Kansas Republican Party SOME ANECDOTES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF BLACK KANSAS REPUBLICANS Blue silk regimental flag of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, the first African American regiment in the Civil War. Recruitment began August 1862 and it was mustered into Federal service January 13, 1863. The Regiment saw its first action at Island Mound, Missouri, October 29, 1862. The flag bears the names of eight battle honors. 1 | P a g e Kansas Republican Party EXODUSTER MOVEMENT The influx of poor (1879-1881) and unskilled blacks caused a backlash of The end of Reconstruction in 1876 caused a mass resistance to the outflow of black refugees from the Old South, new immigrants. fleeing violence and poverty. Many headed for Governor John P. St Kansas which was associated with freedom, John (R), a fiery Bleeding Kansas, and John Brown. Baptist Minister, Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, a former slave from fought back against Tennessee encouraged people to move to those opposing the Kansas where they would be able to purchase exodusters. He land and establish a better life. In 1873, he led a ridiculed democrat group to Cherokee County near Baxter Springs. Benjamin “Pap” Singleton allegations that he He organized another colony to come from was trying to import Kentucky and settle in Graham County. This thousands of Republican voters. settlement of Nicodemus grew and prospered He likewise dismissed objections based on cost for a time until the railroad bypassed Nicodemus and resources arguing that God would find a way and built in a neighboring town. for Kansas and that he would never turn back refugees who had suffered cruelty, outrage, and wrong, who were destitute, hungry and without adequate clothes in the winter. He noted “the question of the exodus was not one of business, as shallow thinkers and flippant writers would have us believe . A large portion of the American people will ignore the humanitarian side. Kansas cannot afford to do so.” Nicodemus, Graham County, KS On May 8, 1879, Governor St. John formed the Freedman’s Relief Association to receive Around 30,000 blacks came to Kansas between charitable contributions to care for the 1879 and 1881. These people were called Exodusters. They established colonies one in Exodusters from the Jewish exodus from Egypt. Wabaunsee to the west of Topeka, one in Most Exodusters arrived by steamboats Chautauqua county, and another in Coffey unprepared to begin a new life. Most came with county. Black communities also formed within little if any money. The cities were overwhelmed cities like Topeka (Tennessee Town) and Kansas with the large number of needy persons. City (Quindero). Shelter, food, and rail transport had to be provided and were not cheap. 2 | P a g e Kansas Republican Party Edward P. McCabe by Leavenworth Republicans to tour eastern (1850-1920) Kansas in support of the Republican ticket. In 1882, E.P. McCabe (R) of Graham County was In 1887, Waller was appointed deputy city elected Kansas State Auditor; the first African attorney of Topeka, Kansas. In the 1888 American elected to statewide office (outside presidential election, Waller was the only black reconstruction) in the United States. In 1884, he man in the United States to be selected for the was re-elected to a second two-year term. After Electoral College. He cast a vote for Benjamin the Republican State Convention nominated him Harrison. In 1890 media claimed Kansas he unsuccessfully Republicans had gone ran for Kansas state “clean daft.” auditor. He was born in Troy, The inability of New York, received an black Republicans education in law and to move beyond migrated to Kansas in local office caused April 1878, just in time to Waller to look for get caught up in the "Exoduster" dream of other establishing all-black towns. McCabe was closely opportunities. He remained loyal to the identified with Nicodemus, Kansas, near which Republican Party and in 1891 was named by he settled as a farmer and attorney. A Harrison to be U.S. consul to Madagascar. Republican activist, he was elected Clerk in Graham County. His connections and his charm The French, however, viewed Waller's activity as served him well. After serving as state auditor a threat to their colonial ambitions in he worked for the state's leading Republicans in Madagascar and had him tried and convicted to the 1888 election. 20 years in prison. Only the intervention of President Cleveland freed him. He returned to the United States and during the Spanish John L. Waller American War he was an officer with the 23rd (1850-1907) Kansas Volunteers. John L. Waller was a career Republican and activist who played a significant role in Kansas Alfred Fairfax politics. He was born on a Missouri plantation. (1843-1916) After being freed by the Union Army in 1862, his family moved to Iowa where he attended school Elected to the state House of Representatives in and was admitted to the Iowa Bar in 1877. 