Thread by @citeblackwomen

Hey y'all, @melissanstuckey is back for another session!
#Juneteenth originated in Texas! But Emancipation meant Black people had the freedom to move and they did. In the 1890s and 1900s Black Texans moved to Oklahoma and brought Juneteenth with them.

Take a look at a piece near and dear to my heart. It's called "The Boley Rodeo: A Juneteenth Like No Other" I wrote it for @newterritorymag. Find it here: newterritorymag.com/in-this-place/
Read it and let's talk about it! T/Y @DrMChatelain for connecting me to @Gasconader! #CiteBlackWomen

@DrMChatelain is a brilliant black historian and author of two books!
Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
and
South Side Girls: Growing up in the Great Migration.

Add these to your summer reading list. marciachatelain.com

@newterritorymag is the "little magazine that could." Publisher @Gasconader is a friend and ally and has been telling the world that American midwest is a complex, interracial, and multicultural space. My first article with NT can be found here: newterritorymag.com/2016/08/09/afr…

Now back to Oklahoma! My scholarly work and 20+ years obsession is focused on the all-black town of Boley, Oklahoma! Oklahoma was home to more black towns than any other place in the United States. Boley still exists and has a Black Rodeo every year. #Juneteenth #CiteBlackWomen

I took the above photo around 2003 at the Boley Rodeo with a 35mm film camera. 📸 Remember those? The modern Boley Rodeo takes place on Memorial Day weekend every year. But the first Boley Rodeo took place on #Juneteenth in 1905! #CiteBlackWomen

Boley was established in 1903. The 1905 Boley Rodeo celebrated black freedom and recruited Southern Black people to move to Boley. It was a 3-day festival designed to show this new all-black town off to the world! #Juneteenth #CiteBlackWomen

This is a photograph of the Boley town council from about 1907. You can find it and others at the Oklahoma Historical Society @okhistory. The two men in the front center are Texas to Okla. settlers and Boley founders, Thomas Haynes and David J. Turner. #Juneteenth #CiteBlackWomen

I'm going to keep diving into Black Okla. history and #Juneteenth, but follow @Karla_Slocum, author of Black Towns, Black Futures: The Enduring Allure of a Black Place in the American West to learn more about Black towns in Oklahoma today. Add it to your summer reading list!

Black towns were about black freedom. That meant many things, but access to capital was hugely important. Boley had THREE banks. Most enduring was the Farmers and Merchants Bank, seen below. Photo courtesy of @okhistory.

There's a theme here. Economic opportunity is a critical component to black freedom. Whether we are talking about small businesses in Boley or your hometown or franchises like @McDonaldsCorp @McDonalds. Investing in Black people is good for everybody. #Juneteenth #CiteBlackWomen

As far back as the 1890s, #Juneteenth celebrations took place all over Oklahoma. FYI, Oklahoma became a state in 1907. Before that it was divided into Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory. And before that it was all called Indian Territory. And slavery was practiced there.

A fun clip from The Western World, a black newspaper edited by John C. Leftwich (far left). All three men spoke at a #Juneteenth celebration in Chickasha, Indian Territory in 1903. Leftwich later moved to Boley and opened a school called the Creek-Seminole College. @okhistory

Don't strain your eyes! That's my job! Reading and interpreting primary sources is a part of what historians do.
This one describes a 1903 #Juneteenth in Indian Terr., baseball games, a parade, a band, a Juneteenth queen, a bicycle race, a foot race, a horse race, and speeches!

Stay tuned, at 4:30PM ET, I'll be back to talk about #Juneteenth in Tulsa! #BlackWallStreet. In the meantime check out Shennette Garrett-Scott @EbonRebel,
author of Banking on Freedom, and Kendra Field @fieldkendra, author of Growing Up with the Country. #CiteBlackWomen

@threadreaderapp unroll please