Feeling politically and economically impotent during the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, many Americans decided to improve their condition. To some this meant political and labor reform where they already were. To others, it meant leaving the life they had grown to dislike or mistrust and seeking new lands in the West, where they could start over again. With the opening of Oklahoma Territory to settlement in 1889, many Americans saw this as their last land of opportunity and they rushed there by the thousands. Among them were many black families, with more than a normal interest in Oklahoma Territory. They came not only for the same reasons as white families, but had the added incentive of fleeing racism.

Settling in Oklahoma Territory was by no means a new idea to blacks; for over fifty years they had come as slaves, runaways, soldiers and citizens of the Indian nations. Many families had arrived to settle on unclaimed lands during the historic "Great Migration of 1879." The prospect of a large black population in Oklahoma Territory was enough to frighten some Indian leaders such as the editor of the Vinita Indian Chieftain. However, opportunities in Indian Territory were limited; most black emigrants to the West chose to reside in Republican-dominated states such as Kansas. Thus, when the rush to Oklahoma Territory began, Kansas provided the majority of black settlers and leaders for Oklahoma Territory.

Black settlement in Kansas had not been haphazard. Many communities were founded to promote and protect settlers. In this way, it was hoped that they would never again suffer from a lack of organization. One of the most important black communities was Nicodemus, near Topeka, Kansas. Nicodemus was not without effective leadership nor a newspaper, as it had both Edward McCabe and The Western Cyclone.

McCabe arrived in Kansas in April, 1878, nearly a year before Nicodemus was formally

established. Moving to seek new opportunity, and finding it, was nothing new for McCabe.

Sometime after his birth in Troy, New York, on October 10, 1850, his family had moved to Falls

River, Massachusetts, then to Newport, Rhode Island. During the 1860s, he moved to Chicago,

where he evidently completed his education in law. Driven by a desire for independence and

advancement, McCabe traveled to Kansas and soon became a prosperous lawyer, farmer and

Republican activist. He also found time to marry. His first success was his election as clerk of

Graham County, in which Nicodemus was located. McCabe's climb up the political ladder was astronomical. By the age of thirty-three, he was elected state auditor of Kansas--the first black man to achieve such a high office outside the South.

McCabe was closely identified with the ebb and flow of the Nicodemus colony, and the movement for black political power in Kansas. As the colony started crumbling and his political fortunes faded, McCabe decided to join with black and white leaders in Kansas who suggested a migration of black families to Oklahoma Territory. Perhaps he reasoned that if a series of new colonies were established in Oklahoma Territory, and they became as politically active in the Republican party as Nicodemus had, perpetual peace could he found for black Americans.

According to one of the founders of Nicodemus, the destruction of the colony and others like it was both political and natural. The terrible blizzard of 1885-1886 wiped out many settlers and forced them to seek refuge in larger cities. According to contemporary newspapers, the steady immigration of blacks and the success of the Democrats increased racial hostilities in Kansas. Regardless of efforts by blacks and whites, the position of the black man steadily eroded.

McCabe's third attempt to become state auditor failed an 1886. Nevertheless, the Nicodemus

Colony struggled on, but more and more its settlers joined in the movement to emigrate to

Oklahoma Territory and try again.

McCabe, however, was not yet ready to leave Kansas. In the elections of 1888, he supported the state and national Republican tickets, and again offered himself for state office. In the process, he indebted Senators John Ingalls and Preston Plumb to himself. Returning the favor, Ingalls encouraged President-elect Benjamin Harrison to take a stand for the black voter. Still hoping to regain lost ground, McCabe ran for register of the Kansas Treasury in 1889, with support from Plumb and H. W. Rolfe, editor of the influential black newspaper, the Topeka American Citizen. But McCabe failed again. Still, he thought he could find a friend in Harrison and the leaders of the Republican party in Washington, D.C. Leaving for Washington to confer with both, McCabe assumed the role of spokesman for all blacks in Kansas. It has been claimed, however, that he was actually soliciting Harrison to make him governor of Oklahoma Territory

It is not certain that McCabe had an audience with Harrison, or what he said to Republican leaders. He did write Harrison thanking him for his first annual message which encouraged civil rights for blacks, and advised him that such statements would "stimulate our people to a position of possible republicanism," especially if Plumb were made a United States Supreme Court Justice as it was rumored. Harrison apparently was not impressed, as he added a note to the back of the letter stating that McCabe was "a colored man."

