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Territory and the Unassigned Lands. The Freedmen’s Oklahoma Association only lasted
a few months due to the federal government ruling all settlement in the Unassigned
Lands illegal. Disputes between the Cherokee Nation and their former slaves became a
focal point for his desire to help the Black community as he continued efforts to develop
a settlement of former slaves of the Five Tribes. In addition, Turner’s belief in Black
progress influenced his prejudice of Native Americans. 69 In a letter in 1883 to a
Congressmen, Turner questioned the possibility of the Native American community
withstanding “civilization,” compared to Blacks who “show a desire for the text
books…” 70 Overall, Turner’s rhetorical goal echoed African American uplift ideology of
the period—a mode Black intellectual thought dedicated to self-help and insular
community building. 71
Uplift ideology focused on social and financial mobility of the Black community.
Building a self-sufficient Black town or community during the nineteenth century was
not only practical for the purpose of protection and financial stability. It was also a
political statement because the general American populace throughout the country’s
history questioned African Americans’ capacity to govern themselves. Nevertheless, the
tenets of racial uplift ideology had its limitations. First, class distinctions consumed
racial uplift ideology. Thought and faith leaders of the Black community attached the
notion of “progress” and “civilization” to the better-off and educated upper crust of the
Black community in an effort to downplay connotations of Black inferiority. 72
In addition, Black leaders, bound to the ethos of racial uplift ideology, sought the
help of the White elite. Prominent Black leaders like Booker T. Washington embodied
the ethos of Black uplift ideology, by embracing Black independence through hard work,
69
Gary R. Kremer, James Milton Turner and the Promise of America: the Public Life of a
Post-Civil War Black Leader (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991), 131-33.
70
Turner to James H. McLean, June 2, 1883. Quoted in Kremer, James Milton Turner,
133.
71
Kevin K. Gaines, Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the
Twentieth Century (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press), 3. For more on
the development of Black racial uplift during the 1880s see pages 34-6.
72
Kevin Gaines, Uplifting the Race, xiv.