Africatown, Alabama (possible Indigenous names Bogue Chitto/Chikasabogue Creek)

Item

Bogue Chitto USGS Aerial

Title

Africatown, Alabama (possible Indigenous names Bogue Chitto/Chikasabogue Creek)

Description

Africatown, is the only town in the United States to be founded by Africans. Founded near Bogue Chitto (Choctaw:Big Creek), Africatown was the first town to be run continuously by black people. Upon Emancipation, survivors of the Clotilda - the vessel which brought the last slave cargo brought to the United States established the unincorporated town.

Bogue Chitto was known for its fiercely self-sufficient residents. Land ownership gave residents a sense of fierce independence, which reportedly kept even the Klu Klux Klan away. Nearly every man in Bogue Chitto was a registered voter until the right to vote was taken away during Reconstruction.

Well into the 20th century, Bogue Chitto was known for its civic spirit and support for the civil rights movement. It was the place of residence of Clotilda survivors Gumpa, Matilda McCrear, Sally Redoshi Smith, Oluale Kossola/Cujoe Lewis. Acclaimed anthropologist, folklorist, and novelist Zora Neale Hurston documented the lives of Kossola in her work "Barracoon".

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