Black Panther Party Platform:

10. We Want Land, Bread, Housing, Education, Clothing, Justice, And Peace.

October 1966

Friday, April 28, 1920 “Will Drill at Blackdom”

April of 1920, Blackdom was in a time of celebration and abundance. Paradoxically, in the summer of 1919, #TheAfrōFrontier®️ entered boom times. Mysteriously, Mattie Moore and Pernecia Russell, 2 women responsible for the 40-acre townsite land vanished from records. Mattie and Pernecia allowed Frank Boyer as an assignee over the land. In 1914, after a protracted legal battle, Frank secured a homestead patent for Blackdom’s 40 acres, adjacent, Ella Boyer began her first homestead.

Mattie Moore, Pernecia Russell, and Ella Boyer took advantage of the new Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909.  Aside from enlarging the allotment from 160 acres to 320 acres, the equivalent to half a square mile, the new law allowed military benefits and assignee privileges. Mattie and Pernecia evoked spousal military benefits and assigned their land to Frank in order to build Blackdom.

In 1909, 42-year-old Mattie Moore, from Donley County, Texas made her homestead claim as sole heir of Dickson Garner under the Soldier’s Additional Homestead Right portion of the new homestead laws. As the assignee, Frank legally applied for the homestead allotment using Mattie's privilege under the Dickson Garner name. However, the heirs of Garner had already claimed the rights to a homestead years earlier. Mattie’s first rejection led to the initial investigation and ultimately the 2nd rejection. In 1909, Blackdom was a virtual #AfrōFrontier®️ town with no land attached. The local as well as federal land offices rejected Moore and Russell’s claims to additional lands. 

As the assignee of Pernecia, Frank faced rejection as well. The Roswell General Land Office found that the widow of John B. Russell had already made her claims to an allotment of 45.01 acres years earlier under the assignee Francis F. Bamforth in Wyoming. Simultaneously, an investigation showed that Pernecia Russell had sold the land to J.T. Pendleton. Essentially, the ruling was that Russell exhausted her right to homestead land prior to 1909. 

Ella Boyer was required to show significant improvements, specifically proper irrigation for her land entry. On November 22, 1910, Ella filed one of the annual reports required and it showed her investment cost of over $1237. However, there was no sufficient irrigation to maintain her claim in the satisfaction of General Land Office requirements. Ella’s homestead entry was rejected as well.

After the initial round of rejections, Frank Boyer appealed as assignee to get Mattie’s 34.79 acre allotment. In late 1909, Boyer granted the Power of Attorney to David Geyer, a lawyer in Roswell. After numerous rejections on the local and federal levels, under the advice of Geyer, Mattie wrote to Peter Keller, Commissioner of the Buffalo, Missouri General Land Office and claimed she misspelled Dickson and to replace the name with Dixon. 

Mattie’s new spelling found W. A. Dixon, Chester Q. Dixon, and Margaret White of Conway County, Arkansas. Mattie’s new claim was rejected because someone else had already transferred an additional right for 80 acres. Sole heirs of Allen Dixon assumed to go by the alias Dixon Garner/Dickson Garner. In February of 1911, the General Land Office in Washington D.C. answered the request of the Roswell General Land Officer for a ruling on Mattie’s claim. Keller testified against Mattie’s claim, which was rejected.

Roswell Daily Record: Wednesday, April 28, 1920 [Pg3]

Mattie’s public record faded into the heat of the Borderlands and she was never heard of, but imagine if she had the opportunity to open the Roswell Daily Record on Friday, April 28, 1920 “Will Drill at Blackdom”.

by Dr. Timothy E. Nelson ©

“This may be democratic for the majority but for the minority it has the same effect as fascism.” 

Huey P. Newton, {May 1, 1971] To Die For the People

Thursday, April 22, 1920 “Will Drill at Blackdom”

Lives of the first 5 families of Blackdom represent a unique frontier space I refer to as the Blackdom Thesis or #TheAfrōFrontier®️. Blackdomites maintained a variety of philosophical and theoretical models that dictated their actions, reactions, and the development of the Blackdom idea. In 1907, Blackdom inspired Monroe and Mary Collins who migrated from Mississippi to be Blackdomites. Blackdom was a new beginning with freedoms and no Jim Crow laws in the territory. In Dexter, the Boyers hosted the Collins family for their first 6 months.

During the roaring 20s in Chaves County, New Mexico, Black people were in a renaissance of their own. Boyer, Collins, Eubank, Herron, Ragsdale, and Proffit were among the first 5 family dynasties who established culture around homesteading. People under the conditions of Blackness employed freedom to reach a state of sovereignty in spirit, mind, body, and space. Written in Blackdom’s articles of incorporation, Blackdomites envisioned schooling through college. In the early 1910s, Blackdom had a university/college that produced seminary students. Blackdom developed into a sovereign, dry-farming agronomy culture that also prioritized education.  

