Building Strong Communities Anew

After the Civil War, Black people in the U.S. needed to continue strengthening their communities and shared resources. Part of this effort occurred through homesteading efforts, or establishing their own towns, especially moving westward along the frontier.

A group of former slaves moved from Kentucky (mainly Lexington) to Nicodemus, Kansas, a new community for free Black people. The town’s history can be celebrated and remembered at the Nicodemus National Historic Site.

Oral histories from descendants of Nicodemus’ residents are available digitally. One of the residents, Lulu Craig, dedicated work to recording the history of the homestead.

Among my connections to Nicodemus are that I was born in Kansas, visited family there every year, learned as a child about the town and history of the homestead, and was lucky enough to know a ranger for the NPS who formerly worked at Nicodemus. The power of freedom within a self-started community contributed to the residents and their descendants, to the state of Kansas, and to similar communities throughout the U.S.