Who was the first Black child born in Oklahoma City? In a city obsessed with the first, biggest, only, and best, this important legacy deserves our attention too. 

On April 21, 1910 census enumerator Dorthy P. Klein set off to talk with residents of the Orchard Park addition in West Oklahoma City. Platted and opened to sale in 1901, the neighborhood had a mix of both Black and White residents, with the majority of Black residents being more south and west (closer to the unchanneled North Canadian River) and on side streets like Orchard, Peach, Harrah, and Russell (today’s McKinley, Brauer, Douglas and Klein Avenues). Dorthy was a 34-year-old White widow, currently living in a boarding house hotel downtown and also working as a woman’s soap and perfume saleswoman. Many of Dorthy’s census pages are unremarkable, similar to all other 1910 records written in ink and noting the address, name, education, birthplace, and occupation of Americans. However, on a few pages Dorthy left editorial notes about the people she visited that reveal much more about the lives of this Black Oklahoma City community.  

When Ms. Klein visited 27 South Harrah, a corner lot just north of California Avenue, she spoke with Frank or Maria Johnson, a married Black couple likely both born into slavery. Neither could write and were still working physically demanding jobs in their 60s. They shared their home with their daughter Eva Deason, her husband William, and Eva’s two children Edna and Richard Canady. Two boarders lived with the family as well. At the bottom of the page Dorthy Keith notes simply, “Edna Canady is the first colored child born in Oklahoma City.”  

Edna is listed as 20 years old in 1910 making her birth year 1890, the year following the 1889 Land Run. This certainly puts her in the right timeline to be one of the first children born here. According to the 1890 Territorial Census, only 6.2% of Oklahoma City households were listed as Black or Mixed race. If Edna was born early enough in the year, she should be listed on the census. The Territorial Census was carried out in the Summer of 1890 and shows Frank and Maria Johnson living along First Street. They had only been in Oklahoma Territory for eight months, not coming at the Land Run, but during the following fall. Living with them on First Street were Maria’s two older sons Oscar and William, Oscar’s wife Zoie, Frank and Maria’s two daughters Eva and Effie, 16 and 9 years old, and a granddaughter named Edna, age 4 months.  

Listed as Edna Johnson, this little girl certainly fits the timeline for the first Black child born in the new city, but could there be others born then too? The 1890 Census shows one possible, but confusing entry. Living in far south Oklahoma City at the corner of Choctaw and Harvey (modern Scissortail Park) was a Black family of three women and two babies. Amanda Cooper, 34, a widow and her daughters Francis and Estella, 20 and 16, had come to Oklahoma Territory five months prior, probably in January 1890. Someone in the household was pregnant on this trip, as baby boys Clayborn and Clifford are listed as four and three months old. On the census entry, Amanda is listed as the Head of Household and all four others are listed as her offspring (daughter or son). Was one son Amanda’s and the other a grandson? We are unable to know, but Clayborn Cooper is listed as the same age as Edna Johnson, four months.  

Can it be proved that Edna is older? Neither Clayborn nor Clifford are found on later censuses. Their names could have changed or they may have both died as children. The Black Community in Oklahoma City was very small, just 94 Black and mixed households. Although they lived about a twenty minute walk apart, it’s reasonable to assume that there were very few midwives in the territory and one woman may have delivered both babies. Perhaps she confirmed to Edna’s mother that she was indeed the first Black child born in Oklahoma City. “Print the legend” as they say, and twenty years later Edna’s family felt confident saying the title was hers.  

In 1890 the Johnsons lived on the first block from the Santa Fe tracks on West First Street, now the 000 block of Park Avenue. The census doesn’t tell us a street address, but about twenty Black households lived on the north side of Oklahoma City in a railroad right-of-way. Because of the proximity to coal soot and noise, much of the housing here was small, cheap, and temporary. Frank and his stepsons were all listed as laborers in an 1890 city directory, indicating a family living in the margins. Maps from 1894 show several small dwellings here including a few labeled “Negro Dwellings”. This is where the first Black baby in Oklahoma City was born.  

