Edwin P. McCabe, (1850-1920), an African American who served as the state auditor in Kansas for four years and as the state auditor in Oklahoma for ten years, decided to seize the moment of opportunity by purchasing 320 acres of land whereby the town of Langston, Oklahoma was established in 1890. He named the town after John Mercer Langston (1829-1897), the first African American Congressman elected from Virginia in 1888. Edwin McCabe set up his own company - the McCabe Town Company in 1889 and sent his own agents into the South seeking to attract African Americans with new opportunities by settling in Langston. Mr. McCabe also set aside forty acres of land which provided for the Land Grant College called Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University in 1897. The University was later renamed Langston University in 1941.

African Americans and the Old West, by Long Island University; Oklahoma Historical Society