# @thrillist on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CtrRv7eNHyH
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/7593991-thrillist-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/7c23e5a9bc.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-06-19T15:01:20.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** thrillist (@Thrillist) — https://gondola.cc/Thrillist

## Caption

From annual Juneteenth celebrations to a state park with preserved remnants of the town’s past, Allensworth deserves a visit.⁠
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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.⁠
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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 become the highest ranking Black officer in the US Army by the time he retired in 1906. That same year, he met Professor William Payne, who had left his position at the West Virginia Colored Institute to pursue a teaching career in Pasadena, California. When Payne found that he was not qualified to teach in Pasadena, he and Allensworth decided to spearhead a new Black-led community. Together, the two men—along with LA-based AME minister Dr. William H. Peck, Nevada miner J.W. Palmer, and LA realtor Harry Mitchell—set their sights on a patch of land in southwest Tulare County. For more, on Allensworth now, check out our link in bio. ⁠
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📸: Wayne Hsieh/Flickr⁠
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#juneteenth #allensworth #california #blackfounded #blackcommunity #juneteenth2023

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## Tags

juneteenth, blackcommunity, allensworth, california, blackfounded, juneteenth2023

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