1877 - Nicodemus Town Company Founded in Kansas

On April 18, 1877, six African American men—W.H. Smith, Benjamin Carr, Jerry Allsap, the Reverend Simon Roundtree, Jeff Lenze, and William Edmonson—founded the Nicodemus Town Company in northwestern Kansas. Established during the Reconstruction era, Nicodemus was envisioned as a self-sufficient, all-Black settlement offering formerly enslaved people and their families a new life on the frontier. The town would be settled later that year by Black families from Kentucky, seeking refuge from racial violence and the broken promises of the South. Though life on the prairie was harsh, Nicodemus became a symbol of Black resilience, autonomy, and the dream of true freedom in the American West.

Note: Today, Nicodemus stands as the oldest and only remaining Black town west of the Mississippi founded during Reconstruction.