The Historical Town of Boley, Oklahoma
Formed after the Great Migration, Boley, Oklahoma was established in 1904 as one of the largest and most thriving black towns in the country. Thousands of Blacks relocated to the north after slavery and settled on the land that was owned by a Black woman, Abigail Burnett McCormick. McCormick had inherited the land from her father, J. B. Boley, a railroad official of the Fort Smith and Western Railway.
When McCormick stepped in as mayor of the town, she invited Blacks far and wide and helped grow the population to 4,000. By 1911, Boley was acclaimed for building the first Black-owned electric company and the first Black-owned bank in the country. Residents established several grocery stores, hotels, restaurants, cotton gins, drug stores, a jewelry store, department stores, insurance companies, photography businesses, and an ice plant. The town were huge supporters of two colleges: Creek-Seminole College and Methodist Episcopal College, and became a place for fraternities such as Eastern Stars and Black Masons to hold their annual meetings.
The downtown business district is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Boley still hosts the nation’s oldest African American community-based rodeo every Memorial Day weekend.