Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book TV Visits Kansas City Missouri 20171203

Conversation we will take your calls, tweets and facebook questions. Watch in depth whip cornyn west and Robert George live today from noon to 3 p. M. Eastern on booktv on cspan2. Welcome to kansas city, missouri, on booktv locator on eastern banks banks of the Missouri River this one small Frontier Town went on to establish itself help of a booming livestock and railroad industry. As the city grew immigrants flocked to find work. Without of our spectrum Cable Partners for the next hour and 15 as well as for cities history and literary community. We say it the oldest continual Retail Operation west of the economy be in the whole world. But its kind of our community center, one of the corner Neighborhood Grocery stores where people are extending credit in the neighborhood come and people came here for generations and its now the same thing, people come here to gossip and compared notes and help and kids and all those things come as so its like a small town Crossroads Store in ireland. In this sense than in kansas city we are along the river and so it creates this river bottomland for a lot of the irish immigrants first is because it is inexpensive and eventually they worked their way up the hill to the top of the blast sent so physically they moved to and it also came with the social ladder at the same time. Both geographically and socially. In the 1850s, and just a little muddy Riverfront Community of storehouses and shanties in shawnee indians and half breeds and a lot of french traders, but it was tiny little the priests that was assigned to this area, he called it his parish and he likened it to a small european kingdom they went to 300 miles one way in 150 miles another way. When he started a church on the hill, he was part of the Civic Community in 1850s trying to expand the city. When you have 150foot busts along the river, the little shelf at the time in order to expand you have to go through the lines and so he put out put out a call and put advertisements in boston and new york in the irish papers in the advertised for laborers, and skilled tradesmen to come to kansas city and pay your fair to come here and guarantee you a job in a place to live to hope that the streets and those guys made a dollar a day to card the streets, sometimes 80 feet deep through these blogs then that was the genesis of the irish population in kansas city, which hundreds of immigrants responded from baltimore, boston come along the coast. The irish came to kansas city in 1850s and there were hundreds of them. Mostly male, women followed, but they were brought here for the very simple reason to wield the pick and shuttle. They dug cisterns, foundations for buildings, latrine, stone masons, kansas city is built on limestone. There are caverns underneath where we sit right now, underground caves carved out of the limestone now used for storage and office space. You will see the foundation of homes and walls primarily irish stonemasons who built that in Union Station to the basement of my house. And we were a stockyard separately on an eastern europeans came and they are cutting throats of cattle and putting them on the railroad and a guy driving the train was irish could the guy or the guy or leave the train was irish. It is those kinds of jobs they brought the irish to kansas city and really they built the city. The American Protective Association proclinton, ios and irish antiimmigrant sort of crew because irish were coming across the country settling in on this railroad jobs in those kinds of things and before you know that they were taking a repulsive clinton, iowa and most places in the midwest and there is pushed back then that the errors population was burgeoning to kansas city. The 1870s there was 10 was irish born and so there was conflicts, violence and killing and deputies and local irish populations, healers essentially and that was in the 90s and then as we grew, into world war i the pending house was established. His parents were from ireland and he came from a big family of brothers and sisters. When he came here come the work in iron works in kansas city and it is true he liked to gamble on the horses and he won a bet on a horse named climax and what does climax and with those leniency opened a saloon in a boarding house in the west bottoms along the shantytowns in boarding houses and train station and all that and did very well. He was considered a very positive sort of guy, and on his sky. He held a lot of the old immigrants monday in a saloon, use kind of their baker because he didnt trust banks. He was the one to take young men with the encouragement of their parents to take the pledge to quit drinking. He was very hugely popular and he was encouraged to run as a city councilman and the one and he continued to win until he died in 1914. He built up a trust among the poorer especially because he did it the oldfashioned way. Todays politicians from the things he could never deliver coming it delivered with cold when you needed it. Sounds an grand parents and grandsons and granddaughters of immigrants who said he paid for the funerals of their Little Brothers and sisters when he died young of all the diseases in different maladies that 30s. Unlike his brother, tom had more for resources embedding to take him down a path to tax evasion and issues that sent him to prison and the political dynasty crumbled. But it didnt they were accusations of corruption, but you didnt hear of a lot of Violence Associated with the irish political structure. The patronage was rampant, but by the same token week is something they need. Not just platitudes, but jobs, poll, funds when the tragedy occurred in the family. It was built on benevolent thin built on selfinterest. But by the same token, when he came into the era of prohibition from the stakes got higher and higher in terms of the underworld if you will and may think that is really when the irish started losing their grip on the political system was probably in the depression, even though that is at the highest because you provide jobs and whatnot. They were losing it on the other entering prohibition because again this takes were so high for sugar for bootleg whiskeys that is really when the italian element began to take over that part of device in the city and may think the irish back away from the violence in that era. We might have put our cousin and her second husband and his cousin on the payroll at the county courthouse, but we were killing, shooting people at the polls that we were earning cars in that kind of thing. I dont want to denigrate the tieins, but the mafia influence came in to kansas city, which everybody knows, you look at the segue right into the italian civilian control and so i think the irish didnt help quite a pension for force. To get a perspective on all of this is the abolition of kansas city. They are still misunderstood by most people who fly over it and they think its its horses and buggies and callous. But it started out with the irish first arrived here, there was like 500 people, half of them were halfbreed indianas, fulbright indianas, africanamericans, french, a melting pot in the sense youre practically melted in the mud because there were no streets right along the river. Steve rhodes of clay and it smelled. You know, people were dirty. And to build out is that couric on the irish basically helped build this. They put stone down on the streets, build the buildings, put the bricks together, put out the fires come is started and stopped besides, policemen, did all those kinds of things. The irish came into a little hole is not essentially with some shacks and turned it into a city and im very proud of that. Founded in 1873, Kansas City Public Library is the oldest in the area. Come inside with us is to see the collections of Tom Pendergrass consider the political boss of the area. We learn more about his rise to power and impact of the city. He was the political machine of kansas city from control in the team 25 to 1939. But that his older brother who came to kansas city in the teen 80s and i started establishing this machine in the first word of kansas city was in the industrial west down by the river. There is an irish community, African American community, very diverse. A lot of working class people in Jim Pendergrass had saloons and he had went basically precinct to precinct building this machine that was based on favors, basically helping people get jobs in exchange for votes, helping people through giving them loans that you didnt have to get a formal bank loan and jim were blowing the money, settle in gambling debt, skimming money from illegal activities such as gambling and prostitution and so on and so forth and when he was getting older, his health was failing and his younger brother got started on the machine around the night 200, he was elected and was in charge of streets for a few years a few years and that really made 200 Tom Pendergrass really was in a position to take over the machine by the time june died in the teen allowed in. And a political machine i start to describe it with the act of doing favors in exchange for votes. When you boil it down to its base elements, thats what it amounted to. Its been tied into organized crime and other illicit a committees taking bribes and kickbacks in using influence to make sure that your preferred candidates are elected and wants to control the City Government in 1925, the machine had full control of over the city. They had five out of Nine City Council members handpicked, through the city council they appointed henry mcelroy, city manager and the city manager position was really more powerful than any other position in kansas city at the time and so henry mock worry was in charge of the daytoday operations in the city and reformers had hoped the manager would be this professional kind of takes care of business and proper ways, but since he was a pendergrass man, it was very hurt. Whenever they did City Construction projects, not corey would make sure these projects went to companies that were owned by Tom Pendergrass and he owned mostly construction and companies. Basically everything from fuller used to use cement to a ready mix cement co. It was one of his big ones. He had the insurance companies, Liquor Companies of course, which at least officially they change to Beverage Companies during the prohibition of the time. So all of the city contracts went through mcelroy back to pendergrass to make it the money. There is the circle of money to do so is getting his cuts and people wanted in exchange she gets lots of votes on election days they can pay people to vote. They can hire what they call wort chiller is to go precinct by precinct and intimidate voters from