PBS
African-Americans in the American West
Secondary learners explore the westward movement of African Americans. Segmented into four time periods, the lesson provides an overview of how African Americans experienced westward expansion. Learners view PBS specials on the westward...
Curated OER
Social Studies: The Black West
Students assess the influence of African Americans in the western United States from the sixteenth century to the present. They examine the Black-Spanish heritage, slavery and freedom on the frontier, along with African American...
New York Public Library
In Motion: African American Migration Experience: Western Migration: To Kansas
From the extensive site about African-American migrations, this part of the site focuses on Exodusters and African-Americans who moved to Kansas after the Civil War. Read first-person accounts and see photographs of these hardy...
Curated OER
National Park Service: Homestead National Monument: History and Culture
An extensive site that covers many aspects of the Homestead Act, including biographies, charts, and the text of the act. From the National Park Service.
OpenStax
Open Stax: u.s. History: The Westward Spirit
From a chapter on America's expansion westward in a history textbook. This section looks at how Americans felt about westward expansion in the mid-1800s, and ways that the federal government promoted migration. Includes review questions.
Nebraska Studies
Nebraska Studies: African American Settlers
This presents an overview of African Americans moving and settling in the West.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Homestead National Monument: Exodusters
Read about the reasons for the extensive black migration to Kansas, especially in the 1870s. These emigrants were called Exodusters. From the National Park Service.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Making of African American Identity: Vol. Ii, 1865 1917: Migration
Congressional testimony and a letter that explore late nineteenth-century black migration from the South. Links to both resources are provided within this site.
New York Public Library
In Motion: African American Migration Experience: Migration to Oklahoma
Part of a larger site highlighting African-American migration, this site focuses on successful African-American settlements in Oklahoma Territory, which declined after Oklahoma statehood and the introduction of Jim Crow laws.
PBS
Pbs: The West Benjamin "Pap" Singleton
From the critically acclaimed PBS series, "The West," this site provides a brief biography of Benjamin "Pap" Singleton, a leader of the "Great Exodus" which brought thousands of African Americans west from the post-Reconstruction South.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1865 1898: The Homestead Act and the Exodusters
Explains what the Homestead Act of 1862 was and what it meant for settlers, as well as the Exodus of 1879 when many African Americans became exodusters and left the South. Includes questions for students at end.
Library of Congress
Loc: African American Mosaic: Western Migration and Homesteading
Contains text and photos on the African-American exodus to the West. Includes primary source documents and maps from the era.
Legends of America
Legends of Kansas: Exodusters of Kansas
A look at the exodusters and the reasons the blacks left the South and migrated to Kansas after the Civil War.
Other
Postbellum African American Society and Culture: Black Migration
From the Encyclopedia of American Social History. Read about the black migration to the West, primarily Kansas and Oklahoma after the end of Reconstruction and the institution of black codes in the South.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Stories of the Westward Expansion: Exodus to Freedom
Contains an article written on the African American exodus to Kansas to farm in the late 19th century.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Exodusters: African American Migration to the Great Plains
The resources here, including letters, photographs, official documents, and maps, represent the exodus of African Americans from the South to the Great Plains in the late 1800s.
Library of Congress
Loc: African American Mosaic: Migrations
The Library of Congress surveys the migration of African Americans to out of the South after the Civil War. Features include statistics, maps, and reasons for the migration.
PBS
Pbs the West: Exodusters
Contains a description of the Exodusters and their impact on the American West through their immigration.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Nicodemus National Historic Site
This site from the National Park Service provides the history of Nidodemus, Kansas, first western town planned by and for African-Americans. Settled by exodusters, the town served as a symbol as a land of opportunity for blacks escaping...
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: The Exodusters
Learn about the Exodusters, thousands of African Americans, from the southern states along the Mississippi River, who migrated to Kansas.
PBS
Pbs: Archives of the West: Photo: Exodusters Wait for Steamer
Photo of exodusters waiting for a steamboat to take them to the west in late 1870s.
Curated OER
Exodusters en Route to Kansas
Contains text and photos on the African American exodus to the West. Includes primary source documents and maps from the era.