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Reconstruction Activist's Land Rush: Hope for Black Governance

12/28/2025

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Summary

Story summary

Caleb Gayle, author of Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State, chronicles Edward McCabe, a Reconstruction activist seeking a Black-governed state in the Oklahoma Territory.
On September 22, 1891, a land rush began, enabling Black, white, and Indigenous people to claim land granted to Indigenous nations.
The land rush symbolized hope for those escaping oppressive conditions in the Jim Crow South and North.

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Story summary

Caleb Gayle, author of Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State, chronicles Edward McCabe, a Reconstruction activist seeking a Black-governed state in the Oklahoma Territory.
On September 22, 1891, a land rush began, enabling Black, white, and Indigenous people to claim land granted to Indigenous nations.
The land rush symbolized hope for those escaping oppressive conditions in the Jim Crow South and North.