the opposition or bring out their own voters, the election in the team 34, for example, there were four People Killed at the polling site on the way they were able to do this, through power and money as they can get away with it because after four people were killed and 11 were injured, people demanded the governor callout a National Guard and come in and reestablish order in kansas city. Who would do that . , the governor, parked himself was a crony. The power actually went statewide resume team by 1932 when he got elected and they had to close through the state of missouri rep syndication at the Democratic National convention in the 1930s, eventually select determined to be set under from missouri and he was select did in the statewide vote, but at this point, i believe the number whereas khomeini could produce about 70,000 fraudulent ghosts to vote and then he gives an election that is time. This is a sheer number of votes that he could produce out of kansas city that would be tallied and they were official whether they were real or not. He had the power to do this and he had plenty. Affiliates could win Elections Come at even without stuffing ballot boxes. They give people jobs. They build infrastructure throughout the city. They had rowed. If you walk around the city today, you can see the courthouse there. Municipal auditorium, 31932, on top of the world, sending delegates to the Democratic National convention, senator is, governor of missouri, and pendergast and selfguided gambling addiction, specifically horse racing. So at some point he racked up several hundred thousand dollars and thats the Great Depression era dollars. Several hundred thousand dollars of gambling that and he needed to raise even more money than his corrupt machine could raise to pay off these gambling debts. Eventually in the late 30s, and make team 37, eight, he got involved in insurance kickback scheme and actually the scheme, its not clear whether he broke the law with this scheme or not. Im not a lawyer so i cant explain that. Were he ran into trouble as he didnt report for income and tax on his tax returns. Pendergast was nothing by at this point and he died, natural causes. Truman came to his funeral. So he just became Vice President , came to the funeral of Tom Pendergast, during wartime, but a military plane, big controversy, and a week later, roosevelt died in truman was president of the United States. So truman could never completely distanced himself from his background to machine. And he owned it. He said that he always kept his word and he wasnt going to abandon his friend. So what we are trying to do is complicate that history and ive done a little bit of that in this interview, but we are building a website that will include currently we have about 9500 scans, mothers people of britain back then. Court cases on voter fraud and other crimes had been interact to website that will combine the original documents with new scholarship. So we reached out in 2015 to meet Team Different professors who were busy and professionals or historians who produce fulllength articles that they would go on the book. Theres some new ideas and their foreign new topics that just havent been explored in any depth before this. Were taking website versions before this coming cure to public audiences and these will go on the website. Everything will be linked together. When youre reading the essay, you can click and see the documents support the research. You can read the court case that the pendergast in jail and its not as dry as a Typical Court case might sound when you think about everything going on at the time. So we are basically those are the elements of the website. It will look Something Like this. When the graphics are finished. We had eight or nine different categories of topics that we are covering. Theres machine politics, organized crime and reform, economic boom and discovery, kansas city jazz, prohibition, labor and industry, race relations, communities and neighborhoods, womens rights. Weve bitten off a lot obviously, but the scope is focusing on pendergast in the machine and then exploring all of the implications of machine will in kansas city, especially than it did 20 since 30s where they were at their peak. So when we look at jazz, we are mostly interested in jazz from the good of the machine. How did the machine enable a culture of nightclubs and people called it the wideopen town at the time that kansas city was the original sin city before vegas basically. So we are looking at that aspect however things ties together. It makes sense to do this digital platform. You can do a lot of things on a website that you cant do on a book. We are developing word maps. It is using google, showing the words hell be able to click to see the first word and that is where Tom Pendergast came from. That is where they got their start. He can see the other machines and to build a go back to the document and be able to go from documents, essays, back to maps, timelines. We might be able to create mind maps that shows connections within to visualize. It is really difficult to do any of that in his book in an interactive way that is an immersive experience and this gives people the opportunities to learn about the time. Or cspan city tours continues on booktv. Up next, devin fergus on wealth inequality in the u. S. As he talks about his book from the land of the free, hidden cost and decline of the american middle class. Pigment rendered very good provided is basically what in effect a fee is. For much of the recent history 20th century, we start is covering in administrative costs, specified admin is treated cost. So you go in there is a price for what you have to pay for them but the drivers license to cover the cost with nominal revenue or profit, but increasingly fees have been used to as a form of profit straight and thats the material difference i say in the recent development. No longer to cover revenue cost expenses, but its a form of revenue profit for government and the private sector. We see it really take off in the 1970s company can 80s. You may also hear about fees and hotel fees. My research and face looks fairly different because primarily in the Consumer Financial industry and rises fees in three areas which are central to upper mobility in america housing to education, employment from home, to school, to work, transportation. So these sort areas of upward mobility of postwar america, we also see incredible rises fees and financial expense to in those areas. Thats a student loan. Then again, talking about fees, but fees are part of a larger expense for the Student Loans. Theres tax to that, delinquency fees coming of pale date, but hes designed to pay tuition and i think in the u. K. They call it tuition fees because that is what it is. It is a tuition fee at that cost. For the average student on fire, they, 28, 30,000 in debt. Now it beats not going to college. But its misleading because it ignores the hangover effect a student loan house. The hangover effect for the cascading effects are you a College Student 30,000 in debt, that means you have a debttoincome ratio which we do have more points on your Mortgage Loan or mortgage insurance as well. It means that for the next 30 or 40 years of the Mortgage Loan you are constantly behind the person who did not have to take out a student loan. So you pay more for your home, more for your car and that means you have less money to save, less equity to build. At the same time you have a kid, a child. The child is born you put money into their 529 college accounts. It means that your child, which also has a deleterious effect on wealth mobility. The cascading effect of Student Loans is ignored so much by people who have the advantages. Homeownership, Higher Education and, employment, transportation. Every one of these fears, the key driver law bs who actually did the active basically the chicago tribune, this is a bill for the lending industry. Thats what they call it. So law bs aircraft in these bills driving much of these creative Financial Products. The same thing with Student Lending. Costbenefit analysis, someone like a large lending for ronald reagan, a staunch republican, talks about how guaranteeing Student Loans are less efficient than direct Student Loans. Cost the taxpayer much more money. Its bad Financial Products, basically and others talk about it. In both administrations, these analysis say that the direct loan is the Financial Products for the student borrower. It gives more money directly to them and it offers them to say wow, this is a streamlined system. We can get money faster for less cost which means it costs them less and they can either go into default or delinquency so the taxpayer dont have to pick up the tab. Nonetheless, the direct lending is forestalled and held off and basically drowned in the bath by guaranteed Student Lending lobbies. All these things are driven by Biometric Services lobby. We cant get a federal law of Financial Services lobby. Same thing with all the shorts which is socritical , since its the loss of a job without it. Its the insurance lobby, in which in the 1980s which put more money into a campaign in california to forestall the proposition and which then in thepresident ial election. Its the Financial Services lobby whether its the Insurance Industry or student loan industry , which allows for perpetuation of these creative Financial Products and which helps to drive wealth inequality. Sociology, were moving toward a majority Minority Society and you can also talk about women as consumers in the society so this demographic population is also, has been the ones who have typically been the ones targeted by these Consumer Financial products. The most leverage when they talk about prime mortgages, loans, lending, when you talk about Auto Insurance and the ways in which Auto Insurance is predicated not on merit but not related to the quality. All these factors have an impact on society. Latinos, asians americans, africanamericans and women. For example, Auto Insurance. Something which, you want to talk about insurance, i got more boards on insurance but nowhere do you find the private sector more protected than having a good service which is required by law to purchase but its delivered exclusively by the private sector. Theres medicare, medicaid, all the Auto Insurance is protected, its a basic class throughout society so in the insurance, Auto Insurance is in large part determined not by how you drive but by where you live. Something called the territory Rating System or see profiling so its no longer to profile people are by gender or race. You cant charge women more because shes a woman or a latino or because she has a latino sounding name. But you can charge them more based on where they live, so pc profiling. And