In The Color of the Land: Race, Nation, and the Politics of Landownership in Oklahoma, 1832-1929, historian David A. Chang examines understandings of nation, race, and land among what he calls “America’s historically foundational ‘races,’ ” who he defines as Indians, whites, and blacks. Chang begins by framing his discussion on land and how it can be racialized. This, he writes, had particular implications in the creation of the state of Oklahoma and the identities of those who lived there.
From the introduction:
“’Oklahoma’ means ‘red man’ in the Choctaw language, is run through by a ‘Black Belt,’ and has been claimed by some as ‘white man’s country.’ It has been termed an Indian homeland, a black promised land, and a white heartland. All these competing racial claims to one place seem extraordinary. This book suggests, however, that Oklahoma is really exceptional only because it encapsulates so much American history within its borders, revealing much about how the struggle over land has given shape to the way Americans – indigenous, black, and white – created and gave meaning to races and nations.
Phrases like the ones above mark Oklahoma with a race and tie that race to the land. Race is a way that we imagine differences between people and make hierarchies among them seem right and natural. So racializing a land (marking it with a race) really means tying it to a particular people, whether they be Creek Indians, African Americans, white Americans, or some other group we believe can be identified racially in some way. After all, speaking of “a land” is also a way of speaking of a country or a nation. The title of this book is an attempt to evoke this relationship between land, race, and nationhood. This book considers both the symbolic power people gave land in such terms as ‘homeland,’ ‘Black Belt’ or ‘white man’s country’ and the economic power that land possesses.”
Learn more about The Color of the Land: Race, Nation, and the Politics of Landownership in Oklahoma, 1832-1929 and author David A. Chang at the University of North Carolina Press website.
“Chang explores how Indians and white Americans used race and nation to control access to land and dispossess those defined as ‘other.’ His ambitious and groundbreaking book is deeply researched, broadly engaged with important debates, and thoroughly convincing.”
–Claudio Saunt, author of
Black, White, and Indian:
Race and the Unmaking of an American Family
Tags: allotment, land rights, North Carolina, race
