What they’re seeing instead, if only in their mind’s eye, is a groundswell of enthusiasm to rebuild what once was one of Oklahoma’s richest all-black towns.
It all began with a few volunteers’ ideas and several dollars pulled from their wallets just to get things started. It has grown to a troupe of townspeople and includes state, federal, university and nonprofit group officials. They’ll all meet Friday to set a course.
"People are willing to help those who are willing to help themselves, and Boley is definitely willing to help itself,” said Ernest Holloway, Oklahoma City volunteer and retired president of Langston University. "We have no authority. That’s what we bring to the community, a forum where the community can discuss their own needs and come up with their own solutions.”
A touchstone Scott was invited to preach at Antioch Baptist Church in Boley in 2005.
"I had to pray. I said I don’t want to go to Antioch only to preach. ‘What do You want me to do?’
"He said, ‘I want you to go and preach and I want this town to be rebuilt.’”
So last fall, Scott contacted Holloway, Rev. Ray Pickett of St. Emanuel Baptist Church of Boley and Ted Logan, who had been Oklahoma’s first black warden.
They began holding monthly meetings in Oklahoma City and Boley, 75 miles east of the city.
At one meeting in Boley, everyone discussed how they’d like to see homecoming festivities return to the high school that closed in 2005. But the gymnasium floors, especially, had deteriorated.
What happened next stunned Scott.
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