so a lot tino woman who lives in a neighborhood which is more latino or latin acts is more likely to pay more Auto Insurance to have a drive but i say by direct, i mean number of years driving. She has a perfect driving record, she has no tickets. Shes not been in any accidents. She drives the same amount of distance whereas as a white male who lives in 90210 which is one of the most famous areas, as opposedto a latin acts who lives in a latin section of california. Is also likely to pay more in Auto Insurance even though she has the same profile. Individual merit is predicated upon social factors, social environments. And you pay Auto Insurance one year, you extrapolate this over 50 years so if you take 6500 more in Auto Insurance a year and you extrapolate back by 43 years then you can see the cumulative amount that this wealth gap costs on the fastest growingpopulation. The future holds basically that has right about these related costs have dramatic impacts on middleclass america, erecting barriers to the middle class as well as eroding the middle class as well i think looking ahead, as detrimental as the hidden costs of these fees have on the middle class, its even more damaging and deleterious effect on the fastestgrowing segment of American Society. People of color are far more likely to have a subprime loan than an average american. Women are more likely to take out a student loan than men, racial minorities have more loans than the white population so in the fastestgrowing segments of American Society of latinos, women, asians as well, immigrant populations, all these things have had an acute impact on the fastestgrowing segment of our society. So what might, what impact might this have that the fastestgrowing society was arguably the most overleveraged by society. What might that have on things like Public Finance and infrastructure, retirement savings, medicare and for the state of democracy itself . As a historian, i write about the past but looking ahead, we have to understand that if were moving toward essentially a majority Minority Society, and that these things ive laid out have a disparate impact on that population , that the future is quite concerning. The kansas city stockyards established in 1871. Taking the livestock industry the second largest in chicago. I continue our look at kansas citys historical heritage and learn more about the industry and its impact on the city. We are in the workroom of the Missouri Valley special collections which is the local and Regional History Department of the Kansas City Public Library. We have been a Department Since 1960 with the mission to acquire, preserve and make accessible documents and materials pertaining to the history of kansas city and the surrounding regions. Today we are going to talk about the kansas city stockyards collection. Its a collection we acquired back in 2008. To give a background about the kansas city stockyards to begin with, its exists in kansas city for a 120 years. Really the beginning of the stockyards was, had to do with the Railroad First of all in 1869, the hannibal bridge opened. The first band across the Missouri River and which was a real population and economic boon for kansas city in 1869. Then we had the livestock industry, there was an abundance of livestock in texas, in texas there was a market in the east, there were high demand for beef. So they were bringing those fears to kansas and missouri, putting them on rail yards and shipping them to the east coast. With the hannibal bridge, kansas city had Railway Access to chicago and those eastern markets. So in 1871, some Livestock Dealers and railroad men decided to build pins and shoes and a facility to hold cattle there and do ship that cattle back east. Or to chicago. A few years later you started seeing meatpackers in the meatpacking industry move into kansas city and so the meat could be processed here in kansas city rather than in chicago and so that was the real boon for the economy as well. That was really the start of the kansas city stockyards in kansas city in 1871. So the livestock industry was very important to the growth of kansas city. It was the, where it was located in the west was the Central Business district in the late1890s. Through the early 20th century to the mid20th century. It was the main employer between the stockyards, meatpacking industry, the Retail Operations that were down in the west bottoms. Area employed as many as 20,000 people at any given time. There were communities down there of people that worked at these plans, worked at the stockyards so therewere schools , churches, Retail Operations down there. It really was the heart of kansas city in the Business Community at that time. And really, in really with those jobs aided in kansas citys population growth. Early on you would have as many as say the 1860s, 1870s you would have as many as 150,000 head of cattle that would come through the stockyards but by the early 1900s, youre looking at over 1 million head of cattle coming through the stockyards. In 1943 they had a record day of 54,000 head of cattle were yardage, received and guarded in the stockyards. It wasnt just cattle. It was not only cows but hogs and sheep as well. And it was in the stockyards it was successful also ran into a lot of obstacles. Namely flooding. Where the obstacles are located at the confluence of the kansas and Missouri Rivers, i was regrown to flooding. So in 1903, 1908. 1911, they had major floods that they had to overcome. In 1917 there was a devastating fire. That took out half of the stockyards. You can imagine the in the stockyards at that time. And then in 1951, it was really kansas city right flood. Thats the one that really was the beginning of the end for the stockyards. But before then, from approximately after the flooding in 1911 until the flood of 1951, the stockyards was a very successful venture. Livestock industry, at the time since the time of the stockyards closed, its really changed. And for that reason, thats why we no longer have the stockyards in kansas city. Part of it was the flood of 1951 it had a Lasting Impact on that area but really the cattle industry changed. There was no reason to bring cattle to an urban center and thats as kansas city grew, it certainly wasnt urban center. There were environmental concerns, there were on having cattle in the urban center. There were rising costs for the shipping, economics and so how exchange the most is farmers or excuse me, people that raise cattle, farmers , those rural areas, they created these stockyards for rural areas where the cattle were located rather than happen in a centralized area in a major city. In 2008, the library was offered a collection of materials related to the kansas city stockyards. They were held for many decades. Gathering dust in the Livestock Exchange building. At 16th and genesee. At the time, we didnt know a lot about the collection. But it was offered to us, come and get it or we might have to throw it out. So sight unseen, we accepted a donation. A large donation of mass, land abstracts, photographs, postcards you and architectural drawings. Pertaining to the kansas city stockyards. And really the focus of that collection is the built environment of the stockyards. These are architectural drawings of the pens, the layout. The space, how it was used. We say that we could take the materials that we had and recreate the stockyards if we wanted to because theres that much detail in the collection. And of course theres photographs and other interesting artifacts from the collection as well really strength is the architectural drawings and maps and the built environment. We have some of them here today. To show you. One of my favorite things from the collection is that there are multiple maps documenting the stockyards area. The collection has a map of the stockyards area for just about every year between 1890s and 1930s which i think is interesting because i love max and i think that they are a really interesting way of tracking the changes in an area through the years. What i have on the table here is a map of the stockyards from 1899 and one from 1905. Even though there are a few years that passed between those years, we can compare the maps and see how much has already changed just in those few years. New railroads, tracks have been built, road traffic, treats have been built. New packing plants have been built. So its just a really fascinating way to see how the stockyards area developed and grow and change throughout the years to be able to look at all these maps through the years and see that change right there in front of you. This document i have here is a locker room blueprint for the Standard Rendering Company so after the animals went through the packing plants and they got the meat that, the parts they would be able to turn into meat, the rest of it went to the rendering companies to turn into various products. They had locker rooms there because it was pretty dirty work. One thing thats interesting about this is that the locker room actually shows segregated sections of the locker room. You see here it says white, mexican and black and they have separate entrances to go into separate sections of the locker room. This is seen from an archival perspective because we dont have very many documents that show that segregation there, that its labeled as such so this was something that when i foundit , i thought was brilliant to see. Everything you see on this table have to do with the construction of the American Royal Building from 1922. We have this in our collection because the Stockyards Company financed the construction of the 1922 building and built it on stockyards property. The american royal and the stockyards had a symbiotic relationship. Both needed the thriving livestock industry in kansas city to survive the american royal needed the backing to finance the space, the staffing from the Stockyards Company and the Stockyard Company did the promotions that american royal provided, getting people, getting the guys like kansas city kind of a focus in the livestock industry. So you have the architectural drawings for the 1922 building and a lot of the construction as well. And so the american royals had an annual tradition since 1899 and while this building no longer is in existence, the american royals itself was a private organization so in many ways its kind of a legacy of the stockyard. Another remnant of the stockyards is the Livestock Exchange building which is still on genesee street. One of my favorite items in the stockyard collection is just complete set of blueprints from the 1911 building. At the time this was considered the largest Livestock Exchange building in the world. And also during the 1951 flood, the building filled with water all the way up to the