Descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas, preserve history of its formerly enslaved residents | KCUR

Fifth-generation Nicodemus descendant Angela Bates attracts inspiration from carrying ahead the historical past of people that left the South within the 1870s to determine a city in rural Kansas the place they may transfer nearer to the promise of freedom.

Bates, who was raised in California by mother and father born in Nicodemus, finally relocated to Kansas, fashioned the Nicodemus Historic Society and campaigned to protect the documentary historical past of a city that had steadily fallen on onerous financial instances. Structural items of Nicodemus stay today in a handful of buildings. The settlement close to the Solomon River has been designated a Nationwide Historic Website by Congress.

“It’s at all times thrilling to speak about Nicodemus,” she mentioned. “It runs in my blood. I’m a channeler of all of these ancestors that endured slavery and have gone on earlier than me. I’m glad I’m nonetheless right here to inform their tales and to protect their historical past.”

Bates introduced her slice of oral historical past to the Spencer Analysis Library on the College of Kansas, the place a group of pictures and paperwork associated to Nicodemus has been archived. She mentioned the library served because the Fort Knox of historical past for folks tied to Nicodemus. She lately accomplished work on a documentary about settlement of Nicodemus and the legacy of a neighborhood removed from the Kentucky hills the place many settlers have been recruited.

Her great-great-grandfather Tom Johnson was among the many first to reach in 1877. An ideal-great-great-grandfather on her father’s aspect of the household got here to Nicodemus in 1879. Whereas her mother and father moved within the Nineteen Fifties in California, the household returned to Nicodemus commonly for celebrations of the emancipation of slaves in america.

“I really feel very blessed to be a part of the Nicodemus legacy,” Bates mentioned. “I’m doing it not for fame, not for cash — clearly not cash — however I do it as a result of I don’t need their tales to be misplaced. I feel their tales are essential. They’ve been part of my life. I can bear in mind sneaking round listening to the outdated people. I want I had a pen and paper at that time and brought down notes, as a result of I bought some tales. I let you know.”

‘Religion in God that you simply’re going to make a distinction’

The individuals who made a house in Nicodemus included previously enslaved residents of the central bluegrass area of Kentucky, which included Lexington and Georgetown. The target was to realize possession of land in Kansas and put distance between themselves and aggressively enforced Jim Crow legal guidelines stalling the power of Black People to broaden their private expertise with freedom, Bates mentioned.

Bates mentioned the choice by greater than 300 folks to depart Kentucky was tough, particularly for individuals who had been confined on plantations and had traveled little. The Nice Plains was geographically fairly totally different from the environs of Kentucky, she mentioned. She mentioned Jim Crow’s maintain on Kansas wasn’t as fierce, however that mindset was an unmistakable presence in Kansas, too.

“It’s not like Kentucky, however they’ve bought free land,” Bates mentioned. “Your geographic mindset is tiny, however your creativeness is huge and your coronary heart is even larger and your spirit and willpower is even higher. And the best factor of all is that you’ve religion in God that you simply’re going to make a distinction.”

Bates mentioned the early interval in Nicodemus was harsh, however Potawatomie and Osage tribe members assisted settlers. Potawatomie members on a searching journey shared recreation with Nicodemus residents within the first yr, she mentioned. Initially, homesteaders lived in dugouts or sod constructions.

She mentioned it was typically assumed the title of the city got here from Biblical tales of Nicodemus. Nonetheless, she mentioned, the title was drawn from a Civil Conflict-era abolitionist tune “Wake Nicodemus” in regards to the finish of slavery.

Residents of Nicodemus helped manage Graham County. The primary three county attorneys have been Black males, she mentioned.

Bates mentioned Nicodemus was handed over when choices have been made about building of a railroad system from Salina to Colby. Observe was laid a number of miles from Nicodemus at Bogue. It was consequential as a result of a group of retailers in Nicodemus relocated to Bogue, she mentioned.

She mentioned the Mud Bowl years and Nice Melancholy additional eroded the enterprise neighborhood in Nicodemus. Extra households moved away over time, she mentioned, however components of their historical past, together with 5 buildings, stay of the settlement. The preserved archive document, together with neighborhood and household photographs, put a face to individuals who engaged in a brave effort to reposition themselves inside america.

“Greater than something, they introduced their spirit of willpower and cooperation, they usually did work collectively,” Bates mentioned. “Lots of people knew one another. Earlier than they got here, they have been on neighboring plantations or on the identical plantation. I feel these are among the issues that basically made the neighborhood cohesive over time.”

‘By no means occurred to me’

Bates mentioned there was stress between Nicodemus and predominantly white cities and cities close by. Relations with Hill Metropolis and Bogue have been strained at instances, she mentioned, and about 20 miles away town of Stockton had a sunset rule that prohibited nonwhite folks from remaining in metropolis limits after sundown. There was a robust bond between Nicodemus and the French-Canadian city of Damar, she mentioned.

The 160-acre core of Nicodemus was designated by the Nationwide Park Service as a nationwide historic landmark district. Bates organized the Nicodemus Historic Society within the Nineteen Eighties.

Subsequently, Bates labored six years with members of the Kansas congressional delegation to safe approval from Congress to declare the homestead of previously enslaved a nationwide historic website.

“It by no means occurred to me, not one time, that it wasn’t going to occur,” Bates mentioned.

She mentioned the Nicodemus historic website and the city’s historic society wanted an infusion of monetary assets to enhance entry to the native historical past.

On Wednesday, Bates introduced a recent bundle of Nicodemus supplies so as to add to the gathering at Spencer Analysis Library at KU.

“These folks characterize what African-People did with their freedom,” Bates mentioned. “They participated in manifest future.”

She mentioned too typically evaluation of American historical past targeted on the slave expertise and the civil rights motion. The expertise of Black folks after emancipation and through Reconstruction was usually omitted, she mentioned.

“That entire chapter is simply lacking,” she mentioned. “I’m hoping by way of the story of Nicodemus they’ll perceive what African People did with their freedom.”

This story was initially revealed by the Kansas Reflector.