McCornack's CD-296 ~ Black History Month

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Black History Month

John C. McCornack
Yukon, Oklahoma

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Creek Freedman

It is known that many Africans intermarried with Native Americans. Less widely known is the fact that many Native Americans also owned African slaves, and fathered children with African slave women. In addition there were smaller numbers Free People of Color who lived in many of the nations and who also lived and married persons from the same nations, and whose descendants claim ancestry from the Oklahoma Black Indian people. As a result, thousands of Americans have African and Indian ancestry.

The Freedmen of Indian Territory--now Oklahoma, were the former slaves and also the Free Persons of Color in the Five Civilized Tribes. Within these nations-the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole Nations -- genealogists will find thousands of records documenting the history of those African people living within the Indian nations. More than 20,000 Africans were adopted into these nations before the end of the 19th century. The Treaty of 1866 brought about the abolishment of Slavery in Indian Territory, and the adoption of the former slaves into 4 of the 5 nations. Although many of the nations have now chosen to ignore this critical treaty, the history stands as the major official connection of these Oklahoma nations have to their African brethren that cannot be disputed historically.

http://www.african-nativeamerican.com/1IntroPage.htm



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An early Creek freedman home in Indian Territory

Black History Month

As time goes on we always hope
That advancement is being made
So in the case of Black History
We must never let progress fade

We want to learn and become better
And treat everyone with dignity
As the sunrises and the sun sets
We must have freedom and equality

For freedom is granted to everyone
That’s what makes our country great
And it wasn’t always that way, of course
It took time to abolished slavery in every state

But progress continues to march on
And although we cannot erase the past
Most of us try to treat each other fairly
If we do, I think that this progress will last

So let’s remember Black History Month
Let’s learn from so many past mistakes
And continue making progress each day
Remember that fairness is what it takes!

Marilyn Lott © 2007- 101



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Oklahoma Black Farmers

SOURCE: The Negro Farmer - Saturday, June 6, 1914. Published by the Negro Farmer Publishing Company, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama. -

In 1914, there are 20,671 black farmers in the Oklaoma. These farmers work 2,276,711 acres of land. They own 1,599,655 acres of land. The value of their property, land and buildings, increased from $14,149,980 in 1900 to $47,221,793 in 1910. Fifty-three and nine--tenths per cent of the black farmers in the State own their farms.

http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/ok_over.htm


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A black homesteader family home in Indian Territory



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Oklahoma Black History

Oklahoma's black history began, long before it existed as a state, and it began, as it did in other parts of America, with slavery. Bob Blackburn, director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, selected a few milestones in the state's black history:

The first, he said, was the arrival of them Five Civilized Tribes into Indian Territory by way of the Trail of Tears. Tribal members owned black slaves and thus introduced that "pervasive institution" into what would become Oklahoma, as well as Freedmen, former slaves living with the tribes.

The Reconstruction Act of 1866 influenced Oklahoma, Blackburn said. The post-Civil War legislation included a clause forcing tribes to treat Freedmen as legal members of the tribes. It followed then, that the freed slaves figured in the allotment picture of the 1890s. They and their descendants were entitled to at least 160 acres; just as other tribal members were. If they chose their property near one another they formed a community, and communities grew to towns, and soon 36 all-black towns were functioning In Oklahoma, among them Boley, Langston and Rentiesville.

With Statehood in 1907, the Legislature established a legal system. A Senate Bill, the first bill filed, was popularly called the Jim Crow Law and established legal separation of races. Discrimination in schools, churches and public privileges because of skin color became the law of the land, Blackburn said. By the 1950s, the civil rights movement was sweeping the nation and meeting violent resistance in the Deep South. Oklahoma, Blackburn said, was enough of a blend of Southern and Midwestern that its black leaders were willing to take chances, and its white officials preferred peaceful integration. The philosophies of Martin Luther King Jr. prevailed in this prairie state, and the previous history of all-black towns served the blacks well.

Those segregated settlements needed to be self-sufficient; they attracted black doctors and attorneys and journalists and business entrepreneurs who couldn't practice in white societies. They prospered, and they learned to take leadership roles. When society integrated, black men and women were able to guide the transition in Oklahoma. This nonviolent passage allowed two important changes to take place, Blackburn said. Public sit-ins were staged successfully in stores and restaurants in Oklahoma years before they were attempted in Southern states. Oklahoma schools were desegregated under the guidance of white and black leaders.

Source: Daily Oklahoman Feb 1, 2004



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In memory of the people who settled
the land that later become Oklahoma

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Oklahoma Homesteaders I

Slowly the great wheel of life continues to turn
For many reasons Oklahoma became home for many people
Displaced Indians from many eastern states
Blacks from the southern states looking for a new start

Pioneers from east and south looking for a better life
Some how, some way, they all meshed together
They build their homes and raised families
And became the ancestors of today’s people in Oklahoma

----- John

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Thanks for spending a little time in my world !

John McCornack

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jmccornack@aol.com


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