second floor, you can see the high watermark to this day. So this is the facade of the building. I had an engineer so i cant tell you a lot about these blueprints. You can see there are titles with the interior details of the main stairs. But they one thing to keep in mind with the building is its more of the administrative part of the stockyards. So one of the things that the Stockyard Company and a lot of people in kansas city will tell you is theres kind of a private business being done with a handshake and a mans word. So the commission and the people buying cattle, they pretty much world wordofmouth agreements in the yard. And transactions were made at the Livestock Exchange building. So basically, the document that weve shown you are a drop in the bucket of the whole collection. Theres over 6000 items, 6000 blueprints, photographs but people interested inkansas city stockyard history can come here in person. The 18th in my neighborhood in kansas city and an area known for its rich three in africanamerican businesses. As we continue our tour of kansas city we will hear one other story of slavery on the misery border. The fact is that a little under half of the enslaved people lived on this lake holden and certainly the vast majority of white people engaged in slavery. Unfortunately, that has less of an idea that somehow slavery was a milder institution in missouri. Some people have argued that somehow its a more Domestic Institution because people were living more closely with one another, sometimes and slave people live inside the household. And somehow that might have made it better. And there really hasnt been a lot of research into trying to figure out if in fact that was the case. We are in the john wornall house area which is in Kansas City Missouri and john wornall was an early kansas city man and he was a farmer. And a banker. But he also was a slaveholder. He was a substantial institution. In western missouri. Many of the counties along the Missouri River, you know, all the way out to the border and sort of stretching up the border in the years after the civil war, the enslaved population was from 25 to 30 percent of the population of these counties. While most people think about when they think about slavery, they think about plantation slavery. Its very large slaveholding with perhaps hundreds and 200 enslaved people on the property. They think about plantations and sugar plantations. They dont think about farms. And in fact, the vast majority of slaveholders in the United States throughout the antebellum era were engaged in slavery. The vast majority of individuals who owned slaves were fewer than 10 slaves back, many i would suggest close to a few. So the question is, does that make a difference. Did that make slavery operate in a different way than it did in other parts of the south, thats what i set out to do is to try to look at whether slavery was different. If according to where it was located or the site of slaveholding so the immigration came to misery were mostly from the percent. People came from virginia and kentucky to a lesser extent, from tennessee and from North Carolina so there was all this wonderfully for thailand. So they came out here and they engaged in diversified agriculture. But they also grew corn. They raised a lot of honks but they also grew him and tobacco. Those are both, the ones are both very laborintensive crops. Frankly a lot of white men did not want to engage in that period so there was more africanamerican men to do that work. Enslaved people were working in all kinds of capacities but most typically on these farms the way it would work is that enslaved women would engage in a tremendous amount of Domestic Work and within thehousehold in the kitchen like this. This was not easy work. Most people out here did not have stoves, lots of times they were cooking on open flames but they had to tend the entire day long. So cooking it certainly washing clothes, cleaning , men typically worked as general farmhands, everything from coats in the wintertime to get them ready for planting to tending to the crops over the course of the year to you know, tending to livestock. A whole host of other kinds of work that they were engaged in as well. Just to keep these farms going and i will admittedly say that enslaved people , they didnt want to be sold down the river. It was literally down the river in new orleans to the slave market where they would end up in the cotton fields of mississippi or you know, the sugar plantations of louisiana which were just brutal working conditions. So asfar as working conditions , they were better here. Then there. One other way that it was different and this i think is probably one of the most significant thing that i found is that slavery had a dramatic impact on black families and communities so if you think about it demographically, there are just a few people on any of these farms. Just a few adults, those adults may be related to one another, brothers and sisters or parents and children and so that did not allow for the opportunity for people to marry people that lived on their own farm. When i say merry, i meant legal marriages. They didnt allow legal marriages but it was clear in the records i read that people were married to one another in their own eyes in their communities eyes and in the slaveholders eyes. They were married. They were engaged in what were called abroad marriages so what that meant was that often times the father and husband was on one property and the mother and children were on the other. Typically the man could only go to the family once a week. He would leave on saturday after work was done, so they typically was the day off from work. Most white people recognize that and gave people a day off from work for them. That didnt mean it were working forthemselves , but it meant they were in the field so they would then go with their families on sunday and come back late sunday night or maybe in the wii hours on monday morning if they were close enough to be ready to work on monday in sunrise area what i argue is that it kept the whole system working because ultimately, they were interested in the enslaved population growing through natural reproduction and the only way that happened is if through relationships, they allow the establishment of these relationships and they believe that it made people, maybe not more content in their enslavement but perhaps i think they thought they were more controllable, they had a roof over their heads, you cant visit your wife or whatever it was. I think there was a control factor but then it was also this reciprocal thing among all of the white people within the community. Person who was working on a plantation, a large property in a place like mississippi or louisiana. Because what it meant was that there was constant interaction with white people. And with these slaveholding family members. And you can imagine that sometimes that could end up in more positive situations if that white person was inclined to some kind of kindness. But it often times could end up with really, really horrifying results. So for an enslaved individual, they were walking a tightrope all the time trying to figure out how to navigate through this situation that they had been placed in. And it was really important that they very carefully study the person who claimed them to try to understand whether or not they could push them in certain ways are what would run them into trouble with that person. So one example, i spent a lot of time with the direct of the woman who was living in a household of her mother in law. She and her motherinlaw did not like each other very much. They became power struggle emerged because its a one womans property, but her daughter in law is living there, shes married to the man who is running this farm but he doesnt own it. So that was sort of a problem, classic sort of motherinlaw, Daughter Relationship with where the dont get along. The enslaved women understood this folder well and they tried to manipulate it in any way that the possibly could. So they would tell stories about one woman to the other woman. They would go to one woman tried to ask for things and then go to the other woman if they couldnt get them. This went on for years. Thats an example, i think a good example, about enslaved people tried to work within the very bad hand they had been dealt basically, and try to influence the circumstances in ways that might not have been, but not altered their life dramatically but they felt like at least they were able to alter it, i think sort of an act of resisting is powerful in itself. This happen everywhere, but i would argue that all of this was much more charged because these people, both black and white people on these slaveholding were working and living so close it with one another. White people imagined it somehow that enslaved people cared about them and they had this positive relationship with them. But the reality is, they didnt. Why would they have . It was brutal, exploitative labor system. White people like to talk about slavery was more domestic year, and i think, or my over here, and i think there was a lot of incentive to do that, especially as the political situation heated up over across the state line into chances and theyre trying to turn kansas into a proslavery, or a slave state. He would talk about themselves that way. Certainly i think theres a lot of evidence to show the people in the deep south looked with suspicion at people in the upper selfpity like they were not quite right with slavery. It wasnt a mixed labor system. If you go over to st. Louis, theres a large and growing population there, and not all of the folks are coming from the south by the time he approached a couple of decades leading to the civil war. Theres a huge german population who were not all abolitionists, but most were antislavery. There were quite a few irish immigrants. There were people coming in from northern states as well, and so the population was becoming more mixed. And thats one of the reasons why the states is bitterly divided during the civil war. Votes not to secede. So its a divided place. Its essential that we understand this story of slavery in america. Its really the foundation of our modern race relations. And if we dont try to understand the story from the perspective certainly of the people who experienced slavery but also understand the way that slavery operated in this country, and how essential it really was to the growth of the nation. You know, how slavery was used economically, socially and politically. The institution itself. But then trying to get in there and understand the experience of the people who actually, you know, the experiences of the people actually had to experience the horrors of this institution and the ways