Norvel Blair founded the African American homesteader community in Sully County, South Dakota. Blair arrived in Fairbank Township of Sully County in 1884. He previously sent his sons Benjamin and Patrick to scout the area. Norvel and his sons also became known in the region for raising racehorses. One of their horses, Johnny Bee, held the record for the fastest horse in the state from 1907-1909.
In her lifetime Ellen McGruder went from being owned as a slave to owning her own land. Ellen and her husband, John, had been enslaved in Missouri. They became successful entrepreneurs after emancipation. Even purchasing some land on the plantation on which John had been enslaved. They later moved to Sully County, South Dakota and soon were running three hundred head of cattle, three thousand sheep, and thirty race and work horses.
Locations:Homestead National Historical Park, Pullman National Historical Park
After some success as a homesteader on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, a three year drought destroyed his crops. Micheaux’s wrote two novels about his experiences homesteading The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer (1913) and The Homesteader (1917). In 1919, Oscar Micheaux adapted his story "The Homesteader" into a film, becoming the first known African-American filmmaker and director.
Sully County’s black homesteader community prized education as well as owning land. Soon the “Sully County Colored Colony” numbered as many as one hundred residents. Members of the colony successfully claimed 22 homesteads, and with purchased lands, became owners of perhaps 7,000 to 8,000 acres. The Sully County black homesteader community remains a powerful reminder of generations of African Americans who sought opportunity in the Great Plains.
