

Red Bird, Oklahoma

Located in Wagoner County, the town Red Bird was settled by the Barber and Ruffin families. E. L. Barber organized First Baptist Church and became Red Bird’s first justice of the peace and served as one of its mayors. The post office was official in 1902, and A. White was its first postmaster. More than 600 attended the grand opening at Red Bird in 1907. Professor J. F. Cathey planned Miller Washington High School in 1919, which was open until 1959. I. W. Lane, former mayor of Red Bird, challenged a law that made it difficult for African Americans to register to vote in Wagoner County. The population of Red Bird declined following the falling cotton prices after World War I and the onset of the Great Depression. By the 2010 census, Red Bird’s population was only 137. Miller Washington High School and Red Bird City Hall were listed in the National Register of Historic Places, both in 1984.

http://www.redbirdok.org/

Rentiesville, Oklahoma

In 1903, on property owned by William Rentie and Phoebe McIntosh, the town of Rentiesville was founded in McIntosh County. J. J. Hudson was the first postmaster when the post office opened in 1904. The town became a flag stop on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway, and in 1905 the town elected its first mayor, F. P. Brinson. William Rentie, the town’s only lawman, was killed by a man he had arrested for drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Rentie’s death left the town without its lawman and also its namesake. The Great Depression led to an exodus of citizens from Rentiesville, and the population was at 128 in 2010. The Honey Springs Battlefield is one-half mile east of Rentiesville, and the town is also home of the Down Home Blues Club founded by famed Blues artist D. C. Minner. The Dusk ’til Dawn Blues Festival is still held every Labor Day weekend. Rentiesville is also the birthplace of famed historian Dr. John Hope Franklin.

https://muskogeeareafilmproduction.tripod.com/id7.html

Summit, Oklahoma

Located in Muskogee County, Summit was originally called South Muskogee when it was platted in 1910. The town had a post office as early as 1896, and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway had a depot in the community. The commonly given reason for the town’s name, Summit, was because it was the highest point on the railroad between Arkansas and the North Canadian rivers. Reverend L.W. Thomas spearheaded the building of the St. Thomas Primitive Baptist Church in 1923; its building was completed by 1929. Summit’s W.E.B. Dubois School was built in 1925, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and sadly burned down in 1991.

Taft, Oklahoma

Originally known as the community of Twine, Taft had a post office by 1902. Located west of Muskogee in Muskogee County, the town was originally named for William H. Twine, the editor of the Muskogee Cimeter; the name was changed to Taft in 1904 to honor William Howard Taft, then secretary of war and later president. In the early days, the Reaves Realty Company advertised Taft as the “fastest growing Colored community in Oklahoma.” Taft was home to two newspapers, the Enterprise and the Tribune. The town’s first mayor was Charlie Ford, owner of Ford’s Cotton Gin. The Halochee Institute was founded in 1906 and was the first of several educational institutes in that location. In addition, it was home to the W. T. Vernon School, the Industrial Institute for the Deaf, Blind, and Orphans of the Colored Race, Moton High School, and the State Training School for Negro Girls. Lelia Foley-Davis became mayor in 1973, the nation’s first female African American mayor. Taft City Hall is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (1984). The town’s population was 250 in the 2010 census.

https://www.facebook.com/TaftOK

Tatums, Oklahoma

Tatums (Carter County) began in 1895 when Lee Tatum and his wife, Mary, applied for post office designation. Lee and Mary Tatum also operated a grocery store in the corner of their own home. Lee Tatum was also appointed a US marshal. A hotel was built in 1899, blacksmith shop (1900), cotton gin and sawmill (1910), and a motor garage (1918). Two schools were built in Tatums: one by the Julius Rosenwald Fund in 1925-26 and another by the WPA in 1936. The Bethel Missionary Baptist Church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The film Black Gold, a 1927 silent movie, was filmed in Tatums, and Marshal L. B. Tatums played a role. Much like many rural towns, Tatums was hit hard by the effects of the Great Depression, and its population in the 2010 census counted only 151 residents.