in which they were used in order to create wealth and political power from white people, its a really important story, i think. Booktv takes to the National Archives in kansas city, missouri, as author David Jackson talks about his book changing times, almanac and digest kansas city lgbtq i a history. Please give a warm welcome to David Jackson. [applause] thank you all for coming out tonight. I dont mean to out anybody. [laughing] that was not the appropriate word to say. But thank you coming out tonight. And roughing the traffic that we all had giving you. Id like to thank cspan for being a tonight and, of course, National Archives for all the work that they do. Kimberly was right. Ive been doing genealogy since it was 11 and of income to the National Archives since i was baffled at my grandparents would drop me off, let me do my thing and then came back for the next round. So tonight is changing times, to my newest book spigots and almanac and digest of kansas cities lgbtqia history. I will talk about that in just a few moments. We would get busy here. Although bit about me. Kimberly mention my background a little bit but i have been an archivist for more than 20 years and i was eight when i get into this. Would rather sit inside and listen to my grandpa stockton go outside and play with other kids as a child. That early interest in history Family History led to my career as an archivist. When as i selected the Aptitude Test to tell you what you want to be when you grow up and i was supposed before stranger or an archivist and it did not know what archivist was. I really wanted to be a forest ranger. Looking back both of those groups are about saving paper entries in one form or another. Im just a little saver, a little packrat. An orderly packrat which is at the genesis for my longheld business and my website if you like to know more about me or my work you can go to orderly packrat. Com. Now to changing times. Changing times as a decadelong project ive been working on this for ten years. The First Edition book came out in 2011 after worked on it for about five years and then started working on this addition the techno, the second edition. It is now 414 pages, literally a doorstop. You can see a thick it is a anybody needs a doorstop tonight, its a 20 doorstop. Presigned books. The books are free but the signature costs 20. [laughing] the most interesting part i found in the book the most resonant with is the bar since is provided in a study all of the lgbt sites, mostly bars and nightclubs that it existed since the 1930s and all listed as an appendix in the back because its one of first things people talk to you about when the remember that youth in coming out. So those are indexed by name, if remember when you went out in those days, or they are byte addresses will. If you know you 17th and grand you can look it up in the book. Im going to watch to a website as well. Someone asked me earlier how many books i put out in the last 25 years and i use say about 12 or 13 an accountant on the website recent and theres almost 30 titles ive worked on myself or with others in helping to get local kansas city history out and really pressing for its preservation. Changing times seeks to do many things. First im document kansas city is long, colorful lgbtqia history. I provide assisting timeline for an almanac of our history, sharing feature articles when theyre available. Most of them have been written by myself bottommost twisting arms to try to get people to write about the history and their story. I i will have that again as well tonight. Its also the First Published ever comprehensive bar listing mentioned earlier and thats pretty significant. About 20 page portion of the book has taken a majority of my time over the last decade believe it or not. Trying to find out when these places originated and when it went out of business. They go back to the 1930s. I feature heavily glama collections. That is a collection strategy that help cofound in 2009 to collect a lesbian history of the kansas city and the region. Those collections are now housed at the university of missouri kansas city at the local campus in the plaza area. If you go to the Miller Nichols library, you can go there any time throughout the weekend check out these glama collection bin assembly. Theyre pretty fantastic and theyve assembled pretty quickly in the last few years. We were happy to have place whe people can clean up their closets if you will and donate materials that relate to lgbt history as relates to our area. Those materials are becoming useful to people like me who want to do books on local history or documentaries. This book praises Phyllis Shafer was the mother, the proud mother of her gay son who became kansas city is preeminent gay activist. We have long rich history that s back to the 1800s, the early 1800s. In 1812 when misery was admitted as a territory and in 1820 when it was created as a state, we adopted the laws of the louisiana territory, all of which have laws against sodomy. So the antisodomy laws were on the books in misery until 2006 believe it or not. In 1826 when Jackson County was formed and for busy watching, kansas city is in Jackson County, and weve been around since 1826. Just use later the United States criminal code started using the term crimes against nature in their wording. Those same warnings and sang jargons made into the loss of our local books. In 1835 that count of kansas was founded. For those of you who live in kansas city im sorry for those of you are watching a dont know about the sister but at the foot of main street, first in maine, theres walking virginia could see it in the top right corner of your screen that if you walk across the ridge towards Missouri River and look back towards kansas city you see what youre looking at in the bottom picture and that is a railroad and then the bluff is right behind it. Along that bluff is the origins of kansas city. Thats what kansas city was founded in 1835. The foundations of those structures are still there, preserved because of the railroad easements that it saved that piece of property. So its a fantastic area and it is the birthplace of kansas city because tonight were talking not just about gay and lesbian history but were talking about history, kansas city history. There were people who were lgbt believe it or not as early as 1830s. They might not have the words to describe it but you can guarantee they were here. By the 1850s, and this is, kansas city was at the western edge of the United States for a quarter of a century. On the 1830s until 1855, were at the edge of the United States just a few blocks west of here with the Missouri State line is it was nothing beyond at that time except what they called the Great American desert, or indian territory. So for 25, 30 years we are at the edge of the United States. By 1859 that little town of kansas at the river had spread south to become the city of kansas. Not yet they kansas city we know today but it was the city of kansas. And the loss of a kansas territory and of the city of kansas all included not only those antisodomy laws but they included laws against what we would call today crossdressing. Im going to read a little segment of the revised ordinance of the city of kansas from 1860s. Think about this, whoever shall in the city be found in any dress not belonging to his or her sex or so making indecent exposure of person in any public place or in any other place to the annoyance of any person or persons or be guilty of any indecent or lewd act or behavior or shall exhibit sell or offer for sale any indecent lewd book, picture or other thing or shall exhibit or perform any indecent or immoral or do play or other representation shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. Some of these things tell me that as early as the 18 \50{l1}s{l0}\50{l1}s{l0}, that kind of stuff was going on. We had crossdressers in kansas city as early as these earliest days of the pioneers. Men were dressed as women. Of course there were gay and lesbian people here and i will tell you many of images in this presentation and in the book are pictures that ive collected over the years of the internet and also refused extensively glama collections have been donated by people like you. In 1860 walt whitman produced leaves of grass. Why is that in changing times . Its one of several entries ive included to add context because the people were affected by Missouri Defense and, of course, National Events i wanted to give context here and there of events that took place across the country and across the world actually. Thats just one example and i put that in here for that mention. In 1869, homosexuality, for those you speak german, im sure i mispronounce that might it was first printed in 1869, that word. There are a lot of firsts in changing times and that was the reason for putting that in you. In the index of the book ive got my little note for page 402. The rf page and have just firsts, not just in kansas city but first across the country. If youre interested in the first gay pride parade or the first day novel, the first aids diagnosis reported in kansas city, the first time heterosexual, the word is used. The first part of american sunday Football League game the list goes on and on. If youre interested in force in kansas city, theres a whole bunch of them in changing times. 