“To Become [A] Great Mecca For Race People”: Some Further History of the Black Colony of Allensworth, 1914-1930, Part Three

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

As the 1910s came to a close, the African-American colony of Allensworth, despite significant efforts among its population to develop a self-sufficient community of farmers, grazers and business owners, continued to confront mounting challenges to its long-term prosperity, much less survival. For all of the excitement and energy that marked its earliest days, from the establishment in 1908, the September 1914 death at Monrovia, in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles, of namesake founder Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth was a terrible blow.

Though such stalwarts as educator William A. Payne and Justice of the Peace Oscar Overr put it a great deal of effort to administer the colony, difficulties continued, principally with a reliable water supply to allow for the expansion of agricultural endeavor. Accounts of Allensworth in the Black-owned Los Angeles newspaper, the California Eagle, as well as visits by its owners and editors, Charlotta and Joseph Bass, promoted the work being and done and celebrated achievements, but there was a palpable sense of decline by the 1920s.

There was an effort to establish a regular column, called “Chit Chats from Allensworth” and penned by Charlotte Rainbow, as the Teens came to a conclusion. An early offering from 17 January 1920 provided news the first meeting of the year of the town’s chamber of commerce, with hope expressed that a publicity campaign would yield good results. The Allensworth Rural Water Company installed its officers for the year and the Camp Fire Girls troop met and elected its leadership. Also of note was that Payne was selected to be the enumerator for the federal census, which was undertaken during that month.

In 1910, there was no dedicated township for the colony, which was counted in that year’s census under the “Alila” Township, later to become Earlimart. The enumeration for the two-year old project included 33 residents, of which 18 were male and 15 were female, of which 14 were children, while a third of the inhabitants were denoted as mulattos. A decade later, Allensworth, which its own township, had 116 African-American residents, with 54 males, 62 females and 38 children. Notably, Payne recorded that there were 23 mulattos. There were 40 other persons counted within the township, including Latinos with ties to railroad work, as well as some whites.

As the Twenties ensued, references to Allensworth in the Eagle and other Angel City papers were scarce, a reflection of the mounting problems for the town. The 30 December 1922 edition of the Bass’ paper published an account that “Holiday Plans Show Season Spirit,” this including the holding of a community service week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. On the evening of the Yuletide holiday an entertainment was held at the town school, which also sported a community Christmas tree.

Two days later, a program of music and literary exercises was presented with “some of the best talent available” in the community participating. For New Year’s Eve, watch night services were to be held at the community center under the auspices of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. For the first day of 1923, the chamber of commerce was to have an open house, with resident encouraged to bring picnic baskets for a midday dinner, while an evening celebration was to mark the 60th anniversary of the issuance by President Abraham Lincoln of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Los Angeles Times of 19 September 1923 published “local correspondence” for Tulare County regarding the fifth annual county fair, held at the namesake county seat the prior week. The winning exhibit from Porterville was given extensive coverage, while Visalia and Dinuba were also mentioned for their successful entries. Of nine other communities that had displays, Allensworth was one, though nothing was said specifically about it.

Significantly, both Overr and Payne pulled up stakes and migrated elsewhere during this period, with the former returning to Pasadena, his former home, though, after his first wife’s death and a remarriage, he settled in the Hollywood area. Payne ended up in the Imperial Valley in the southeastern corner of the Golden State and continued his teaching career there.

Not quite a year later, the Eagle of 5 September 1924, published an essay by Alyce E. Hackett, whose family, migrating from Alameda next to Oakland, was among the early investors of the colony with their house and barn, first used as a vacation home and, from 1916, as a permanent residence, with reconstructions of the structures lost to a 1930s firee standing in the state park. Her father James died earlier in the year and Alyce and her sisters Grace and Josephine, all graduates of the Allensworth school, left to attend high school at Alameda, though Grace returned to teach at her alma mater.

Under the heading of “Is Allensworth Standing Still?” Alyce remarked that,

While thousands hear of our struggling, earnestly struggling center, and forget quite frequently its existence, those who still keep before them a vision stay on and fight.

Fighting, in a sense, is necessary; not antagonism, however, but a fight for principles and justice.

We cannot make the fight alone! We are too few in number and consequently too limited in finance to make the uphill grade alone. And so with that confidence so necessary to success in any venture, we have gone forth making our appeal.

This was not, however, not “as a mangy cur for a bone from a superior being,” but rather “as one intelligent body of people” to others with the same degree of abilities. Hackett added that Allensworth residents, who “stay at a sacrifice in more than one sense,” were right to hope for “the co-operation and good wishes of a sympathetic race, their own race.” This led to an effort during the previous year “to put over a gigantic program” with a vision and she asked readers, “won’t you . . . help us to realize our ideal and idealize the real?”