Tullahassee, Oklahoma

Considered the oldest of the surviving All-Black towns and located in Wagoner County, Tullahassee’s roots began in 1850 when the Muscogee (Creek) Nation opened its school along the Texas Road. Tullahassee was given to the Muscogee (Creek) Freedmen on October 24, 1881, and the town was incorporated in 1902 and platted in 1907. The first postmaster was Professor Willis and the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway line went through the town, which helped attract settlers. Flipper Davis College was established in 1916 by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The college occupied the old Tullahassee Mission and closed in 1935. The A. J. Mason Building in Tullahassee was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The population of Tullahassee in 2010 was 106 residents.

Vernon, Oklahoma

Located in McIntosh County, Vernon was established on the Tankard Ranch in 1911. The land was secured by Thomas Haynes, and the town was named for Bishop W. T. Vernon of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. A post office was designated in 1912, and Ella Woods was the postmaster. Louise Wesley established the first school and church. The New Hope Baptist Church was built in 1917. Vernon also became one of the first communities to receive funds from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which provided funds for a public school. Following the Great Depression, Vernon suffered economic distress and led to the loss of many residents. The Vernon Rock Front, the post office, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

https://www.facebook.com/VernonHistoricalSociety

All-Black Towns No Longer Inhabited

(alphabetically ordered)
Bailey, Boggy Bend, Bookertee, Chase, Cimarron, Clarksville, Douglas (Garfield County), Douglas (Oklahoma County), Emanuel, Ferguson, Foreman, Gibson Station, Homer, Huttonville, Iconium, Keywest, Lee, Lewisville, Liberty, Mabelle, Macedonia, Melvin, Oberlin, Pleasant Valley, Rentie, Sanders, Udora, Wiley, Wybark, Yahola, and Zion.

Additional Reading

Here are some excellent articles written about Oklahoma’s All-Black towns that help add context to their significance and their place in history.

Towns Born of Struggle and Hope - New York Times

Towns Born of Struggle and Hope

By John D. Thomas New York Times
Feb. 8, 2004

THE post-Civil War South was a brutal and oppressive place for African-Americans. In a mass exodus, many left the region, compelled northward by floridly worded advertisements for new all-black settlements. One promoter described the town of Langston, Okla., as ”Fertile as ever was moistened by nature’s falling tears or kissed by heaven’s sunshine.”

The advertisements worked. After the Civil War, there were some 50 all-black towns founded in the Oklahoma Territories (Oklahoma became a state in 1907). The initial settlers were Indian freedmen slaves who had been freed by their Indian masters — but later freed slaves from the Deep South joined them in a quest to prove that blacks could not only govern themselves but also prosper economically if given the chance.

And they did. Many of the towns were quite successful, but they were eventually undone by factors including the Depression, Jim Crow laws, intimidation by whites and urbanization. Today, 13 of those original towns still exist in Oklahoma, and they all still have all-black or overwhelmingly black populations.

When my parents moved to Oklahoma six years ago, I became a casual student of the state’s history. After stumbling upon this unknown chapter of American history, I set out to visit some of these towns last year. It was the centennial of two of three of the most viable remaining all-black towns, more than enough of a reason to hit the road.

The best way to visit the towns is through formal tours, which are organized by several groups. The most prominent organizer is Cassandra Gaines, director of multicultural tourism for the city of Muskogee. She has been taking tourists to the all-black towns since 1997, and her success has led to consulting jobs with other states interested in developing African-American heritage tourism. Her groups travel by bus; an expert lectures on board, and local historians meet and guide them.

Logistically, joining a formal tour did not work for me, so Ms. Gaines helped me set up a solo trip to Langston (founded 1890), Boley and Rentiesville (both 1903). On a bumpy early-morning flight from Chicago to Tulsa, I flipped through my dog-eared copy of Hannibal Johnson’s ”Acres of Aspiration” (Eakin Press, 2002), a terrific survey of Oklahoma’s all-black towns. I rented a car and headed toward Langston, site of Langston University.

The two-hour drive took me down rural highways that crossed Chicken Creek, Polecat Creek and Wild Horse Creek. Cattle grazed lazily next to tiny rusting oil wells that pumped with even less vigor. The school, founded in 1897, was named for John Mercer Langston, the first black member of Congress from Virginia, who served from 1890 and 1891. Sitting on a hill, its red brick buildings are an abrupt change from the pastureland.

