OKLAHOMA’S BLACK TOWNS AND INSTITUTIONS

Photo by Karla Slocum

READINGS- Books/Articles/Dissertations 

Adams, Catherine L.

  1. Africanizing the Territory: The History, Memory, and Contemporary Imagination of Black Frontier Settlements in the Oklahoma Territory. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Amherst, Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Baker, T. Lindsay and Julie P. Baker (editors)

  1. The WPA Oklahoma Slave Narratives. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.

Barrett, Charles F. 

  1. Oklahoma after Fifty Years: A History of the Sooner State and its People, 1889-1939. Oklahoma City, OK: The Historical Record Association.

Bittle, William E. and Gilbert L. Geis

  1. Racial Self-Fulfillment and the Rise of an All-Negro Community in Oklahoma. The Phylon Quarterly, 18 (3): 247-260.

Carney, George

  1. Historic Resources of Oklahoma’s All-Black Towns. Chronicles of Oklahoma 69 (2): 116-33.

Chang, Suzette

  1. “I Live in Boley, America” :Exploring a Contemporary Identity for African American Boley Residents.  Unpublished Masters Thesis, Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma.

Cornwall, Willard J.

  1. Playing Between the Lines: An Examination of Negro League Baseball in Oklahoma, 1892 to 1965. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. Tulsa, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University at Tulsa.

Crockett, Norman L.

  1. The Black Towns. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

Cross, George L.

  1. Blacks in White Colleges: Oklahoma’s Landmark Cases. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma.

Franklin, Jimmie L.

  1. The Blacks in Oklahoma. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
  2. Journey Toward Hope: A History of Blacks in Oklahoma.  Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Gray, Linda

  1. Taft: Town on the Black Frontier. Chronicles of Oklahoma 66 (4): 430-447.

Hamilton, Kenneth

  1. Black Towns and Profit: Promotion and Development in the Trans-Appalachian West, 1877-1915. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Hill, Mozell C.

1946a. The All-Negro Communities of Oklahoma: The Natural History of a Social Movement. Journal of Negro History 31 (3): 254-268.

1946b. A Comparative Analysis of the Social Organization of the All-Negro Society in Oklahoma. Social Forces 25 (1): 70-77.

Hill, Mozell C. and Thelma D. Ackiss

  1. Culture of a Contemporary All-Negro Community. Langston, OK: Langston University.

Humphrey, Charles A. and Donald E. Allen

  1. Educational and Social Needs in Small All-Black Towns. The Journal of Negro Education, 47(3): 244-255.

Jessee, Sharon

  1. The Contrapuntal Historiography of Toni Morrison’s Paradise: Unpacking the Legacies of the Kansas and Oklahoma All-Black Towns. American Studies,47(1): 81-112.

Johnson, Hannibal

  1. Acres of Aspiration: the All-Black Towns in Oklahoma. Austin, TX: Eakin Press.

Knight, Thomas

  1. Black Towns in Oklahoma: Their Development and Survival. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Stillwater, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University.

Littlefield, Daniel and Lonnie Underhill. 

  1. Black Dreams and ‘Free’ Homes: The Oklahoma Territory, 1891-1894.  Phylon 34(4): 313-22.

McAuley, William J.

  1. History, Race, and Attachment to Place among Elders in the Rural All-Black Towns of Oklahoma. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences53 (1): 35-45.

Myers, Leroy Jr.

  1. Land of the Fair God: The Development of Black Towns in Oklahoma, 1870-1910. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma.

Ragsdale, Rhonda M.

  1. A Place to Call Home: A Study of the Self-Segregated Community of Tatums, Oklahoma, 1894-1970. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. Denton, Texas, University of North Texas.

Roberts, Myrna R.

  1. African American Cultural Identity Salience through the Communication Practices of Members of All-Black Towns in Oklahoma. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Virginia Beach, VA. Regent University.

Shaw, James Sr. 

  1. Boley: Oklahoma’s Famous Black Town. Yes Publishing. Moore, Oklahoma

Slocum, Karla

“Black Towns and the Freedom to Breathe.” Noema Magazine. June 11, 2020.

  1. Black Towns, Black Futures: The Enduring Allure of a Black Place in the American West. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
  2. Black Towns and the Civil War: Touring Battles of Race, Nation, and Place.Souls, 19(1): 59-74.

Stuckey, Melissa

2017a. The Boley Carnival: A Juneteenth Like No Other. New Territory Magazine 5: 4-9.

2017b. Boley, Indian Territory: Exercising Freedom in the All-Black Town. The Journal of African American History. 102 (4): 492-516.

  1. “All Men Up”: Race, Rights, and Power in the All-Black Town of Boley, Oklahoma, 1903-1939. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University.

Teall, Kaye M.

  1. Black History in Oklahoma: A Resource Book. Oklahoma City, OK: Oklahoma City Public Schools.

Tolson, Arthur L.

  1. Black Towns of Oklahoma. The Black Scholar, 1(6): 18-22.

MEDIA – Dramatic/Documentary Films/TV/Podcast

Barber, Kari

  1. Struggle and Hope.

Eskridge, Ann

  1. Black Communities after the Civil War : Echoes across the Prairie. Films for the Humanities & Sciences.

Jones, Solomon S.

  1. “Oklahoma Bound: The Films of Reverend S.S. Jones”. Oklahoma Historical Society/Yale University Library Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection.

PBS

2013 All Black Towns.

Tomlinson, Bunee

  1. Boomtown: An American Journey. Kirkpatrick and Kinslow Productions.

CREATIVE WORKS- Novels, Performance, Media 

Cleage, Pearl

  1. Flyin’ West.

Coleman, Chris

Oklahoma!

Morrison, Toni

  1. Paradise. Vintage Books

Richard Norman

Black Gold.  Norman Studies