I am finding that the history of Oklahoma's all-Black communities is extremely interesting. So I was excited this morning when I was driving through the country on one of my aimless wanderings and came upon the town of Taft. It's not too far from Muskogee ("I'm Proud to be an Okie from Muskogee...), and like the town of Boley I visited the other day, there's almost nothing left of Taft -- a few homes, but no commerce whatsoever. They do, however, have a great "Welcome to..." sign, which shows that the remaining citizens are still very proud of their community. There is also a historic marker which told me that it's the home of the first African American Woman Mayor in the USA, Leila Foley Davis. That's pretty special, I thought!
I think it's cool that Ms Davis became the first female black mayor, but I learned much more by reading this fascinating article. It seems that a little bit of notariety came to Taft back in the late '70s, when comedian Redd Foxx came to town. Read it, you'll love it. http://www.batesline.com/archives/2010/04/redd-foxx-taft-police-chief.html
I also found this excellent website -- http://tinyurl.com/8xfke9q -- which talks about the town and gives a good explanation of the why and where of the establishment of the black communities. Route 66 travelers might be interested in side trips to some of these historic towns.
7 comments:
I've enjoyed your posts about the black communities. And how apropos -- it's Black History Month!
I laughed out loud about the feud between Red Foxx and that woman mayor in Taft in the 70s! I sort of remember something about it.
There may only be a few hundred citizens of Taft, but I can assure you, many more people live there--hundreds more, behind bars. The State of Oklahoma is by far the largest employer in Taft and has been for some time. When I was a kid in Muskogee back in the 1950's there was a large state run orphanage in Taft. It went the way of such places years ago and some of the buildings were repurposed as prisons, euphemistically referred to as "correction facilities." There are two, Jess Dunn for men and Eddie Warrior for women. My sister, a veteran special ed teacher, teaches at Eddie Warrior.
I drove past the correctional facilities. There was the larger one, then a smaller one that had childrens' play equipment in the yard, so I assumed it was the prison for women. Was I correct? Your sister must have a most interesting job!
I'm sure you're right about the playground equipment=women's facility. My sister and I have had this pitiful situation--on the inside she was teaching the mother of two little girls that I was teaching here in Tulsa. Sally met the first and second graders on a play day at the prison. Those play days are monthly visits sponsored by the Girls Scouts and the George Kaiser Family Foundation, a need owing to the incredible facts that Oklahoma has the largest percentage of incarcerated women in the US and 80% of them have school age children. This prison population has quadrupled in the past 20 years, the increase almost entirely due to drug convictions. I, too, think that Sally's job (5 years so far, after 30 years in public school) is interesting--and enlightening in disturbing ways.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY and many happy returns of the day.
Some other famous black Okies include Congressman, and football hall-of-famer J. C. Watts, Emmy award winning actress Alfre Woodard, Cleavon Little, who was the black sherrif in "Blazing Saddles" and Super Soul in "Vanishing Point", and Deputy Marshall Bass Reeves.
A Very Happy Birthday, Laurel!!
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