Oklahoma's Promised
It was my first trip to Oklahoma, and I didn't know what to expect. I watched cows, oil pumps, and miles of open prairie, or flat grassland, whiz by the car window on my way to Oklahoma City the state capital. Remembering what I'd learned from my eighth-grade history class and watching Saturday afternoon Westerns, I pictured Oklahoma as a huge, flat piece of land where no black people lived. But I'd also heard that all-black towns once thrived there, and I was eager to find out whether the tales were true.

The area that we no call Oklahoma wasn't always a part of the U.S.-It became the 46th state in 1907. In the 1820s, the U.S. government forced Native Americans off of their homelands in the southeastern region of the country and made them travel westward. Many died as they made the long journey known as the Trail of Tears.

Some Native Americans owned black slaves and brought them along. Other free blacks traveled west on their own, seeking fertile land on which to farm and build homes. And more African-Americans traveled to the territory when slavery ended in 1865. By the 1880s, so many African-Americans lived there that they built their own churches, schools, and a hospital.

Whites soon wanted the land for themselves. They migrated, or moved, to Oklahoma in large numbers.

Racial tensions began to flare up and the U.S. government called upon special troops to help. These Buffalo Soldiers not only maintained peace, but also built roads and prevented crime. Why were they called Buffalo Soldiers? Native Americans gave these African-American men that name because of their wooly hair and great courage. Over the next several decades, black communities continued to prosper. People who lived there owned homes and business. They sent their children to fine schools and didn't worry about being mistreated by whites.

"The black towns were safe havens," says Currie Ballard, one of my tour guides. The Greenwood district in Tulsa was one of the richest black communities in the US. But residents began to move away from these towns in the 1970s to look for jobs in big cities.

Although few of Oklahoma's black communities exist today, efforts are being made to make sure that the contributions of African-Americans to that state are never forgotten. The National Cowboy Hall of Fame &Western; Heritage Center in Oklahoma City recently opened a new wing to celebrate the Buffalo Soldiers. A yearly rodeo in Okmulgee educates visitors about the roles that black cowboys played in settling the west.

"Oklahoma is filled with untold stories about African-Americans," says Omar Peed, an actor who teaches people about daily life in 19th century Oklahoma. "More and more, the interest in these stories is growing."