🏛️ Boley Historic District

The Boley Historic District (BHD), in Boley, Oklahoma is the original business area of an all-black town founded in 1903. The town of Boley prospered from the time of its incorporation until the onset of the Great Depression. According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Boley became the largest and best-known of all the All-Black Towns. African-Americans migrated from other states to escape the Jim Crow Laws that promoted discrimination against them. However, falling farm prices starting in the late 1920s, caused many agricultural workers to move elsewhere in the county, and Boley began to decline.