Ms. Gaines arranged for me to get a tour from the university’s historian in residence, Currie Ballard. In the 1890’s, Langston was a vibrant place, with several grocery stores, a blacksmith, two physicians and a drugstore. Today, the school, a historically black university, is essentially the town; its 2,500 students account for most of its population.

The campus is spacious and immaculate. Mr. Ballard, a fount of knowledge about the town, first took me by the chapel. A pretty, white building, it opened 1996 and is a replica of the little Presbyterian church where the school’s first classes were held. From there, we walked to the Melvin B. Tolson Black Heritage Center. A well-known African-American modernist poet, Tolson (1898-1966) taught at Langston, was the town’s mayor from 1954 to 1960 and was named poet laureate of Liberia in 1947.

Officials at Langston University say that the Tolson Center is Oklahoma’s sole site devoted to African and African-American studies. In addition to numerous pieces of African art donated by alumni, there are also many items related to Tolson, including his glasses, his Remington Quiet-Riter and a photo of him signing books at a ceremony at the White House in 1965.

When we left the Tolson Center, Mr. Ballard pointed out a proposed spot for the Oklahoma Museum of African-American History, scheduled to open in 2007, the state’s centennial. He explained that the museum, which is being financed with state funds and private donations, will focus on issues including the state’s civil rights struggles and black entrepreneurism in Oklahoma. He said the museum would not focus on the Tulsa race riots of 1921 and the rise of Tulsa’s prominent, all-black Greenwood district (also known as the Black Wall Street) because the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa already featured extensive exhibits on those issues.

From there, we drove to Langston Lake. About a mile outside campus, it is a serene, tree-lined spot with covered picnic tables and barbecue facilities. Tours use it as a dining and relaxation area.

My final stop in Langston was the Indian Meridian. The tall, white monument was erected in 1922; it stands outside town on a dirt road. Mr. Ballard explained that it signified not only the former demarcation between Oklahoma and Indian territory, but also that it was the state’s surveying center. ”Think about it,” he said. ”The center of this state is in an all-black town.”

I headed south and then east on the hour drive to Boley, once the crown jewel of the all-black towns. Just before you cross Boley’s city line, you’ll see a rather disconcerting road sign: ”Hitchhikers May Be Escaped Inmates.” It signifies the presence of the minimum-security John Lilley Correctional Center, which, including inmates and employees, accounts for about 500 of its 950 residents.

There was a time when Boley was a thriving place with more than 50 businesses, including a bank, an ice plant, five hotels, five groceries and even two photo studios. The African-American statesman and educator Booker T. Washington visited in 1904 and called it ”the most enterprising, and in many ways the most interesting of the Negro towns in the United States.”

When I arrived in April, the pretty, mostly red brick downtown was anything but hopping, but every Memorial Day weekend it is packed when some 35,000 people attend Boley’s annual all-black rodeo. Dating to 1909, the event takes place on the edge of town at the 40-acre Boley Rodeo Grounds, which has recently been renovated.

Boley is a quiet, charming place now, and its primary businesses are the prison and Smokaroma, which makes of industrial barbeque cookers. The founder of the company, Maurice Lee Sr., often cooks up barbeque for visiting tourists, and he treated me to some amazing ribs in the 1918 Boley Community Center.

Boley is one of the few all-black towns with a formal museum dedicated to its history. The small collection is in a 1908 home that was named a national historic landmark in 1975. The town is expanding the facility. Displays include historic photos, bricks made by the Boley Brick Company in 1912, soda bottles from the Boley Carbonated Works and an advertisement for the 1921 ”baffling western mystery,” ”The Crimson Skull.” According to the ad, the film was ”produced in the all colored city of Boley, Oklahoma,” with an ”all-colored cast” and ”30 colored cowboys.”

Before leaving town, I checked out Boley’s other compelling, albeit macabre, attraction. On Nov. 23, 1932, a trio of bandits from Pretty Boy Floyd’s outfit tried to rob the Farmers and Merchants Bank. In the ensuing shootout, Boley’s mayor and two of the gunmen were killed. The original marble cages are still inside the bank, which has been closed for years, and visitors can still see bullet holes in the walls. During the rodeo and tours, it’s a popular stop.

