Slavery

The role of blacks in the history of the West goes back to the sixteenth century, when Portuguese explorers who traveled to the lands of Florida and ultimately to Texas brought with them a black Moroccan sold into slavery. Estevanico, called Steven the Black, was one of only four who survived the explorations, along with the noted explorer Cabeza de Vaca. Gifted in languages, Estevanico was de Vaca’s scout and interpreter from 1527 to 1539 in what is now the Southwest, and, in his scouting, may have been the first nonnative-born person to visit that area.54

In 1805 Merriwether Lewis and William Clark, on a mission from President Thomas Jefferson to find a passage to the Pacific Ocean, arrived in what is now Idaho. With them was Clark’s slave, York, probably the first black man to set foot in Idaho.55 He was important to the success of the expedition, as he was skilled at hunting, fishing, swimming, and translating. Indians believed York to be most courageous. Others were fascinated with his color.56

 Early eastern Idaho residents, Mr. and Mrs. Ned Leggroan  [ Photo Citation 54

Africans were first brought to this country as slaves in 1619. It would be nearly 200 years before the importation of slaves was banned and another 50 years before former slaves were granted United States citizenship.

Idaho Territory Days

Prior to the creation of the Idaho Territory in 1863, much of the land that became Idaho was considered part of Oregon, a free territory, but one where blacks were excluded from settling through a series of laws enacted in the 1840s and 1850s.57

In Idaho’s territorial days, people with one-half or more Negro blood were prohibited from serving as witnesses, and those who were Negro or mulatto (mixed black and white) were prohibited from marrying a white person. Few people of African descent traveled west before the Civil War, and slave owners were reluctant to bring their “property” to areas where laws upholding slavery might not be enforced or where the possibility of successful escape was great.58 Nonetheless, a few blacks worked in the mining industry, a number as barbers.59

Elvina Moulton  /Photo Citation 57

 

George Stevens /Photo Citation 55

An early black resident of the Boise area was Elvina Moulton, who came to Boise in the mid-1860s and worked as a housekeeper, nurse, and washerwoman. She was very active in the First Presbyterian Church but said she didn’t want to be buried from that church since she was the only “colored” member and thought that white people might not like that;  there might be “some feeling, you know.”560

Blacks in the Military

Blacks have served in the U.S. Armed Forces since the Revolutionary War. In the late 1800s, black soldiers were sent in to quell labor unrest in the Coeur d’Alene mining district.61 Tensions were high and a complaint was voiced that “the [white] women weren’t used to nigger soldiers, or niggers of any kind, and they were afraid of them.” Miners shared the then-commonly held view that blacks were second-class citizens. In addition, miners saw blacks as pawns of the mine owners.62

 

Black soldiers sent to quell Coeur d’Alene mining wars, late 1800s /Photo Citation 58

Not all situations involving black soldiers in Idaho were confrontational. For example, black soldiers helped fight devastating fires in northern Idaho in 1910.

Black Cowboys

There were many cattle ranches at the time of statehood in 1890. About a quarter of the cowboys in the years following the Civil War were black, a fact that Hollywood has yet to acknowledge.63 Idaho had several well-known black cowhands and a rodeo star, Tracy Thompson.64 Thompson was the grandfather of the first black mayor of Pocatello, Les Purce,65 who is now president of Evergreen College in Washington State. Thompson was murdered around the 1920s when somebody slashed his saddle strap during a bucking horse competition.

 

Tracy Thompson /Photo Citation 59

Public Education Barriers

From 1866 to 1871 laws banned all non-white children from public school.66 T.J. Belliamy was forced to leave Mountain Home in 1904 when his children were not allowed to attend public school. By 1873, however, race was not mentioned in school laws, and in 1899, Jennie Hughes became the first black student to graduate from the University of Idaho.67  

Jennie Hughes /Photo Citation 60

Ku Klux Klan in Idaho

In the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan began to make its appearance in Idaho towns, including Twin Falls, Nampa, and Payette. A Payette minister drew a crowd of 500 in Boise to hear him praise the Klan’s struggle against Jews, mixed marriages, Catholics in politics, and the flood of “undesirables” streaming into the country. A law passed the Legislature making it unlawful to wear a mask in public, and in 1924 Boise’s mayor decreed that Klan members must remove their masks prior to a parade. Yellowstone Jack, Pocatello’s black policeman, organized a group to defend the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Pocatello when it was learned that the Klan planned to attack. The attack never materialized.68


 

Ku Klux Klan in Idaho /Photo Citation 61

Room at the Inn

When opera star Marion Anderson came to Boise to sing in 1940, she was denied a room by the Hotel Boise but was allowed to stay in the Owyhee Hotel if she used the back entrance and agreed to stay in her room. However, she received a warm welcome from members of the local black community, including Clara Terrell and her children, third-generation Idahoans. Mrs. Terrell’s grandparents had come to Rigby to homestead after living in Utah since 1870.69

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

When Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in 1968, Governor Don Samuelson did not call for the Statehouse flag to be put at half-mast, as many other states had done.  This decision outraged Boise’s black community and other human rights supporters, who believed that Dr. King represented human rights for all individuals. When Governor Samuelson left the state for a trade mission, Lt. Governor Jack Murphy ordered the flags to be at half-mast.70

 

Opera star Marion Anderson on a trip to Idaho /Photo Citation 62

In 1990, under the leadership of Cecil Andrus, the Idaho enacted a law making the third Monday of January Martin Luther King, Jr. /Idaho Human Rights Day.


Ceremony /Photo Citation 63

Read more about Black Citizens:

Claude and Mary Buckner

James Goins

Erma Madrey Hayman

Bessie Stewart

Doris Thomas

FOOTNOTES: 54- Anne B. Allen, Estevanico the Moor, American History, http://www.thehistorynet.com/American History articles 1997/0897_cover.htm, accessed May 2003. 55- Ambrose, p. 118. 56- The Arrowrock Group, Inc., The African American Experience in Idaho, Interpretive Exhibit Text prepared for the Idaho Black History Museum, p. 2. 57- Limerick, p. 278. 58- The Arrowrock Group, Inc. p. 4. 59- Mercier, Laurie and Carole Simon-Smolinski, Idaho’s Ethnic Heritage, Historical Overviews, Vol. I, Idaho Centennial Commission & National Park Service, 1990, p. 21. 60- Penson-Ward, p. 24. 61- Arrington, Vol II, p. 288. 62- Lukas, J. Anthony, Big Trouble, a Murder in a Small Western Town Sets off a Struggle for the Soul of America, Simon and Schuster, 1997, pp. 150-151. 63- The Arrowrock Group, Inc., p. 9. 64- Ibid., p. 18. 65- Arrington, Vol. II, p. 289. 66- The Arrowrock Group, p. 21. 67- Monroe, Julie, Not of Noble Birth: The Triumph of Jennie Hughes Smith, Here We Have Idaho, University of Idaho, Winter 2003, p. 29. 68- The Arrowrock Group, Inc., p. 14. 69- Terrill, Warner, Boise, Idaho, oral interview in December 2001. 70- Idaho Statesman, April 7, 1968.