All-Black Towns in Oklahoma
As part of the class, students were assigned one of Oklahoma’s All-Black Towns to research and highlight in their blog posts. Between 1865-1920, Oklahoma had the highest number of All-Black Towns in the nation, over 50 towns, but across the country there were over 200 such towns established mainly by Free Black Americans and Freedpeoples formerly enslaved by the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee, Cherokee, and Seminole nations (Slocum 2019; Roberts 2021). Each student was asked in their blog post to describe what made their assigned town so alluring that Black people were willing to risk their lives to travel through the Jim Crow south in an age of racial terror to settle in this land that would come to be known as Oklahoma.
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- Grayson, OKThe town of Grayson, Oklahoma is situated in southeastern Okmulgee County, in an area that used to be a part of McIntosh County until 1918. The town’s post office was established in 1902, and by 1909 the community had five general stores, two drugstores, two blacksmiths, a cotton gin, and a community physician. It sounds…
- RedBird OklahomaRedBird, Oklahoma is a town located in Wagoner county. RedBird is one of the 13 all black towns that remain in Oklahoma. The town was first settled before 1900 and by 1902 RedBird had its own post office and postmaster. At the height of RedBirds population there were 336 people that lived in the town.…
- All-Black Towns: BrooksvilleOne of the thirteen All-Black towns to survive past the dawn of the twenty-first century, Brooksville Oklahoma has a rich and storied past, present, and future. Founded in 1903 as Sewell, Brooksville was renamed in 1919 after Alfred Brooks, a Black resident and the town’s first postmaster. Reverend Jedson White founded a church and encouraged…
- North Fork ColoredNorth Fork Town originally started out as a Creek settlement in the early 1800s. It held a lot of influence and controlled trade in the area at one point. After the battle at Honey Springs, the Union and Confederate armies fought nearby in the town of Perryville. North Fork’s depot was destroyed. Soon, parts of…
- Rentiesville, “One Great Loving Family”Established in 1903 by 4 men who resolved to organize a town site, the people of Rentiesville were described by one resident as “one great loving family.” The 40 acres of land the town was established on was generously donated by Mr. and Mrs. William Rentie and Mrs. Phoebe McIntosh. Upon its founding the town…
- Rentie GroveRentie Grove was an All-Black Town that was located near what is now currently 91st Street and Harvard Avenue nearby Jenks, OK. I had never heard about the history or even the name of this All-Black Town until this class, despite growing up in a town fifteen minutes away. Even though Rentie Grove never became…
- Tullahassee, OklahomaTullahassee was first a Creek town and had the Creek Academy, The Tullahassee Mission School. In 1880 the town and school were abandoned by the Creeks and left to Creek and Seminole freedmen. The town already had infrastructure built up that could then be used by the freedmen to create their own community. In the…
- Tatums, Oklahoma
- Taft: The All-Black Town that Elected the First Female African American MayorBefore it was Taft, the All-Black Town just outside of Muskogee was known as Twine. In 1902, the town established a post office and thus was able to create the All-Black Town. Taft was built on land allotted to Creek freedman and remains one of thirteen all-Black towns left in the state of the original…
- All-Black Town: BoleySince the Civil War ended and Black people gained their freedom, there always seemed to be something or someone(s) that was trying to keep Black people down. One of the adversities Black people faced that threated their lives, was racial violence. On many occasions, the violence Black people faced from Whites included lynching; which took…
- Langston, OKThe township of Langston, Oklahoma was founded by the All-Black Town booster E.P. McCabe on October 22, 1890 in Oklahoma Territory. Named after the Black educator and representative of Virginia, John Mercer Langston, the town attracted many Southern expatriates fleeing the racial terror of Jim Crow. A spirit of cooperation filled the town as new…
- The Power of Community in IXL, OK.When traveling along State Highway 48 you are bound to come across IXL, Oklahoma. This All-Black Town is located in Okfuskee County Sections 7, 8, 17, and 18 about three miles north of Castle, Oklahoma. IXL was first settled in 1900 by Black populations resulting from Muscogee Creek land allotments. The town’s creation through land allotments is important to the theories about its name as some say it stood…
- Lima, Oklahoma
Once upon a time, there were more than 50 Black All-Black Towns in Oklahoma. Today, only 13 towns continue to exist. Lima, OK is included in the remaining 13. Lima is located near the center of the state in Seminole County. The county is named after the Seminole Tribe due to members of the Seminole… - All-Black Town: VernonEarly in the history of Oklahoma (as we know it today), recently freed Black Americans frequently moved to “Indian Territory” with the hopes of creating spaces in which they could find relative prosperity. Oklahoma was the epicenter for All-Black Towns in the United States with more than fifty being established. Today thirteen all-Black towns remain;…
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