Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [Historic American Building Survey Field Records]

African Americans contributed to the development of economic, cultural, and social life in the American West. Between 1860 and 1950, the black population of the western states increased from 196,000 to 1,787,000. Pictured here are Kansas pioneers Henry Williams, father of the first black child to be born in Nicodemus, Kansas and his friend Reece Switzer.