Kansas City Black History

(1866 - 1946) The son of former slaves, Samuel W. Bacote in 1895 became pastor at the Second Baptist Church, one of Kansas City’s oldest and largest African American congregations. Bacote had degrees from Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, the Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, and received his doctorate in divinity from Kansas City University, Kansas City, Kansas. Instrumental in establishing the Western Baptist Seminary in Kansas City, Bacote was considered the “dean of Baptist ministers in the Midwest.” He edited the book Who’s Who Among the Colored Baptists of the United States (1913), and served at his church until his death. Image courtesy: Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library

1901 - 2004 An actress and singer closely identified with the role of Bess in the opera Porgy and Bess, Etta Moten Barnett was born in Texas and studied music and drama at Western University in Kansas City, Kansas, and at the University of Kansas. Moving to New York City she became a musical inspiration for Kansas City-born composer Virgil Thomson and the great George Gershwin. Though Gershwin wrote the role of Bess with her in mind, Moten Barnett did not sing the role until a revival of the opera in 1942. It became her signature role. In 1933 Moten Barnett became the first African American star to perform at the White House. That year she appeared in two film musicals, Flying Down to Rio (singing “The Carioca”) and Gold Diggers of 1933 (singing “My Forgotten Man”). She retired from performing in 1952 and hosted a Chicago-based radio show. She was appointed to represent the United States on cultural missions to 10 African nations. She was also active in the National Council of Negro Women, the Chicago Lyric Opera, and the Field Museum. Image courtesy: Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries

1904 - 1984 The musician most closely associated with Kansas City jazz, pianist and bandleader William Basie was born in New Jersey and came to Kansas City in the late 1920s. He joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils in 1928 and a year later was lured away to the Bennie Moten Orchestra. As part of that band’s rhythm section, Basie was instrumental in the development of the swinging Kansas City style. After Moten’s death in 1935, Basie took over the group (renamed the Barons of Rhythm), playing in local clubs and on area radio stations, and winning a recording contract with Decca Records. Renamed the Count Basie Orchestra, the 13-piece ensemble became an international hit with records like “One O’Clock Jump,” “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” “April in Paris,” and “Taxi War Dance.” Among the players who came through his band were saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison, and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Although big bands fell out of fashion after World War II, Basie kept one of the few large touring ensembles, which he led for almost 50 years until his death. He also made recordings with small combos and with popular singers like Frank Sinatra.
Image courtesy: The Black Archives of Mid-America

(1859-1934) Bass left an important legacy in Kansas City as the founder of the American Royal Horse Show, a tradition that continues today. He was born into slavery in Columbia, Missouri, but after the Civil War, Bass used his abilities with horses to become a well-known trainer and showman. During his life he performed for five United States presidents and Queen Marie of Romania, and won over 2,000 blue ribbons. Image courtesy:  State Historical Society of Missouri

This photograph shows the men of the Independent Battery, U.S. Colored Light Artillery, positioned in front of the guard house at Fort Leavenworth. The battery, organized in June 1864, was one of just a handful of Union units led by African American officers. Its commander, Captain H. Ford Douglas, worked tirelessly to better the conditions under which his men served. Of the 208 enlisted men in the battery, more than 160 were recruited from Leavenworth. Others came from Fort Scott, Kansas, and the Wyandotte and Quindaro communities in what is now Kansas City, Kansas. As the federal troops occupied the South, similar black batteries were organized in Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Virginia. Image courtesy: Kansas Historical Society

(1936-2016) During her more than two decades in the Missouri State Legislature as a Democratic representative, Mary Groves Bland was an advocate for the rights of minorities and a champion of equality and social justice. Bland was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and graduated from R.T. Coles High School. She received a certificate in community relations from Ottawa University and later furthered her education at Penn Valley Community College, Webster University, and Harvard University. Bland’s life in public service began in the 1960s when she helped spearhead urban renewal initiatives. She turned to politics, and was elected in 1980 to the Missouri House of Representatives. In 1998, she was elected to the Missouri Senate and held that office until 2005. Over the course of her 25-year political career, Bland helped advance legislation for improved public health, education, housing, and social services. She received honors from the Missouri Black Leadership Association, Missouri Department of Health, National Black Caucus of State Legislators, and other organizations. She was also the first woman to serve as president of the political action committee Freedom, Inc. Bland’s legacy is one of a dedicated public servant who encouraged young people to further their education and participate in public service. Photo: Official Manual of the State of Missouri, 1989-90