In a 1985 interview, Lillian Collins, recalled her education as a child in Blackdom’s school at the townsite. Lillian also remembered major challenges when she moved 20 miles north into Roswell, New Mexico at the beginning of school segregation. After New Mexico’s statehood in 1912, Blackdom’s ability to quarantine Black people from racism decreased. Lillian said the “Mexicans and Whites” were welcoming. “When we moved to town ( Blackdom to Roswell) we did not really have the problem because uh, they were such sweet people, uh, of any race.”

Roswell Daily Record: Thursday, April 22, 1920 [Pg3]

Lillian stuttered as she began to remember problems “in the later years when the kids would have rock fights.” Lillian described angry “Anglo kids” from a different school instigating the “Coloreds” from her school. The fight continued until someone called “the law.” Racialization materialized as a proxy fight with kids and rocks. After statehood, Roswell fell largely under the control of local New Mexicans influenced by Southern society, and the lives of people under the conditions of Blackness got progressively worse. A few years, Black high school graduates never received diplomas after graduation.  

Blackdomites had come from prestigious educational institutions now referred to as Historically Black Colleges/Universities (HBCUs). Frank Boyer, (Blackdom Townsite Company’s 1st President) was a Buffalo Soldier who attended Atlanta Baptist College (Morehouse College). Prior to statehood, Blackdomites embraced the freedom of being separate-but-equal and taught their kids within the society, culture, and community. They also made statements using mass media and communication. On October 13, 1910, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported, “Blackdom Wants a School.” 

Imagine a literate Black child from a poor Black family in Roswell, on April 22, 1920, opening the Roswell Daily Record and reading, “Will Drill at Blackdom.”

by Dr. Timothy E. Nelson ©

Tuesday, April 20, 1920 “Will Drill at Blackdom”

The Ragsdale family was an early Blackdomite dynasty to help establish #TheAfrōFrontier; successful in all the ways that mattered. Moses, the patriarch, and Clinton, his son, was the visionary who migrated from Mississippi to Chaves County, New Mexico. In 1906, Clinton in his mid-30s lived with the Boyer family until 1907. In the freedom of the Borderlands, Clinton was eager to build and often pitched a tent to spend star-filled nights on his land.

The Ragsdale family epitomized Blackdomite society as #AfrōFrontierists®️ when Clinton signed in partnership with the infamous #MittieMoore. Her land added a whole square mile to Blackdom commons. In 1919, her story was the antithesis of Blackdomite society and she added to Blackdom’s greatest triumph. Mittie’s addition brought higher royalty when leasing to oil companies and wildcats. 

Blackdom Oil Company was on the horizon of Clinton’s vision and it included Mittie. The more land Blackdomites had in the pool, the greater the royalty. 

#NoteToTheReader: One can not overstate the inherent tension that came as a result of the interaction between the deeply intellectual, rural, religious Black people in opposition to Black people associated with sinful commercial vice.

Shortly after building a home, Clinton brought his wife, Molly, in her early 30s. The family came together on the homestead with son Ezell. Molly’s mother Jennie was in her 60s when she joined them along with all four Ragsdale children. The whole family was able to read and write. By the 1930s, the Ragsdale family homesteaded (3)Sq miles in Blackdom—Clinton (1913,1920, and 1926), Ezell (1917, 1920 and 1921).

Roswell Daily Record: Tuesday, April 20, 1920 [Pg2]

The Ragsdale family structure was the business of intergenerational wealth. Ezell completed a homestead before he was conscripted into military service during World War I. When he returned from military service, Ezell began a second homestead that he completed in partnership with the Blackdom Oil Company.

Early in Blackdom’s revival (1909-1919), the masonic vision manifested into grand meetings of substance. Clinton Ragsdale, along with all other family patriarchs of Blackdom were accountable to one another and responsible to research, consume and enlighten others of certain knowledge. At Blackdom’s annual Thanksgiving Galas, with Frank Boyer as Toastmaster; Monroe Collins was responsible for reporting on all processes related to homesteading. George Wilson was functionally a veterinarian, which required him to acquire knowledge about livestock. Clinton was responsible for pumping and windmills. 

In 1919, Clinton Ragsdale, Joe Blue, Henry Smith, and #ErastusHerron of Blackdom were signatories for the infamous #MittieMoore’s final homestead proof adding 320 acres and later another 320 acres. Clinton’s expertise in pumping was a rare commodity that made him one of the elites among Blackdomites. Blackdom was moving toward oil exploration and pumping could produce endless amounts of money. Clinton’s knowledge, skills, and abilities could solidify royalties for generations.

Imagine Clinton Ragsdale, Mittie Moore, and Erastus Herron on Tuesday, April 20, 1920, opening the Roswell Daily Record and reading, “Will Drill at Blackdom.”

by Dr. Timothy E. Nelson ©