• An outline of the Nicodemus school house as seen through a field of prairie grass.

    Nicodemus

    National Historic Site Kansas

"Go to Kansas"

Formerly enslaved African Americans left Kentucky in organized colonies at the end of the of post-Civil War Reconstruction period to experience freedom in the "promised land" of Kansas.  Nicodemus represents the involvement of African Americans in the westward expansion and settlement of the Great Plains. It is the oldest and only remaining Black settlement west of the Mississippi River.

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Aerial Photo

Some Nicodemus residents have continuing the farming tradition of their ancestors, and are experimenting with African grains like Teff which are well suited to the semi-arid climate.