The First Migrants now available for preorder
The First Migrants recounts the largely unknown story of Black people who migrated from the South to the Great Plains between 1877 and 1920 in search of land and freedom. They exercised their rights under the Homestead Act to gain title to 650,000 acres, settling in all of the Great Plains states. Some created Black homesteader communities such as Nicodemus, Kansas, and DeWitty, Nebraska, while others, including George Washington Carver and Oscar Micheaux, homesteaded alone. All sought a place where they could rise by their own talents and toil, unencumbered by Black codes, repression, and violence. In the words of a Nicodemus descendant, they found “a place they could experience real freedom,” though in a racist society, that freedom could never be complete. Their quest foreshadowed the epic movement of Black people out of the South, known as the Great Migration.
In this first account of the full scope of Black homesteading in the Great Plains, Richard Edwards and Jacob K. Friefeld weave together two distinct strands: the narrative histories of the six most important Black homesteader communities and several themes that characterize their shared experiences. Using homestead files, diaries and letters, interviews with homesteaders’ descendants, and other records, Edwards and Friefeld illuminate the homesteaders’ fierce determination to find freedom—and their greatest achievements and struggles for full equality.
Black Sororities: A Legacy of Sisterhood
The Washington, D. C., air was cool and the sky clear on March 3, 1913. It was the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, and thousands of people filled the streets — but not to welcome a new president. Instead, they had flocked to the nation’s capital to march for women’s suffrage.
The Washington Times described “Women and girls in dazzling, white flowing robes on horse and afoot [marshaling] the forces of equal rights.” The marchers were followed by “floats denoting the countries in which women have whole or partial suffrage. Before them was carried a banner labeled ‘Women of the World Unite.’”
Twenty-two young Black women from Howard University marched as founders of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. that day. They defiantly marched as living examples of W. E. B. Dubois’s prediction that the “Talented Tenth” of Black Americans would loudly assert themselves with “counter-cries” against oppression…
Adlai Stevenson Warns America
The night was comfortable for Chicago in August, but the smell of body odor must have hung thick over the throngs of sweating spectators at the 1956 Democratic National Convention. They had packed the International Amphitheater on the city’s South Side for this moment — Adlai Stevenson of Illinois was about address them.
As Stevenson looked out over the crowd, ready to accept his party’s nomination for the presidency, he might have reflected over the path that had led him there. His term as governor of Illinois and loss in the 1952 presidential race had made him a national figure. His 1953 tour of Asia, Europe, and the Middle East helped him better understand threats posed to American interests abroad. A primary battle with Tennessee’s Estes Kefauver, now his running mate, had prepared him for this campaign to unseat President Dwight Eisenhower…
Black Homesteaders with Richard Edwards and Jacob K. Friefeld, Genealogy Adventures Live
“Many Black homesteaders arrived to the Midwest in family or community groups from across the United States. They created majority as well as all-black communities. Richard Edwards and Jacob Friefeld will join us and talk about this unique story of migration, risk taking, toil, and courage in the face of toil and triumph…”
ALPLM Hosts Conference on Illinois History
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS) — The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM) will present the annual Conference on Illinois History this week.
The event begins on Thursday and goes until Friday. The schedule for the Conference on Illinois History can be found here.
Is the Silence of the Great Plains to Blame for ‘Prairie Madness’?
“IN THE 1800S, AS AMERICAN settlers pushed westward into the Great Plains, stories began to emerge of formerly stable people becoming depressed, anxious, irritable, and even violent with ‘prairie madness.’ And there is some evidence in historical accounts or surveys, which suggested a rise in cases of mental illness in the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, particularly in the Great Plains…”
History of Black Homesteaders Recognized with Historic Marker
“An historic marker recognizing the contributions of the first African American Homesteaders in Sully County– and the Great Plains– was unveiled at the county courthouse in Onida yesterday (Oct. 6, 2020).