1870 j street in kansas city, what does that mean . Its a piece of humor. My ancestors moved to get city and 69 and in the don j street. [laughing] so they must be some reason why turn out the way i did. If you ever driven on charlotte or if you live on charlotte today, that was the predecessor or the successor to what was unoriginal as gay street. Between 1870s and 1920s there are many references to gays in the newspapers. You wont find that word gay and lesbian. You have been looking for other terms but my friend who is your tonight, thank you, standing up there, james read historical kansas at newspapers on microfilm over a number of years. He would go to the library and read them they today, take some special kind of person do Something Like that. James would make notes about things that interested him and we are lucky because of those things was gay and lesbian history. He would note any instance in the paper where there was reference, referencing gays and lesbians. Men were arrested for sodomy pics are looking for the word of sodomy when we get historical newspapers. There were men dressed as women. There were women dressed at me and believe it or not, too. Caught on the streets of kansas city breaking the law. There was even one instance of a husband and wife swap their garments and they were found out as well and take it into the court. They made into the newspaper. Whites and blacks arrested equally without discrimination. Most were sent to the workouts in kansas city to work off the find that they couldnt pay. The fines were pretty steep. The workouts building still survives today by the way in the 18th and vine district. Its kind of a shell of building today with our dreams and hopes of restoring it to any events space at that beautiful building is still there today. Some were sent to the Missouri State penitentiary. Others were sent to Fort Leavenworth, and there are records you at the National Archives that deal with the Fort Leavenworth penitentiary. So if anybodys interested in digging into those records, they are located right here. The laws were many against people like us, and up going to reach us at you because the 1880s the Kansas City Star, our local newspaper, summarize all of kansas cities current, then current ordinances. I have pulled out some of them turkey will see some of the thumbs on this people, particularly women im afraid. Anyone appeared in dressed not belong to his or her sex, weve heard that. Any female of lewd character frequenting saloons. And in proper dressed not belonging to one sex pic indecent lewd dress. Occupying rooms for purposes of prostitution. Permitting girls under the age of 17 to remain in a body house without now to find the police. Body house was a house of prostitution. Any vagrant, person as an inmate in the body house, a person or a keeper of a body house. A vagrant, a male procurer or a pimp or keeper of the body has been opposed interesting in 1882 the work have within the newspaper. So there are all kinds of laws that summarize the are more than here in changing times from 1882 newspaper. So there so there was this activity going on that indicated a need supposedly for these laws to ban the behavior. New term started to enter into our lexicon of course over time. We have the first use of the word lesbian in 1883, bisexual in 1892, heterosexual also in 1892. Even our president of the United States use the word sissy and mollycoddle us in a 1913 publication of the boy scouts publication. Thank you, teddy. This is a picture of teddy roosevelt, the roughriders that he was. Yes, you can laugh. The word transsexual in 1949. 1949. Transgender in 1965 and then of course the acronym, the papal acronym we have today, lgbtqia. Im hoping as time goes on and we continue to evolve, this just shows how much overtime looking at this issue and expand how we see gender and sexuality, identity, all of those things has evolved over time. Its Getting Better and more finance and were starting relies more and more apps such as a blackandwhite issue or a gay and straight issue. So for those you dont know the acronym, ellis lesbian, g is for gay, v is for bisexual, that t is for transgender. Thank you stands for either or questioning, anybody who might be questioning the identity or their sexuality. I is for intersects, and a stand for several things, either asexual, a gender, aromatic, a romantic i think that should say and then there are also [laughing] and are also allies. For those you dont get into any of those, lets say all straight categories, they are allies. If youre fairly to anyone of these kinds of people and i think there are some in the audience today, you are allies pics of this book is really in this presentation, this history is about you as well. The greatest generation, our grandparents in some of you, your greatgrandparents, maybe even your great, great grandparents if youre watching this program a few years from now, it would was a great and the like but its also a scary time to be alive whether you are straight or gay or anything in between. Because with freedoms also were met with restrictions. For instance, in 1929 in germany the nazi regime repealed paragraph 175, arkansas, they stood against the repeal of paragraph 135 which was their was a longstanding prohibition against homosexuals. And then in 1937 they start using pink triangles identify suppose or suspected gay men. Those are used in the concentration camps and, of course, it has become a symbol for the movement for gay freedom. World war ii between i 24145 saul and backlash for our people. Shortly thereafter when the Eisenhower Administration had some pretty, lets say, oppressive executive orders against gays and lesbians that became known as the lavender scare. This was when the federal government was seeking out people who were gay or even suspected to be gay and forcing them out of federal employment at every level. Any federal employee was suspected or could be suspected of being gay or lesbian and lose their employment. All of the benefits. In 1993 we had dont ask, dont tell and it was repealed in 2011 thanks to president obama. Where you have from the 1940s undesirable discharges to where today when you can see pictures on the internet of service sern and women coming home and being able to openly embrace their partners, people that event together for years and years in some cases. This is a picture of Brandon Morgan from his facebook page. It was circulated widely when it was published shortly after the repeal of dont ask, dont tell. So through those challenges we saw triumph. In the 1920s, henry gerber and chicago started the society for human rights. By the 1950s we see the organization of men and women coming together to fight the oppression the administration was putting upon them. One incorporated in 1952, and the daughters in 1955. We begin to gather and a sellout we could talk to overcome and come through on the bright side. In kansas city we had our own Jeanette Howard foster. Ms. Foster worked for Alfred Kinsey in the institute for sex research. Has anybody heard of the 10 rule . Supposedly theres 10 of our population who are not straight . That research comes out of the Kinsey Institute and ms. Foss was part of the research from 194152 and she came to get the city in 52 and worked at the University Missouri Kansas City Library until 1960. I think its kind of cool that foster worked in the same organization that is now the home of the glama collection. I think she would be smiling if she were here today. She published in 1956 of work she worked on 30 some years old sex variant women in military. She studied references to women in literature from the eons and put them in this book. We also have of course many of the people, to make image into nice presentation but do want to give a shout out to barbara career whose editor of the latter, a lesbian magazine. Chelsea was the editor and ran a niaid press who or which was a press in the kansas side that published lesbian literature. Carolyn stewart one of my former bosses at unity School Christianity that some of you may know donated a huge collection of books that she collected over the years, a whole bookshelf of lesbian related books and many of them are from a niaid press with a great beginning collection of that time in our history. A little aside now about the gay bars. Everybody is chomping at the bit to know about this, right . As i said early most people remember when you first started going out, what youre gay or straight, going out to clubs and bars. It was the first time in many cases for gays and lesbians to realize they were not alone, there were other people in the world like them we want to hear about peoples first time coming out in stories. We always looked for people to share their stories, no matter what the story is so they can be preserved for future generations use. Im going to, instead of going to the internet for this online resource, i saved some screen captures to walk us through whats called the history pan. History pen. Org is an online site that organizes all kinds of different collections and this just happens to be a massive collection of lgbt maps across the country. So what people like myself have done in new york and california, wherever, weve taken sites that are pertinent to lgbt people and we put them on a map. Identify kansas city and right now that more than 150, almost 160 in this collection. The oldest establishment i found were from the the 1930s. There was one called dantes inferno. Does anybody remember it . I didnt think so. There was a place called dantes inferno downtown that had a featured performer called mr. Halfandhalf. He was dressed split down the middle, a groom on one side and a bride on the other. Flowing white dress on one half of him and the other half was the groom. I wouldve loved to have seen the act. In the 1940s, jewelbox lounge started and we dont believe that jewelbox started in 1947 as a gay lesbian bar. It wasnt until 1957 actually went the feature performers at the jewelbox. How many remember the jewelbox . Yes, a lot of you intimately remember the jewelbox. That was the first year that drag female impersonators were introduced at the jewelbox lounge. Theres a great collection of materials at glama from a former cocktail waitress who worked at the jewelbox and saved things over the years. I met her when she was 96. I think she is 106 now pick she donated her little collection of memorabilia that she collected about the jewelbox to glama so it is there for you to learn from it and enjoy. The colony bar, baghdad on friday and arabian nights were three bars the all started in 1961. There must be something in the air that year. Then the red hat lounge, a lot of people remember lead to 63 still survives today, the building does as the right room in westport. Those are some of the earliest ones that a detected and wanted to call out tonight. We get into the modern gayrights movement in the 1960s, and the common lore about gay and lesbian modern gayrights movement rather is that it started with the stonewall riots in new york city in 1969. Im not getting into a culture what with anybody, but i would like you to know whether you here tonight watching on television that three years prior to stonewall we had in kansas city the very first day in lesbian conference of all gay and lesbian organizations that were in existence at that time. And it happened right in a conference in Downtown Kansas City in 1966. They got together from east coast to the west coast and met in kansas city to really talk about how they were going to push for individual freedom and for equal rights. Because i hope you now know that gayrights movement is not about special rights. Its about equal rights. It took place at the hotel safe Downtown Kansas City. If you go to Downtown Kansas City today, barney alice blass and look to the Northeast Corner you will see a modern building at 12 and wyandot. This building is 12 and wyandot in the 1960s. Is it worth gays and lesbians congregated for that conference in february 1966. Its called the national, im sorry from the north american conference of homo File Organization. Thats what nacho conference was called. The north american conference of homo File