Paradise lost

Just 80 people now live in Rentiesville, OK, but the town was once part of a dream to create a black utopia where freed slaves and their families could build a new society. Rentiesville was one of 27 black-run towns founded in the last decade of the 19th century, the plan being to merge them together into a black state. The black state never materialised but Rentiesville's mayor, Mildred Burkhalter, is determined to ensure her town's survival. She points out that African Americans founded the town on their own and declares that no-one is going to take it away from them.