“Formerly enslaved African Americans left Kentucky at the end of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period to experience freedom in the “Promised Land” of Kansas. Nicodemus represents the involvement of African Americans in the homesteading movement across the Great Plains. It is the oldest and only remaining Black settlement west of the Mississippi River.
From its early days, residents knew the importance of their community and the need to record their experiences and stories. In 1887, ten years after the first settlers arrived, the first known written history occurred when local newspaper “The Western Cyclone” published an early history of Nicodemus’ settlement.
Today, we invite you to listen to oral histories from Nicodemus descendants.”
https://www.nps.gov/nico/learn/photosmultimedia/nicodemus-oral-history.htm
