In a town rich with African American entrepreneurs, entertainers, inventors and political leaders, celebrating Black History Month is key to highlighting stories that otherwise might go unknown, local community leaders
Photo studios were busy places in Leavenworth, Kansas, in the late 1870s. Thousands of everyday people flocked to have their pictures taken.
Today, some of those pictures have re-emerged and they tell a story of an African-American community that took root in the town as Black families migrated to escape the Jim Crow south.
An exhibit currently on display at the Black Archives Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri, features a series of black-and-white portraits that have survived more than a century.
An older man and woman are decked out in their Sunday best. A quartet of soldiers poses in front of a woodsy backdrop. A young woman in a black hat looks boldly into the camera lens. All of the subjects are African-American.
Listen • 4:31 1 of 10 Photographer E.E. Henry s portrait of Samuel Green,1880 and an unknown photographer s portrait of Geraldine Jones; 1870s-1900s. Glass plate negatives photographed in Leavenworth, Kansas, from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. 2 of 10 Unknown photographer s portrait of James Turner circa 1895 and photographer Harrison Putney s portrait of Private Paul Schrader of Ottawa, Kansas, and three Soldiers from the 23rd Volunteer Infantry circa 1895-1899. Glass plate negatives photographed in Leavenworth, Kansas, from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. 3 of 10 Harrison Putney s portrait of circus performer The Great Layton with his props. Gelatin dry plate negative photographed in Leavenworth, Kansas, from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas.