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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader.
Here’s a little-known slice of Americana: the story of how freed slaves changed the face of the American West.
LAND OF OPPORTUNITY
In 1865 the American Civil War came to an end and four million black slaves were free. But to what future? The South lay in ruins, its plantation economy shattered. Most slaves had been field workers or tenant farmers, and working the land was the only job they knew. Although they were now free to buy land to farm, few had the money. Even worse, a new terror was rising across the South as hostile white, bitter in defeat, donned the white hoods of the Ku Klux Klan and began to terrorize the black community. But there was a way out …and it lay to the west.
The Homestead Act of 1862 offered grants of 160 acres of public lands on the Great Plains to anyone who would farm the land for five years. Thousands of Southern blacks joined the flood of settlers heading west to what they called “Beulah Land” -the Promised Land- only their mission was slightly different. Yes, the promise of owning their own land was sweet. But sweeter still was the possibility of living independent lives untouched by fear and racism. So they banded together and developed all-black communities, with their own banks, their own newspapers, their own businesses, and their own schools and colleges.
OKLAHOMA, THE ALL-BLACK STATE?
Although blacks migrated to every state and territory in the West, the territory of Oklahoma became the preferred place to settle: A sizable number of African-Americans already lived there, having come as slaves with the Cherokee and other tribes during the Trail of Tears in 1838. After emancipation they bought land in Indian territory (often with the help of the Indians, who, under fierce pressure to give up their land to new settlers, preferred to sell it to black Americans). A number of black leaders, such as Edward P. McCabe and Hannibal C. Carter, led the push.
more …
The US Civil War will always be one of the most studied parts of US History. But it hasn’t been the only civil war in the US. Cracked takes a look at five more wars that can really only be called ridiculous.
From the war between Michigan and Ohio over the city of Toledo (no one was killed but prisoners were taken) to a war over the Red River Bridge between Texas and Oklahoma (which all but stopped transit between the two states), these wars are relatively overlooked, and completely ludicrous.
Back on the Oklahoma side, Governor Murray decided the situation wasn’t anywhere near stupid enough yet, so he increased the dick move quotient in the skirmish by 75 percent and ordered the Oklahoma National Guard to block and demolish the road north of the private toll bridge, rendering the area impassable.
Then, he expanded his martial law order to both sides of the Red River bridge. And that was how Oklahoma National Guardsman wound up occupying land in Texas.
Link – via metafilter
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Back in 2000 Stark convinced the Paul’s Valley, Oklahoma, City Countil that they needed a tourist attraction and the toy museum would solve the problem. Five years later the museum opened its doors.
Inside is one of the largest action figure exhibits in the world, from a Star Wars display to a Batman shrine, the amount of figures the museum has on display outweighs its display space, meaning figures are on constant rotation so every character and creation gets it due.
Since opening in 2005 the museum has had visitors from every state in the U.S. and over thirty foreign countries, totaling over 40,000 visitors. Wired has gallery of pictures if you can’t go in person. Link
(image credit: Jim Merithew/Wired.com)
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