1888, Alfred Fairfax was the first African American to serve in the Kansas legislature In 1878 he moved to Leavenworth, Kansas where where he represented Chautauqua County. he opened a law practice. In 1884 Waller, During his single term in office (1889-1890), he recognized for his speaking ability, was recruited served as chairman of the House Committee on 3 | P a g e Kansas Republican Party Immigration and spoke out in favor of an end to Topeka while young. Lutie attended Topeka segregated schools as well as a prohibition of schools, including Topeka High School. She then discrimination more generally. graduated from Central Tennessee law school's graduating class of 1897 before returning to Born a slave in Loudon County, Virginia, he was Topeka. She later moved to New York, but later sold and taken to Louisiana. In 1862, he returned periodically to Topeka where her escaped and joined the Union Army. During brother Charles had a long, successful career in Reconstruction he law-enforcement. actively participated in "I like constitutional law because the anchor of Louisiana politics, my race is grounded on the constitution. It is the including earning a certificate of our liberty and our equality before Republican the law. Our citizenship is based on it, and hence congressional I love it." nomination. In 1880, following Kansas Bans Birth of a Nation the end of Reconstruction, Fairfax joined thousands of Birth of a Nation was a 1915 silent movie epic other African Americans in moving to Kansas that portrayed the KKK as a heroic patriotic seeking social and economic opportunity. Upon movement that put aggressive blacks in their arriving in Kansas, as leader of a group of several place. Democrat President Woodrow Wilson, a hundred families, he settled in Chautauqua renowned racist, showed it at the White House. County near the town of Peru. He managed a farm of several hundred acres, raising cotton and Meanwhile in Kansas, the operating his own gin, the Fairfax Ginning republican-controlled Board Company. He became pastor of the New Hope of Review of Motion Pictures Baptist Church in Parsons. banned the movie for being both historically inaccurate and racist, representing the Lutie Lytle worst racist, exploitative (1875-c1950) historical revisionism. The ban was not dropped until 1924 when a In 1897, Lutie Lytle of democrat was Governor Topeka became the first African-American woman in Kansas admitted to the NAACP & Robert Hill practice of law and one of the first three in the The Topeka branch of the NAACP was founded in nation. 1913. It opposed Birth of a Nation, gained entrance for black children to educational She was born in movies shown at segregated theaters, and Tennessee and moved to 4 | P a g e Kansas Republican Party fought school segregation. In 1919, U.S. Senator How Kansas Killed the KKK and former Governor Arthur Capper (R) sat on its (1920-1927) board. The KKK began to organize in Kansas around In January 1920, Robert Hill, a civil rights leader 1920, positioning itself as an organization who had fled Arkansas, was arrested in Kansas dedicated to high morals, Christian virtue, and on an extradition request from Arkansas. Three Americanism. It preached a doctrine of hatred NAACP lawyers took up his case: James Guy. for “non-Americans” especially those of Jewish, Elisha Scott, Sr., and Catholic, and Black ancestry. By 1922, it had A. M. Thomas. They about 50,000 members in Kansas. had the full support Nov 22, 1922: Governor Allen (R), after declaring of Governor Allen that there would be “no such nonsense” in and Senator Capper. Kansas, ordered Attorney General Richard Allen Unlike Arkansas, the (R) to file suit to oust the Klan from Kansas as a NAACP could act foreign corporation illegally doing business – openly in Kansas and because it did not have a corporate charter. planned mass public In a speech Governor Allen stated “This is not a pressure. They A. M. Thomas partisan issue. It transcends the obligations of added Shawnee partisanship and relates itself to the sacred County Prosecutor Hugh Fisher to the team. cause of free government – the cause of When the Arkansas officials arrived to extradite individual rights. No more grotesque abuse of Hill, they were met by large crowds of protesters, the word ‘American’ could be used than to call relentless news articles from Capper’s this Klan organization American.” newspapers on “Arkansas Justice” and requests from Fisher for information on the routine 1923-24: The Klan’s influence grew at the torture of prisoners in Arkansas. grassroots level, reaching over 100,000 members in Kansas. It set itself up as moral On March 22, 1921, the extradition hearing was censor in communities and took over scattered held in Topeka.