Forgotten Lives : African Americans in South Dakota

Throughout South Dakota's history, African Americans have been vastly outnumbered by their white and American Indian neighbors. Under-reported as well, they have been misrepresented by historians, journalists, even census-takers. However, from the first African Americans to visit the Northern Great Plains as fur traders in the early 1800s to twentieth-century voting-rights advocates or professionals recruited after World War II, African Americans have pioneered here. They have participated in the state's successes and failures and contributed to its rich history.

Betti Vanepps-Taylor is an independent scholar, speaker, and writer on black history and culture