Taft, Oklahoma
*Taft, Oklahoma is affirmed on this date in 1902. Taft began as an all-Black town on land allotted to Creek Freedmen.
This community was initially named Twine, for William H. Twine, and had a post office by 1902. When Twine moved to Muskogee, the citizens voted to rename the town as Taft for President William Howard Taft, who was then Secretary of War in the Theodore Roosevelt administration. Founded at the end of the Reconstruction era and part of the Great Migration of Blacks after slavery, it is Muskogee County, Oklahoma. Taft is approximately 8 miles west of Muskogee, and according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Taft has a total area of 1.5 square miles, all land.
Educational and correctional facilities have long been the town's leading employers. These have included: W. T. Vernon School (1908), the Industrial Institute for the Deaf, Blind, and Orphans of the Colored Race (1909), Moton High School, and the State Training School for Negro Girls. Taft also contains the Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center for women and Jess Dunn Correctional Center for men.
In April 1973, Lelia Foley was Mayor of Taft, becoming one of the African American women elected mayor in the United States. The population was 174 as of the 2020 Census. A mass shooting incident occurred at an outdoor Memorial Day event in Taft shortly after midnight on May 29, 2022. Seven people were reported to be injured, with a 39-year-old woman killed. Media accounts say that this incident was one of at least 12 mass shooting events that occurred over the Memorial Day weekend across the United States. 26-year-old Skyler Buckner was charged in connection with the shooting.
