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Mexico declared their independence from Spain. They abolished slavery and granted full citizenship to all people no matter the color. Many African Americans came here.
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The Third Annual Convention for the Improvement of the Free People of Color considered the colonization of West Africa. They agreed that migrating to Mexican Texas was the best idea.
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Milfflin W. Gibbs arrived in San Francisco from Philadelphia with only sixty cents. He later opened a shoe store with a patner that was highly successful.
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Pikes Peak Gold Rush in California started the massive migration of African Americans to California.
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Barney Ford was the first to settle in Denver. he came from Virginia in 1860 and started a hotel called the Inter-Ocean Hotel in 1874.
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The Homestead Act of 1862 was for Kansas and other western states. It allowed people from all races and genders to pay a small filing fee and recieve 160 acres from the federal government.
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Oklahoma became a very popular place for African American migration. It was created in 1866 from the western half of the Indian Territory that was originally for the settlement of Native Americans.
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Benjamin "Pap" Singleton escaped enslavement many times and was able to reach Canada. While in Nashville, he distributed a circular called The Advantage of Living in a Free State to help more people move to Kansas. At least ten thousand African Americans moved to Kansas after that.
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In 1877 the town of Nicodemus was founded by a white developer and six prospective black homesteads from the south. Its location was on the frontier of Kansas.
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African Americans from Arkansas and Tennessee migrated to Indian Territory and became farmers. They weren't able to own the land until 1889.
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Edwin P. McCabe and his wife Sarah founded the all-black community of Langston City. In 1891 two hundred people lived in Langston City which lardely depended on the homesteads.
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The Kinkaid Homestead Act of 1904 opened thousands of acres in northwestern Nebraska's Sand Hills region. This was not a good place for growing crops, but it was better for raising cattle.
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Los Angeles became the largest black urban population with the West with 7,599 African American Residents. The population increased due to the land boom of the 1800s.
