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A BUXTON RETROSPECTIVE Introduction to the 2003 Edition N 1980,when we began to research the history of Buxton, a coal mining community that existed in southeastern Iowa between 1900 and the early 1920s, it quickly became apparent that the Buxton story was unusual in several respects . Buxton had been, after all, the largest unincorporated coal mining community in the state. Most important, however, was that Buxton's population of 5,000 contained a majority of African Americans , a highly unusual racial composition for a state which at the time was about 99 percentwhite. Although Buxton was essentially abandoned early in the 1920s, even forty years later former residents returned to the town site to hold picnics, greet former neighbors and friends, and reminisce about the prosperous and happy times they had known there. Among former residents, the community became almost legendary. In 1980, when we began researching the town's history, many of the African American~ we spoke to throughout Iowa proclaimed that Buxton had been a utopia for its black citizens. A central task of our research was to answer a basic, fundamental question: Was Buxton the utopia that former residents proclaimed it to be? Supported by a grant from the Department of the Interior, we began our research in the summer of 1980.1 A major part of that work was interviewing former Buxton residents, both black and white; in total, we interviewed seventy-five people. We also collected archival data including census records, state mining reports, newspaper articles, manuscripts, and photographs. As we completed the research and analyzed our findings , we felt the evidence did, indeed, support the utopian claims of former residents. The Buxton mines had provided a racially integrated workplace and, in keeping with the United Mine Workers policy, blacks and whites there received equal pay for equal work. Racial equality was also evident in Buxton's residential areas, where blacks and whites lived side vii viii Introduction to the 2003 Edition by side in similar company housing. Moreover, both blacks and whites operated businesses in Buxton, and black children attended integrated public schools. Given these circumstances, we concluded that Buxton had been a community where racial harmony prevailed and where equal work, equal pay, and equal living conditions existed for African Americans . It seemed to us that the remembrances of former residents rang true: Buxton had been a utopia for black Iowans. Now, some eighty years after the town's demise and sixteen years after the original publication of our findings, the history of Buxton remains a compelling, intriguing story that continues to capture people's imaginations in Iowa and elsewhere. The Buxton story still produces a sense of awe that a racially integrated community could have existed in Iowa in the early twentieth century. For the people who lived there, particularly African Americans, Buxton seemed a virtual oasis in the midst of an otherwise hostile world. This reprinting of Buxton's history under the new title Buxton:A Black Utopia in the Heartlandprovides us an opportunity to reflect not only on the original study, published in 1987, but perhaps more important, to remember the many former Buxton residents who shared their wonderful memories with us. Most of them are no longer living, but we hope this reprinting of their stories will serve their memories well. For us, the interviews were the most compelling and significant part of the Buxton data. Although recorded some twenty years ago, the voices of the men and women who once lived in Buxton still resonate with exuberance, affection, and poignancy. Dorothy Collier, who lived in Buxton as a child, later stated that Buxton "was kind of heaven to me, in a way of speaking, 'cause the memories were so nice."2 Hucey Hart, a miner in both Buxton and nearby Haydock, remembered that in Buxton, with its many businesses and organizations, "you didn't \vant for nothing ." While Dorothy Collier and Hucey Hart were African Americans, Archie Harris was a white man who also perceived Buxton to be an exceptional community. Harris commented that Ben Buxton "must have just loved the colored people ... because he made everything so nice for them here in Buxton." Former residents related in their own words how Buxton provided not only an accepting workplace for both blacks and whites but also comfortable, integrated housing; good medical care; and steady work with good pay. The interviews also covered the fact that while life in Buxton marked a golden time in the lives of...

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