Moab Community
Lexington, Lee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
MOAB COMMUNITY SITUATED ABOUT TEN MILES SOUTHWEST OF LEXINGTON, THE COMMUNITY OF MOAB WAS A PREDOMINATELY AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY. THERE ARE INDICATIONS THAT THE AREA WAS WELL POPULATED BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR BUT BECAME MORE SO FOLLOWING EMANCIPATION. MANY “FREEDOM COLONIES” FORMED IN LEE COUNTY AFTER THE CIVIL WAR AND BEGAN NEW BLACK LANDOWNER COMMUNITIES. MOAB WAS MOSTLY A COMMUNITY OF FARMERS WHO WERE DEPENDENT UPON INCOME FROM CROPS. TO SUPPLEMENT THEIR INCOME, FAMILIES WOULD GO ON “COTTON PICKS” AND FOLLOW COTTON HARVESTING THROUGHOUT TEXAS AND PARTS OF NEW MEXICO. FOR FOOD, FAMILIES HARVESTED PEANUTS, CORN AND OTHER VEGETABLES AND RAISED HOGS, CATTLE, CHICKENS AND TURKEYS. A COMMUNITY SCHOOL OPENED AROUND 1900 AND, BY THE 1930s, THE SETTLEMENT HAD THE SCHOOL, TWO CHURCHES, A CEMETERY, POST OFFICE AND A NUMBER OF SCATTERED DWELLINGS. ACCORDING TO A 1935 BOARD OF EDUCATION SURVEY, MOAB’S SCHOOL EMPLOYED TWO TEACHERS WITH FORTY-EIGHT STUDENTS ENROLLED IN GRADES ONE TO TEN. THE SCHOOL BURNED IN THE LATE 1930s BUT WAS REBUILT ONE YEAR LATER. DURING THE INTERIM, THE SCHOOL WAS HOUSED IN THE METHODIST CHURCH. TWO CHURCHES EXISTED IN THE MOAB COMMUNITY. MOUNT ZION BAPTIST CHURCH WAS LED BY REV. PERSON FROM THE 1930s TO THE 1960s AND THE CHURCH HAD OVER 50 MEMBERS AT ITS PEAK. THE BAPTIST CHURCH BURNED IN THE 1960s AND WAS NOT REBUILT. MT. NEBO AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IS THE ONLY CHURCH THAT REMAINS IN THE COMMUNITY. EACH YEAR, SPECIAL PROGRAMS BRING DESCENDANTS BACK INTO THE COMMUNITY. THIS ONCE-THRIVING COMMUNITY REPRESENTS A TRIUMPH IN KINSHIP AND PERSEVERANCE, AND THE BEGINNINGS OF A PEOPLE AFTER SLAVERY.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Moab was one of many "freedom colonies" African Americans founded across Lee County after emancipation—communities of Black landowners farming their own ground for the first time. Families raised cotton, corn, and livestock and followed seasonal "cotton picks" across Texas and New Mexico to supplement their income. By the 1930s the settlement had a school, two churches, a cemetery, and a post office; today Mt. Nebo A.M.E. Church remains as its anchor, and descendants return each year.
Why it matters
Freedom colonies embody the determination of formerly enslaved people to build independent, landowning communities in the generations after slavery.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
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