Slavery to Liberation- The African American Experience, 2019a

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with liberal arts along with industrial education—agriculture, carpentry, etc. 89 For Black
conservative leaders like Washington, industrial education had practical purposes for
the majority of Black Americans in the rural South compared to what Washington
characterized as “abstract knowledge”—history, language, and literature. Writing on the
importance of industrial education in 1903, Washington argued “by the side of industrial
training should always go mental and moral training, but the pushing of mere abstract
knowledge into the head means little.” 90 Nonetheless, Langston University experienced
turmoil through much of the late nineteenth and twentieth century regarding the
school’s academic focus: Industrial education or liberal arts education; perhaps, a
reflection of the struggles many Langston inhabitants faced, which some Black leaders
perceived as advantageous to their personal ambitions. 91
Some twentieth century Black towns remain like Red Bird, which incorporated in
1904. It began as a settlement within the Creek Territory, and used Indian Territory’s
Native heritage to contrast its progress and ambition with White townships. Testimonies
from Red Bird’s inhabitants displayed strong connections to Blackness. Speaking on Red
Bird’s social conditions, the wife of a Red Bird businessman wrote on the destruction of
“the painted Indian on the war path, and the desperado, which has made way for
civilization.” 92 Later towns, like Boley, took a more militant stance. A prominent citizen
of Boley told a reporter, in 1905, the town welcomed people of other races to visit the
town although they have a sign that said “White man, read and run.” 93 Even if true, the
town struggled to take advantage of its militant attitude. Approximately 1000 people
89
Jimmie Lewis Franklin, Journey Toward Hope, 68.
90
Booker T. Washington, “Industrial Education for the Negro,” 1903,
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/industrial-education-for-thenegro/.
91
Zella J. Black Patterson, Langston University: a History (Norman: University of
Oklahoma, 1979), 26-39 & 265.
92
Red Bird Investment Company, Oklahoma Department of Libraries, Oklahoma City,
Ok, accessed May 3, 2015, http://digitalprairie.ok.gov/cdm/ref/collection/culture/id/103,
5.
93
“The Town of Boley: a Community of Colored People” Boley Progress June 1905.