![]() Hall, meanwhile, says tour participants come mainly from around Oklahoma, but also as far away as New York and California.īoth tour groups work similarly in that visitors take a bus to several of the towns, meeting locals along the way and eating homemade meals or at restaurants in the community. ![]() ![]() Nero says that one couple has been on every tour she has conducted, and the tours draw visitors from nearby states like Arkansas, Kansas, and Colorado. “The truth is, you can drive all the way through Oklahoma and not know as a tourist that you are near a Black town,” Hall Head says. To combat that lack of education about the communities, Head and Hall Head are developing documentaries, creating curriculum for schools, and offering tours of the historic Black towns. “We are just finding out that a lot of people don’t know about the history of these towns.” “It’s so rich and there’s still a lot missing in our education about this different history,” he says of Oklahoma’s Black history. Hall Head, co-founder and COO of the Coltrane Group, lived in Seattle before returning to Oklahoma and starting the nonprofit. “I first wanted to start looking at historic Black towns on a national level, but then started in Oklahoma and realized, wow, this will keep me busy right here,” Hall says of the state's Black history. Boley, for example, hosts one of the oldest African American rodeos in the country, while Rentiesville is known for its strong blues presence. Many of the communities have events celebrating their heritage and legacies. Head, co-founder and CEO of the Coltrane Group, an Oklahoma City–based nonprofit that also offers tours of historic Black towns, which boost preservation and economic development. The towns, mostly farming communities, supported schools, businesses, and religious institutions.Įach community has its own feel, says Andre' L. The federal government forced American Indian tribes to accept individual land “allotments,” and the former slaves to the tribes, known as freedmen, created prosperous communities by settling together. The historic Black towns in Oklahoma developed in Indian Territory after the Civil War, when the former slaves of five Native American tribes-the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole nations-settled together for protection and economic security, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
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