A convenient place to stay while touring the towns is Muskogee, and I drove there from Boley and checked into a motel. The next morning I rose early, and after a hearty breakfast at the Speedway Grille (”The Best Little Burger and Chili House in Muskogee”), I headed south down Highway 69 for the short drive to Rentiesville.

On the outskirts of town, a sign heralds Rentiesville’s favorite son: ”Dr. John Hope Franklin Homeplace. Rentiesville, OK. Population 66.” A noted historian, and writer and chairman of the advisory board of Bill Clinton’s Initiative on Race from 1997 to 1999, Dr. Franklin was born in Rentiesville in 1915 and moved to Tulsa a decade later.

One of the town’s other famous citizens still lives there. Rentiesville has no real downtown anymore, but toward the end of the bumpy main road is the D.C. Minner Down Home Blues Club. A veteran blues guitar ace and member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, Mr. Minner and his bass-playing wife, Selby, have been holding their Dusk ’til Dawn Blues Festival there every Labor Day weekend for 13 years. The three-day affair attracts some 7,000 fans.

Mr. Minner’s club is basically a rambling old country juke joint, with a scattering of mismatched tables and dinette chairs and aging pictures of blues artists lining the walls. When people visit on tours, he and his wife open the club and play a set.

Mr. Minner was born on this spot in 1935 and moved back in 1985. Now getting too old to tour, he hopes to expand the place and add a museum. Mr. Minner said the all-black towns should be preserved as an inspiration to black people. ”This is one of the few places where this history is still left,” he said.

Actually, there is another place nearby where black history is well preserved. Just down the road from Minner’s house is the site of the Battle of Honey Springs, also called the Gettysburg of the West. The battle, which took place July 17, 1863, involved the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry and was the first time black troops figured prominently in a major Civil War conflict. Some of those black soldiers went on to help found Rentiesville.

Honey Springs Battlefield, administered by the Oklahoma Historical Society, is a beautiful, sprawling place, with well-marked trails, an information center and monthly reenactments of Civil War life; every three years there is a re-enactment there using black troops. At the last one, about 11,000 people visited.

The next is scheduled for September 2005. At one end of the park stands a tall pink granite monument dedicated to those black soldiers. It reads in part, ”At the Battle of Honey Springs, the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers wrote a stirring page in American history becoming one of the first black units of the Civil War to play a key role in a Union victory.”

Standing alone in that battlefield at the end of my trip, I tried to come to terms with what I had seen. Like most Americans, I had had no idea these all-black towns had ever existed. The trip was fascinating and the people I met were full of hope for the future, but the dominant theme was struggle — a struggle to escape the Deep South and to found the towns, and now a struggle to save them.

Tour Visits Oklahoma‘s Historic Black Towns - Tulsa World

Tour visits Oklahoma ‘s historic black towns

SUSAN HYLTON TULSA World Staff Writer
09/10/2006
Tulsa World

Annual bus trips open doors to often-overlooked information about the state’s cultural history.

MUSKOGEE — If Cassandra Gaines can persuade them, all of the state’s legislators would hop on a bus to learn more about the intriguing history of Oklahoma ‘s black towns.

“I want to show them the untold history, the rough treasure we have that so many people from out of state see the importance of,” she said. “I want them to see the rough diamond that everybody else is coming to see.”

Gaines is the multicultural coordinator and historic black town tour director for Muskogee . She started the tours in 1997 and said they have gained in popularity over the years.

More than 50 people from across the country and Canada attended a July 14 tour, and Gaines is filling up bus seats for the next one on Oct. 2. Later this month, she’ll be generating more interest for the tours at the African Diaspora Heritage Trail conference in Hamilton , Bermuda .

About 60 black towns were founded following the Civil War by blacks who were recently freed from Southern slavery or who were members of American Indian tribes. Most of these towns — more than 20 — were incorporated in Oklahoma on land previously occupied by one of the Five Civilized Tribes.

Each tour offers a small boost to the town’s small economies. Souvenirs are bought, dinners are eaten and museums are scoured to catch a glimpse of the past.

“It’s not a whole lot, but it helps and some people who have been on tour have shown interest in buying property up in the towns,” Gaines said. “Some of them are moving back. It’s much cheaper than in the big cities. New homes are popping up everywhere in these little towns. You can’t expect a young person to come, but if somebody is looking for a place to retire or a place to invest, this is their opportunity.”