Organization to it was her First Time Ever to meet and that is what im going to call the beginning of the gayrights movement in the United States. The fire really did kick off in stonewall of course three years later but the origins of the movement or right here in kansas city. There is now a marker in Downtown Kansas City catty corner from that location where we erected this marker last october. October is lgbt history month, and we wanted this marker to go up for the 50th anniversary of that conference, and also honor to shape really became kansas city plan your gay activist. What that one side of the market is not true and is Phoenix Society for individual freedom and the other side of the marker which faces formal hotel building, talks about the nacho conference. Im happy to report that after a year, the market is still there. We have been sweating bullets all year long hoping that nothing will happen to it, and it is set on the street quite a ways on the plaza. Id like to downtown to look at that first ever lgbt history marker in kansas city. Drew started the Phoenix Society for individual freedom. Also purchased a home at 31st in lynnwood and created the first Lgbt Community center called the phoenix house. It was from there that do not joke he said to make kansas city a clearinghouse for lgbt organizations nacho judgment became a a Publishing House to distribute literature across the country. We were gathering literature from the east coast and west coast, mash it altogether and sending it back out. That happened for number of years to in the early days of the movement. They publish a newsletter by the way that phoenix magazine rakhine locate people who still have copies of the little 19661972 publication because this is the genesis of the movement in kansas city. We have a few individual issues so if you come across any, remember glama, wont you . A lot of organizations then begin to form over the years. These next two years of the Liberation Movement for gays and lesbians, just like other movements in america that same time. We have the womens liberation union, a sample of the 1973 newsletter. Volume three number four so we know, we can backtrack when that organization kicked off their newsletter by that indication. This is from a donation to the glama collections. A lot of organizations begin to form to help people with social things, for social activity, for equal rights, for womens rights. In those early days i will tell you and a subject of a whole not the night and own of the book that gays and lesbians not get along quite well in those early days. It took the aids epidemic to bring them together as time goes on. These are just more organizations that were formed over the next few years. So each of these could become a chapter in a book, could become themselves and also can become documentaries. Id like to give a shout out to Austin Williams whos here tonight. Often, you want to stand up . Austin is young kc student and youre working on, is a thesis or doctrine . Doctoral thesis because working on his doctoral thesis on human rights ordinance project from 1991. I would like you to stick around afterwards if anybody is interested to find out more from austin about this really important chapter in kansas city history and, indeed, lgbt history because it is at historic moment in not only local but national history, so thank you, austin for the work youre doing and we look forward to your documentary that will hopefully be included as part of your college coursework, lets call it, right . So thank you for the work you are doing. Gay pride of courses what aspect of the gay Liberation Movement. The first parade, the first gay pride parade was 1970 in new york. It was the First Anniversary of the stonewall riots. That was the reason for the parade this of course is another image i got an paper off of ebay actually. I thought it was a fantastic picture. Pink love. Can you sit there from the 1970s . In our first parade in candidacy was in 1974. The metropolitan Community Churches been supportive of your since 1977 and at a time when Jackson Canty refused to issue marriage license to gay couple and the record also 1977. They begin performing holy unions left and right. Mr. Schaeffer, the woman i you about who kept scrapbooks and those are scrapbooks are part of the glama collection, so many holy unions tape and stapled and glued into these scrapbooks, not the best way to improve them but they are available to us today to see pickle of these people in kansas city were wanting to pledge their loved one another but were not allowed to do so legally. And today we take it for granted of course because its legal all of a sudden, right . Well get into that in a minute. They gave people Student Union i would like to point out because it was at university of missouri kansas city in the early 1970s. We have gay groups, im sorry, groups on campus to win the first group wanted to be known as they gay and Lesbian Group on campus, the University Said no. They gave people Student Union took them to court, all the way to the Supreme Court, and we have campuses across the country that gay and Lesbian Groups today, and its because of these People Struggle and fight that they took all the way to the Supreme Court. We have backlash at uphill climb of course daytoday, dont we . And im going to speak to because in these days, were getting into the time my think a lot of people in this room have lived through it in the 1970s, for instance, the republican National Convention met in kansas city and theres a huge crowd and down ten kansas city and in the west bottom that protested when the president came to the Republican Convention come out there with her pickets. Professing for gay rights of course and it was because anita bryant the orange juice lady was also in town that there also Holding Signs that said hitler, mccarthy, anita. It was a peaceful protest until anita went to iowa and got a little fruit pie thrown in her face. The mayors Human Relation Commission reviewed the human Rights Problem in 1981 and in the next are the civil rights ordinance was adopted. And established a civil rights board to work in concert with the human relations commission. Look at this. Government in kansas city coming together to help who, help everyone. This is an advance of not only lgbt issues but also africanamerican issues as well. In 1982 the first report of aids was in the Kansas City Star. Its the same here by the way that the jewel box closed its doors. My first knowledge and awareness of aids was when rockets and appeared on the inquirer magazine. I was quite young then, and i knew that i was gay but it was my secret. At least i thought it was a secret. But this introduces the entire episode of the aids epidemic that if youre living in the shrimp and lived through it, you have stories to tell. And nobody yet has recorded local, personal stories of what it was like to live through this time, so were looking for people to really help us understand when we read about how there was panic and fear of not knowing what was causing this in the early days of this pandemic, what became a pandemic i should say. And just to know how you look to it and what it was like for you to lose and have that loss in your life. Just fantastic tragedy. Kansas city inns came together and responded to the aids epidemic fairly swiftly and fairly successfully. They incorporate a Good Samaritan project a couple organizations that are included in the glama collections. These fellows are not here tonight, i think by chance . No. Im sorry. These gentlemen collected clippings from the sands can see paper and then assembled 48 scrapbooks including 500 periodicals come to our pictures pictures and irritates all covering the aids epidemic in kansas city and they kept a nice and tidy and neat, and guess what. They donated them so there now available and preserved for future generations to learn from. Im hoping somebody might write something for changing times to tradition, we do publish this book every five years or so to update the almanac and hoping articles will come forward as time goes on. So dont let others tell your story. You be the one to do it. We all think allies are pretty ordinary and mundane, but think about this. I see this a lot in lectures to get the point across. It involves the Great Depression will have relatives who lived through the Great Depression. Many kansas city and, of course, did. It was a worldwide depression. How many firsthand personal recollections of kansas city and to have preserved a locally a people who lived that the Great Depression . Does anyone want to give a gas . 100 . 50 . We have one that i know of. So all those people went to the Great Depression in kansas city, only one person that i know of has written about it and donatee it to a public archives. Because i twisted her arm to do it. Dont make me come out and twist your arm for these stories. Were always looking for donations to the gay lesbian archives in america. I got happy faces and ive got sad faces as we go look it is next few years. This is in 2003. That seems like so long ago, does it not . A decade ago maybe, ten years already . Im not a mathematician as i said. In 2003 the creation of the gay and Lesbian Chamber of commerce. The sodomy laws a midget earlier for making 12 were taken of the books in 2006. Im sorry to say in 2004 missouri was the first state in the union to enact a constitutional amendment prohibiting same gender marriage. Not very good moment in our history, but thats all been turned around to looking into creating glama in 2009 we went to ku on the kansas side and talk to had created under the rainbow, a oral history in kansas and choose our motivation to get glama created on the missouri side. The first latino gay pride festival was in 2009. The first gay marriage announcement in the Kansas City Star, and a stork moment just like tonight rather is an historic moment, because i dont think before with a Ready Program like tonight. I dont remember one. It might be because this is the first book on this topic, but the first gay marriage announcement in the Kansas City Star which started in 1880 and it wasnt until 2009 when they had the first gay marriage, our same gender marriage announcement. The star had to rewrite the editorial policy for that announcement, that it is pictured and reproduced in changing times. Today we might take things like that for granted but just a few short years ago it was not a possibility. The first gay kansas city trolley to as were 2010, and in 2011 u. N. Kc ranked fifth on newsweek gay friendly campuses. I love it because member just a few moments ago when were in the 1970s and u. N. Cases not allowing gays and lesbians have their group on campus, and now all of a sudden in 2011 they are on the fifth friendlys campus in the country. I love that. I love how weve turned that around. Vice President Biden in 2012 became the first highest ranking american to officially endorse same gender marriage. Three days later president obama expressed his turnaround on the subject. You know how he had come along and its the same struggle many people have had come and hope there are still coming around to. I really fantastic example for all of us. Out here valkill project is in its 14th year as of 2013. Lots of Supreme Court cases were coming up in the late part of the first decade of the century, and it seems like so long ago. Hollingsworth v. Perry invalidating californias drop eight. U. S. V. Windsor, eed windsor. Doma, defining marriage between one man and one woman, unconstitutional. After all those attempts amateur becoming the first state to say it was law across the state, invalidating that proposal. Melinda wright was the first marriage princess. 