Editing Boley, Oklahoma (section)

===O. H. Bradley and ''The Boley Progress''===
{{Quote box
 | quote  = We in the Creek Nation especially in and around Boley speak boastfully of our liberty, our opportunities, our prosperity and advancement, we are really free, we are truly prosperous . . . and are enjoying all the rights and privileges accorded every other American citizen in the broadest term. . . . COME AND SEE.
 | source = — O. H. Bradley, ''Boley Progress'' (March 23, 1905)
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One of the town's largest weekly newspapers, ''The'' ''Boley Progress'', was established in 1905. It promoted the town to African Americans in the American South, and specialized in reporting Southern news.<ref name="stuckey" /><ref name="stuckeydiss" /> In its debut issue, the ''Progress'' coined Boley the "Haven of the Negro."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bradley |first1=O. H. |title=Boley the Colored Town and Haven of the Negro |url=https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc2042020/m1/1/ |issue=1 |publisher=The Boley Progress |date=9 March 1905}}</ref> An annual subscription initially cost $1.

Under the editorship of Oniel H. Bradley, the motto of the ''Progress'' was "All Men Up, Not Some Down."<ref name="stuckeywomen">{{cite book |last1=Stuckey |first1=Melissa |chapter= Freedom on Her Own Terms: California M. Taylor and Black Womanhood in Boley, Oklahoma  | editor-last = Janda |editor-first = Sarah Eppler |editor2-last = Loughlin |editor2-first = Patricia |title= This Land Is Herland: Gendered Activism in Oklahoma from the 1870s to The 2010s |year = 2021 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=0-8061-7864-7 |pages = 125–144 }}</ref> Bradley promoted an [[Black nationalism|"emancipationist vision"]] of Boley, portraying the town as a place where Black southerners could escape discrimination and finally enjoy a real freedom to serve as "business men, farmers, merchants, and wage workers," free from the [[Lynching in the United States|antagonism of hostile white mobs]].<ref name="stuckeywomen" /> Additionally, Bradley believed that flourishing and well-governed black towns like Boley would help alleviate the nation's "racial problem" and counter [[Stereotypes of African Americans|negative stereotypes of Black Americans]].<ref name="stuckeydiss" /> Subscribers across the South were informed about Boley's local economy, population growth,  political elections, investment opportunities, and more. As a result of his promotional efforts, Bradley attracted Black settlers from diverse social backgrounds, ranging from farmers to college-educated professionals.<ref name="stuckeydiss" />

In the fall of 1905, Bradley's ''Progress'' persuaded Joe P. Thompson, a devout reader from [[Rusk, Texas]], to organize an emigration of approximately fifty Black families from his community to the area around Boley.<ref name=stuckey /> Reflecting upon Boley's ballooning growth in its initial years, early settler Hallie Smith Jones remarked that "people came to Boley by train loads. In some instances eight and ten families would alight from the same train. Their luggage would fill the depot platform and would be piled six and seven feet high."<ref name="stuckeydiss" />