Black Towns

New Mexico

Blackdom

The community was founded in 1908 by Marion Boyer, who walked to New Mexico from Georgia to pursue the dream of his father Henry Boyer. The senior Boyer hoped to create a self-sustaining colony where African Americans could own land and live in peace. The Black "kingdom" was remembered by Lillian Collins Westfield, a pioneer of Blackdom, as a "community filled with good neighbors and friends and an area of beautiful New Mexico sunshine."

The irrigation system in Blackdom was not adequate and failed about 1920. Many of the areas residents, including the Boyer family, migrated to the community of Vado just south of Las Cruces, where many of their descendants live today.

More background, http://www.huntel.com/~artpike/blackdo1.htm