Black Towns and the Civil War: Touring Battles of Race, Nation, and Place

This article focuses on the inclusion of a Civil War battle site, Honey Springs, in two bus tours of Oklahoma’s historic Black towns. I explore why tours devoted to Black communities visit the site of a historic military event, and how each tour does so differently. Looking at a conventional state-sponsored tour narrative of the battle site and an alternative tour narrative, I argue that the two are distinct in how they position the relationship of blackness to America. The conventional narrative focuses on the details of the battle, placing Black participation and relevance to the war story on the sidelines. Ultimately, I argue that the two tours demonstrate public struggles over the place of blackness in the nation’s history.