1913 - 2005. One of Kansas City’s best known black businessmen, G. Lawrence Blankinship Sr. was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1913 and moved to Kansas City as a teenager. A graduate of Lincoln High School, he learned the pharmacy profession, managed the Crown Drug store at 18th & Vine, and in 1947 started his own business. The company became Blankinship Distributors Inc., a wholesale supplier of African American beauty products. Blankinship Distributors supplied hundreds of sales outlets, mainly drugstores, with hair care and cosmetic products developed for a burgeoning, often overlooked African American market. Blankinship’s national reputation as a successful entrepreneur complemented that of a tireless community leader and advocate for black economic development. With Bruce Watkins, whom he succeeded, he was among the first African Americans on the Kansas City Council. Blankinship also served on numerous influential boards, including the Douglass State Bank and the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, and was founding chairman of the Black Economic Union. Described as a soft-spoken leader, his even-handed style helped to bridge the racial divide during the city’s troubled 1960s. He died in 2005 at the age of 92. Image courtesy: The Black Archives of Mid-America

1901 - 1991. Sumner High School English teacher Rebecca L. Bloodworth was born in Bethpage, Tennessee, received her bachelor’s degree from Atlanta University, and earned a master’s in English from New York’s Columbia University. She started her career in Kansas City, Kansas, teaching at Northeast Junior High School before joining the faculty of Sumner High School. In 1965, this respected educator was named a Kansas Master Teacher of the Year by Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State University). Upon her retirement, the students of Sumner High School dedicated the 1966 yearbook to Bloodworth, writing that she had “proven to be much more than just a teacher, but a dear friend and a person dedicated to the profession of educating young people. ... She has enriched our lives and elevated our thoughts to higher ideas.” Bloodworth lived out her last years in Tuskegee, Alabama. Image courtesy: Sumner High School Alumni Collection, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries

(1911-2003) Bluford served as editor of The Kansas City Call for nearly 50 years and played an important role in the major civil rights battles of the 20th century. Her fight to enter the graduate program in journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia in the 1930s and 1940s helped integrate higher education. Known as “Miss Bluford,” her editorials in The Call sharply criticized discrimination, mourned the loss of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and supported the election of African American politicians. Image courtesy: Kansas Collection, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries

1905 - 1993. Longtime teacher and administrator Girard T. Bryant was the first African American to serve as president of Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City, Missouri. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he earned a bachelor’s degree in English and history from the University of Chicago in 1922 and a doctorate in education from St. Louis’ Washington University in 1963. Bryant began his teaching career in 1926 at Western Baptist Bible College in Kansas City, Missouri, joined the faculty of Lincoln High School in 1930, and served in the Kansas City School District for more than 30 years. He later served as vice principal of Lincoln High School and dean of Lincoln Junior College and held administrative positions at Manual High School and Central High School before being appointed president of Penn Valley Community College in 1970. Bryant further served the public through professional and community service, editing the Journal of the State Association of Negro Teachers, helping to found Fellowship House in 1945, and serving on the boards of the Paseo YMCA, Queen of the World Hospital, and the Urban League. A colleague once noted that he believed “students are the most important part of a school and that empathy between students, teachers and administrators is what makes a school either good or bad.” Image courtesy: The Black Archives of Mid-America

1913 - 2003 Andrew “Skip” Carter’s fascination with radio started early. Raised in Savannah, Georgia, he built his first radio set at age 14. He would become an industry pioneer, putting the first African American-owned station west of the Mississippi – Kansas City’s KPRS-AM, the forerunner of today’s Hot 103 Jamz – on the air in 1950. It remains the longest continuously black-owned station in the country, owing also to the work of Carter’s wife, Mildred, who suggested filing for an FM license that was granted in 1963. She then assumed chairmanship of the board upon Andrew’s death in 1988. Andrew, who served in the U.S. Army during World II, studied at the RCA School of Electronics and New York University but found efforts to own his own station thwarted by the era’s racial attitudes. He vented his frustration in a letter to Broadcast magazine that was published and read by former Kansas Gov. Alf Landon, who hired him to run a station he owned in Leavenworth, Kansas. Carter and partner Edward Pate went on to launch KPRS, devoting its playlist to R&B and soul. Carter and Pate were inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1995. Mildred’s honors include the Pioneer of Broadcasting Award from the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters. Image courtesy: Carter Broadcast Group

