Black Moses

Praise for Black Moses

“Timely…. [written] with great empathy…. [this] compelling study of McCabe’s quixotic crusade for Black self-determination richly illustrates just how tenuous the promise of freedom remained.” —The New York Times

“Powerful… [and] fascinating.” —The Washington Post

“[E]loquent …. Gayle does more than just rescue a forgotten yet crucial figure; he places McCabe at the center of radical liberation … As our nation continues to fracture into partisan camps, Gayle tells an engrossing tale, revealing that the tensions remain the same.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune

“It’s a rare and satisfying experience to find a nonfiction book that balances the scope of its content with narrative coherence, without sacrificing either. Gayle’s latest carves a historical epic out of a forgotten episode in the Black separatist movement, enthralling as both a character study and a novel look at America’s racial history.” —The Millions

“A welcome contribution to the history of Black liberation and the struggle for civil rights.” —Kirkus, STARRED review

“Gayle presents McCabe’s misguided dream as a cautionary tale of the dangers of one oppressed people attempting to colonize another rather than making common cause.” —Booklist, STARRED review

“Gayle has brilliantly captured the little-known history of McCabe and the Black-majority towns that dotted the landscape in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and other Plains states. . . .[a] deeply researched and well-written history.”—Library Journal, STARRED review

“In this enthralling saga, journalist Caleb Gayle resurfaces the little-remembered late-19th-century effort to turn Oklahoma into a Black state . . . .Gayle’s stylish, brisk account elegantly incorporates many tangents (including spotlighting the Native nations being dispossessed by McCabe’s efforts). It’s one not to miss.”—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“What Caleb Gayle calls a ‘tale of what could have been’ is an eye-opening, heartrending study of a man’s—and a nation’s—broken dream. Black Moses carefully rescues a story – Edward McCabe’s attempt to create a state where Black people could breathe pure freedom— from the indifference of history.” —Stephen Harrigan, author of Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas

“Caleb Gayle has written a compelling book about a breathtakingly ambitious, borderline crazy, and ultimately doomed idea. It’s a wild ride through American history.” —S. C. Gwynne, author of Empire of the Summer Moon

“Black Moses illuminates one boldly dreaming man’s quest for abundance—for himself and his people—that is both essentially American and beyond the bounds of American imagining. Gayle skillfully uncovers a history that feels at once wildly alive, scarcely visible, and integral to the United States we inhabit now. This is a hidden history that Americans need to know.” —Ilyon Woo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Master Slave Husband Wife

“A layered and complicated narrative about Black freedom dreams after the demise of slavery and during the rapid rise of Jim Crow policy. Gayle invites us to look westward to understand the ways Black people sought existential and political autonomy in a nation determined to deprive them of all they needed and desired. The story of Black Moses resonates more than a century later as the unfinished business of freedom haunts everyone. A searing biography of both a charismatic leader and the worlds he tried to create.”—Marcia Chatelain, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America

“When the true history of America’s west is written, Black Moses will stand as a flagship bearer of that accounting. Caleb Gayle is a gifted writer who rolls out this splendidly researched, spell-binding yarn with grace, honest grit, and full-on immediacy. Wonderfully done.” —James McBride, author of The Good Lord Bird and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

“An unforgettable account of a forgotten hero. Black Moses tells the story of a larger-than-life figure whose journey has the power to inform and inspire us. Caleb Gayle brings impressive research and propulsive prose to this shrewd and vivid work of history.” —Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life