PRESS RELEASE: Stories needed from people who remember Oklahoma City’s Forgotten Black Communities


The Oklahoma City Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs sends this information as posted below:


Did you live in one of Oklahoma City’s historically Black neighborhoods? The City of Oklahoma City wants to hear your story.

If you or someone you know remembers living or working in one of the disappeared communities below, visit vision.okc.gov/yourstory and tell us about it.

  • Sandtown
  • Brickyard
  • West Town
  • South Town
  • Walnut Grove
  • East Side
    • 2nd Street
    • 4th Street
  • Old Fair Grounds
  • Carverdale
  • Edwards Addition
  • Garden Oaks
  • Garden Day
  • Hicks Addition
  • Harrison Addition
  • Green Pastures
  • Parkes Heights
  • Choctaw

History of OKC’s Black communities

Prior to Oklahoma’s statehood in 1907, several predominantly Black communities were established in what is now the Oklahoma City metro area. The people of these communities included free individuals, formerly enslaved individuals, and Freedmen of Indigenous Tribes. These communities were largely self-sustaining, with their own businesses, resources and more.

The aftermath of urbanization, redlining, and Jim Crow laws led to the removal and eventual destruction of these communities. As a result, most of these communities no longer physically exist in what is present-day Oklahoma City.

About the project

The City’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs received a United We Stand grant from Oklahoma Humanities to capture the oral history of Black neighborhoods in Oklahoma City. Through the grant, OKC Arts is working with the Oklahoma Oral History Department at Oklahoma State University and the Oklahoma Black Museum and Preforming Arts Center to identify residents of these disappeared neighborhoods.

The project is called “Oklahoma City’s Forgotten Black Communities: Where safe spaces, equity, culture, and creativity lived.”

“As many of these communities no longer physically exist, we recognize the need to preserve their history as a part of the foundation that helped create what is now the greater Oklahoma City metro,” OKC Arts Project Manager Leondre Lattimore said.

Hearing these stories will help the City preserve our shared history.


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