Brown v. Topeka, KC Monarchs, Exodusters and Nicodemus

Kansas has had a rich and interesting history in many ways, one of which was its role in the slavery issue during the 1800’s here in the US.  Slavery was becoming a great controversy in the country with divisions of opinions on the ethics of the practice of slavery becoming more and more political to the point of new states being allowed to join the union only in pairs:  one pro-slave state and one anti-slave state together to not greatly offset the delicate balance in the legislature.  This was the time that the Kansas Territory was petitioning to join the union, so it is natural that our state would be rich in history related to black history on this issue.  But, Kansas also historical stories tied to its African American soldiers, its Black-only baseball team, and of course, the Brown v. Topeka BOE court case during the Civil Rights era.  Here are some links to some Black History resources on the web in which Kansas teachers may be especially interested:

• Exodusters were the black slaves who fled the south following the Civil War to settle “out west” (Kansas Territory would have been part of this “out west” at that time).
• Information on Nicodemus, a Kansas settlement that was planned to “draw” exodusters to Kansas is an interesting read.  Now a ghost town and a National Historic Site, this town’s history can be used to show today’s students the challenges of settling “out west,” the way western settlements were marketed to others, and of course the pioneering spirit of African Americans of the time period.
• The Kansas Museum of History has some great African American History resources, both web-based and in their collections.  I especially like the “Cool Things” part of their web resources.  Here is the Cool Thing link for and Exoduster flier that teaches about Pap Singleton, an ex-slave who promoted Kansas as a re-settlement option for other ex-slaves.   If you’re a teacher in Kansas and you’ve never used the museum’s traveling resource trunks, be sure to inquire about them, too.  They have  artifacts, primary resources (or replicas of them) and are centered around several themes.  A few years ago I checked out and used the African American Experience in Kansas trunk and it was a wealth of information and hands on activities.  The trunks have a “target audience” but can be adapted to many different grade levels.
• Lots of people today are familiar with Jackie Robinson’s story of integrating Major League Baseball in the 1920’s, but not as many can tell the story of the Negro National League, an all-black league active during the 1920-1930 era.  Kansas City takes credit for starting the first successful all-black baseball league and eventually the all-black team, the Kansas City Monarchs.  While technically this team was associated with the Missouri side of Kansas City, many of us native Kansans consider it another interesting part of Kansas history.
• No listing of African American History in Kansas would be complete without information on the landmark court case, Brown v. Topeka BOE.   Finding age-appropriate resources with which to teach this complicated, but important Civil Rights era event is a difficult task.  Here is a Student Activity Book that can be printed off to use with our younger students.  It comes from http://brownvboard.org/, which is a resource worth “searching through” in and of itself.  You can also visit the National Parks Service website describing the site of the former Monroe Elementary School, one of four African-American only elementary schools in Topeka during the 1960s.  If you’re close to Topeka, this newly renovated historic site is worth a visit in person, too.