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Craig White's Literature Courses Critical Sources John D. Thomas
Towns Born of Struggle and Hope
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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 [+ great-uncle of Langston Hughes],
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 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.
Where blacks fought and lived
Tours and Information
For information on Cassandra Gaines's tours call (888) 687-6137, extension 25.
One-day tours cost $75 a person and include breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The Tulsa City-County Library offers a bus tour of the historic all-black towns
on June 12. Tickets are $25. For more information call (918) 596-7205.
The Battle of Honey Springs Historic Site is at 1863 Honey Springs Battlefield
Road; (918) 473-5572; see www.ok-history.mus.ok.us/mus-sites/masnum02.htm. The
visitor center is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; open to 1 p.m. Sunday. The access
road to the six interpretive trails is open 8 to 5. Closed Monday.
The Boley Historical Museum can be visited by appointment; call (918) 667-3711.
For information on Langston University, visit www.lunet.edu.
Events
Boley's annual all-black rodeo takes place May 29 and 30 this year, starting at
8 p.m. Admission is $7. Information, (580) 320-0031.
Clearview, another of the remaining all-black towns, also holds a yearly
all-black rodeo the first weekend in August; it is Aug. 7 and 8 this year.
Information, (918) 583-4096.
D.C. Minner's Dusk 'til Dawn Blues Festival takes place Sept. 3 to 5.
Information: www.dcminnerblues.com.
On March 20, the Oklahoma Historical Society will sponsor a Civil War
Candlelight Tour at the Honey Springs Battlefield with tours every 15 minutes
from 7 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.; $3. Reservations, (918) 473-5572.
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