She discussed a recent meeting at the schoolhouse including speakers, such as former resident and the first elected African-American constable in California, William Dotson, who also left the colony, moving to Fresno in 1920, along with the new teacher, Mrs. Humphrey, who was praised for possessing “the spirit of the true pioneer and citizen” and earning the respect of the Allensworth population. Organizations were also mentioned, including the Y.W.C.A., a Ladies’ Progressive Society, the Chamber of Commerce and a Helping Hand Society and this led Hackett to conclude:

Surely Allensworth is not standing still. And if we are crawling, won’t you please hold before us something to entice us [as an] incentive to walk?

The 15 July 1927 issue of the Eagle included a remarkable article that focused on the “All-Negro Village” of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, which was marking its 40th anniversary as an independent Black town founded by former slaves. The Los Angeles Examiner was cited in describing the successes of a fine brick school, churches, a Carnegie library and more and this led the Eagle to remark

If Mississippi with its handicaps as to climate and location can offer the world Mound Bayou as an example of the Black Man’s ability to govern and be governed, then we wish to ask California and Californians, what’s the matter with Allensworth?

We believe that Allensworth was founded upon the lofty ideals as was Mound Bayou but it will take a little more suffering and sacrifice to make it what the Mississippi village is.

The Times of 25 February 1928 reported on Tulare County’s decision to consolidate townships, with a quartet of them, including Allensworth, deemed as “lacking in business,” so it was recommended by the grand jury that it be added to the Ailia (Earlimart) township. When, however, the 1930 federal census was conducted, the enumerator wrote “Allensworth Township” and then crossed out that name and, on 5 January, added “Alpaugh,” located several miles to the northwest.

The counting of Allensworth’s Black citizenry showed a precipitous drop in population over the preceding decade, with a more than 60% decline. The count totaled 44 persons, of which the gender delineation was exactly even and the number of children totaled 13. Clearly, ongoing issues with water supply and crop yields, among others, had a debilitating effect on the community’s ability to survive and the situation continued to decline in succeeding years.

In early 1970, after plans were disclosed to sell the site for ranching development and former resident and landscape architect Ed Pope proposed saving Allensworth, an advisory committee of 19 persons was formed, following an authorization by governor and future president Ronald Reagan, to consult with the state parks department about the future of the site. The body, as mentioned in the Los Angeles Southside Journal of 5 February “unanimously endorsed the concept of developing the pioneer town of Allensworth in Tulare county as a state historical site dedicated to the role the Negro played in California.”

Notably, the account observed that a key driver in the thinking of Allen Allensworth when he and other established the colony was that the physical emancipation of 1863 was followed by “few efforts . . . directed toward the psychological emancipation of the millions of newly freed slaves,” of which he was one. The paper, moreover, noted that the town “stood as a refuge in the West for Negro settlers from throughout the nation, and presented to them a critically needed element in their early California struggle for total freedom.”

It was, however, asserted that “the town thrived through the 1930s,” though this was definitely not the case, while it added “a shortage of water coupled with the need in the cities for industrial manpower during World War II proved its downfall,” leading to the situation in which “today, only a handful of persons still lives here.”

What the parks department preliminarily recommended was the creation of a “major interpretive center” (today, a small portable building is on the site), “the restoration of certain structures,” and recreational facilities (a campground is part of the park). There were 35 buildings extant, of which five were considered significant—these being the school, hotel, church, post office and store and the Allensworth house, and worthy of restoration and the rest “would be preserved as they stand.”

In summer 1975, as the park was being readied for opening to the public, it was reported that the pump system for delivering water burned out because of a major decline in the water table and this forced the use of a forestry department truck to deliver the precious fluid to remaining residents. Water for livestock and farming operations was provided by a rancher, as well as an irrigation canal, and the crisis reinforced the ongoing problem plaguing Allensworth for decades.

A few months later, Allensworth was one of several sites in the region used for the filming of Bound for Glory, a major motion picture about the life of folk legend Woody Guthrie, played by David Carradine, lately star of the television show Kung Fu. The town was used as a stand-in for Guthrie’s hometown in Texas, as depicted during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl era, and several structures were brought in from an adjoining county and vintage cars covered in dirt were also placed there.

About a year later, on 9 October 1976, Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park held its formal opening to the public, with more than a thousand guests attending and Josephine Smith, a granddaughter of Allen and Josephine Allensworth, officiating. Each year on that date, an event is held to commemorate the opening and, of course, next year will mark the 50th anniversary of a site that has a powerful effect on those who make the trek out to its remote location and immerse themselves among the surviving and reconstructed buildings, the stories of the people and the manifold meanings of what Allensworth embodies in California history, including its greater Los Angeles origins.