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.