The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

LANGSTON.

The town of Langston in Logan County is located on State Highway 33, ten miles northeast of Guthrie. The name honors John Mercer Langston, an African American educator and U.S. representative from Virginia. Because Langston and Brooksville began in Oklahoma Territory, they differ from the other thirteen surviving All-Black towns. Although E. P. McCabe has been credited for founding the town, Charles Robbins, a white man, owned the land and filed a town survey and plat in 1891. The two men opened the town on April 22, 1890. McCabe initiated the Langston City Herald in October 1890, using it to promote African American migration to Oklahoma and the newborn Langston community.

Reportedly, by 1892 twenty-five retail businesses operated, including a bank, and the town's first common school opened. In 1893 Rev. Bishop Theophile Meerschaert and the Benedictine Sisters established a Roman Catholic mission in the community. In 1895 the town gained limited telephone service. In 1897, through the influence of McCabe, the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature established the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (later Langston University) at Langston. The Western Age and Church and State newspapers followed the City Herald, but none continued into the 1920s. In 1890 the population stood at 251, increasing to 339 in 1910. The college helped Langston endure the Great Depression, which depopulated many of Oklahoma's small towns, Black and white. In 1930 the U.S. Census reported a population of 351, slowly rising to 685 in 1950, and declining to 443 in 1980.

Many prominent Oklahomans have made Langston their home or were affiliated with the university, including Melvin Tolson, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, Clara Luper, E. Melvin Porter, Frederick Moon, Marques Haynes, Zelia Breaux, Isaac W. Young, Inman Page, and Zella Black Patterson. Simon Alexander Haley, the father of acclaimed author Alex Haley, taught at the college. Langston University Cottage Row Historic District (NR 98001593) and the Morris House (NR 94001082) have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2000 there were 1,670 residents, and the 2010 census found 1,724 living there. In April 2020 the census counted 1,619 residents.

Larry O'Dell