1919-1988 Andrew “Skip” Carter’s fascination with radio started early. Raised in Savannah, Georgia, he built his first radio set at age 14. He would become an industry pioneer, putting the first African American-owned station west of the Mississippi – Kansas City’s KPRS-AM, the forerunner of today’s Hot 103 Jamz – on the air in 1950. It remains the longest continuously black-owned station in the country, owing also to the work of Carter’s wife, Mildred, who suggested filing for an FM license that was granted in 1963. She then assumed chairmanship of the board upon Andrew’s death in 1988. Andrew, who served in the U.S. Army during World II, studied at the RCA School of Electronics and New York University but found efforts to own his own station thwarted by the era’s racial attitudes. He vented his frustration in a letter to Broadcast magazine that was published and read by former Kansas Gov. Alf Landon, who hired him to run a station he owned in Leavenworth, Kansas. Carter and partner Edward Pate went on to launch KPRS, devoting its playlist to R&B and soul. Carter and Pate were inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1995. Mildred’s honors include the Pioneer of Broadcasting Award from the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters. Image courtesy: Carter Broadcast Group

1859-1930. Richard Thomas Coles was an educator who focused on teaching manual arts – passing along practical, job-related skills to his students. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1859 to parents who instilled the value of education. After high school, Coles enrolled in the Hampton Institute in Virginia, where he befriended future educator and civil rights activist Booker T. Washington. Hampton offered a manual arts curriculum, and both Coles and Washington were heavily influenced by what they learned there. Coles arrived in Kansas City in 1880, found work as a teacher, and began offering a manual arts education to the city’s African-American students when he opened his own school in 1886. The Kansas City School Board recognized its value and absorbed it in 1890, naming it the Garrison School. Coles served as president of the African-American division of the Missouri State Teachers Association for two years, as the editor of a weekly newspaper, and as a member of the Inter-Racial Committee of Twelve, an early civil rights advocacy group in Kansas City. He was principal of the Garrison School for more than 40 years – until his death in 1930. Six years later, the Kansas City School District named the R.T. Coles Vocational School in his honor. Photo: Wisconsin Historical Society

1873 - 1949. Hugh O. Cook, the longest-serving principal of Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri, was born in Washington D.C., graduated from Cornell University, and taught at Normal A&M College in Huntsville, Alabama. He moved to Kansas City in 1901 to teach mathematics and psychology at Lincoln High and assumed leadership of the school in 1922. Cook’s tenure saw Lincoln High’s move into its new Woodland Avenue facility, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Awarded the Distinguished Service Medal from the Missouri State Association of Negro Teachers in 1940, he also was instrumental in the founding of the Paseo YMCA and the Kansas City branch of the NAACP. Cook joined the Army YMCA during World War I and was attached to the 371st Infantry Regiment, which provided the “comforts of home” to black troops. He and his wife had two children and became foster parents to dozens of others without homes of their own. Following Cook’s retirement in 1944, he lived out the remainder of his life with his wife in Los Angeles, California. Image courtesy: The Black Archives of Mid-America

1873 - 1949. Hugh O. Cook, the longest-serving principal of Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri, was born in Washington D.C., graduated from Cornell University, and taught at Normal A&M College in Huntsville, Alabama. He moved to Kansas City in 1901 to teach mathematics and psychology at Lincoln High and assumed leadership of the school in 1922. Cook’s tenure saw Lincoln High’s move into its new Woodland Avenue facility, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Awarded the Distinguished Service Medal from the Missouri State Association of Negro Teachers in 1940, he also was instrumental in the founding of the Paseo YMCA and the Kansas City branch of the NAACP. Cook joined the Army YMCA during World War I and was attached to the 371st Infantry Regiment, which provided the “comforts of home” to black troops. He and his wife had two children and became foster parents to dozens of others without homes of their own. Following Cook’s retirement in 1944, he lived out the remainder of his life with his wife in Los Angeles, California. Image courtesy: The Black Archives of Mid-America

