Nicodemus National Historic Site

National Historic Site · KS · nps.gov page

A group of people watching people on horseback during a parade
A group of people watching people on horseback during a paradePhoto: NPS Photo/ Dan Cox

Formerly enslaved African Americans left Kentucky at the end of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period to experience freedom in the "Promised Land" of Kansas. Nicodemus represents the involvement of African Americans in the homesteading movement across the Great Plains. It is the oldest remaining Black settlement west of the Mississippi River.

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Photos

A limestone brick building with grass and trees around it
A limestone brick building with grass and trees around itPhoto: NPS Photo/ Dan Cox
A limestone stucco building on a street corner
The First Baptist Church in NicodemusPhoto: NPS Photo/ Dan Cox
A wooden building painted white
The old school house in NicodemusPhoto: NPS Photo/ Dan Cox
A stucco building painted white with a green wagon out front.
The AME Church in NicodemusPhoto: NPS Photo/ Valerie Blubaugh
A white building with a green metal bar fence around it
The St. Francis HotelPhoto: NPS Photo

Park information and photos come from the National Park Service. This is not an official NPS site.