Historically African-American communities and settlements, known in various areas as "Freedmen Towns," "Freetowns," "freedom colonies," or "All-Black towns" were established by or for a predominantly African-American populace. Many of these municipalities were established or populated by freed slaves either during or after the period of legal slavery in the United States in the 19th century.
In pre-segregation Oklahoma, many African-American migrants from the Southeast found a space whereby they could establish municipalities on their own terms. Chief among them was Edward P. McCabe, who envisioned so large a number of African-Americans settling in the territory that it would become a Black-governed state.
Monroe Work's Negro Year Book editions included a listing of "Negro Towns and Settlements in the United States."
List Places marked in italics are no longer populated. Places marked with * are absorbed into larger cities.
Alabama Africatown Benson / Kowaliga, Alabama Hobson City, became Alabama's first self-governed all-black municipality in 1899
California Abila, California (Abila Station) Allensworth Bowles, California Victorville, California
Colorado Dearfield
Florida Eatonville New Monrovia Newtown (Palatka) Newtown (Sarasota, Florida) Overtown (Miami)
Georgia Johnsontown * Oscarville, Georgia
Illinois New Philadelphia Lakeview
Indiana
Lick Creek
Lyles Station
Weaver
Kansas Nicodemus
Louisiana Mossville Scotlandville, Baton Rouge
Maryland Lincoln Park, Rockville, Maryland Lyttonsville Scotland, Montgomery County, Maryland
Massachusetts Parting Ways
Mississippi Mound Bayou
Nebraska DeWitty
New Jersey Marshalltown Timbuctoo, New Jersey
New Mexico Blackdom
New York Seneca Village Weeksville, Brooklyn
North Carolina Hayti * Soul City Princeville
Oklahoma Boley Brooksville Clearview Grayson Langston Lima Redbird Rentiesville Summit Taft Tatums Tullahassee Vernon
Pennsylvania
Indian Run Laurel Hill Rosedale* Six Penny Creek
Tennessee
Boxtown*
Texas Source: Antioch Colony Armstrong Colony Barrett Station Cedar Branch Clarksville Cozy Corner Cologne Deep Ellum Fodice Grant's Colony Hall's Bluff Independence Heights Kendleton Saint Johns Colony Shankleville Tenth Street * Historically called Oak Cliff or Oak Cliff Negro District to distinguish the segregated freedman's town from the ethnically white Town of Oak Cliff. Upshaw Wheatville
Virginia Arlington View - Originally named Johnson's Hill Freedman's Village - Freedman fully evicted by U.S. Army by 1900, now part of Arlington National Cemetery Freetown, Orange County, Virginia Freetown, Virginia (Albermarle County) Green Valley Hall's Hill Queen City - Demolished during construction of the Pentagon Zenda, Virginia
See also Great Migration (African American) Exoduster African American resorts
References