Throughout the Old West, Black towns were created as destinations for rapid exoduses of other Black people from the South. Some of these towns, just like Boley, benefited from Black citizenship in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in that their rights to land were secured through birthright. Some 50 such all-Black towns, along with other settlements, and all-Black neighborhoods sprung up in Oklahoma alone.

This can be called many things, but in this panel, we will explore it as Afrofrontierism, the term was coined by Timothy Nelson which posits that by Black people reclaiming their own history and culture, they can create a new narrative that is based on their own experiences and perspectives.

This is being done in Boley, one of Oklahoma's largest Black towns. During the talk, some of the key holders of these histories and its future ambitions—Karen Ekuban, Henrietta Hicks, as well as several all-Black town mayors from around Oklahoma—will discuss this history with symposium attendees as not just past, but also as future. They will talk about the work required to preserve these narratives and the myriad ways to render these narratives artistically. 
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