Settlement on the Oklahoma frontier, which began as abruptly as a pistol shot on a starting line, produced a collision of cultures. "Women of Oklahoma, 1890-1920," uses primary sources, particularly diaries and letters, to tell the stories of white, black, and Native American women who crossed racial and cultural barriers to work together, first in domestic concerns and later in community and national affairs. The personal stories of pioneering Oklahoma women cross boundaries of race and class; their attitudes and concerns transcend time and place.

African American women enslaved by the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Creek Nations led lives ranging from utter subjection to recognized kinship. Regardless of status, during Removal, they followed the Trail of Tears in the footsteps of their slaveholders, suffering the same life-threatening hardships and poverty. As if Removal to Indian Territory weren't cataclysmic enough, the Civil War shattered the worlds of these slave women even more, scattering families, destroying property, and disrupting social and family relationships. Suddenly they were freed, but had nowhere to turn. Freedwomen found themselves negotiating new lives within a labyrinth of federal and tribal oversight, Indian resentment, and intruding entrepreneurs and settlers.

Oklahoma historian Angie Debo once observed that all the forces of United States history have come to bear in the development of the Sooner State. This collection of essays provides a series of snapshots reflecting both the singularity of the Oklahoma experience and the state's connections to America's broader history.
Spanning the Civil War era and the present, this book develops historic themes as varied as the causes of Indian land dispossession, the Statehood Day wedding ceremony, the oil industry's environmental impact, the Tulsa Race Riot, labor relations during the New Deal, the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment, the state's unique Native artistic traditions, and its musical landscape.
Oklahomans have always represented multiple races and cultures, lived in big cities or small towns or on farms, and promoted prosperity and cultural achievement while battling poverty and ignorance. The American Main Street has been the site not only of the best principles of community spirit and traditional values but also of shocking cases of prejudice and violence. Rather than shrinking from difficult subjects, "Main Street Oklahoma "describes the state's abundant human, natural, and cultural resources, paying tribute to the true grit of Oklahomans, but also exploring some of the more troubling moments in Oklahoma's past. The editors and contributors provide engaging perspectives on the state's rich and diverse history.