Topics in Kansas History: Cultural & Ethnic Groups
African Americans
 In
the 1870s former slave Benjamin "Pap" Singleton envisioned thriving
midwestern communities populated by African Americans. Singleton placed
his hopes for a better life on a colonizing campaign he directed toward
residents of Kentucky and Tennessee. He successfully distributed his
message through African American newspapers.
Two hundred black settlers responded to "Pap" Singleton's campaign,
moving west to Nicodemus in Graham County, Kansas. They completed their
long journey from Lexington, Kentucky, to the central Kansas plains
in 1878. By 1886 the community supported three black newspapers.
European Americans
 Croatians
In the 1880s, large numbers of people from eastern Europe came to Kansas
City seeking work. Many Croatians settled in an area that came to be
called Strawberry Hill after the wild strawberries that once grew there.
Artist Marijana Grisnik grew up in this neighborhood and began painting
scenes from her childhood in the 1960s.
Danes
Danish immigration to Kansas began in the fifties of last century.
By 1870 some had drifted into nearly every county of the state. The
total number in 1880 was 1,838. It rose to 2,759 in 1910 and dropped
to 2,263 in 1920. Danish immigration to Kansas has now virtually ceased.
Volga-Germans
 Thousands
of people left Russia for Kansas in the 1870s. Actually, these emigrants
had closer ties to Germany than to Russia. Just a century earlier they
had left war-torn Germany for Russia's unsettled agricultural provinces.
In these isolated lands they clustered in close-knit villages removed
from their neighbors, preserving many of their German customs.
As a group the Russian-Germans were highly religious. Many were Mennonites,
a Protestant sect. Others were Catholics or Lutherans living along Russia's
Volga River; they were known as the Volga-Germans.
The two main concentrations of Russian-German settlement in Kansas
were the Mennonites in Marion, Harvey, and McPherson counties and the
Volga Germans in Ellis, Russell, and Rush counties.
 Hispanics
The connection between the United States and people of Mexican descent
goes back several centuries. Mexican immigrants have come to Kansas
for a variety of reasons. Employment opportunities brought many early
Mexican workers to Kansas, including sugar beet production and working
on the railroads. The Mexican families brought their culture and traditions
of their country including fiesta, the Quinceanera, and Las Posadas.
Back to Topics
in Kansas History: Cultural & Ethnic Groups.
|