(1872-1963) Crosthwaite was one of the first African American social workers in Kansas City and spent decades working to improve health care for the local black community. Though she had already taught public school, raised a family, and owned two businesses, in middle age Crosthwaite began working at Wheatley-Provident Hospital at 18th and Forest Streets, established in 1910 specifically for African Americans. As president of the Hospital Auxiliary, Crosthwaite led an immensely successful annual fashion show that attracted thousands of people and raised money for the hospital. Image courtesy: The Black Archives of Mid-America

1898 - 1979. Known as the “Father of African American Arts,” Aaron Douglas was born in Topeka, Kansas, and developed an interest in drawing and painting at an early age. He studied at the University of Nebraska and in 1925 moved to New York City, settling in the African American neighborhood of Harlem. He soon became involved in the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement of the 1920s that emphasized African American artists, writers, and performers. Douglas began creating magazine illustrations and developed a modernist style that incorporated African and Egyptian design elements. Among his most important early work were his murals at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library. In 1939 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and founded the Art Department at Fisk University, teaching there for nearly 30 years. In his art Douglas explored and celebrated the lives and history of people of color. In doing so he powerfully depicted an emerging black American individuality. Image courtesy: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division; Photographer: P. H. Polk

(1818 - 1895) Douglass was an early abolitionist, writer and orator who promoted the equality of all peoples. He was born a slave and later escaped to Massachusetts where he began his abolitionist efforts prior to the American Civil War. His life story is dramatically recounted in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

(1911-unknown) Sixteen years before the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education ended legal segregation in schools, Lloyd Gaines fought a court battle to attend the University of Missouri. Gaines was born in Oxford, Mississippi, but moved with his family to St. Louis, Missouri, at age 14. He was valedictorian of his high school class and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history from Lincoln University. In 1935, Gaines applied for admission to the University of Missouri Law School, but was denied because of his race. With the aid of the NAACP, he sued the university to admit him. After the county court and Missouri Supreme Court ruled in favor of the university, his case was brought before the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 6-2 decision, the court ruled that Gaines be admitted or a separate law school for African Americans be established. Following the decision, Gaines traveled to Chicago and was staying at a fraternity house when, on March 19, 1939, he left to run an errand and was never heard from again. While Gaines never realized his dream of studying law at the University of Missouri, his case established the principle of “equality of education” and influenced other legislation leading up to school desegregation. Photo:  Associated Press

1859 - 1925. Farmer, landowner, and businessman Junius G. Groves was one of the wealthiest African Americans of the early 20th century. Born a slave in Green County, Kentucky, Groves was later liberated and joined other freedmen in the “Great Exodus” to Kansas in 1879, eventually finding work as a farmhand. Impressed with his strong work ethic and production, Groves’ employer offered him nine acres of land to farm on shares. By 1884, he and his wife Matilda had saved enough to purchase 80 acres of land near Edwardsville, Kansas. So successful was their venture that, just four years later, they had acquired a total of 2,000 acres and replaced their one-room shanty with a 22-room mansion. Groves made a name for himself as a potato grower, producing as many as 721,500 bushels in one year – far and away more than any other farmer – and earning the title of “Potato King of the World.” He also operated a general store, maintained several orchards, and had investments in various mining and banking interests. Groves worked the farm until his death in 1925. He attributed his success to the endless hard work and devotion of his wife and 12 children. Image courtesy: Kansas Historical Society

1882 - 1969. John A. Hodge, the longest-serving principal of Sumner High School in Kansas City, Kansas, was born in Shelbyville, Indiana, and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from Indiana University. He came to Kansas City, Kansas, in 1910 to accept a teaching position at Sumner High and became principal in 1916. During his tenure, the school established a teacher training program and a junior college. He also oversaw construction of a new school building. Hodge’s community activities spanned both sides of the state line as he served as president of the Kansas City, Kansas, branch of the NAACP, secretary of the Committee of Management of the Paseo YMCA, and secretary of the First Baptist Church building fund committee. At the time of his retirement in 1951, The Call noted, “In a humanitarian way the educator has purchased books, clothing and food for students from his personal funds. One Sumner student, a promising violinist, studied in Russia because of the school principal’s holding of a benefit concert in his behalf.” A former president of the Sumner High School Alumni Association once observed that Hodge “believed in the capability of all black youth. He did not want them to think of themselves as inadequate, and he did everything in his power to see to it that his students were successful.” Image courtesy: Dorothy Hodge Johnson Collection, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries

