Oklahoma Civil Rights Trail funded, awaits governor’s action • Oklahoma Voice

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma’s 13 original black cities will soon be connected by the Oklahoma Civil Rights Trail.

The trail will connect towns that are important to civil rights history, as part of a grant from the Oklahoma Historical Society. Since the towns cover a huge area, visitors can choose which ones they want to visit.

The state legislature approved the trail grant program in 2023, but waited until this year to approve a one-time allocation of $1.5 million to improve visitor centers, signage or catalog oral history in participating towns.

The trail will connect Boley, Brooksville, Clearview, Grayson, Langston, Lima, Red Bird, Rentiesville, Summit, Taft, Tatums, Tullahassee and Vernon. The Greenwood Rising History Center in Tulsa’s historic Greenwood District and the city’s Pathway to Hope, as well as the Clara Luper Center being built in Oklahoma City, are along the trail.

It will also include significant Native American historical sites.

Grayson Mayor Leon Anderson said he hopes the trail will encourage economic development in black towns, preserve historic sites and retain their younger populations.

“In my community, people say, ‘We don’t want to lose our identity.’ That’s one of the things we’ve talked about. Because from where we are now, we’ve lost something,” Anderson said.

The Okmulgee County town, which had a population of 127 at the 2020 census, shares the same zip code as neighboring Henryetta. Many of the original black towns have populations of fewer than 150, according to 2020 census data.

Anderson said the lack of a clear zip code and the ability to maintain sites important to the city, such as schools, has a negative impact on the community.

The bill creating the grant program was authored by Senator Kevin Matthews (D-Tulsa).

Matthews said the idea for the trail came to him while working with the Centennial Commission on Greenwood Rising, a black history center in Tulsa. While touring black cities in the state, Matthews began meeting with mayors in 2019 to begin preliminary work on the trail.

His idea was based on the US Civil Rights Trail, which includes historic sites of the civil rights movement in 15 southern states.

The National African American Museum of History and Culture had five million visitors in its first two years, showing great interest in black history, Matthews said.

The history of Oklahoma’s Native Americans also needs to be highlighted, Matthews said.

“Oklahoma is and has been Native American land,” Matthews said. “We have African Americans who came here on the Trail of Tears … and so those stories are connected.”

Matthews said the trail will take two to three years to complete and he expects it will also revitalize tourism in the towns involved.

“This is a boom for our state,” Matthews said.

The Oklahoma Historical Society will administer the scholarship program in conjunction with participating cities.

Trait Thompson, executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, said the program is currently in the process of being approved for grant-awarding rules by Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Stitt must issue a gubernatorial proclamation approving the rules, which must be listed in the Oklahoma Register by July 17, Thompson said.

“I can’t imagine there’s going to be any problems with them (the rules),” Thompson said. “They’re pretty non-controversial. I don’t anticipate any problems. This really just sets the parameters for how we’re going to manage the grant program.”

The grants are available to local and county governments, tribal governments and nonprofit organizations across the state.

You can use it to undertake projects such as installing signage, repairing or improving visitor centers, or creating historical markers that highlight civil rights history. You can also use it to conduct conservation work or conduct, transcribe and catalog oral history.

One-time grant amounts range from $1,000 to $50,000.

Thompson estimates that the Oklahoma Historical Society will be able to accept applications beginning in early 2025.

“We (Oklahoma) have a long history of civil rights, and that’s because of the unique way we came into being, but I don’t think many people realize that,” Thompson said.

Taft Mayor Elsie Ceasar said the trail will allow Oklahomans to experience what the various black towns stand for.

Ceasar, who is a member of the Oklahoma Conference of Black Mayors, said she has participated in discussions about the path but is still waiting for concrete details.