Michael Bennett, a television producer and host of Globetrotting on BET’s Jazz Network, was among those touring this summer. Bennett is pitching a one-hour history on the Oklahoma black towns to the major networks.

“As an African-American myself, until I visited Oklahoma earlier this year, I had no idea the history behind these towns,” Bennett said. Most striking for Bennett was the fact that for the most part the towns that formed in Oklahoma after the Civil War were self-sufficient. “It kind of shocked me. The first female African-American mayor (Lelia Foley-Davis) sat by me — I’m sitting there in total awe,” Bennett said.

The fact these black citizens owned and operated their own banks and real estate firms was not part of the history books Bennett read growing up.
“It’s quite amazing,” he said.

In Taft , visitors are presented with breakfast and blues music by Harold Aldridge and Pat Moss. They’re greeted by the first female black mayor Lelia Foley-Davis.

There are about 1,600 people who work in Taft at the Jess Dunn Correctional Center and the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center for women. A few hundred people are actual residents of Taft.

You can’t go to Rentiesville without hearing about the remarkable lives of two of its most prominent sons, John Hope Franklin, a renowned scholar, and D.C. Minner, an inspiring bluesman.

Franklin , 91, is James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University . Franklin has written more than a dozen books and is considered a preeminent authority on black history.

Minner and his wife, Selby, operate the last business in Rentiesville, the Down Home Blues Club. They also host the annual Dusk Til Dawn Blues Festival Labor Day weekend, which attracts thousands.

Tourgoers also stop by the Honey Springs Battlefield Memorial Park , 3 1/2 miles northeast of Checotah. It is the site of the largest Civil War battle in Indian Territory that for the first time had Indians, blacks, whites and Hispanics in combat. A re-enactment is held at the battle site every three years.

Boley was the largest black town in the state with about 7,000 residents in 1911. There were many businesses including the first black-owned bank, telephone and electric companies.

Pretty Boy Floyd’s partner George Birdwell attempted to rob the bank in 1932 with two other men.

As the story goes, Birdwell was shot dead by the bookkeeper, who retrieved a shotgun from the vault. The bank president sounded the alarm, and Birdwell’s two cohorts, a young black man named Charley Glass and C.C. Patterson, were met by a group of armed citizens. Glass was killed and Patterson was severely wounded and went on to serve time in prison in McAlester .

Today the Boley population is around 700. Henrietta Hicks is the local historian at the museum which has a variety of artifacts.

Boley is the home of Smokaroma, the maker of the pressure smokers that are sold all over the world. The town also hosts the annual Boley Rodeo.

For more information about the Black Town tours, call 1-888-687-6137, ext. 23, or e-mail cassytours@sbcglobal.net.

https://www.voanews.com/fe19c308-e7e2-47e7-bdcc-0b27d46229e5

GREAT PAGE ON RENTIESVILLE http://muskogeeareafilmproduction.tripod.com/id7.html

click>>>> RENTIESVILLE OBITUARIES Combined Funeral Programs.pdf

documentaries being created on the Black Towns – originally about 100 in Oklahoma (in 1900) , now about 13 …check www.struggleandhope.com or .org and www.facebook.com/struggleandHope for the work of Kari Barber which is extraordinary. Her doc played on Independent Lens

USDA Exhibit shown in an International Convention in Memphis and donated to our Museum by Ryan McMullin

Selby keeps the work she and D.C. Minner started together moving forward – the Rentiesville Blues Festival, The Hall of Fame and now the Museum..not to mention the BAND Blues on the Move!

The Blues Club, now includes the D.C. Minner Rentiesville Museum
and Exhibit Black Towns To Blues Festivals! Open Sundays 1 – 5 pm

Rentiesville and BLUES CLUB fr first dcminnerblues web site

We hope to get this statue enlarged and set on the corner of D.C. Minner Street and John Hope Franklin Blvd by the OBHOF in Rentiesville. It was created by Selby Minner in the Bacone College Bronze class with Rose Myer.

Below: the migration of Blues Players west to form the
West Coast Blues… Biggest star was Lowell Fulsom, born outside of Tulsa

FROM ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW – from East Los Angeles

THIS IS THE COMPLETE PAGE from the old version of this website

Black Town Tours Map and DC and Rentiesville PRESS