The History Of Oklahoma's All-Black Towns

Discrimination has been an inescapable fixture of life for many African Americans. Yet, since the time of slavery, Black communities facing prejudice have found creative and enterprising ways to maintain their dignity in the face of white violence. Even as the oppression and trauma of the Jim Crow laws were taking hold after the American Civil War, areas like Oklahoma, which, as the London Review of Books points out, had not been part of the Confederacy and was fighting to be given statehood, were doing things differently.

This included its status as "Indian Country," a result of Native Americans having been forced to migrate there to make space for white settlers wanting to grow cotton (known as the Trail of Tears). Many brought slaves with them, and when the slaves were emancipated and Native American communities moved out of the state, these newly freed peoples carved out a niche for themselves through the creation of all-Black frontier towns.

Life could be tough, and white violence could never be kept completely at bay; but many such towns experienced decades of prosperity and community cohesion that were enjoyed and valued by the descendants of freed slaves. While economic and political disenfranchisement, combined with the devastating global effects of the Great Depression, meant most of these towns eventually declined, memories of the more prominent ones are still fresh in Oklahoma. Below are details of their origins and identities, and the efforts by activists to keep the ones that remain alive.

The town of Tullahassee is considered to be the oldest of Oklahoma's all-Black communities that blossomed in the late 19th century, as explained by The Washington Post.

A school was founded there by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in 1850, but the combination of Black people being granted freedom and citizenship in 1866, and the Nation moving its peoples out in 1881 after a devastating fire, meant that the Black community thrived and prospered — even after segregation arrived in 1907.

At its height, Tullahassee could boast shops, offices, a gas station, and a post office, as well as a hotel, a movie theater, and a railway depot, per the Oklahoma Historical Society. In 1916, the first private university for Black citizens, Flipper Davis College, was opened in the rebuilt former Creek school. There was also a school for African Americans, Carter G. Woodson (via the Post), and a community gymnasium. At one point, Tullahassee had 209 citizens. It now has less than half that number.

Boley was founded in 1903 and became a magnet for Black settlers in Oklahoma after the town's mayor established a railway depot and declared it capable of self-governance. Many of the town's occupants lived with memories of slavery, but as it was declared to be a town "by Blacks, for Blacks," according to Jessilyn Head (via NonDoc Media), who runs the nonprofit Coltrane Group on Oklahoma, Boley residents lived lives that were far more free from prejudice and oppression than many Black people in racially mixed areas did.

The Oklahoma Historical Society says Booker T. Washington called Boley "the most enterprising and in many ways the most interesting Negro town in the United States." The residents who lived there established groundbreaking institutions, like the first Black-owned bank in America to be granted a national charter, meaning it could operate in the same way as white banks. (An attempted burglary was even made on the building in 1932 by a local gang). Other industries were set up, such as a steam power plant and electronics and telecommunications companies.

Interestingly, according to the State Historic Preservation Office, the town's name came from J.B. Boley, a white man who believed in the right of former slaves to practice self-governance. By 1911, Boley had 4,000 residents, many of whom had been attracted by adverts in Black newspapers, and had two colleges as well as hotels, restaurants, and grocery stores. As of 2021, the population in Boley is just over 1,000.

Set up in 1890, the town of Langston drew in 251 Black settlers within its first year. As described by NonDoc, one of the town's founders, E.P. McCabe, once told the Langston City Herald that Langston was a town where Black people could "rest from mob law" and "be secure from every ill of the Southern policies."

McCabe's efforts at encouraging migration into the area were largely successful, so much so that by 1891, the town had drawn in 600 new residents. By 1893, BlackPast noted that Langston was home to 25 small businesses, including barbershops, ice cream parlors, and saloon bars.

Langston went on to build an all-Black college in 1897 that later became Langston University, the only all-Black public university in Oklahoma. According to the State Historic Preservation Office, a Roman Catholic missionary presence was also established alongside churches from other denominations, a fire service, and a local militia. Despite their best efforts, the townsfolk couldn't attract a railway line, however.

Regardless of shrinking populations in most former all-Black settlements, in 2010, at least 1,724 residents still called Langston home. As of 2019, the town's university had an undergraduate population of 3,400, roughly the same as the population of the town, which has helped it survive and remain the largest of Oklahoma's all-Black towns.

When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, racial segregation was introduced via the Jim Crow laws, a system of oppressive rules designed to enforce segregation and trap African Americans into lives of poverty and deprivation (via the University of Tulsa). The legislation also prompted racial violence from whites, particularly against Black people who lived close to areas dominated by whites, such as Tulsa. The Jim Crow laws left many African Americans feeling disillusioned and terrified of widespread acts of white terrorism; this encouraged many of them to move out of areas altogether, per Smithsonian Magazine.

Furthermore, as the University of Tulsa explains, the Great Depression forced residents in farming towns to seek work elsewhere, leaving them without a tax base and resulting in depleted resources, which further encouraged Black flight to Canada, in places like Amber Valley, Maidstone, and Alberta, as well as to Mexico. Others joined the burgeoning "Back to Africa" movement that grew in popularity in the 1920s and 1930s.

Meanwhile, for the Black businesses that stayed, white banks would refuse to lend them money, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society. Also, railroads often failed due to lack of maintenance, leaving many agricultural Black towns isolated. White leaseholders, such as those in Okfuskee County, tried at various points to block outward immigration, while also refusing to sell or rent land to Black farmers unless it was at least a mile from any white residents, or hire Black laborers. All of this led to the depletion of these once-thriving Black settlements.

Despite their economic decimation, Oklahoma's all-Black towns have fought to survive and put down new roots. A new town called IXL was founded in 2001, notes the Oklahoma Historical Society. It was based on the community of IXL, which grew in the 1920s after a grant of $1,100 donated by the Julius Rosenwald fund led to the creation of a school (admittedly segregated) for children in the grades up to and including the eighth grade. The Rosenwald Fund further donated $900 toward a house for teachers, with the community also making financial contributions.

Although it has no solid commercial base, the town has since built a fire department and a fire station, and in 2001 (according to the State Historic Preservation Office), government buildings were constructed, housing a town council and an office for the mayor. The old schoolhouse was eventually pulled down in 2012 so the site could be converted into a community center, and a public park and two churches also became part of the fabric of IXL.

In 2010, IXL's population was recorded as 51.