2013, and would like to introduce her to recognize you, take you for being here tonight. You guys are great fundraisers and supportive of our community, so thank you for what you do. The fairy princess was 1940s at the kansas city museum, every december that the fairy princess and little girls and some boys i bet want to have a seat on the fairy princesses lap and get their picture taken, kind of like sitting with santa claus. In 2013 we got to sit on the mary princess lap. The next newsletter start in 2014. 2014. The phoenix newsletter is an insert in the Kansas City Star publication called inc. Has anybody ever picked up of the new stance . Inserted in the first issue each and every other month is the phoenix newsletter and this is kansas cities lgbt newsletter, things that are going on in the community, and i have inviting the historical or heritage piece for this publication. That comes up every other month. In 2014 some things are happening, and a just going to summarize this entire slide to even look at the date, it seems like one day after another i is glued to the television as times are changing fast. We have judges locally on the kansas side and on the missouri side and validating this coast show amendments as unconstitutional. And issuing marriage licenses for gays and lesbians. Breaking the law basically. They are defying the law. In st. Louis begin issuing fares on december 5, and Jackson County where we are today, two days later started issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples six months before the historic landmark decision of a book about and hodges, the Marriage Equality law. Anybody remember sitting at the television that they waiting for the person to run out of the Supreme Court building . I was there watching. It seemed to me because im studying this and making notes faster threes for these books that just as soon as that decision was passed we started immediately or least i did seem a lot of transgender news. So much news is almost like the Marriage Equality thing was offtheshelf that so theyre turning transgender issues for good or not. It did bring transgender into the media, and a lot of average americans have no concept of what that means started learning about this issue. We also had a voice or a monitor in caitlin jenner, love her or hate her, as someone to see as a transgender. Then bathroom bills and religious freedom laws were starting to be pushed on books across the state. And they are still being promoted statebystate making their way to the Supreme Court. But some good news i mentioned earlier, in 2016 we erected kansas its first lgbt history marker in Downtown Kansas City. So this is mickey on the lefthand side with me in front of the new marker we unveiled thanks to melinda and kirk nelson again are here tonight. Look a little differently tonight. And then one year after that decision i was really pleased to be at home or at home work as a kansas city institution, been here since 1909. And if you look at the card rack and seeing Anniversary Cards for gays and lesbians. First time ever. So i took this picture of the two cards that hallmark offered. One was our anniversary, we are husbands, and have an image of two gentlemen embracing. Then an anniversary for samesex women. So that was pretty fantastic and pretty historical, if you will. But it is 2017, and while lgbtq citizens can be mirrored across the country, we can still be fired come monday morning because you are very few protections for gays and lesbians in the workplace. In fact, across the globe that are terrible things happening for gays and lesbians. In just the last week there were reports in egypt of man suspected of being gay, homosexuals, being hunted down. Just really terrible things are still happening across the globe. So while the battles are won, the war continues and the rights that recently been afforded are not guaranteed as you well know. So at times they are still changing and i again encourage you to do what you can to be creative in how you can hold onto these rights that weve been given. This is just my humble opinion that you should record your stories so that their available to younger generations. Dont let those stories go you nowhere when we go you nowhere. Rally to vote in every election. Run for office. Volunteered to register and help others get registered to vote. Call your board of Election Commission that i just sent them an email last night to say what are you going to do to preserve our next election in kansas city . She we do paper ballot . Just unplug the Voting Machines for now to keep rush out of our elections . It just goes on a topic you think things you can get a hope that you will. The kansas city royals, two of our most Famous Players when they won the world series, eric and mike dressing as the ambiguously gay duo for halloween. Is that kind of cool you got sports figures being able to say look, you know, im comfortable in my manhood, so should you. We have athletes able to be gay, to come out. Where we have a Film Festival that is becoming more and more widely known across the country as the place to be for lgbt film, independent films. So this is wrapping it up just a little bit about the history and activism that ive had since 1994 when i started out as a newsletter editor for a little unity church in oakland park newsletter for the gay Lesbian Group that they had way back then when i was probably 13 or 14. Ive been editor of several of the magazines and, of course, cofounder of glama and this book and magazine, newspaper articles that are out there and doing what a i can to put the word ot about our history and the need to preserve the history. I hope you will join me. I i want to thank you for helpig us stand together as times continue to change. You can contact me at orderly pack rat. Com. I was to ground for questions and answers. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas cabletelevision companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. I went over to london several times when they had the hearings in the high court in london, it was an inquiry into the murder in 2015. Sigh went over there, and in 2016, and attended the hearings and did some interviews. So i will just give you a little bit of quick background and why, what happened. It seems as though these two men were hired by the fsb to murder him. One of them, andre, made friends with him and started coming to london and was trying to get consulting work. Apparently he didnt really have any concern or he didnt know that he was actually employed by the fsb. So in the meantime he had pretty much devoted himself to writing scathing criticisms of Vladimir Putin that boris, the oligarch i mentioned earlier had moved to london and the two of them just at this campaign and it was financed by a wealthy man. They basically just publicized everything they could about the corruption and the opportunism and Everything Else about putins regime. So he was not very wellliked in november of 2006, two men came to london and they brought with them polonium210, which is a lethal radioactive substance, and actually we now know that they tried to poison him with polonium two weeks earlier and it didnt work. He got sick but nothing happened. This time in the pine bar of the hotel in london they put polonium210 in his teapot and he came in and sat down with them and to drink some of the tea. He got very ill pick up first they thought it was food poisoning. It took him three weeks to die, and it was only on the last day, november 23, that actually figured out what was the cause of death. It was not supposed to be discovered. Thats why polonium was chosen. Meanwhile, the two killers fled, and the British Government has tried to have it extradited but that hasnt happened. And, in fact, one man got a medal of honor from president putin, and he is now a member, has been for several years, a member of parliament. So thats just, i think the interesting thing is, is that he was used as a traitor because it worked for the fsb and then he moved. He defected and he wrote all these things. And so on enough, i think a lot of the russians know that he was killed by these two children and that they were ordered by the fsb and mr. Putin to do it. But people kind of feel like litvinenko got what he deserved. Then i have other examples that i cant go into detail about right now. I would say that really probably one of the most devastating killings was that of boris in february of 2015. If you recall he was walking with his girlfriend across a bridge very close to the kremlin, and people with fisma got out of the car and just shot him i i think five or six time. Anyway, its very interesting that the killers, they arrested almost immediately the killers of nemtsov, but again its the same pattern. They dont find what we say in russian the [speaking russian] and, in fact, nemtsov family has now requested the russian government to extend the time of the statute of limitations because they still havent found the person who really ordered this. Well, many people think that it was again something that was ordered by Vladimir Putin. Nemtsov was not only a handsome, charismatic, really brilliant politician, he also, and he used to work, by the way, he used to be a minister in yelp since government and the new putin personally get ready yet started writing these devastating reports about the corruption, massive corruption and mr. Putins regime. And by before he died he was finishing up, which i support, they are almost like little books, he was writing about the russians in ukraine and showing that, despite their denials, the Russian Military was in full force in eastern ukraine. So again, nemtsov had been warned, but he said, you know, oh, putin would never kill me because i was a minister, this and that well, unfortunately, it happened. Hes interviewed by robert traynham