Boley, Oklahoma

This area was settled by Creek Freedmen, whose ancestors had been held as slaves of the Creek at the time of Indian Removal in the 1830s. After the American Civil War, the United States negotiated new treaties with tribes that allied with the Confederacy. It required them to emancipate their slaves and give them membership in the tribes. Those formerly slaves were called the Creek Freedmen. At the time of allotments to individual households under the Dawes Commission, Creek Freedmen were registered as such on the Dawes Rolls (even if they were of mixed-race and also descended directly from Creek ancestors.) Creek Freedmen set up independent townships, of which Boley was one. The town was established on the land allotted to Abigail Barnett-McCormick, daughter of James Barnett, a Creek freedman.[10]

The coming of the Fort Smith & Western Railroad allowed agricultural land to be more profitably used as a townsite. Property owned by the Barnett family, among other Creek Freedmen, was midway between Paden and Castle, and ideal for a station stop. With the approval of the railroad management, Boley, Creek Nation, Indian Territory was incorporated in 1905. It was named for J. B. Boley, an official of the railroad.[10] There were no other Black towns nearby, it became a center of regional business. During the early part of the 20th century, Boley was one of the wealthiest Black towns in the US. It boasted two banks,[11] including the first nationally chartered bank owned by blacks, three cotton gins,[11] and its own electric company.[12] The town had over 4,000 residents by 1911, and was the home of two colleges: Creek-Seminole College, and Methodist Episcopal College. The Masonic Lodge was called "the tallest building between Okmulgee and Oklahoma City," when it was built in 1912.[10] Booker T. Washington visited Boley in 1905, and was so impressed that he included Boley in his speeches.

Boley's development paralleled that of the railroad. After World War I, a fall in agricultural prices and the bankruptcy of the railroad caused Boley's failure. It went bankrupt in 1939 during the Great Depression. Before World War II, Boley's population had declined to about 700.[10] With the Second Great Migration underway, by 1960 most of the population had left for other urban areas.[13][14] So far the New Great Migration has not benefited Boley. However, Boley remains one of the state's few remaining historic African-American towns.[11]

Boley is located approximately 13 miles east of Prague and 11 miles west of Okemah on US Highway 62.[24]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.6 square miles (4.1 km²), all land.

In the 2016 presidential election, the city gave over 78% of the vote to the Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton.[31]

• Cardell Camper, major league baseball player
• Pumpsie Green - baseball player, first African American to play for the Boston Red Sox
• Zenobia Powell Perry - composer[32]

The Oklahoma Historical Society created the touring exhibition "Thirteen All-Black Towns of Oklahoma," highlighting Boley and 12 additional towns that have survived into the 21st century. Preview materials note: "When E. P. McCabe came to Oklahoma in the 1889 Land Run his vision was to create an All-Black state. Although that never materialized, McCabe and others succeeded in establishing All-Black towns. Nowhere else, neither in the Deep South nor the Far West, did so many African American men and women come together to create, occupy, and govern their own communities. Boley, Brooksville, Clearview, Grayson, Langston, Lima, Red Bird, Rentiesville, Taft, Tatums, Tullahassee, Summit, and Vernon are the towns highlighted in this exhibit."[33]

In 2019, the entertainment news site deadline.com reported: "A remarkable, little known slice of Black American history is coming to light with Boley, a premium event series in development at Universal Television from writer Dianne Houston (When We Rise, Empire, Take the Lead) and producer Rudy Langlais (The Hurricane, Sugar Hill). Hailed as 'television’s first premium Black western,' Boley is inspired by the e true story of an early 20th century black utopia, Boley, Oklahoma, which was established in 1904 as one of the largest and most thriving black towns in the country." The article notes: "The rich legacy of this revolutionary all-Black town and this infamous battle as the backdrop for the limited series, which has been a passion project for Langlais and Universal TV President Pearlena Igbokwe for two decades."[34]

In a 2017 interview, historian Currie Ballard told The Oklahoman: “Boley was once the crown jewel of all the black towns in Oklahoma...Booker T. Washington came to Boley … twice and deemed it the finest black town in the world — and Booker T. Washington had literally been all around the world. Boley, its significance in commerce, its significance in education, parallels no other black town in the nation.” [35]

Quotes about Boley attributed to Washington include:

"They have recovered something of the knack for trade that their fore-parents in Africa were famous for".[13]

"Boley, Indian Territory, is the youngest, most enterprising, and in many ways the most interesting of the Negro towns in the US."[36]

• Boley Historic District
• Brooksville, Clearview, Grayson, Langston, Lima, Red Bird, Rentiesville, Summit, Taft, Tatums, Tullahassee, and Vernon, other "All-Black" settlements that were part of the Land Run of 1889.[37]

• “All Men Up”: Race, Rights, and Power in the All Black Town of Boley, Oklahoma, 1903-1939" by Melissa Stuckey, diessertation, Yale University, 2008
• Decatur-Thomas, C. (1989) Boley: An all black pioneer town and the education of its children. [Dissertation] The University of Akron

• History of Boley on The African American Registry
• Black heritage sites, Boley Historic District, By Nancy C. Curtis
• Oklahoma Historical Society, Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture, Boley
• Boley cemetery index from rootsweb
• History of Boley published 1945 from rootsweb
• NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM including a history and inventory of historic buildings
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Boley
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - All-Black Towns
• Plot of Land, episode 4, "This Arc of Very Fertile Land"