The Black Informant

Black achievement in the shadow of slavery

While many in the black community are well familiar with the downfall of what was considered “The Black Wall Street” of its time (Tulsa, Oklahoma), not may of us are familiar with the many successes of the black community right on the heels of the slave era here in the US. Although these pioneers still had to face racism, I think that once you read the excerpts below you will have to agree that their generation possessed something that we so desperately need today in our community.

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“In 1860, the census reports for a dozen western states and territories showed the 50 percent school attendance for black women that equaled that of white women. The 26 percent illiteracy rate for African-American women on the frontier was much lower than that for white frontier women. Women of color in the wilderness consistently distinguished themselves through their dedication to self-improvement and zeal for education.”

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“In a 1790 Census, African-American men and women constituted 18 percent of California’s population. Los Angeles was founded in 1781 by forty-four people, twenty-six of them of African descent. Maria Rita Valdez, born to one of these African families in Los Angeles, owned what is now Beverly Hills.”

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“In Sacramento, in 1859, African-American parents began their own school for thirty to thirty-five pupils, mostly girls, and hired a white teacher. Within a year the city Board of Education awarded three of its female pupils silver achievement medals.”

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“Unlike white pioneers, most former slave women (and men) rejected farm work for town jobs. They associated rural life with the pain and social isolation of southern plantations and slavery. (During that time, European peasant immigrants, for similar reasons, overwhelmingly chose urban life over rural life in America. They associated farm work with the oppressive conditions they had fled in Europe.)

For a white woman, a job on the frontier usually served as a bridge between arrival time and marriage. For a woman of color, married or unmarried, a paying job was a necessity. Black women of the West were five times as likely to be employed as white women and twice as likely to be employed as Asian or Native American women.”

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“In 1900, as the African-American population of Colorado grew, urban women of color built a host of societies to fortify them in their daily struggles against bigotry. In Denver the formed the Colored Ladies’ Legal Rights Association, the Colored Women’s Republican Club, and the Women’s League. In 1901, Augustavia Youn, then sixteen, formed the Pond Lily Art and Literary Club to challenge the local newspapers’ negative images of women of color.

By the early twentieth century, Colorado women had formed clubs for lovers of art, books, and other literary maters. In 1916, four clubs united to establish a day nursery that was still operating in 1992.

These clubs welcomed working and middle-class women. Members generally were married, had children, and most were high school graduates. Many were employed outside their homes as teachers, seamstresses, maids, and musicians. Club meetings were held on weekdays in an effort to encourage attendance by people who as laundresses and domestics worked on Saturdays.”

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On the founding of Dearfield, Colorado by black homesteaders and how they valued education:

“Residents were proud of their schools and teachers. They turned out in large numbers to hear and encourage their children’s recitations. To finance education, they collected money from neighbors and sometimes from white employers.”

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Langston City, Oklahoma

“By 1892, Langston City had six hundred people from twenty differenent states. The Herald boasted that Langston City was a town of “homes, churches, and schools, where you can raise your family in good and respectable society.” Three white businessmen and their families were among the residents.

The Herald emphasized middle-class values and Victorian chivalry toward women. Men were sternly told to give their church seats to women. The Herald asked, “How do you expect other races to respect our ladies when you fail to do so yourselves?” The town founders outlawed prostitution and gambling and serious crimes were unknown within its borders.”

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“From the beginning, Lanstonians, particularly its women, embraced education with a passion. the nearby Catholic Holy Name College, which also had whites and Indians in its first-grade to high school-grad classes, began to accept African-Americans, and in a few years they constituted a majority of the student body.

In 1892, town officials began a tax-supported public school with classes up to the eight grade. As students graduated, a new high school was begun, its governing board announcing acceptance of students “regardless of race, color or number.” In 1892, some of Langston City’s founders and their wives decided to make their town the educational center of black Oklahoma.

The educational efforts of the town’s early women and men led to spectacular victories. By 1900, Langston City boasted a literacy rate among the highest of any frontier community in the United States: 72 percent of its citizens could read and 70 percent could write. For Langston City’s pioneer women between the ages of fifteen and forty-five, the figures were even higher–96 percent could read and 95 percent could write.”

All the above excerpts were taken from the book “Black Women of the Old West” by William Loren Katz.

“The black community of gold rush California became one of the most culturally advanced and probably the richest black community in the country. Its wealth was placed at more than two millions of dollars in assets, with more than half of this located in San Francisco.”

Excerpt taken from the book “The Black West” by William Loren Katz.

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How could they achieve so much with so little while living on the heels of a post-slavery era?