A PLACE TO CALL HOME: A STUDY OF THE SELF-SEGREGATED COMMUNITY OF TATUMS, OKLAHOMA, 1894-1970 Rhonda M. Ragsdale, B.A. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2005 APPROVED: Elizabeth Hayes Turner, Major Professor Randalph B. Campbell, Committee Member F. Todd Smith, Committee Member Harold Tanner, Chair of the Department of History Sandra L. Terrell, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Ragsdale, Rhonda M., A Place to Call Home: A Study of the Self-Segregated Community of Tatums, Oklahoma, 1894-1970, Master of Science (History), August 2005, 205 pp., 15 tables, 8 illustrations, 332 references. This study examines Tatums, Oklahoma, under the assumption that the historically black towns (HBT) developed as a response to conditions in the South. This community provides a rich example of the apparent anomalies that the environment of self-segregation created. Despite the widespread violence of the Klan, the residents of the HBTs were not the targets of lynching or mob violence. During the years after World War II, Tatums residents enjoyed the greatest prosperity. The final chapter looks at the battle Tatums’ residents fought to keep their school from being closed after the state of Oklahoma began to enforce the Brown v. Board of Education decisions in the 1960s. Their solidarity during the desegregation transition remained powerful enough for them to negotiate compromises regarding the fair treatment of their children in a world that was integrating around them. Copyright 2005 by Rhonda M. Ragsdale ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Although the list of those who helped me is too long to name, I must acknowledge my debt of gratitude to the people of the community of Tatums, Oklahoma. Without them, I may have never understood community at all. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.........................................................................................................iii LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................................ v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.......................................................................................................vi INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 1 Chapters 1. HOPE FOR HOME: THE FORMATION AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF TATUMS, 1894-1915......................................................................................... 26 2. NO QUARTER, SAVE JUSTICE: REALIZATION OF DREAMS AND HBT PROTECTION, 1915-1935 ................................................................................ 65 3. HEIGHT OF PRIDE: 1935-1955 ..................................................................... 103 4. THE END OF CHOICE: THE CLOSURE OF TATUMS PUBLIC SCHOOLS ........................................................................................................................... 132 CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................... 161 Appendices A. GLOSSARY OF KLAN VOCABULARY ...................................................... 166 B. OKLAHOMA TOWNS WITH REPORTED KLAN ACTIVITY................... 170 C. HISTORICALLY BLACK TOWNS OF OKLAHOMA ................................. 172 D. LIST OF KNOWN FOUNDING RESIDENTS OF TATUMS, OK................ 174 E. TATUMS PUBLIC SCHOOLS INFORMATION, 1955................................. 176 F. OTHER TATUMS SCHOOLS GRADUATION INFORMATION................ 182 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................... 186 iv LIST OF TABLES Page 1.1 The Quadroon Sisters...................................................................................................... 44 1.2 Charter Members of the Eastern Star.............................................................................. 51 1.3 Comparison of 1910 Literacy Rates ............................................................................... 58 2.1 Worshipful Master of Tatums Masons, 1898-1932 ........................................................ 73 2.2 African Americans as Percentage of Total Population, 1920 and 1930 ......................... 77 2.3 African Americans as Percentage of Population in East South Central, 1920 and 1930 ......................................................................................................................................... 78 2.4 African Americans as Percentage in Four States, 1920 and 1930 .................................. 78 2.5 Garvey and Klan Ideologies............................................................................................ 89 2.6 Rise and Fall of Klan Memberships in Oklahoma in the 1920s ..................................... 91 2.7 Lynching Ratios for Southern States, 1882-1930........................................................... 99 2.8 Lynching Rations for Selected States ........................................................................... 100 3.1 Comparison of Social Stratification: ‘Georgia Town’ and the HBTs........................... 111 3.2 Population Overviews with Percentages of Black Residents, 1920-1950 .................... 112 4.1 Arbitration Representatives.......................................................................................... 149 4.2 Timeline of School Desegregation and Fox-Tatums Dispute....................................... 158 v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page 1.1 Big Bethel Church........................................................................................................... 47 2.1 Tatums Post Office ......................................................................................................... 70 2.2 Black Gold Movie Poster................................................................................................ 97 3.1 Tatums House, circa 1950............................................................................................. 116 3.2 Tatums Tigers Yearbook Page...................................................................................... 118 3.3 Eastern Star Lodge........................................................................................................ 122 4.1 Abandoned Tatums School Buildings .......................................................................... 133 4.2 Jewel Carter Varner Neighborhood Trust Center ......................................................... 156 vi INTRODUCTION Those who are attacked often respond in one of three ways: run, fight, or give in. All three methods can work to survive oppression in different circumstances. Many of the former slaves of the South realized that their lives and future were still under attack. Despite the change in their legal status, they faced a life of constant racism and domination in the former slave states. When the Freedmen’s Bureau left the southern states in the 1870s, floods of African American families began to leave their homes finally in search of their own version of the American dream. Thousands became pioneers, founders of all-black communities in Kansas, the Indian and Oklahoma Territories, and various other locations spanning as far west as California, where they believed they could live free from the shadow of their former lives. They built their own towns – but they built much more than that. The freed people constructed a refuge, a sense of community, and reasons to believe they could hope for their future. Understanding the background of these communities is fundamental to examining the historiography of the historically black towns (HBTs). 1 Most standard considerations begin with the migration of freed slaves from the South to the North and the West and concentrate on their trends toward urbanization. Few mention or evaluate the cultural effects of these towns on the 1 The term “historically black town” or HBT is modeled after HBCU or “historically black college or university.” The term is intended to look at the way they were thought of as all- black towns, although they were actually a mix of Native and African Americans. This study also acknowledges the few white residents that currently reside within the city limits of some of the HBTs. 1 movement toward black nationalism. Despite the limited research, mostly by sociologists, the historically black towns in Oklahoma provide rich resources for study. Still, the inclusion of the black town movement in the scholarly literature about southern and African American history is in the early stages of development, yet those who have written about these unique self- segregated communities have provided a foundation for this study. Although the black town movement did not start until the 1870s, it is important to consider the events that precipitated it. After the Civil War, slave owners were forced by law to free the men, women, and children they held in bondage. Unfortunately, the reality of black lives following the war, during Reconstruction, and in the decades that followed was far from improved. Lynchings, public and private beatings, cruel tortures, and intimidations flooded over the African-American people as they attempted to live alongside whites. In addition, the freeing of slaves meant that the value of life was no longer labeled in monetary terms. By removing the financial reason to treat people of color with any care at all, the “Land of the Free” became a dangerous place indeed for those who