Located in the Sandhills of Cherry County, Nebraska, the settlement of DeWitty was established in 1908 by black homesteaders who constructed housing made of stacked sod. These settlers farmed some of the least hospitable land in the state. The families were spurred to the area by the 1904 … Read MoreDeWitty/Audacious, Nebraska (1908- )
In the article below retired California State University, Fresno historian Robert Mikell explores the history of the only all-black town created in the Golden State. He traces that history including the role of its principal founder, Colonel Allen Allensworth, from 1908. Allensworth, the first town … Read MoreThe History of Allensworth, California (1908- )
The first all-black city to be incorporated in Florida, Eatonville was established in 1887 after being settled two decades after the Civil War ended by former slaves. Located six miles north of Orlando, the town was first named Maitland and got its start when former … Read MoreEatonville, Florida (1887– )
Whitesboro, New Jersey was established in 1902 as a town exclusively for African Americans. The idea came in response to increasing white resistance to black residents in Cape May County, New Jersey. The African-American Equitable Industrial Association, founded by Reverend J.W. Fishburn and four other … Read MoreWhitesboro, New Jersey (1902- )
Highland Beach, Maryland, the oldest of the major black resort towns, was founded along the western shore of Chesapeake Bay in 1893 by Charles and Laura Douglass. Charles Douglass was the son of prominent abolitionist and nineteenth-century civil rights activist Frederick Douglass. Major Charles Douglass, … Read MoreHighland Beach, Maryland (1893- )
Weeksville was a nineteenth century free black community located in what is now the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, New York. It is remembered today as a historic site for its community programs, urban employment opportunities, and the promotion of racial respectability. In 1838, only 11 … Read MoreWeeksville, New York (1838- )
Langston, Oklahoma is one of the few remaining all-black towns located in the former Oklahoma Territory. The town, which opened for settlement on October 22, 1890, was named for John Mercer Langston, who took office as the first black Virginian to serve in the United … Read MoreLangston, Oklahoma (1890- )
In the early 1820s, eleven African American families, some free, some fugitive, crossed the Mississippi River from the slave-state of Missouri to the free state of Illinois to found the first black town in the United States. According to oral tradition, the group was led … Read MoreBrooklyn, Illinois (ca. 1823- )
New Philadelphia, Illinois was one of the most famous of the antebellum all-black towns. Founded by Free Frank McWorter (1777-1854), a former Kentucky slave who purchased his freedom with his own earnings, New Philadelphia, Illinois was the first U. S. town to be registered by … Read MoreNew Philadelphia, Illinois (1836- )
On January 1, 1923, a massacre was carried out in the small, predominantly black town of Rosewood in central Florida. The massacre was instigated by the rumor that a white woman, Fanny Taylor, had been sexually assaulted by a black man in her home in … Read MoreRosewood Massacre (1923)
