Lost Black History
By Don Valentine
The majority of Blacks don’t know about any of the US cities we founded. This point is vociferously made in the manifesto page of the “Historic Black Towns And Settlements Alliance” https://hbtsa.org/. They state, “We are an alliance of leaders representing historic places settled by people of African descent in the early establishment of America. Across the United States and beyond more than 1200 Black settlements, enclaves, and towns were established between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries.” Our history needs to be learned, or we will soon only learn “His-Story!” In the last couple of years we have seen the preliminary steps being made so “His-Story” will be the only one taught to our kids. White America was confident for decades that the sacrosanct precedent of Roe vs Wade would never be dissolved. In the words of Maya Angelou, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Thanks to our Black Press we can read about the history of the Black town of Langston Oklahoma. Langston was founded in 1890. The website: https://www.blackpast.org/ details the town’s principal founders as William Eagleson, a prominent newspaper editor, Edward McCabe, a former Kansas state auditor, and Charles Robbins, a White land speculator. The two Black men helped lead a migration of Black settlers from the South. The settlers came in a desperate search for solace from the “Jim-Crow” brutality. Mr. McCabe proposed creating a majority-Black state in the Oklahoma territory. He named the town for John Mercer Langston, a Black member of Congress from Virginia.
It was the enthusiastic number of Blacks involved in the land rush, when the territory opened, that inspired him. He purchased 320 acres. In a crafty move, Mr. McCabe used the Black press to advertise lots for sale in Langston. He made it clear that this was only for Blacks that could be self-sufficient. In addition, the deeds for the lots mandated that their resale could only be to other Blacks. The town remains vibrant to this day, thanks to the HBCU Langston University.
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