After the Civil War, several groups worked to move African American out of the South. Some of these societies intended to colonize blacks in Africa. The idea appealed to some influential leaders and their followers through the later 19th and early 20th centuries, but most blacks weren't ready to surrender their claim to equal rights in this country. "We are not Africans now," wrote one in 1877, "but colored Americans, and are entitled to American citizenship."

Many African Americans felt discouraged by the hardening discrimination and the decreased opportunities in the South. Thousands moved north, where they hoped to find jobs in industry or land for farming, and the freedom to enjoy all the rights granted them in the Constitution. "Exodusters" migrated to Kansas between 1873 and 1879. Others moved to the northern cities. The large influx of blacks into northern communities, and the resulting racial tension, erupted into riots and other violence in the early 20th century.