Black Heritage Tour: #2, The Old Urban League Building

Intro | Previous | Next

The tour guide states:

2. At the Old Urban League on 735 and 745 N. Fourth Avenue, Mr. Charles Boyer used to work. Mr. Boyer migrated into Arizona from an all-black town in New Mexico that was founded by his family.

The Old Urban League building, located at the corner of 4th Avenue and University, has been subdivided into a number of trendy clothing shops and a coffeehouse on the corner, Epic Cafe. It wasn't too hard to find.

The history of the Urban League in Tucson is probably worth researching, as the Web site for the Tucson Urban League states they were "founded in 1970 in response to a significantly high unemployment rate among minorities in Tucson." Is this the second Urban League in Tucson, perhaps?

As for Charles Boyer, he was from Blackdom, New Mexico, which was founded in either 1901 or 1908 (accounts on the Web differ) and which is now a ghost town. The Soul of America web site describes it like this:

The community was founded in 1908 by Marion Boyer, who walked to New Mexico from Georgia to pursue the dream of his father Henry Boyer. The senior Boyer hoped to create a self-sustaining colony where African Americans could own land and live in peace. The Black "kingdom" was remembered by Lillian Collins Westfield, a pioneer of Blackdom, as a "community filled with good neighbors and friends and an area of beautiful New Mexico sunshine."

The irrigation system in Blackdom was not adequate and failed about 1920. Many of the areas residents, including the Boyer family, migrated to the community of Vado just south of Las Cruces, where many of their descendants live today.

Smith also writes:

Mr. Charles Boyer used to work at the LEAP (Labor Education Advancement Program) office, located a few doors south of the Urban League office. Mr. Boyer migrated into Arizona from an all-black town in New Mexico that was founded by his family. It was part of Dona Anna County, New Mexico, just as Tucson was earlier.

His migration is representative of the many blacks that come into Arizona from all-black towns of Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. A clipping of his family history is located in the library of the Arizona Heritage Center. Before he died, he gave the clippings of his family history to the Black Studies Lecturer of the university to turn into [sic] the Society, and this was done.

He and his wife first located in Phoenix and he kept a home there as he worked in Tucson with the LEAP section of the Urban League office that used to be located on Fourth Avenue. The new Urgan League office is located at 2323 South Park Avenue [*]. The director of the Urban League was Mr. Joseph Carroll, also its current director.

[*] That's about where the current Urban League office is located, by the way.

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures of the businesses currently in the 735-745 block of N. Fourth.

Zoe, at 735 N., is a clothing store.

739 North 4th -- Hang Up -- is also a clothing store; it's relatively new. Apparently the location used to be the home of the Wingspan "annex," and also something called "Diamand Man."

This is Epic Cafe; here are some inside shots at Epic:

Intro | Previous | Next