Nicodemus National Historic Site
African American Home on the Kansas Frontier
 This northwestern Kansas town – barely a few dozen
buildings – tells us first-hand stories of the African
American experience on the Great Plains. Founded in 1877, it
was the first western town built by and for black settlers.
For black farmers in the region, it was the economic and
cultural hub for many decades.
After the Civil War, blacks in the South found that the
political and economic gains of Reconstruction were being violently
stripped away. Some looked westward, but, because racial tensions
extended to the frontier, the idea of an all-black settlement took
hold. The Nicodemus Town Company was formed by W.H. Smith and five
other African American men, and W.R. Hill, a white land
developer.
 Kentucky Settlers
In September 1877, some 300 settlers recruited from, Kentucky
arrived at the newly platted town of Nicodemus. Like their white
counterparts elsewhere on the frontier, they lived in primitive
conditions. Newcomers were shaken by the spectacle of homes dug
into the ground. Sixty people returned to Kentucky immediately. By
the mid-1880s, hard-working, strong-willed settlers transformed
Nicodemus into a prosperous town. Lasting prosperity on the Great
Plains, though, depended on the presence of a railroad line.
Despite the tireless efforts of town boosters, the nearest railroad
ran several miles south. The town began a gradual decline.
Nicodemus suffered along with the rest of the nation during the
Great Depression in the 1930s.
In 1976 the original 161-acre town was listed as a National
Historic Landmark District. In 1996 Congress established Nicodemus
National Historic Site as part of the US National Parks. The
National Park Service and the residents of Nicodemus work together
to preserve five remaining historic structures – the St. Francis
Hotel (1878), African Methodist Episcopal Church (1897), First
Baptist Church (1907), Nicodemus School District No. 1 building
(1918), and Nicodemus Township Hall (1939). Nicodemus National
Historic Site preserves a living community that includes
descendants of the original emigrants who answered the call of free
land and a limitless future.
‘That is Nicodemus.’ The families lived in dugouts… The
scenery was not at all inviting, and I began to cry.
Willianna Hickman recalling her arrival at Nicodemus, Spring
1878.
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