EDMOND SUN — Modern Day Edwards Street has seen many decades pass since the Ku Klux Klan led a parade there after the last early-day African American resident left in 1920.
Little has been known about African American life on Edwards Street during Edmond’s territorial years. Their houses, school and house of worship are gone. A people’s history had been virtually lost for generations.
History has been brought to light by former Edmond resident, Christopher Lehman, professor of African American Studies, St. Cloud State University, Minn.
“In my research essay titled “Edmond’s First African American Community,” I argue in the article that Edmond’s African American community was unique in Oklahoma’s territorial years (1889-1907), because it was built by both African American Edmondites and African Americans from neighboring towns as well as Guthrie and Oklahoma City,” Lehman said. “These alliances allowed for Edmond’s African American community to build and sustain its own school and church, and both institutions were on West Edwards Street. The people fostered a strong African American identity and maintained a high degree of literacy until segregation tore apart the community when Oklahoma became a state.”