McCabe did not linger in Washington long. Evidently he concluded that the best future for the black man was to reject encouragements for colonization in Africa and instead migrate to

Oklahoma Territory. Others had already left for places like Guthrie and Kingfisher, Oklahoma

Territory, under the leadership of the Topeka based Oklahoma Immigration Association headed by President Rolfe and Secretary W. L. Eagleson, both personal friends of McCabe's.

No sooner had McCabe planned to depart for Oklahoma Territory than reports began to circulate that he intended to make the area a "Negro State." As early as 1888, the Vinita Indian Chieftain seized on this charge and continued to oppose black migration. It was alleged that the plan was to control Congress and force it to admit Oklahoma Territory as a black state.

Actually, there seemed to be no foundation for the claim, although McCabe's followers never tried to stop the rumor. A more plausible explanation is that McCabe and his supporters hoped to gain enough power in Oklahoma Territory not to control it and make it a black state, but to guarantee their social justice. If he should become governor, however, McCabe promised to rule fairly and fearlessly. Perhaps the First Grand Independent Brotherhood, a secret black organization, had the black state in mind, but not McCabe.

The First Grand Independent Brotherhood and talk of electing McCabe governor was simply too much for many whites in Oklahoma Territory--whatever their political beliefs. One Republican angrily declared, "I am told that 'dead niggers make an excellent fertilizer,' and if the negroes try to Africanize Oklahoma they will find that we will enrich our soil with them." Another warned that if McCabe were appointed governor and attempted to make a black state, he "would not give five cents for his life."

The Norman Transcript and the Vinita Indian Chieftain were the leading newspapers opposed to black migration and they spread the black-state rumor. The Chieftain needed no encouragement, but Senator Plumb's visit to Guthrie in November, 1889, must have started its editor to thinking. After all, Plumb was supposed to have been in favor of the scheme to colonize Oklahoma Territory and he was certainly a supporter of McCabe. While he was in Guthrie, Plumb discussed the prospect of statehood. According to the Chieftain and the Transcript, the plot originated at the black settlement of Lincoln, near Kingfisher, under the direction of a secret society headquartered in Topeka. Although the editor of the Chieftain did not project success for

McCabe and the scheme, he could not pass up the opportunity to take a jab at the white man

either. With tongue in cheek, he declared, ''It seems a hard joke on the Oklahomaists to get the

land from the Indians and then have the negroes take it away from them."

The claim that McCabe planned to take over Oklahoma Territory was given national coverage through several eastern newspapers. The editor of the New York Times seized the story and through his actions convinced many that the charges were true. A favorite target of the Times was Senator Ingalls, who the editor accused of promoting the McCabe scheme to deplete the black population in Kansas. He cautioned the white population of Oklahoma Territory to be wary of Ingalls and attempts by blacks to gain political power. If they did not, he warned, the whites

would never live in peace.

A number of white settlers were more than willing to engage in violence to keep black men out of the area and some official encouragement was given to white resistance at the Democratic convention in Guthrie in the spring of 1890. When the issue of black colonization was proposed, the delegates became quite angry. The convention agreed to accept blacks in Oklahoma Territory, but not an attempt by blacks to seize power. Shortly after the convention, violence increased as masked riders roamed the country attacking black colonists. Even McCabe became a victim when on one occasion he visited the Sac and Fox cession, near the Cimarron River, to observe black settlers and was fired on by three white men. Advocates of violence must have been somewhat satisfied with the results, as many black families around Guthrie sold their homes and fled.

It is true that many black settlers fled Oklahoma Territory but not all left because of violence. According to supporters of colonization, many black and white migrants had not prepared themselves to survive the lean years before prosperity. Then too, the late season at which land was opened prevented crop planting during the first year. Surely starvation and the threat of it prompted as many settlers to leave as did the violence.

