From annual Juneteenth celebrations to a state park with preserved remnants of the town’s past, Allensworth deserves a visit.⁠ ⁠ To seek out America’s Black history is to unwittingly assume the role of archeologist and detective—so many of the stories have been buried or tossed aside, waiting for a patient explorer to unearth them. Such is the case with America’s Black-founded towns, which sprang up in the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, a product of America’s brief and since-defaulted commitment to provide security for the formerly enslaved. During those fleeting years, newly freed Black citizens set off to make good on the long-promised American Dream, planting their flags in undeveloped plots and offering safe havens where race-based discrimination and violence didn’t exist.⁠ ⁠ That was the goal of Colonel Allen Allensworth. Allensworth was born enslaved in Louisville, Kentucky, taught himself to read and write, escaped enslavement during the Civil War, and rose to becom...