WHY IS THIS RELEVANT NOW?
This is particularly disturbing to what was a growing middle class of African-Americans. Released today, a new report, “Foreclosed: State of the Dream 2008,” shows that African-American households are being hit especially hard by the nation’s subprime crisis. Owning a home is central to the American dream. Is the undergirding of a family’s whole financial foundation. It was so important to the African-American families who long ago as homesteaders created Black Settlements. OTHER RELATED POST that I will create today is Exdouster Movement.
SCOPE NOTE
Reacting to the cruelty of former masters, newly-freed slaves left the South in droves. Many answer the called of posters announcing Homestead opportunities out West. The Homestead Act of 1862 promised former slaves a chance of land ownership and independence. An African American, Benjamin Singleton organized the migration of hundreds of blacks to Nicodemus, Kansas where they set up their own black town. Blacks founded their own towns also in Oklahoma, Nebraska and other part of the West. The journey was likened to the children of Israel. Therefore, it was referred to the Exoduster Movement.
PUBLISHED MATERIAL(S)
PRIMARY SOURCES
Land Time Forgot: Black Settlement at Nicodemus, Kansas by Thomas Wellington
Acres of Aspirations: The All Black Towns in Oklahoma by Hannibal B. Johnson
America’s Black Towns and Settlements by Morris Turner
Black Towns by Norman L. Crockett
REFERENCE MATERIAL(S)
The Harvard Guide to African-American History
POSSIBLE KEYWORD SEARCHES
black + settlements
black homesteaders
black + towns
black-founded towns
black westerners
KEY FIGURES
Benjamin (Pap) Singleton
RELEVANT WEBSITES
RELATED POSTS
Exoduster Movement