Erection of the marker honoring the Norvel Blair and John McGruder families was instigated by the National Park Service and the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln…”
Lincolniana Gala Goes Virtual with Harold Holzer
The 3rd Annual Lincolniana Gala: A VIRTUAL Evening with Harold Holzer will benefit the campaign to secure a “permanent home” for the Lincolniana collection.
University of Illinois Press is offering a virtual book exhibit and discount for the Conference on Illinois History!
University of Illinois Press Conference on Illinois History Virtual Book Exhibit.
22nd Annual Conference on Illinois History
Nicodemus and the Nation: Comments from Charlotte Hinger
“I read Jacob Friefeld’s review of my book, Nicodemus: Post-Reconstruction Politics and Racial Justice in Western Kansas, with delight and amazement because he so succinctly and accurately encapsulated its essence.”
Racial Justice and Public Land: On Charlotte Hinger’s “Nicodemus”
“Tens of thousands of African Americans moved from the South to the plains to claim land through a federal program, the Homestead Act. Nicodemus stands as a monument to the promise western land held for those homesteaders, and a reminder, to us all, of what is possible.”
Housing Development Planned To Encroach On Historic Black Settlement
“‘This is an American story, an important one, and one that’s been sort of whitewashed in the history of the West,’ says Friefeld. ‘The structures that go along with this history — knocking those down is another step in that whitewashing.’
African American Homesteaders of the Great Plains with Jacob K. Friefeld
“[‘Research at the National Archive and Beyond’ podcast] will provide individuals interested in genealogy and history an opportunity to listen, learn and take action… I will have a wonderful line up of experts who will share resources, stories and answer your burning genealogy questions. All of my guests share a deep passion and knowledge of genealogy and history.”
National Trust Awards $1 Million in Grants to Help Preserve African American History, SavingPlaces.org
“…Located across the Great Plains, these six communities, built through use of the Homestead Act, were places of black struggle, hardship, endurance, joy, and triumph. At each site, African Americans sought safety and found economic opportunity, created a vital community, and educated their children to lead lives of accomplishment and personal fulfillment.”
The Disappearing Story of the black homesteaders who pioneered the West, The Washington Post
“…These places are precious not just to descendants but to all Americans, and their loss is a national shame. The homesteading story is usually told as one of white Americans’ westward movement. But the 1862 Homestead Act had no racial restrictions, and after the 1866 Civil Rights Act clarified that black Americans were citizens, they too were entitled to 160 acres of public land if they paid a modest fee and lived on the property continuously for five years…”
Black homesteaders project receives additional funding, Nebraska Today
“In 2017, Richard Edwards, director and chair of the center, and post-doctoral researchers Jacob Friefeld and Mikal Eckstrom began work under the first grant to create the first database of all identified black homesteaders in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. Since race is typically not listed in homestead filings, this research requires comparing homestead records with decennial census records…
The second grant will allow the team to provide content based on their research for entry on the National Park Service’s national websites, allowing interested individuals, such as descendants of black homesteaders, to access the material…”
History Harvest to tap state’s vast Czech American community, Nebraska Today
“…Will Thomas, John and Catherine Angle Professor in the Humanities and chair of the Department of History, and Patrick Jones, associate professor of history and ethnic studies, started History Harvest in 2010. Since then, more than 900 artifacts have been digitized and archived in the database. The project has also been shared with other universities and communities and successful harvests have been held in seven other states. Project manager and UNL graduate student Jake Friefeld, Thomas and Jones recently completed “The History Harvest Handbook,” an open access book on how to teach the History Harvest as a class and conduct the events.
This year’s event is the first History Harvest that will seek out artifacts from the Czech American community…”
UNL aims at Czech list for latest History Harvest, Omaha World Herald
“UNL history students will staff the event, interviewing attendees about whatever artifacts they bring — photographs, diaries, letters, toys or anything else. Video of the interviews will be uploaded to a digital archive, accessible to anyone.
The goal, said Jacob Friefeld, a UNL graduate student and organizer of the harvest, is to “’get the objects and stories about our past out of basements and attics and into the public domain.’”