Boley is a town in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,091 at the 2020 Census. Boley was incorporated in 1905 as a predominantly Black pioneer town with persons having Native American ancestry among its citizens.(Decatur-Thomas, 1989) Of the 50 identifiable Black towns established in Oklahoma between 1865 to 1920, Boley is one of only 13 still in existence.Oklahoma Historical Society. "All Black Towns" retrieved February 14, 2025.
Boley is currently home to barbeque equipment maker, Smokaroma, Inc, and the John Lilley Correctional Center. The Boley Public School District closed the high school in 2007 and the elementary in 2010 due to declining enrollment. The Boley Historic District is a National Historic Landmark. Currently Boley hosts The Annual Boley Rodeo & Bar-B-Que Festival.
History Background Creek Freedmen in the Indian Territory, who were the descendants of Black slaves held by the Creek tribe and allotted 160 acres of land each as a result of the Dawes Commission, set up independent townships, of which Boley was one. The town was established on land owned by Abigail Barnett, the daughter of a Creek Freedman.
As Boley and its surrounding area already possessed a well-established and independent Black community, many Black Southerners who eventually emigrated there perceived the town as a safe haven from the South's limited economic opportunities, white supremacist paramilitaries (e.g. White League, Red Shirts, and the Ku Klux Klan), and discriminatory laws re-imposed at the collapse of Reconstruction.
Town founding
The principal founder of Boley was Thomas M. Haynes. Lake Moore, a white speculator, contributed the initial $500 investment needed to lease Barnett's land for five years. Another influential figure was the town's namesake, J. B. Boley, a white official of the Fort Smith & Western Railroad who oversaw the development of a depot in the middle of Boley. After being approved for a post office two months prior in July, the town officially opened for settlement on September 26, 1903.
One of the most influential early settlers in Boley was David J. Turner, a businessman who would, besides serving as town mayor and councilman on multiple occasions, also work as a bank president and pharmacist. Another important settler was Hilliard Taylor, who developed a thriving cotton ginning business.
The development of the railroad brought traffic and allowed agricultural land to be more profitably used as a townsite. Property owned by the Barnett family, among other Creek Freedmen, was midway between Paden and Castle, and ideal for a station stop. With the approval of the railroad management, Boley, Creek Nation, Indian Territory was incorporated in 1905. During the early part of the 20th century, Boley became a regional business hub and one of the wealthiest Black towns in the US. It boasted two banks, including the first nationally-chartered Black-owned bank, three cotton gins, its own electric company, a movie theater, hotels, and multiple legal and dentistry practices. The town had over 4,000 residents by 1911, and was the home of two colleges: Creek-Seminole College, and Methodist Episcopal College. The Masonic Lodge was called "the tallest building between Okmulgee and Oklahoma City," when it was built in 1912.
O. H. Bradley and The Boley Progress
One of the town's largest weekly newspapers, The Boley Progress, was established in 1905. It promoted the town to African Americans in the American South, and specialized in reporting Southern news. In its debut issue, the Progress coined Boley the "Haven of the Negro." An annual subscription initially cost $1.
Under the editorship of Oniel H. Bradley, the motto of the Progress was "All Men Up, Not Some Down." Bradley promoted an "emancipationist vision" of Boley, portraying the town as a place where Black southerners could escape discrimination and finally enjoy a real freedom to serve as "business men, farmers, merchants, and wage workers," free from the antagonism of hostile white mobs. Additionally, Bradley believed that flourishing and well-governed black towns like Boley would help alleviate the nation's "racial problem" and counter negative stereotypes of Black Americans. Subscribers across the South were informed about Boley's local economy, population growth, political elections, investment opportunities, and more. As a result of his promotional efforts, Bradley attracted Black settlers from diverse social backgrounds, ranging from farmers to college-educated professionals.
In the fall of 1905, Bradley's Progress persuaded Joe P. Thompson, a devout reader from Rusk, Texas, to organize an emigration of approximately fifty Black families from his community to the area around Boley. Reflecting upon Boley's ballooning growth in its initial years, early settler Hallie Smith Jones remarked that "people came to Boley by train loads. In some instances eight and ten families would alight from the same train. Their luggage would fill the depot platform and would be piled six and seven feet high."
Womanhood in Boley
Black women served many valuable roles within the town, such as entrepreneurs, farmers, schoolteachers, tours guides for prospective settlers, and, of course, as loyal wives and mothers rearing future generations of Black children.
Single-sex (women-exclusive) organizations committed to progressive principles sprouted up in Boley. For instance, the Ladies Industrial Club, founded in October 1908, was involved in various community service projects, playing a significant role in the creation of the town's public library. California M. Taylor, who was renowned for her work as a notary public and later as a pharmacist, was an influential leader in Boley's NAACP branch.
