During the Civil War and after blacks fled the South to the North, which was seen as a beacon of hope for freedom and prosperity. Moving North many blacks settled in major northern cities
of Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis etc. They also came across Delaware Township, Kansas. Blacks
had a need for land for their children, so Benjamin Singleton built a colony for blacks to live and work on (Singleton). By 1865 there were 11,622 residents in Wyandotte County, 1,323 of whom were black (Lawrence 1). Benjamin Singleton told the Senate Select Committee that he brought out 7,432 people from the South to Kansas and he was the whole cause of the Kansas immigration (3). Reaction to the large influx of blacks into Wyandotte County and the town of Wyandotte was wary. The Wyandotte Herald described the 1879 exodus in this way. During the past ten days, a large number of colored immigrants from Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee have landed in Kansas. Nearly all of them are penniless, many sick, and all of them are objects of sympathy. A public hearing was held at the courtroom Tuesday afternoon to take steps for their relief and to provide against spreading contagious disease..
 

Resolved That it is the sense of the meeting that the colored immigrants from the South, now among us, and still to come, should be aided only to such an extent as they unable to help themselves as they tarry among us.

Resolved That it would be very unwise in these people to stay in the towns already overcrowded with laborers, as they are, and that it will in our judgment be unsafe for them to remain long in large companies.