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"The Exodites." Manhattan Enterprise (Manhattan, KS), May 2, 1879, https://www.newspapers.com/embed/146899453/
Garcia, Rafael. "After USD 383 Vote on School Name, Douglass School Reminder of Manhattan's Segregated Past." Manhattan Mercury (Manhattan, KS), December 1, 2019. https://themercury.com/news/after-usd-383-vote-on-school-name-douglass-school-reminder-of-manhattans-segregated-past/article_9d3b1ef3-c24d-5abe-b7ea-250c1e6ef6f5.html
Painter, Nell Irvin. Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas after Reconstruction. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992.
Schuley, Marcia and Margaret Parker. The Exodusters of 1879 and Other Black Pioneers of Riley County, Kansas. Self-published, 2019.
Walton, Geraldine Baker. 140 Years of Soul: A History of African-Americans in Manhattan, Kansas, 1865-2005. Manhattan, KS: KS Publishing, 2008.
The Riley County Historical Society & Museum put together a self-guided driving tour that takes you through Manhattan's African American history: https://www.rileychs.org/document-center.cfm?fx=W0QYHH002Z5OI8S9
Read one of the Chapman Center's Rural Telegraph blog posts, which features an interview with Marcia Schuley, one of the writers of The Exodusters of 1879 and Other Black Pioneers of Riley County, Kansas: https://ruraltelegraph.wordpress.com/2021/02/08/the-exodusters-of-1879/
This newspaper clipping from The Manhattan Enterprise on May 2, 1879 discusses the arriving Exodites, and how the city of Manhattan planned for their care.
The Exoduster Movement, also known as the Exodus of 1879, served as the first general migration of formerly enslaved African Americans, known as Exodusters or Exodites into our state. Kansas was the destination of choice by many due the efforts of ardent abolitionists who successfully helped Kansas enter the Union as a free state in 1861.
On April 24, 1879, two railroad cars arrived in Manhattan with nearly 120 refugees aboard who had just made their long journey from many different states.
The Exodusters were mostly well received upon their arrival in Manhattan. The Manhattan Enterprise newspaper covered their arrival in the May 2, 1879, edition: “As soon as it became known last Thursday that two carloads of Exodites had reached this place, they were visited by a large number of citizens of both sexes, all ages and colors… active measures were at once taken for their relief.” Any medical needs were met and all Exodusters secured places to live.
Early arrivals purchased land throughout the city, but by 1910, the African American population was primarily south of Poyntz Avenue. In 1880, the Bethel African Methodist Church Episcopal Church was constructed at the corner of Fourth (then Third Street) and Yuma Street. One of the founding members of the AME Church was Henry McDaniel, father of Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to receive an Academy Award for her 1939 role in Gone with the Wind. The AME Church constructed a new church building at this location in 1927 which is on the National Register of Historical Places.
By 1880, African Americans made up 14% of the Manhattan population, compared to the earlier 3% in 1865. The same census lists nine African American families living on Poyntz Avenue.
Many descendants of those who came to Kansas during the 1879 Exoduster Movement still reside in Manhattan today and the Yuma Street Historic District, now on the State and National Register of Historic Places, reflects the rich history of the community and legacy of the Exodusters.
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