McCabe wanted to avoid the problems of starvation and prove that black colonization could work. In this way, he could not only increase the number of blacks in Oklahoma Territory, but perhaps also secure the $500,000 that Murat Halstead said William Waldorf Astor had promised to establish a black university. Shortly after arriving at Guthrie in May, 1890, McCabe established a law office specializing in land claims and founded the city of Langston. He started the Langston City Herald on October 22, and designed the newspaper to promote migration. However, McCabe insisted that the paper also expose frauds and instruct prospective settlers on what preparations they should make before migrating to the area. Contrary to popular charges, McCabe did not own Langston; instead, as all other citizens, he acquired land from the developer, Charles H. Robbins, a white man. True, he owned a number of lots, perhaps as many as seventy, hut he probably did not make much money from his holdings. He seemed more interested in establishing new colonies, using them as bases for further expansion, and supporting organizations such as the Afro-American Colonization Company of Guthrie. McCabe's interest in black migration is evident; however, little is known of his activities outside of his Langston promotional scheme.

McCabe's early activities in Oklahoma Territory brightened his future. His political activism began to pay when he was made Logan County's first treasurer. With friendly encouragement, McCabe might have found life enjoyable in Oklahoma Territory, but the area was becoming a battleground between Democrats and Republicans and whites and blacks over the plans McCabe seemed to personify.

With an organization in Guthrie, an active newspaper, and agents throughout the South, McCabe and his associates flooded the country with invitations to migrate to Oklahoma Territory. Blacks came from all over the South-generally by way of earlier migration to Kansas. Most of the new black settlers were Republicans, but so were the majority of whites. The response was good, but by no means what the opposition press feared or claimed. In West Guthrie, where McCabe lived, whites outnumbered blacks 3,187 to 272 in 1890. Slightly over one-half of the white voters in the area were Republicans, and only 2 0f the 41 black voters of the county did not support the

Republican party. In Logan County, the center of McCabe's activities, only 5.7 percent of the

citizens were black in 1890, while Kingfisher County had 15.6 percent. Indeed, in all of Oklahoma

Territory, the black population constituted but 8.4 percent of the citizens.

With only 8.4 percent of the population, at was impossible for the black man to control Oklahoma Territory; nonetheless, the opposition wanted to make sure blacks remained in the minority. The Norman Transcript continued its warnings to white citizens to beware of the intents of the blacks and their secret organizations. The Oklahoma City Daily Times-Journal declared McCabe a fraud and demanded his exposure. David Harvey, delegate to the United States Congress from Oklahoma Territory, also discouraged black migration. For a while, blacks used racial fears to their advantage by buying land near whites, waiting for their neighbors to flee, and then purchasing the vacated land.

In the heat of controversy, when he was needed most, McCabe changed tactics. He sold the Langston City Herald to a group of men from Guthrie; however, he secured a continuation of

policy and recognition of his leadership from his old political ally and the new editor, Eagleson.

McCabe may have decided to devote more time to his business and to his position as secretary to

the legislature of Oklahoma Territory, to which he had been appointed in 1890. However, this was not how others viewed his actions, and even friendly newspaper editors voiced concern. The

Kingfisher Free Press, generally a staunch supporter, suspected that McCabe had decided to

move politically in 1892, and perhaps intended to have his close friend, Eagleson, chosen governor. According to this account, such action could only increase racial hostility and McCabe was encouraged to delay political activism. Eagleson did not help alleviate the tension when he said that if President Harrison actually wanted to show his concern for blacks, he should appoint ''Mac'' governor. However, Harrison was rapidly losing interest.

By the end of 1891, the situation in Washington and throughout the country looked discouraging for McCabe's plans and his old supporters were disappearing. Ingalls had been appointed the American Minister to Germany and no longer supported black colonization, and on December 21, 1891, McCabe's political patron, Plumb, died. The mood of the nation was shifting even further away from concern for helping black men, and, by 1892, many Republicans considered political support from the blacks a liability. Accordingly, Harrison appointed Abraham I. Seay governor of Oklahoma Territory.

McCabe's irritations increased in 1892, as Democrats, always on the verge of controlling

Oklahoma Territory, officially declared their intentions and clarified the racial issue along party

lines. At Kingfisher, which was heavily black and the home of Governor Seay, the Democratic

convention clearly labeled its party one of white supremacy. A vote for a Republican, the

delegates charged, was a vote for "negro domination," racial mixing, and race war. Racial mixing

in schools was an explosive issue even in 1892, and a black convention previously declared itself

opposed to separate schools, because "Separate schools mean better schools for white children."

The delegates had tried to blunt the growing racial problems, but their school stand and their

insistence that blacks he given a proportionate share of offices only angered the Democrats and

racists.

