Exodusters

Exodusters were African Americans who migrated from the southern United States to Kansas and other frontier areas in 1879 and 1880, seeking to escape political repression, racial violence, and economic hardship after Reconstruction. The term derives from the biblical Exodus, reflecting a pursuit of freedom and opportunity rather than literal slavery. The movement peaked in 1879–80, when thousands left states such as Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas for Kansas.

The exodus was organized in part by Black leaders including Benjamin Singleton, a former slave who settled in Kansas and urged Black communities to move west. Newspapers and community networks helped publicize the trek. Many Exodusters traveled by wagon trains and by rail to Kansas, where they established new settlements and cultivated land. Nicodemus, Kansas, founded in 1877, became one of the most well-known all-Black towns to emerge from the broader migration, along with other frontier communities across the region.

Exoduster settlers faced numerous challenges, including scarce land and capital, hostile weather, and discriminatory local laws. They encountered resistance from white supremacist violence and political intimidation in some areas. Still, the movement contributed to the growth of Kansas's Black population, helped create new farming communities, and left a lasting mark on the history of Black migration in the United States. The Exoduster movement is often cited as an early example of postwar Black mobility and an assertion of autonomy in the face of systemic racism.