Benjamin "Pap" Singleton was a former slave who became a leader in the "Great Exodus" of thousands of blacks from the South to the West in the late 1870s. He escaped to freedom in 1846 and became an early community and Civil Rights leader, as well as a voice for black nationalism. He founded two black separatist colonies in Kansas. Singleton was a strong leader and became a national spokesman for the Exodusters of 1879-1880. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Benjamin "Pap" Singleton on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
Benjamin "Pap" Singleton was a former slave who became a leader in the "Great Exodus" of thousands of blacks from the South to the West in the late 1870s. He escaped to freedom in 1846 and became an early community and Civil Rights leader, as well as a voice for black nationalism. He founded two black separatist colonies in Kansas. Singleton was a strong leader and became a national spokesman for the Exodusters of 1879-1880.
