[2] The movement received substantial organizational support from prominent figures, such as Benjamin Singleton of Tennessee, Philip D. Armour of Chicago, and Henry Adams[3] of Louisiana.

According to William Murrell in testimony given to the United States Senate, "the white people in Louisiana are better armed and equipped now than during the war".

The depression of the 1870s served to exacerbate the racist policies of white merchants and planters, who sought to offset their agricultural losses by increasing prices and interest rates for blacks.

[9] Most southern states completely undermined federal Reconstruction efforts to promote landowning as the blacks' ticket to economic freedom and equality.

[11] In the aftermath of the Compromise of 1877 and the traumatic political campaigns of 1878 in Louisiana, the plight of organized black resistance had reached a point of hopelessness, leading to the Exodus of 1879.

Grassroots black political activism, exemplified by the leadership of Henry Adams in Louisiana, functioned only in total secrecy and at great risk of assassination.

That the journey of these refugees was termed an "exodus", a word taken from the Old Testament in reference to the Jews' flight from Egypt, indicates that the movement had spiritual motivations.

The millenarian aspect of the Exodus was most realized in Tennessee, where Benjamin "Pap" Singleton's boisterous proselytizing mostly found an enthusiastic black following and a more amenable white audience.

[14] Delegates from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, and Georgia met at a New Orleans conference in 1875 and discussed black emigration to western territories and Liberia.

As the land of John Brown, Kansas had fought bitterly for its Free State status, and took its fair treatment of black immigrants as a point of pride.

However, the Colored Relief Board estimated that about 20,000 Exodusters reached the city between 1879 and 1880; the St. Louis Globe-Democrat quoted 6,206 arriving between March and April 1879 alone.

[27] At the local level, Topeka Mayor Michael C. Case refused to spend municipal funds to aid Exodusters, believing that the money would be better spent to return them to the South.

[30] Appropriation bills for refugee aid introduced by Kansas Senator John J. Ingalls and Ohio Representative James A. Garfield died in committee.

[32] The Exodus was not universally praised by African Americans; indeed, Republican statesman Frederick Douglass, a former slave who escaped captivity, was a critic of the movement.

[citation needed] Similarly, in the early 20th century, black migrations to the American West and Southwest would continue, and several additional all-black towns would be established, especially in Indian Territory, which would become the state of Oklahoma.