Today in Labor History March 5, 1879: The first group of black “exodusters” arrived in St. Louis aboard the steamer Colorado. They were heading to Kansas, which was considered the “promised land” for jobs. Many were fleeing harsh sharecropper contracts, pass laws, imprisonment and racist violence.
Tennessee cabinetmaker, "Pap" Singleton, who called himself the Father of the Colored Exodus, encouraged the migration by printing handbills. A steamboat strike later slowed the migration, reducing the exodus to a trickle by 1881.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #exodusters #racism #jimcrow #prison #diaspora #kkk #BlackMastodon

Today in Labor History March 5, 1879: The first group of black “exodusters” arrived in St. Louis aboard the steamer Colorado. They were heading to Kansas, which was considered the “promised land” for jobs. Many were fleeing harsh sharecropper contracts, pass laws, imprisonment and racist violence.
Tennessee cabinetmaker, "Pap" Singleton, who called himself the Father of the Colored Exodus, encouraged the migration by printing handbills. A steamboat strike later slowed the migration, reducing the exodus to a trickle by 1881.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #exodusters #racism #strike #AfricanAmerican #diaspora