Oklahoma Academic Standard 4. The student will analyze the formation of constitutional government in Oklahoma.  

Objective 4.2  Describe the proposal for an all-black state advocated by Edward McCabe.

In a Nutshell

Many former slaves viewed Indian Territory as a new beginning following the Civil War. These Exodusters, most of whom had migrated from Kansas, viewed Indian Territory as an opportunity to create their own state. Students should evaluate the efforts of E.P. McCabe, an African American leader who petitioned for Indian Territory to become an all-black state.

Teacher Action 

Student Action 

• Facilitate student evaluation of the extent to which political and economic decisions have had significant historical impact on various places and regions, including the Exoduster movement into present-day Oklahoma and its influence on a call for an all-black state.

• Aid students to assess the significance and impact of individuals, such as Edward McCabe, tracing the continuity of past events to the present. 

• Develop, investigate and evaluate plausible answers to essential questions that reflect enduring understands across time and all disciplines, such as “Why is self-determination vital to ethnic, racial, or cultural groups?”

• Gather and evaluate information regarding local problems to assess individual and collection actions taken to address problems such as the  proposal for an all-black state. 

Key Concepts 

Misconceptions 

• Exoduster; Edward McCabe, Freedmen's Oklahoma Association

• economic opportunities, "Negro Colonization"

• Colored Agricultural and Normal University at Langston; all-black towns, such as Boley. Red Bird, and Taft

• impact of Plessy v. Ferguson on movement toward segregated society 

• Constitutional Convention and influence of William Murray's commitment to segregation 

• Most students will possess limited prior knowledge regarding the multiple motivations for African Americans to migrate to better economic, social, and political opportunities, including a desire to escape racial discrimination by establishing all-black towns and eventually an all-black state.  

Instructional Resources