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“Afro-Frontier [afrō-frənˈtir]
Adjective; Adverb
Afro-Frontier, a perpetual motion in a continuum of African descendants [Afrofrontierism; Afrofrontierists] deliberately using migration and colonization as a way of realizing their own definition of being fully human by taking initiative and authority over their lives.”
Blackdom, New Mexico is the micro-history my dissertation uses as an example of AfroFrontierism.
— Historian, Timothy E. Nelson, Ph.D.
Blackdom History
In September 1903, thirteen black men led by Isaac W. Jones and Francis M. (Frank) Boyer, signed the Articles of Incorporation to establish the Blackdom Townsite Company to build the only incorporated all-Black town of Blackdom, New Mexico. By 1919, the town struck oil and established the Blackdom Oil Company.
In its almost thirty-year life span, the idea and physical manifestation of the town endured drought, doubt, and revival, and in its last decade, became home to oil exploration.
Dr. Nelson merges Blackdom’s history with New Western History, Borderland Studies, Diasporic Studies and Blacks in the West, placing Afro-Frontierists at the center of their histories, rather than as footnotes of other people’s histories.
-Dr. Timothy E. Nelson’s Dissertation: The Significance of the Afro-Frontier in American History Blackdom, Barratry, and Bawdyhouses in the Borderlands 1900 – 1930
““However, this more robust version of the story does not appear in much of literature.””
Image courtesy of Museum of New Mexico
Image courtesy of Smithsonian
Image courtesy of Smithsonian
Image courtesy of Smithsonian
Image courtesy of CCA Santa Fe
Image courtesy of New Mexico PBS
Image courtesy of NPS.gov
Image courtesy of New Mexico PBS
Contemporary Blackdom
As his work evolves, Dr. Nelson facilitates Afro-Frontier and Borderland Studies speaking engagements with an emphasis on intersectionality. He demonstrates a revolutionary thought set in motion through film and theater.
FILM & THEATer
Dr. Nelson formed the Ataraxia Project dba Raxia Media Group, which produces short videos, images on the subjects of Blackdom and general African American history. Blackdom Thesis also teams up with history and theater departments to express the story of Blackdom through collective consciousness, movement and the interpretation of students.
Intersectionality Trainings
Dr. Nelson is available for intersectionality trainings developed from the premise that #RaceDoesntExist #RacismExists. As the former Racial Justice Director at the YWCA El Paso del Norte Region, with groups: children, teens, college students, adults, and organizations.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Dr. Nelson educates his audiences innovatively, drawing from academic understandings as well as his own story of racial and cultural illusions, and those in his classroom. Dr. Nelson creates engaging presentations for audiences for conferences to university classrooms and beyond.
"Racial illusions have fractured our collective conscience. Molding a new future from the broken pieces of Racism must begin with a new conversation. Intersectionality has become the panacea for a community cohesion after the perversion of diversity. However, intersectionality is only as productive as the intersection." ~Timothy E. Nelson, Ph.D.