Editing Boley, Oklahoma (section)

===Decline===
Boley's development paralleled that of the [[Fort Smith and Western Railway|Fort Smith & Western Railway]], which went bankrupt during the [[Great Depression]] and ceased operations in 1939. Additionally, Boley's economy was heavily dependent on [[Cotton|cotton farming]], which often created long-lasting debt for its producers  and, from the 1920s, suffered from recurrent [[boll weevil]] infestations.<ref name="simpson" /><ref name="crockett" />  The [[Dust Bowl]] of the 1930s also encouraged families to move out of Boley.<ref name="stuckey" /> As economic opportunities dried up, some of Boley's black population migrated to [[Canada]] and [[Back-to-Africa movement|Western Africa]], but most ended up moving to larger cities in search of better job prospects.<ref name="crockett" /> Before World War II, Boley's population had declined to about 700.<ref name="EOHC-Boley"/> With the [[Second Great Migration (African American)|Second Great Migration]] underway, by 1960 most of the population had left for other urban areas.<ref name="books.google.com">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2DbXFLHjckC&q=booker+washington+boley&pg=PA136|title=Booker T. Washington and the Adult Education Movement|first=Virginia Lantz|last=Denton|date=July 25, 1993|publisher=University Press of Florida|isbn=9780813011820|accessdate=July 25, 2021|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzjyLeNnZr8C&q=Abigail+Barnett+boley&pg=PA179|title=Integration or Separation? A Strategy for Racial Equality|first1=Roy L.|last1=BROOKS|date=June 30, 2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674028852|accessdate=July 25, 2021|via=Google Books}}</ref>  So far the [[New Great Migration]] has not benefited Boley.  However, Boley remains one of the state's few remaining historic African-American towns and its 2020 population of 1,091 is a 258% improvement compared to its population of 423 just four decades prior.<ref name="EOHC-Boley"/><ref name="BlackHistory"/>