Black history feels palpably
now. We’ve been witness to more than 8,000 multi-generational, multi-racial demonstrations for Black lives since this summer. Our nation’s first Black female Vice President now lives in the White House, and the Deep South just sent its first Black U.S. Senator to Congress. We’re in the midst of what
How to Be an Antiracist author Ibram X. Kendi calls a Black Renaissance.
For those of us who think history is made in other times by other people, the Kansas City Black History project aims to set the record straight. Black history is not only
“I sing their names . . .,” writes Kansas City poet Glenn North.
His words are one of several contemporary voices joined in a new, 44-page book that collects the more than 70 biographies that the Kansas City Black History Project team has researched and shared with the Kansas City community since 2010.
“I sing of… Langston and Parker, Ms. Bluford and Mary Lou, Old Buck, Leon Jordan, Horace and Bruce . . .”
Every year, the project told the stories behind seven or eight of the names hidden by time. It gathered them in booklets and posters that were given to schools, libraries and other public spaces used by teachers, librarians, mentors and parents to raise up a neglected history.
KC filmmakers to debut documentary on historic 12th Street For decades Kansas City s historic 12th street area was a thriving Black community Share Updated: 10:19 PM CST Feb 19, 2021 By Jackson Kurtz For decades Kansas City s historic 12th street area was a thriving Black community Share Updated: 10:19 PM CST Feb 19, 2021
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Show Transcript BLACK HISTORY IN KANSAS CITY HAS LONG BEEN UNTOLD. NEW TONIGHT, KMBC 9’S JACKSON KURTZ TELLS US TWO K.C. FILMMAKERS HIGHLIGHT THAT HISTORY IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY ABOUT A ONCE BOOMING BLACK NEIGHBORHOOD. IN ITS HAYDAY, IT WAS THE EPICENTER OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY. JACKSON: FOR DECADES, KANSAS CITY’S HISTORIC 12TH STREET AREA WAS A THRIVING BLACK COMMUNITY. WE HAD OUR OWN STORES WE HAD OUR OWN ENTREPRENEURS. WE HAD OUR OWN EVERYTHING, CLUBS, STORES. JACKSON: IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY CALLED I REMEMBER 12TH STREET, K.C. FILMMAKERS RODNEY THOMPSON AND STINSON MCCLENDON ARE CHRONICLING THE A
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A crowd gathered for the 1914 cornerstone laying at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, Missouri.
Stories of the most famous African Americans from Kansas City are well told, but the work of many more community members often goes unrecognized.
When it comes to the history of the African American community in Kansas City, almost everyone knows the big names people like jazz great Charlie Parker or baseball legend Buck O’Neil, who are both memorialized in countless ways around the metro.
“But that’s just a small number of the people who worked together and individually to build life and culture for Black Americans,” said Carmaletta Williams, executive director of the Black Archives of Mid-America in Kansas City.
Local groups are partnering on a special edition of an annual local Black history project in conjunction with Missouri’s bicentennial.
Kansas City’s Local Investment Commission (LINC), the Kansas City Public Library, the Black Archives of Mid-America, and the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Center are releasing a compilation of 73 biographies of Black Kansas Citians who helped shape the community through education, activism, entrepreneurship, and many other ways.
The new publication spotlights individuals featured in commemorative booklets over the past 11 years, adding new honorees and remarks by current Black leaders in Kansas City.
In their short essays, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick, and Black Archives Executive Director Dr. Carmaletta Williams reflect on their own experiences and make connections to the historical figures featured in the book. A new poem from Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Center Executive Director Glenn Nort