(1876-1972) Holmes was the pastor at Paseo Baptist Church for 46 years and used his role in the community to advocate for better conditions for local African Americans. Holmes’s parents were former slaves, but he was able to earn degrees from three colleges and become one of the most respected leaders in Kansas City. Holmes worked to integrate the University of Missouri-Columbia and won the battle to build a new Lincoln High School at 21st and Woodland Streets. Image courtesy: The Kansas City Star/Times

(1913 - 1999). Ironically nicknamed “Speedy” for his slow, soft-shoe dancing style, L. C. Huggins’s roots stretched back to the city’s Golden Age of Jazz. Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1913, Huggins grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. As a teen the self-taught tap dancer performed in the legendary 18th and Vine District. In 1933 he was among the opening night acts at the Cherry Blossom Club. After military service in World War II Huggins entertained throughout Europe; returning home he added singing and drumming to his repertoire. Kansas City’s “King of Nightlife” was a fixture of the jazz scene until his death. Image courtesy: The Kansas City Star

1902 - 1967. A leader of the Harlem Renaissance, James Mercer Langston Hughes was a writer and social activist who developed a new literary art form called jazz poetry. Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri. After the breakup of his parents’ marriage, young Langston was raised by his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. An unhappy, lonely child, he became obsessed with books, “where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas.” He began writing poetry in high school and attended New York City’s Columbia University for one year. Though earning good grades, he dropped out because of racial prejudice and his growing interest in the nearby black neighborhood of Harlem. He would live and work there for most of his life. Through his writing Hughes embraced and depicted the real lives of working-class African Americans and their struggles in modern America. He published 16 collections of poetry, a dozen plays, eight books for children, and 11 novels and collections of short stories. His two volumes of autobiography were entitled The Big Sea and I Wonder as I Wander. Image courtesy: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, NYWT&S Collection

This blue silk regimental flag was carried into battle by the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, the Civil War’s first African American regiment from a northern state. The unit first saw action at Island Mound, Missouri, in October 1862, but
established its reputation at Honey Springs, Oklahoma, in July 1863. There the 1st Kansas held the center of the Union line, moving to within 50 paces of the Confederates and exchanging fire for 20 minutes until the rebels broke and fled. This success encouraged federal commanders to increasingly rely on black troops. During the war the 1st Kansas suffered 354 casualties. The flag bears the names of eight battles, including Baxter Springs and Cabin Creek. In 1864 the regiment was redesignated the 79th United States Colored Regiment. Image courtesy: Kansas Historical Society

This illustration from the March 14, 1863, issue of Harper’s Weekly magazine – titled “A Negro Regiment in Action” – depicts the Battle of Island Mound, Missouri, in October 1862. This series of skirmishes with Confederate guerrillas was unremarkable in terms of casualties (on the Union side only 8 were killed and 11 wounded) but the incident marked the first time in the Civil War that African American soldiers engaged in combat. The bravery shown by the troops of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry received national coverage in the newspapers of the day and undermined the widespread belief that blacks were incapable of fighting. The success of the 1st Kansas helped convince President Abraham Lincoln that the time was right to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. Image courtesy: Kansas Historical Society

Herman Johnson (1916 - 2004), Dorothy Johnson (1916 - 2004). Herman and Dorothy Johnson achieved success in numerous endeavors while contributing to institutions and causes that strengthened the social and economic interests of the African-American community. Herman Johnson, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, was a graduate of Cornell. An entrepreneur with interests in real estate appraisal, insurance, and other ventures, he also was president of the Kansas City branch of the NAACP and served in the Missouri legislature. Dorothy Johnson was the first black woman member of Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Kansas, where she earned degrees in journalism and social work. A journalist with The Kansas City Call, she also held leadership positions with the Urban League of Kansas City. Both were among the co-founders of the Local Investment Commission.

