Exodusters

There were many reasons why people did not leave: a lack of money for the travel and costs of starting a new life, the difficulties of learning how to navigate a new economy and culture, fear of leaving behind their family and friends, etc. 

In addition, racism existed in the North and West too

Despite the challenges of moving, there were people who did leave the south in search of a better life. 

After Reconstruction the number of African Americans that remained in the south decreased. In the 1900s even more African Americans left the south

The earliest waves of migration out of the south were to the west, in particular to Kansas. In Kansas, African Americans took advantage of the Homestead Act, and bought cheap plots of land 

Benjamin “Pap” Singleton organized several black settlements in the state and assisted hundreds of families in relocation. 

African Americans who left the south for Kansas in the 1870s were called “Exodusters” because they believed their struggle mirrored the Hebrews’ trek through the desert from slavery to freedom in the Bible’s Book of Exodus.