‘Empowering moments.’ Black history celebrated at African American town turned California park
Visiting Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park was much more than a history lesson for 16-year-old Tami Fagbule. It was empowering.
The rural state park in the southern San Joaquin Valley celebrates the success of the only California town founded, financed, built and governed by African Americans. This unique Tulare County community was thriving in the early 1900s.
The Clovis West High School student said that “after all the segregation and discrimination that African Americans have gone through on this land, it’s nice to know that we’ve had many successful stories and many empowering moments.”
That message was central to a Black history month celebration event that she attended at Allensworth on Saturday.
“It’s empowering for me because people lived here, and they grew here, and they experienced life here,” Fagbule said of her first trip to the park west of Earlimart. “And it’s just like, wow, I am the person I am today because these people came here. They set the foundation for me. I know that I can grow and be a better person and be successful in life because I know the people who came here before me did so and were successful in doing so. They had way more discrimination and judgment and hate against them.”
Sasha Biscoe, president of Friends of Allensworth, a nonprofit that supports the park and helps recruit volunteer docents, said it’s important that Black children know their ancestors weren’t just enslaved people. They were also “engineers and holistic doctors and mathematicians.” At the time of their enslavement in Africa, “they were not just sitting over there doing nothing.”
“And so I think it’s important that Black children know their own history,” Biscoe continued, “and that when you come to this park, you are taught the correct history. Not a story, but the story.”
Allensworth’s era of prosperity was hampered by several factors, including its founder Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth being killed in 1914, a train stop being moved to a nearby town, diverted water supplies, and the Great Depression.
The historic buildings of this now-gone Black township preserved by California State Parks are different from the adjacent small community of present-day Allensworth.
Buffalo Soldier Mounted Cavalry Unit members helped educate the public about African American history while dressed as Black soldiers from the 1800s and early 1900s. The last all-Black units were disbanded during the 1950s.
Clyde Phillips, among several volunteers representing buffalo soldier troopers from the 10th Cavalry, said it’s important to tell the “whole story.” A lion and a lion hunter would have different accounts of the same event, he said as an example. “History always favors the winner, so to speak.”
People should be willing to acknowledge the racism and injustices of the past and try to understand what happened so it doesn’t happen again, Phillips said. “If we’re not going to be those kinds of people anymore, this is what we have to do to no longer become those kinds of people.”
Les Harris, a retired Marine, was among those from the cavalry unit educating people about the past to support the present.
“Once you learn history, then you can figure it out, and you can say, ‘Oh, that went on,’ and maybe that’s something that can inspire you to move forward,” Harris said. “If he could do it or she can do it, I can do it.”
The event, sponsored by several groups, included music, food, tours of park buildings, horse-drawn carriage rides, a raffle, and a mobile vaccine clinic from Adventist Health that administered free COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots with help from the Central Valley Black Nurses Association based in Fresno.
Carla Stanley, a past president of the organization, said access to vaccines is still a challenge in impoverished communities of color. She said another hurdle is some distrust of the government because of how the government has treated their communities in the past.
She works to spread the message that covid vaccines are safe and effective. Over 20 people received an initial vaccine or booster from the mobile clinic at the Allensworth event as of early Saturday afternoon.
“It’s all about education,” Stanley said, “and hearing it, again, from someone who can deliver culturally-competent care.”
How to visit and Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park plans
The buildings at Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park are normally closed. There is a self-guided “cell phone tour” available on site, with each stop providing a brief history of the town’s residents.
Reservations are needed to enter the buildings. Those guided tours can be scheduled by calling the park at 661-849-3433. The Allensworth visitor center is currently closed.
Many Allensworth buildings are open during special events. Several more are planned this year, on May 21, June 11, and Oct. 8.
Allensworth is one of 19 out of 279 state parks in California that offers free access to fourth graders and their families via the California State Park Adventure Pass program.
Allensworth has about eight state park employees – two of those interpreters who interact with the public. The park has plans to add two more staff, said Lori Wear, a state park interpreter.
None of Allensworth’s state park interpretive staff is Black, what some hope will change in the future.
The park is in the beginning stages of creating a new visitor center and is soliciting public input. More information is available on the park’s website via the “New Visitor Center” hyperlink. Allensworth also recently received a donation for HumiSoil, a top-soil enhancer they hope will make grass around buildings greener and more healthy.
This story was originally published February 13, 2022 at 10:32 AM with the headline "‘Empowering moments.’ Black history celebrated at African American town turned California park."