1855 - 1932. Anna H. Jones was born in Canada before the American Civil War and graduated from Oberlin College, a private Ohio school noted for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit black students. She taught at historically black Wilberforce University in Ohio before moving to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1892 to teach at Lincoln High School and later become the first black woman to serve as a school principal, assuming leadership of Douglass School in 1911. Jones was a co-founder, with Josephine Silone Yates, of the Kansas City Colored Women’s League, led fundraising for the YWCA, and served as president of the Missouri Association of Colored Women’s Clubs from 1903-06. She retired from Lincoln High School in 1919 and moved to Monrovia, California. Image courtesy: The Black Archives of Mid-America

1855 - 1932. Anna H. Jones was born in Canada before the American Civil War and graduated from Oberlin College, a private Ohio school noted for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit black students. She taught at historically black Wilberforce University in Ohio before moving to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1892 to teach at Lincoln High School and later become the first black woman to serve as a school principal, assuming leadership of Douglass School in 1911. Jones was a co-founder, with Josephine Silone Yates, of the Kansas City Colored Women’s League, led fundraising for the YWCA, and served as president of the Missouri Association of Colored Women’s Clubs from 1903-06. She retired from Lincoln High School in 1919 and moved to Monrovia, California. Image courtesy: The Black Archives of Mid-America

Orchid Jordan (1910-1995). The Jordans worked throughout their careers to expand the influence of African American voters and to increase the number of black candidates for political office. Leon Jordan served the Kansas City Police Department for 16 years, and in 1947 left for Liberia, where he organized a national police force. In 1962, Leon Jordan co-founded Freedom Inc., a political club that championed black participation in local politics. He was elected to three terms in the Missouri House of Representatives, an office Orchid Jordan filled after her husband was killed in 1970. Images courtesy: The Kansas City Star/Times

(1905-1970). The Jordans worked throughout their careers to expand the influence of African American voters and to increase the number of black candidates for political office. Leon Jordan served the Kansas City Police Department for 16 years, and in 1947 left for Liberia, where he organized a national police force. In 1962, Leon Jordan co-founded Freedom Inc., a political club that championed black participation in local politics. He was elected to three terms in the Missouri House of Representatives, an office Orchid Jordan filled after her husband was killed in 1970. Images courtesy: The Kansas City Star/Times

(1914-2009) Gertrude Keith worked for many years to ensure that Kansas City’s disadvantaged residents had access to safe and affordable housing. Raised by relatives after the deaths of her parents, she experienced segregation in her youth and, later in life, recalled witnessing a cross burned on a neighbor’s lawn. At a time when many young African-Americans were unable to cover the distance to the only high school in the city open to them, Keith’s grandmother made education a priority and moved her family closer to Lincoln High School. Keith graduated in 1930 and went on to study music at the University of Nebraska, where she met her husband, jazz musician Jimmy Keith. They started a family back in Kansas City, and Gertrude found work with the city’s housing department. She was appointed the first director of the Wayne Miner Courts housing development in 1960, advanced in her career over the years, and retired as an associate director of the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority. Keith also was a dedicated community activist who worked for the creation of the Spirit of Freedom Fountain – honoring the contributions of Kansas City’s African-Americans. In 2003, the research library at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center was named for her.

(1916 - 2000) Florynce Rae Kennedy was a civil rights attorney and feminist activist. Her controversial tactics and provocative tone drew criticism, but also helped publicize national debates on abortion, racism in the media, women’s equality, and consumer protection. Kennedy became one of the first African-American women to graduate from Columbia University’s law school. She represented activists such as H. Rap Brown and members of the Black Panthers as well as the estates of Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker against record companies that had withheld royalties. Kennedy later became an integral part of the Feminist Movement beginning in the 1970s. She toured the country on the lecture circuit, often with friend and fellow activist Gloria Steinem, while continuing to lead protests, including a rally outside the 1976 Democratic National Convention in New York.

(1929 - 1968) King is the best-known of modern-day civil rights leaders for his dazzling speeches and leadership of the non-violent civil rights movement.  A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist in the Deep South and helped lead the movement to national prominence. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” is known for its stirring passion and was delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., before throngs of people who had marched to the nation’s capital for jobs and freedom. King was assassinated in Memphis in 1968, leading to major urban riots.  A national federal holiday honoring King was established in 1983.