Where did Edna Johnson grow up? By 1900 the family was now living at 204 E Grand. Recorded as living in the home on the census were Maria Johnson, listed as a boarder, and Eva Deason and her children Edna and Richard Canada. Eva is listed as the head of her household. Eva is shown to have been married for three years, but it is not clear who her husband is and where he was living. Also unclear is how Edna and Richard took the last name Canada. Although the last names are inconsistent with the 1890 census, Edna’s listed birthdate of February 1890 serves to confirm her identity. Interestingly, the owner of the house was Richard Rogan. Living with Richard was his son Charles W. Rogan, also known as Bullet Rogan, an incredible baseball talent forced to play in the Negro Leagues his entire career. Bullet Rogan was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998.  

Edna’s census line lists her profession as “at school”. While there are no records of her as a student, we can assume she attended the schools set up for Black students in early Oklahoma City. By the time Edna was school aged, many Black youth of the city attended Douglass School in the 400 block of East California (today’s Bricktown Ballpark), a two-story ramshackle wood structure. When that school building burned, Black students moved to the former Webster School building (renamed Douglass).   

How and when did Enda Johnson start living in West Town? Her mother and stepdad appeared to have lived at 27 S. Harrah (Douglas) with her for several years preceding the 1910 census. While Eva Deason is listed as married on the 1900 census, there is little record of her husband William before 1902. The 1902 and 1903 City Directory shows them living together in South Town at 113 Texas (or Pottawatomie, today’s SW 5th). By 1905 they had moved to their West Town address. Orchard Park Addition was opened to buyers in 1901 and seems to have a mixed-race population from its earliest days. Will Deason had a variety of jobs over the decade including laborer, waiter, and a teamster for a lumber company. It’s unclear when Frank and Maria Johnson moved in with Will and Eva Deason, but the home on South Harrah was large enough to accommodate two additional roomers at the time of the Census. Edna is listed as a music teacher working on her own accord, perhaps giving music lessons around town. (Her aunt Effie Johnson also listed this as her profession in the early 1900s, perhaps she taught Edna.) So here we are, Edna, the first Black baby born in Oklahoma City is now a 20-year-old woman living in a Black enclave of early Oklahoma City with her mother, stepfather, young brother, and grandparents. Or is she? 

On the same day as Dorthy Klein was walking through West Town for the 1910 Census, another Eva and Edna can be found on census records 600 miles away. Colorado Springs enumerator Joseph Sykes listed Eva Deason and daughter Edna as living at 314 East Cimarron. The ages of the women match their Oklahoma City counterparts. The 1910 Census doesn’t ask about time lived in the state or territory, so impossible to know how long they had been living in Colorado. Were they expected back in Oklahoma City? Eva lists herself as married--would Will and Richard Deason be joining them? The answer appears to be no. In 1920 Edna and Eva still lived together in Colorado Springs and Eva’s mother Maria Johnson was living with them. (Frank Johnson would have been 79 and may have passed, prompting Maria’s move.) Eva was now listed as Divorced.  

The following years read as a steady and idyllic American story for Edna. In 1922, she married William L Walker, a medical doctor. By 1930 they lived in a home they owned in Colorado Springs, with two children, a five-year-old boy named after her brother Richard and a 3-year-old daughter Edween. In 1940, the family lived in the same home, the children now teenagers. Neither Edna nor Will were employed at the time, but this could be for a variety of reasons including retirement. A child born into poverty in a rugged new town, constantly moving from house to house through the poorest parts of Oklahoma City, she now lived comfortably as a wife and mother in her own two-story home on a tree-lined neighborhood street.  

The last chapter is Edna’s life may have been its longest. According to an obituary from her family, William Walker died in 1954, aged 72. He had been out of work for several year proceeding his death. Edna had worked as a private music tutor throughout her early life but joined the Colorado civil service and worked in state government. Her brother Richard eventually moved to Colorado Springs as well, married a woman named Alis, and passed at age 84 in 1976. Edna outlived them all, living the rest of her days in Colorado Springs, attending Trinity Baptist Church and meetings of the local NAACP and Negro Historical Association of Colorado Springs. She died at the age of 106. She had six grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. Her tombstone at Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs lists her birthdate of February 7, 1890.