by Lee Ann Simmers Dickey
Marriage, Census and Death Records from the historic integrated coal-mining community of Buxton, Iowa
Less than 50 years after the Civil War, and just about 50 years before the Civil Rights act, the small, unincorporated coal-mining town of Buxton, Iowa became a model community where racial integration and equal pay for equal work were the accepted policy. Black and white coal miners worked side by side. Black and white clerks manned the company store together. Black and white families lived next door to one another. Black and white students shared classes, learning from teachers of both races. There were black doctors, lawyers, and businessmen. Buxton boomed for 20 years; then the coal mines played out and the residents moved on. But Buxton lingers in the memories of black families who moved on to other cities, and in the records of Monroe County.