Oklahoma Black Homesteader Project Epitomizes the Mission of Black History Month

Between 1866 and 1976, Black Americans claimed more than 650,000 acres from the U.S. government through the 1862 Homestead Act. Kalenda Eaton, Ph.D., associate professor in the Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma, and director of Oklahoma Research for the Black Homesteader Project, is working to recover, reevaluate and reclaim the histories of rural African Americans in the Oklahoma Territory pre-statehood and beyond.

“The National Black Homesteader Project wanted a separate focus on Oklahoma due to its unique history,” Eaton said. “Regarding Black history, we have Indian Territory, Oklahoma Territory, as well as a very large population of people of African descent who moved into Oklahoma. The descendants of those who were already here, and those who came later, remain a part of the Oklahoma fabric today.”

Research shows that more than 8,000 people of African descent were living in the Indian Territory prior to the land runs, primarily as enslaved members of Native tribes. After emancipation and as a result of changes to the land allotments after 1865, homesteads in the Indian Territory were allotted to emancipated Black Indian freedmen. 

“Due to the rich and complex history of Oklahoma, we have limited the geographic area of the Black Homesteader Project to the western portion of the state – known as the Oklahoma Territory. This is where the bulk of claims were filed under the Homestead Act,” Eaton said. “We see this project as an opportunity to highlight counties, communities and people who might otherwise be overlooked in our state and national history.”

Between 1889-1907, thousands of African Americans journeyed to the Oklahoma Territory seeking refuge from the Jim Crow policies and “Black Codes” that limited civil liberties and rights in other parts of the United States. While many new Black residents were able to successfully relocate, hundreds were prevented from remaining on their claims due to lack of financial resources or political power. Additionally, persistent anti-Black racism led to an increasingly hostile and unwelcoming racialized environment.

“Through the process of homesteading, Black immigrants entered a tangled web of racist settler-colonial practices that often limited their mobility, and made what it meant to be a Black homesteader a separate, more fragile category than others,” Eaton said.

During their work, researchers with the Oklahoma Black Homesteader Project have uncovered several new directions for future storytelling. These include Black political participation, social mobility, economic improvement and the important role of Black women in the homesteading process.

“This project presents a very nuanced, multicultural, multi-layered story of Oklahoma that allows us to open up the conversation about Black freedom and promise,” Eaton said. “We’re looking forward to continuing this work and uncovering new stories.”

The Oklahoma Black Homesteader Project is funded by the National Park Service in partnership with the Center for Great Plains Studies. The project fosters conversations about how the history of Oklahoma is connected to the promises and ideals of Black freedom locally and nationwide, and will serve as a digital archive of census data, maps, visual guides, oral histories, narratives, and scholarship chronicling this period in American history. For more information about the Oklahoma Black Homesteader Project, visit its website or follow @oklabhp on Twitter.