OKLAHOMA’S
ALL-BLACK TOWNS
Test Your Knowledge of Oklahoma’s All-Black Towns.
Take This quiz. You May Be Surprised At What You Don’t Know.
1. List two criteria used to determine whether a community constitutes an “all-Black town.”
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2. Many all-black towns emerged after the collapse of what Southern rebuilding program? _____________________________________________________________________
3. A single individual is credited with making Oklahoma the destination of choice for Blacks fleeing Southern oppression. Who is he? ______________________________________
4. President Benjamin Harrison appointed an African-American as Oklahoma Territorial Auditor. Who was he? ____________________________________________________
5. An article in the New York Times on March 1, 1890, commenting on the possibility of an all-Black state within Oklahoma Territory, said such a settlement would be akin to a camp of ___________________________________________________________________.
6. List two reasons that African-Americans wanted to create all-Black towns.
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7. African-Americans founded more than _____________ all-Black towns and settlements in Oklahoma between 1865 and 1920.
8. Many of the all-Black towns sprung up near __________________________________ allotments.
9. Name three of the more prominent all-Black towns.
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10. Most African-Americans in early Oklahoma history belonged to what political party?
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11. What leader of Oklahoma’s Constitutional Convention (and eventual governor) expressed the following racist views to Constitutional Convention delegates?
We must provide the means for the advancement of the negro race, and accept him [sic] as God gave him to us and use him for the good of society….He must be taught in the line of his own sphere, as porters, boot-blacks and barbers, and many lines of agriculture…in which he is adept, but it is an entirely false notion that the negro can rise to the equal of a white man in the professions or become an equal citizen to grapple with public questions.
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12. What type of law was the first passed by the newly impaneled Oklahoma Legislature in 1907? ________________________________________________________________
13. Name a factor that contributed to the decline of the all-Black town movement in the late 1920s and early 1930s. ____________________________________________________
14. As the all-Black towns declined, many frustrated African-Americans returned to ___________________________. Some disillusioned African-Americans left the country as the all-Black towns declined, traveling north to _________________, and south to ___________________________.
15. Other disheartened African-Americans took part in a _______________ movement after the all-Black towns fell on hard times.
ANSWERS: (1) BLACK FOUNDER(S); BLACK GOVERNANCE OFFICIAL; BLACK POPULATION; BLACK POSTMASTER (2) RECONSTRUCTION; (3) E.P. MCCABE; (4) E.P. MCCABE; (5) SAVAGES; (6) ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY; POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT; FREEDOM FROM SOUTHERN OPPRESSION; (7) 50; (8) FREEDMEN; (9) BOLEY, LANGSTON, TAFT, RENTIESVILLE, CLEARVIEW, TULAHASSEE; (10) REPUBLICAN; (11) “ALFALFA” BILL MURRAY; (12) “JIM CROW”; (13) THE RECESSION AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION; (14) THE SOUTH; CANADA; MEXICO; (15) “BACK-TO-AFRICA”.
