Dunlap Colored Cemetery is a historic cemetery at 2050 S. 100 Road in

Dunlap, Kansas Dunlap is a city in Morris County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 27. History On March 19, 1874, a post office was established in Hillsborough, Kansas. It was later reestablished on April 20 of t ...

. The cemetery was established in 1880 as part of the Dunlap Colony, a community of

Exodusters Exodusters was a name given to African Americans who Human migration, migrated from U.S. state, states along the Mississippi River to Kansas in the late nineteenth century, as part of the Exoduster Movement or Exodus of 1879. It was the first Hum ...

, or

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

former slaves who moved from the South to Kansas after emancipation.

Benjamin "Pap" Singleton Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809 – February 17, 1900) was an American activist and businessman best known for his role in establishing African American settlements in Kansas. A former slave from Tennessee who escaped to freedom in Ontario, Canada ...

, an abolitionist who escaped slavery in the 1840s and an early leader of the Exoduster movement, founded the Dunlap Colony in 1878. When white settlers in Dunlap objected to sharing the preexisting local cemetery with the new black settlers, the Exodusters created their own cemetery. While the first burial at the cemetery took place in 1880, the cemetery trustees did not actually own the cemetery's land until 1893. The community held annual

Emancipation Day Emancipation Day is observed in many former European colonies in the Caribbean and areas of the United States on various dates to commemorate the emancipation of slaves of African descent. On August 1, 1985, Trinidad and Tobago became the fir ...

celebrations on September 22 that included a procession to the cemetery to honor their ancestors; they also conducted

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

and

Veterans Day Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces (who were discharged under conditions other than di ...

ceremonies for the veterans buried there. The Dunlap Colony's black population began to decline in the 1890s and onward as charitable support for the community ran out; the last Emancipation Day celebration took place in 1931, effectively marking the end of Dunlap's black community. Those buried in the cemetery include Columbus Johnson, one of Singleton's business partners, and Ralph Maddox and A. J. Howard, both Exodusters and cofounders of the cemetery. The cemetery was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on September 14, 2018.

References

External links

National Register of Historic Places in Morris County, Kansas Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas Cemeteries established in the 1880s African-American history of Kansas {{US-cemetery-stub