All Black Towns – 400 Years of African American History Commission

Revitalizing America's Historic All Black Towns Episode 4: Monday, April 24, 2023

This session maintains continuity with the previous sessions while pivoting, logically, to reparations – how to repair damage down to the Black towns and Black people generally from the historical racial trauma that is our legacy, despite moments of pride, passion, and productivity. Guest participants include Oklahoma State Senator Kevin Matthews, N.Y. Nathiri from The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community in Florida, and Ahmad Ward from the Mitchelville Preservation Project in South Carolina. Series creator and 400 Commission member Hannibal B. Johnson will moderate the discussion. View the recorded program below!

Episode 1

Historians – The Who, What, Where When & Why

African Americans created dozens of all-Black towns after the Civil War in communities like Boley, Clearview and Tullahassee, Oklahoma, and Nicodemus, Kansas.
Conceived as oases of opportunity and lands of liberty for beleaguered Black Americans, particularly those from the Deep South, these havens offered a perceived escape from entrenched southern racism, available land for economic exploitation, and an opportunity to demonstrate Black excellence.
Today, only a fraction of these historic all-Black towns still exist. The surviving communities, many of them in Oklahoma, struggle to remain relevant.

Episode 2

Leaders of the Black Towns Movement

This session features three distinguished leaders in the all-Black town movement: Mildred Burkhalter (Mayor, Rentiesville, Oklahoma), Delbert DeWitty (Board member, Descendants of DeWitty, DeWitty, Nebraska), and Henrietta Hicks (Town Historian, Boley, Oklahoma). Series creator and 400 Commission member Hannibal B. Johnson will moderate the discussion. Like the session that preceded it, this second installment in the series offers viewers a robust, substantive, and thoughtful look, through multiple perspectives, at this little-known piece of the Black experience. The all-Black towns are a “must know” sliver of our shared past.

Episode 3

Key Leaders in the Revitalization Movement
Discussion includes ways towns can leverage their history collectively to market themselves and create economic opportunities; discussion to include cultural tourism, infrastructure and more.
Host: Hannibal B. Johnson, Commissioner, attorney, author
Panelists:
- Angela Bates Historian, Nicodemus KS
- Lt. Governor Matt Pinell, OK
- State Senator Kevin Mathews, Tulsa, OK

Episode 4

Reparations

This session maintains continuity with the previous sessions while pivoting, logically, to reparations – how to repair damage down to the Black towns and Black people generally from the historical racial trauma that is our legacy, despite moments of pride, passion, and productivity. Guest participants include Oklahoma State Senator Kevin Matthews, N.Y. Nathiri from The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community in Florida, and Ahmad Ward from the Mitchelville Preservation Project in South Carolina. Series creator and 400 Commission member Hannibal B. Johnson will moderate the discussion.