The First Migrants

Winner of the Denver Public Library's 2024 Caroline Bancroft History Prize Winner of the 2024 Nebraska Book Award Finalist for the 2024 Spur Award Finalist for the 2024 ASALH Book Prize Honorable Mention for the 2024 Jon Gjerde Prize The First Migrants recounts the largely unknown story of Black people who migrated from the South to the Great Plains between 1877 and 1920 in search of land and freedom. They exercised their rights under the Homestead Act to gain title to 650,000 acres, settling in