After the end of Reconstruction in 1877, some 20,000 Black Americans decided to escape the discriminatory policies in the South and made their way west, with many settling in Kansas.

The Civil War ended slavery in the United States. But by 1877, federal policies put in place to protect newly freed Black Americans in the South were threatened by the end of Reconstruction. So thousands of Black people, dubbed Exodusters, decided to leave the region entirely.

Many of them made their way to Kansas, which was both easily accessible from the South, and the one-time home of the famous abolitionist John Brown. During the Great Exodus of 1879, some 20,000 Exodusters migrated to Kansas in search of a better life.

But the West was not always a welcoming place, and many Exodusters didn’t find the “

See Full Page