The political ambitions the blacks suffered several disasters in 1892. Grover Cleveland was elected president, and, in 1893, he selected William C. Renfrow as governor of Oklahoma Territory. Renfrow was no friend of the black man or colonization, and race-oriented Oklahomans also identified Vice-President Adlai E. Stevenson with white supremacy. John H. Havighorst, county clerk of Logan County, approached Stevenson on this idea of having Senator Leslie P. Ross of Norman appointed Associate Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. In turn Havighorst promised Stevenson "the everlasting friendship of all the Whites, [and] most of the Indians.''

Unfortunately for McCabe and his colonization efforts, problems arose not only from political circles, but from unscrupulous blacks who tried to take advantage of the movement and from newspaper accounts of violence and exploitation of blacks who desired to migrate to Oklahoma Territory. A number of blacks misrepresented themselves as agents of one of the Guthrie-based colonization societies, or of some other like group, to defraud black settlers. The most notorious frauds took place in 1892, in Memphis, Oklahoma Territory, after the Sac and Fox lands had been opened. On one occasion, those who had been defrauded decided to take direct action. Tom Holland, a black, had collected between $10.00 and $35.00 per family head for land claims around Kingfisher. Sending the men ahead, Holland promised to follow with the women and children--instead he absconded with the money. Learning that they had been cheated, the men

overtook Holland and attempted to hang him. Only the timely arrival of his wife, the sheriff and

others saved his life.

Eagleson and McCabe used the Langston City Herald to expose frauds, but the cases seemed to proliferate, especially in anticipation of new land being opened to settlement. Prospective settlers were advised to beware of bogus agents, and they were given specific instructions on how to make a claim. Such information and advice was passed on by word of mouth and black-owned newspapers, such as the Topeka Capitol. Often though, the main source of information, the Langston City Herald, never reached the public as local postal workers blocked delivery.

By 1892, the Langston experiment, like black political power, showed signs of failing. Cheap new lands had drawn the settlers away; however, McCabe continued to encourage settlement and promised his devotion to the future of Langston and black land ownership. As proof, he called on Frederick Douglass, who encouraged McCabe to persist. The aging leader regretted that age forced him to remain inactive, but Douglass declared that under the leadership of men like McCabe, Oklahoma Territory could he a black man's blessing. In carefully measured words, Douglass philosophically proclaimed, "It [the land] has no prejudice against color. It yields its treasures as readily to the plow of the black man as to the plow of the white man." Nevertheless, such encouragement did not help Langston.

Perhaps McCabe realized there was little hope that Langston would develop into the city he hoped it would. In spite of encouragement, the town continued to decline, and McCabe lost interest. He had other projects in mind, such as the settlement of Liberty, near Perry in Oklahoma Territory and the development of black political power.

In spite of his lack of interest in Langston, McCabe was constantly identified with the town, even after he ceased publicizing the effort in 1893. McCabe left the welfare of the town in the hands of A. Lee, J. Meriwether, A. J. Alston and R. Emmitt Stewart, the new owners and editors of the Langston City Herald. The new editors, especially Stewart, continued to promote Langston and Oklahoma Territory, but they drifted more and more towards racial conservatism and accommodation. Regardless of their claim that by comparison to other sections of the country, Oklahoma Territory was "the negro paradise and asylum of the world," the area was no paradise for black men.

Life under the Democrats, especially Renfrow, was proving increasingly difficult. Hoping for national recognition by the Republican party, black efforts were shattered when they were denied seats at the national convention of the Republicans in 1892. Still, McCabe thought that the only future for black men was with the party of Lincoln.

Surely aware of the decrease in black migration, McCabe continued to work for the unification of the Republican party and the black voter. In this way, he planned to salvage something for the black man through the spoils system. The white citizens of Oklahoma Territory assumed blacks accepted McCabe as their leader, and the Republican party in Oklahoma Territory was rapidly becoming a minority party. Thus any Republican seeking office in Oklahoma Territory would have to grant favors to McCabe, but not in a way that would anger the white voters.

McCabe's new political activism began to produce results. In 1894, the Republican Territorial League elected him secretary. How much the national depression under Cleveland helped is uncertain, but the Republican party began to make a political comeback. It was easy for grateful Republicans to believe that McCabe had some influence on their success. Therefore when the Territorial Legislature assembled in 1895, he was chosen assistant chief clerk.