Black self-sufficiency
Booker T. Washington visited Boley in 1905, and was so impressed that he included Boley in his speeches; black-towns like Boley embodied "the path of advancement," as they provided opportunities for self-governance, moral upliftment, and the development of useful leadership and industrial skills. However, he also worried that separation from whites, if carried to the extreme, would be detrimental to black communities in the long-run. George Washington Carver once called Boley "the most progressive black town in the U.S."
Boley became notorious for its sundown town signage, subverting whites-only norms, for reading, "White man, don't let the sun set on you here." The sign was removed by federal agents in 1924.
Disenfranchisement and racial tensions
Upon becoming the 46th U.S. state on November 16, 1907, Jim Crow segregation laws were added to Oklahoma's state constitution, largely due to the efforts of white Democrat William H. Murray Shortly after statehood came disenfranchisement, most significantly through the passing of a "grandfather clause" which stipulated that anyone whose ancestors lacked the right to vote prior to 1866 (i.e. slaves) would be subject to a literacy test. Historically, the solidly-Republican black population of Boley held the balance of political power in Okfuscee County, as nearby white towns were split between the two parties.
In mid-1911, within the tense atmosphere generated by the lynching of Laura and L.D. Nelson in the nearby town of Okemah, the county seat of Okfuskee County, a rumor circulated that the black residents in and around Boley were arming themselves to conduct a retaliatory attack. During the night of the predicted engagement, the white citizens of Okemah developed an elaborate defense system and prepared for battle. However, no fighting ever occurred, presumably because Boley's black community had hunkered down themselves to protect their town.
In October 1911, a "State Convention of Black Men and Women" was hosted in Boley, organized by local black clergymen. The conservative, central message of the meeting was to advocate to neighboring white communities the specific distinction between Blacks who possess "respectable standing in his community" and those who embody the "vicious element of the race." In an attempt to sooth racial tensions and prevent future mob violence, the convention sought to convince white audiences that the law-abiding Black middle-class would be willing to join arms with their white neighbors in condemning the lowly Black "criminal."
1932 bank raid of Pretty Boy Floyd's gang
In November 1932, three members belonging to the gang of the notorious outlaw Pretty Boy Floyd attempted to rob Boley's Farmers and Merchants Bank, but were thwarted by the town's citizens. Floyd had previously warned his men not to attack Boley due to its residents being well-armed, but the interracial trio ignored the message.
George Birdwell, the trio's ringleader, and C.C. Patterson broke into the bank while Charles "Pete" Glass, a Black man who knew the town, waited in the getaway vehicle. While Birdwell and Patterson emptied the register of all cash, the bank's president, David Turner, who was on duty at the time, sounded the alarm to alert the townspeople. Herbert C. McCormick, an assistant cashier who had been hiding in the bank vault with a rifle, then proceeded to shoot Birdwell. Birdwell managed to fire multiple shots into Turner before collapsing onto the bank's floor. However, the chronology of what transpired inside the bank is not completely clear, as some accounts contend that an infuriated Birdwell shot Turner after discovering that he had pulled the alarm, which then caused McCormick to open fire on Birdwell.
Patterson shuffled out of the bank and attempted to flee to the getaway vehicle, but he had now come face-to-face with Boley's armed citizenry, who had grabbed whatever weapons they could find, including guns, screwdrivers, and tools. Though Patterson was "riddled with bullets," he miraculously survived and was arrested by Boley sheriff Joseph Langston McCormick, the brother of the bank worker who had shot Birdwell. Glass, hearing the gunfire, had exited the car and made his way towards the bank to help his fellow bandits, but upon seeing Patterson collapse from his wounds, desperately scrambled back towards the vehicle. While attempting to drive away, Glass was shot dead. The townspeople had successfully foiled the attempted heist.
David Turner, who had dedicated decades of his life towards Boley's development, perished in the arms of his wife as he was in transit to the hospital in Okemah. Now the Governor of Oklahoma, William H. Murray, the very same man who sought to destroy the independence of Black-towns like Boley decades prior, sent his official condolences; thousands of people from around the state went to Boley to attend Turner's funeral. The Farmers and Merchants Bank was closed shortly thereafter.
As historian William Savage Jr. notes, several conflicting narratives of the robbery attempt had unfortunately sprung up in the ensuing decades, demonstrating the shortcomings of relying upon human recollection. The most egregious differences in accounts relate to how Birdwell died (including how many times he was shot and by whom) and the details about what specific gun Herbert McCormick used.
Decline