User:Cgoral94/Kansas in the American Civil War

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Since Kansas was part of the Union during the Civil War, federal troops were not stationed in Kansas as they were in the former Confederacy during Reconstruction. The perceived radical politics of the state led to many emancipated African Americans to migrate from the south to Kansas. Known as Exodusters, these migrants were received well by some and negatively by others. While Kansas was always a free state, there were still incidents of mob violence and Lynching by white Kansans for alleged crimes against white citizens by Black settlers. This violence was both condemned by pro-Black newspapers such as The Smokey Hill and the Republican Union, and encouraged by other media outlets run by journalists who were anti-slavery but also anti-black at the same time.

While some differences did occur, moderate and radical Republicans in Kansas largely agreed on bettering the condition of African American settlers on the basis of it being "a moral imperative." These efforts included expanding voting rights in the area to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment, but also opening schools for Black children; however, these schools were still segregated by race, and would legally remain so until the 20th century with the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.