In 1896, McCabe identified himself with powerful Republicans such as Cassius M. Barnes, and both men gave much attention to the election of national and local party members. For their

efforts, both were rewarded when President William McKinley chose Barnes governor of Oklahoma Territory. Anxious to heal old wounds and unite progressive Oklahomans, Barnes

dispensed the patronage with skill--this included giving blacks the college they had demanded. At

the same time, he satisfied white voters by abiding by the separate-but-equal doctrine and

designing the school to follow the Tuskegee plan. Accordingly, the legislature of Oklahoma

Territory passed a bill on March 12, 1897, to establish the Colored Agricultural and Normal

University of the Territory of Oklahoma. What better way to pay off McCabe and save money

than to locate it on land donated by Langston? Barnes still believed McCabe was deserving of a

more tangible reward and in July he was appointed deputy auditor of Oklahoma Territory.

By helping make the decision to locate the "C. A. and N. University" at Langston, McCabe probably saved the town from extinction. Its population had been dwindling for some time, and there were no encouraging signs that the trend would be reversed. Langston was an all black town, but like blacks everywhere, it had very little power. As time passed, black citizens of

Oklahoma Territory realized the disadvantage of such failures. Violence and segregation patterns

made Oklahoma Territory appear uninviting to black settlers, and without black voters to protect

their civil rights, they would become less and less secure.

The census reports for 1900 illustrated how successful white resistance was, and how ineffective McCabe and his followers had been. In 1890, there had been nearly 22,000 blacks in both Oklahoma and Indian Territory. By 1900, this figure had grown to only about 56,000, while the percentage shrank from 8.4 to 7. The black population of Logan County increased from 5.7 to 23 percent, but a great number of blacks were below the age of 10 and lived in Guthrie. As for

Langston, its population dipped from perhaps nearly 2,000 to just river 250. Although blacks

charged that the 1900 census report was inaccurate, they could hardly avoid the fact that they

were losing ground.

Nevertheless, McCabe retained his position in the government while violence and party politics were destroying other black citizens. He was reappointed assistant auditor under Barnes,

Thompson B. Ferguson, William M. Jenkins and Frank Frantz, but was removed from office when

the Democrats came to power at statehood. Black leaders opposed statehood and even carried

their case to President Theodore Roosevelt, but their efforts failed as violence, race wars and

Roosevelt's disinterest reduced their influence.

In the end, even McCabe became a casualty. After becoming assistant auditor in 1897, McCabe was a phantom figure and his power Continued to decline as time passed. The Langston Western Age, which took over the duties of the Langston City Herald, mentioned him only briefly, and McCabe's name did not appear among those who attended social functions at Langston University. In 1908, McCabe filed a suit against segregated rail transportation in Oklahoma, and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court only to be turned down because he did not appeal to a violation of equality within segregation. McCabe suffered badly at the hands of those he had trusted in politics, and by September, 1908, he had enough. With bitterness and emotional strain, he sold his holdings and moved to Chicago, Illinois. He died there in 1920, but his body was returned to Topeka for burial. Tragically, few people took notice because, after statehood, McCabe had drifted into obscurity.

It seems doubtful that McCabe planned to create a black state out of Oklahoma Territory. There simply was no way to move enough black voters into the area. More likely, McCabe hoped to have enough blacks in Oklahoma Territory to guarantee their security, and colonization was a

means of accomplishing his goal. To succeed, McCabe counted on white support, but disinterest,

dishonesty and violence denied him the needed aid. Thus, the colonization effort, if it were

designed to control Oklahoma Territory was doomed to failure from the start.

Still, McCabe benefitted from his efforts. He had a good business in Guthrie and his

political power increased for awhile; however, there was no evidence that McCabe ever made

much money from the movement by illegal means. His action, though, may have played an

important part in the failure of the colonization movement. McCabe was the spirit of Langston,

and yet when the town was in difficulty, he virtually abandoned it. However, in fairness to

McCabe he may have thought that political action would save it and other black communities. It

might have, but the talk of making him governor did not help. Still, McCabe was one of the early

leaders of the black colonization effort in Oklahoma Territory and one of the principle reasons for

the creation of Langston University.