Boley, a Negro Town in the West

About this book

"The most interesting of the negro towns in the United States." -Booker T. Washington Boley was established in 1903 as a predominantly Black pioneer town with persons having Native American ancestry among its citizens. It was a characteristic product of the Black immigration from the South and Middle West into the new lands of what is now the State of Oklahoma. In 1905, when Booker T. Washington visited Indian Territory he made a specific point to visit Boley which he had heard about. He would later write: "I learned upon inquiry that there were a considerable number of communities throughout the Territory where an effort had been made to exclude negro settlers. To this the negroes had replied by starting other communities in which no white man was allowed to live. But among these various communities there was one of which I heard more than the others. This was the town of Boley, where, it is said, no white man has ever let the sun go down upon him." In 1908, Booker T. Washington would publish an 8-page article in the magazine New Outlook, titled " Boley, a Negro Town in the West," reprinted here.