I was listening to Wyoming Public Media’s “Modern West” podcast, a series about the identity of the American west, one evening in late January when I heard the host mention Torrington. Naturally, my ears focused more on what they were discussing than they originally were as I made dinner.

The episode I was listening to is titled “A tale of two towns,” part eight of a Ghost Town series about two western towns whose inhabitants were formerly enslaved, Black homesteaders. 

The hosts first discussed a town in Colorado. Then came the second town in Wyoming at the Nebraska border in Goshen County, a stone’s throw from Torrington. It was then I heard the story of Empire for the first time.

In short, Empire was a town of Black homesteaders who came from Nebraska in roughly 1908 to build an independent community in Wyoming, according to an article by Robert Galbreath on WyoHistory.org. 

Remnants of the town’s existence can be found in archives of the Torrington Telegram and the Goshen County Journal. There are happy stories of the opening of the town’s own post office, a Presbyterian church and local public school. The Taylor and Speese families were prominent members of the community.

There are also not-so-happy stories, those reminiscent of the rest of the country’s treatment of Black people throughout the 20th century. Baseman Taylor was lynched by the Goshen County Sheriff in 1913 while in custody, historical accounts say. 

Not much remains of Empire today. According to reports, the town was nonexistent by the late 1920s. Today, Sheep Creek Presbyterian Church Cemetery sits north of Henry, Neb. and a stone plaque lists the names of those buried there, marking where Empire once stood.

On a snowy day in early February, I drove to the Homesteaders museum in Torrington. A traveling exhibit of the state museum came through Torrington in the summer of 2018, but now, all that remains is a plaque with a brief summary of Empire and an article where the information featured on that plaque came from, graciously given to me by museum director Sarah Chaires.

This lone commemoration in town was covered in a thin sheet of snow. A once-over with a snow brush revealed Goshen County’s Black history. 

There’s a lot more to this story, details and writings. I challenge those reading this to dig into it. “Making a home in Empire, Wyo” on wyohistory.org is a great start.

Archives of the Telegram and the Goshen County Journal are available at our newsroom or through the Goshen County Library’s website, too. 

Eastern Wyoming College History Professor Ellen Creagar said she was excited when I emailed her asking about Empire. She said studying local history helps people appreciate “the human condition,” and helps us have empathy for others and their experience.

“Local history often (in the case of Empire, for instance) is a microcosm of events happening on a larger scale, showing where Goshen County fit in the larger situations unfolding around the United States at the time,” Creagar wrote in an email to the Telegram. 

This is an important point. In the study of Black history, the American south is often cast as the sole offender in slavery and racism. There’s a lot more to the story. Racism permeated the country, just in different ways. 

Black History Month is nearly over, but it’s never a bad time to study Black history and Black-created contemporary works. In my own Pennsylvania public school education, the history of slavery was a sanitized version of the truth, I realize now. Slaves who escaped via the Underground Railroad were depicted as heroes who fought against cruel treatment and discrimination, yes, but what’s left out is how awful it is that a race of humans were deemed property. Property of other human beings. Three-fifths of one whole person. 

And after their release, the Civil Rights Movement that largely took place in the 1960s entailed horrible, ugly treatment of Black people. Again, this history is limited to the south. Yes, that is where the bulk of the problem lay, but it gives an undeserved innocence to northern and western states who were racist in schooling, housing, voting, etc. 

I recently read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson and I wrote down a passage that put into words what I struggled to. “It seems to me that we’ve been quick to celebrate the achievements of the Civil Rights Movement and slow to recognize damage done in that era,” Stevenson wrote. 

I read a report recently about a school in Utah that allowed students to opt out of Black History Month lessons after some pressure from parents. Yes, we live in a free country where parents can make these decisions for their families. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Black history is American history.

Take the time to read, watch or listen to something regarding Black history. Even if it’s only a few hundred words or a few minutes long. And not just in February.