Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State

In this enthralling saga, journalist Gayle (We Refuse to Forget) resurfaces the little-remembered late-19th-century effort to turn Oklahoma into a Black state. He focuses on the movement’s leader, Edward McCabe (1850–1920), tracing his rise from Wall Street clerk to one of the first prominent American proponents of Black separatism and self-governance. In Gayle’s telling, McCabe’s story is one of ambition continually thwarted but undeterred—on Wall Street, where he got his start after a fairly well-to-do upbringing, Black clerks were relegated to menial tasks, so he moved to Chicago. There he clerked for retail magnate Potter Palmer, under whose tutelage McCabe “learned how to sell a dream.” Still unsatisfied, he headed West, landing in Kansas, where a town on the cusp of insolvency presented him an opportunity to get into government. After becoming the first Black man in America elected as a state auditor, he was undermined by a racist smear campaign during his run for a third term. Yet, Odysseus-like, he simply moved on again, but this time in full possession of the political and organizational power to lead a movement, issuing advertisements throughout the country encouraging Black settlers to migrate en masse to Oklahoma Territory (and, incidentally, vote for McCabe for governor, a bid he ultimately lost; afterward, he continued on in politics still undaunted if somewhat diminished). Gayle’s stylish, brisk account elegantly incorporates many tangents (including spotlighting the Native nations being dispossessed by McCabe’s efforts). It’s one not to miss. (Aug.)