STORY BY CORIE LYNN
On February 27, students and community members gathered at Forsyth Library to attend a presentation on a unique part of Kansas history.
“It was to honor Black History Month,” said Brittney Squire, Forsyth’s Outreach Services Specialist, “As you know, February is all about Black History and celebrating everything that comes with that.”
The history that the audience, library staff, and presenter Angela Bates celebrated that day was Nicodemus, KS: A Story of Black Migration to Western Kansas.
The town of Nicodemus is currently home to less than one hundred residents and is located around fifty miles from the city of Hays. It was first settled in 1877, is the only remaining all African-American community in the Western United States, and registered as a National Historic Site.
Bates, the executive director of the Nicodemus Historical Society, is a descendent of the town’s original settlers, which is part of the reason why its history is so important to her.
“[A]ll of those that I stand on top of, I want to tell their story. I want to preserve their history, and it’s a story that’s not our own family story, but [..] it’s a national story,” she said at the beginning of the presentation, “It’s of national significance because, as a national historic site, we actually represent what African Americans did with their freedom after the emancipation.”
Bates went on to describe how the town of Nicodemus came to be.
Following emancipation, Kansas was promoted as a “Promised Land” to the newly-freed African-Americans, and a place where they could own their own land.
According to her, this resulted in a large number of the group leaving the South for Nicodemus and its establishment as an entirely African-American community.
This migration occurred prior to the movement of Exodusters: the famous group of free African-Americans who traveled north on a similar path as the new residents of Nicodemus.
Bates also described how the town, made up of dugouts in the beginning rather than buildings, survived with the help of other people groups in the area. This included the Osage Native Americans who brought meat to the residents of Nicodemus.
Though Nicodemus is a small community today, people like Angela Bates keep its rich history alive.
This includes hosting annual events such as reenactments and the Nicodemus Emancipation and Homecoming.
Events like these and Bate’s work to preserve the legacy of Nicodemus are important in order to pass on a little-known portion of African-American and Kansas history.
“I think that there’s value that knowing the history of where you’re from, where you’re located,” said Squire, “even if it’s for four years that you’re at college.”