"We Are Now the Owners of the Land": Black Homesteading and the Rise of Political Participation in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma, 1889–1907

ABSTRACT:This article expands on recent scholarship uncovering the experience of Black homesteaders in Oklahoma Territory in the late 19th century. Drawing on census records, newspapers, and homesteading land entry case files, it spotlights the stories of families who successfully proved claims in Kingfisher County while becoming public figures in political and civic circles. Examples include Doctor B. Garrett and Anthony Overton Jr., who in some ways were atypical homesteaders because they were prominent in public life and farmers. Yet they are representative of hundreds of Oklahoma Black homesteaders in their dreams of owning property, voting, and building communities in a place free of the terror and political oppression many experienced in the South. Their aspirations were partially realized. They served as delegates in Republican conventions, were appointed or elected to state and local positions, and "proved up" their homesteads. Still, the growing tide of Jim Crow policies in Oklahoma territory threatened to reverse these gains as the Republican Party became increasingly "lily white," and economic struggles led to farm foreclosures. In the end, the social networks Black homesteaders and settlers created were invaluable support systems in a territory that became increasingly hostile to their presence.