African American Homesteader Community in Sully County

Norvel Blair told his own story before he came west. Born enslaved in Montgomery County, Tennessee, about 1825, he was living in Grundy County, Illinois, when he published a memoir in 1880, a Book for the People addressed to all voters, Black and white. Then he sent his sons ahead to Dakota. On his Sully County homestead he raised racehorses, among them Johnny Bee, for years the fastest in South Dakota, and he died there on October 7, 1916. He, his wife Mary and several of their children lie in a family cemetery on the Blair land.

What the plaque says

African American Homesteader Community in Sully County In 1882, Norvel Blair, an African American born into slavery in Tennessee, sent two sons to explore homesteading prospects in Sully County. Soon, Norvel along with several members of the Blair family filed claims on the land, which they turned into successful farms. The Blair family members were energetic entrepreneurs. Norvel's daughters Betty and Winnie ran a restaurant and bakery, and his sons Benjamin and Patrick operated a livery. In 1896, Benjamin became the first black person in South Dakota to sit on a school board. In 1906, he and others formed the Northwestern Homestead Movement in hopes of recruiting other African American settlers to South Dakota. John McGruder of Missouri established another successful family farm when, through Betty Blair as land agent, he acquired 1,200 acres. His wife, Ellen McGruder, and sons George and James all homesteaded in the area. In all, African American homesteaders in the community received patents on twenty-two homestead claims totaling over 5,650 acres and purchased additional lands. Though most community members left during the Great Depression, these homesteaders remain a powerful reminder of generations of African Americans who sought opportunity in the Great Plains and pursued their dreams of land ownership, entrepreneurship, and civil equality. Map of All African American Homesteads in the Sully County Settlement 1 William Fairchild 2 Geo McGruder 3 William Davis 1 4 Norval Blair 1 5 Mary Blair 2 6 Norval Blair 2 7 J. Blair 8 Wm Day 9 Benjamin Blair 2 10 Lucy Blair 11 Winnie Blair 12 Patrick Blair 2 13 Benjamin Blair 1 14 Geo Howard 15 Elmer Figgins 1 16 Elmer Figgins 2 17 Rob Fields 18 William Davis 2 19 A Florence 20 J. Joiner 21 Ellen McGruder 22 Jas McGruder 23 H.C. Thomas 24 William Nash 25 Ed Gorham 26 Meredith Gorham 27 Mary Blair 1 28 Benjamin Blair 3 29 Patrick Blair 1 30 Green Winsor 31 Doc Palmer

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Oahe Dam — 24 mi
  One of the largest rolled-earth dams in the world, dedicated by President Kennedy in 1962, holding back a reservoir that reaches more than 230 miles to Bismarck.
• South Dakota State Capitol — 27 mi
  A copper-domed capitol built to end three elections' worth of fighting over where the capital belonged, beside a lake fed by an artesian well with a gas flame burning in it.
• Verendrye Monument — 29 mi
  The hilltop above Fort Pierre where three children found a lead plate in 1913 that two French brothers had buried in 1743 to claim the West for their king.

More markers nearby

• Fort Sully — steps away
• Medicine Knoll — 14 mi
• You Are Now on the 100° Meridian — 14 mi
• Mentor Graham — 14 mi