My family loves any opportunity to visit Oklahoma Contemporary, where exhibits are contemplative, educational and discussion-provoking, and admission is always free. During our most recent visit, we experienced Descendants of the Black 1000: Flight from Oklahoma Black Towns to Canada, and this is one of the most compelling exhibits I’ve viewed in this museum.
The history
Organized by guest curator Gay Pasley with the support of Joy D’Ann Tucker, guest curatorial research associate, in collaboration with Oklahoma Contemporary, Descendants depicts the migration of approximately 1,000 Black Oklahomans who fled after statehood for Canada, seeking freedom and a better life.
In the late 1800s, before Oklahoma became a state, agriculture brought a diverse range of people together to work the land. All people could participate and gain land through the land runs prior to statehood. More than 50 All-Black towns flourished in Oklahoma, where “African Americans found the freedom to create, govern and grow their own communities,” according to the exhibition’s foreword by Jeremiah Matthew Davis.
“This period represents a complete generation of agricultural production, civic planning, civil society and wealth creation,” continues Davis. “What makes for such a poignant story in this exhibition is that freedom was won before it was lost in Oklahoma.”
Davis adds that this legacy of freedom laid the foundation for nation-leading Civic Rights organized in Oklahoma
by the likes of Clara Luper, Ada Lous Sipuel Fisher, Thurgood Thomas and others.
But first, those freedoms were dissolved upon statehood in 1907, with the first act by the Oklahoma legislature signing Jim Crow into law.
“Oklahoma legislators could not stomach seeing Black, White and Indigenous children in the same schools, riding the same trains and using the same bathrooms,” said Cheryl Foggo, one of the descendants pictured in the exhibit. “What would have been an organically progressive development toward integration is what Oklahoma politicians in early 1900 sought to destroy … Legislating something into law, something that is very wrong, gives it the veneer of what is morally acceptable when what is rendered is officially enforceable [but] morally abhorrent.”
Black Oklahomans’ land was stolen and they could no longer vote, prompting the Black 1,000 to leave for Canada. Even though they enjoyed more freedoms, the move was not easy and the migrants were not welcomed with open arms.
“The freedom and safety sought by the Black 1000 is the inheritance of the Black Canadian descendants who chose to focus on the resilience that clinched their survival rather than dwell in the racism they experienced,” said Foggo.
The exhibition
Using a combination of stunning modern day portrait photographs by David Ofori Zapparoli, facsimiles of newspaper clippings and photographs from the time, silent video and audio recordings detailing the descendants’ family histories, Descendants of the Black 1000: Flight from Oklahoma Black Towns to Canada brings this history to life through historical and modern day depictions. A history I knew nothing about, even having been educated in Oklahoma all my life.
Though the exhibition itself is fairly small, our family spent over an hour viewing the portraits and newspaper
clippings, listening to the descendants’ accounts and watching video of the time period. Our conversations included what it would be like to move so far to a strange town, how to build a town out of nothing, what it would feel like to be forced from your home due to racism and how racism still makes an impact on our city and state today.
Descendants will be on view through April 1.
Note: there is one photograph in the exhibit that depicts racial violence. It’s clearly marked and somewhat hidden around a corner so visitors can view at their own discretion.
Visit on Second Saturday
Oklahoma Contemporary will host a free Second Saturday event focused on Black History Month and this exhibit, to be held Feb. 10 from 1 to 4 p.m. Participants will enjoy making self-portraits, dance and movement opportunities, gallery tours and more.
Before you visit
Especially if visiting with children, I encourage parents to spend time learning more about the exhibit and sharing the history with your kids. On the way to the museum, I explained what we would see in the exhibit, reminded them of gallery rules (which I appreciate that Contemporary staff does, too) and shared why the exhibit is significant, using helpful language from the link above.
I hope this exhibit will spark meaningful learning and discussion for your family, too!
