John Wayne Niles facts for kids
John Wayne Niles (1842–?) was an important American politician and community leader. He was also an early pioneer in Kansas and worked hard for equal rights.
John Wayne Niles was an African American man. He started a political group called the Indemnity Party. This group wanted reparations, which means giving land to people who were formerly enslaved. Niles was also one of the first leaders of Nicodemus, Kansas, a town founded by freed Black people.
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Early Life
John Wayne Niles was born in 1842 in Mississippi. His mother was African American, and his father was white. John had been enslaved when he was young. This experience likely made him want to help others who had been enslaved, especially by seeking land for them.
His Work and Activism
After some time, Niles moved to Kentucky. There, he became involved with the Exodusters movement. This movement helped African Americans move to Kansas to start new settlements.
In 1877, Niles became one of the seven leaders of the Nicodemus, Kansas, colony project. Nicodemus was special because it was the first free Black settlement on the Great Plains. It was also one of the first American communities led by Black people. In 1878, Niles was chosen as the second president of the Nicodemus colony. During the middle of 1878, there was a food shortage in Kansas, which made it hard for the colony to keep going.
People described Niles as a very good speaker who worked hard for his community. He faced many challenges but continued to fight for his beliefs.
In the 1880s, Niles created the Indemnity Party. This was an all-Black political group that wanted land grants as a form of reparations for formerly enslaved people. He faced legal challenges and political difficulties because of his work.
Later, Niles moved to Washington, D.C.. The political situation in Washington, D.C., in the late 1880s made it tough for the Indemnity Party to achieve its goals. In October 1883, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. This was a big setback for civil rights. Around this time, there were also difficult political events, like the Danville Massacre in Danville, Virginia, which showed the challenges Black people faced.
Despite these difficulties, Niles kept working. The U.S. Attorney General, Benjamin Harris Brewster, said that the Indemnity Party's land claims were a matter for the state of Arkansas. This meant they would need to go to the U.S. Supreme Court to be heard. Later, John Sherman, a senator from Ohio, presented a request for land for slavery reparations in the U.S. Senate. However, this request was put aside and not acted upon.
Legacy
John Wayne Niles was never able to get any reparations laws passed during his lifetime. However, his efforts were important. Today, more than 150 years later, the topic of reparations is still an active discussion in the United States.
Niles's story is shared in books like From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century (UNC Press, 2020). He is also featured in the book Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019 (Random House, 2021).
See also
- Callie House
- California Reparations Task Force
- Civil Rights Cases, a group of U.S. Supreme Court cases decided in 1883
- List of freedmen's towns
