Lima, OK

Lima is one of Oklahoma's thirteen remaining historically All-Black towns, a Seminole County community whose name came from limestone quarries operating by 1904. It was incorporated in 1913 on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, and its post office lasted from 1907 to 1957. Mount Zion Methodist Church, built in 1915, and Rosenwald Hall, built in 1921 with support from the Rosenwald Fund, preserve the town's civic and educational history.

ATTRkennethaw88 / CC BY 4.0

The town's school history is part of both local and state history. In 1925 Lima residents won a case establishing a separate Black school district, and Lima and New Lima schools merged in 1957 after desegregation. The Greater Seminole Oil Field brought a second settlement, New Lima, east of the original town in 1926. New Lima Schools remains the current district connection, with its school address in Wewoka. Rosenwald Hall and the school history form part of Oklahoma's Black-town heritage. Lima's present map joins a historic Black townsite, surviving institutions, and a regional school route.