Dr. Karla Slocum will undertake ethnographic, statistical, and archival research on Oklahoma's "all-Black towns." During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, self-identified Black Americans settled 30 planned, rural towns known as "all-Black towns." The settlers were descendants of slaves, some held by Native Americans in the west and some from the plantation south. Influenced both by the exclusion and discrimination they had experienced and by the teachings of the educator, Booker T. Washington, the settlers advocated an ideology of racial solidarity and self-reliance. Today, 13 of these communities remain.
In this project, the researcher will investigate how the founding ideology has been affected by a century of change, and the principles, histories, and identities that the townspeople claim today. The 13 remaining towns still are predominantly Black, but residents now intersect increasingly with non-Black communities, institutions, and ideologies. Earlier ideologies of racial separation have been confronted by more recent national and global ideologies of racial integration, multiculturalism, and the importance of racial or ethnic heritage. What role do history, national ideas about race and globalization currently play in defining the towns? What is the racial composition of the social, economic and political networks in which Black town residents engage and how do such networks shape how the towns are defined today?
To answer these questions, the PI will draw on archival data, conduct interviews with town residents and affiliates, and observe and record dimensions of town events and everyday town social life. The project will provide critical insights into the changing role of race as a possible motivator of community organizing and definition. Moreover, it will inform us about two under-researched areas: Black community identities in rural contexts, and the role of globalization in African American communities.
