A historically African-American municipality, known in various areas as "freedmen's town", "freedom towns", or "all-Black towns", are municipalities which were established by or for a predominantly African-American populace. [1] Many of these municipalities were established or populated by freed slaves [2] either during or after the period of legal slavery in the United States in the 19th century. [3]
In Oklahoma before the end of segregation there existed dozens of these communities as many African-American migrants from the Southeast found a space whereby they could establish municipalities on their own terms. [4] Chief among them was Edward P. McCabe, who envisioned so large a number of African-Americans settling in the territory that it would become a Black-governed state. In Texas, 357 such "freedom colonies" have been located and verified. [5]
Places marked in italics are no longer populated.
The team has located and verified the existence of 357 settlements.