1902 - 1958. Born in Boonville, Missouri, and raised in Kansas City, Julia Lee was a singer and pianist whose work incorporated both blues and jazz. She began her musical career in the early 1920s, playing piano and singing with the band led by her brother, George Lee. She launched a solo career in 1935 and secured a recording contract with Capitol Records in 1944. Lee was famous for her “dirty blues,” double-entendre numbers she described as “songs my mother taught me not to sing.” Among her hits were “Gotta Gimme Watcha Got,” “Snatch and Grab It,” “King Size Papa,” “I Didn’t Like It the First Time,” and “My Man Stands Out.” Most of these records were by “Julia Lee and Her Boy Friends,” an integrated group that often included pianist Jay McShann, saxophonist Benny Carter, vibraphonist Red Norvo, and cornettist Red Nichols. Although her recording career slowed after 1949, she continued to perform regularly in the Kansas City area and on tours. She was married to Frank Duncan, the catcher/manager of the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues. Image courtesy: The Black Archives of Mid-America

This Union army regiment was organized in St. Louis in December 1863 after the signing of Order No. 135 authorizing the recruitment of “all Negroes, free or slaves” after the fall harvest. Renamed the 62nd Regiment United States Colored Troops, the unit was sent south in June 1864, first to Louisiana and then the Rio Grande in Texas, where it fought in the Battle of Palmito Ranch. The soldiers, who were learning to read and write, decided to create a school for free blacks, and this led to the establishment of the Lincoln Institute (later Lincoln University) in Jefferson City, Missouri. The Soldiers’ Memorial (above), a bronze sculpture by Ed Dwight, was dedicated on the historic black college campus in 2007. Image courtesy: Waymarking.com

First Lieutenant William Dominick Matthews was an African American officer of the Independent Battery, U.S. Colored Light Artillery, at Fort Leavenworth. Prior to the Civil War Matthews, a free black man, operated a
Leavenworth boarding house which became a stop on the Underground Railroad. Assisted by Daniel R. Anthony (brother of women’s rights advocate Susan B. Anthony), Matthews helped many Missouri slaves escape to Kansas and other free states. With the outbreak of the war Matthews recruited his fellow African Americans into the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry and helped protect eastern Kansas from General Sterling Price’s Confederate invasion of Missouri, which climaxed with the Battle of Westport in October 1864.
Image courtesy: Kansas Historical Society

(1937-2017) Joelouis Mattox’s dream as a young man was to teach high school history. Military service altered his course, but history – the pursuit and preservation of Kansas City’s African-American past – remained a lifelong calling. Named for former boxing champion Joe Louis, whom he considered a hero, Mattox was raised in segregated Caruthersville in southeast Missouri in the 1940s and ’50s. He studied history and government at Lincoln University in Jefferson City before being drafted into the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1962. Discharged four years later, he settled in the Kansas City area and went on to a more than three-decade career in community development, housing management, and historic preservation. He also emerged as one of the city’s leading champions of African-American history, tirelessly researching events and individuals, fighting to save local landmarks, speaking at libraries and other venues, and serving as historian for a number of agencies and organizations, including the American Legion Wayne Miner Post 149. The Jackson County Historical Society gave Mattox its Cultural Heritage Award in 2007. A year later, he received the federal President’s Volunteer Service Award. And in 2014, Kansas City’s Human Relations Department honored him with its Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit of Unity Award. Photo: Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library

(1916-2006) James Columbus “Jay” McShann was a prominent and influential jazz pianist and band leader. Growing up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, he defied his parents’ disapproval of his musical inclinations and taught himself to play the piano. He stuck to his craft and began his professional career by the 1930s, touring with jazz groups in the South and Midwest. En route to Omaha, Nebraska, in 1936, McShann’s bus stopped in Kansas City and he found there was work for jazz musicians in the city’s numerous nightclubs. He decided to stay and eventually formed the Jay McShann Orchestra, a group that gave a young saxophonist named Charlie Parker his start. McShann helped develop what became known as the Kansas City sound, a jazz style heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and driven by catchy riffs. He continued to tour and record music, putting his career on hold when drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. Along with other notable musicians such as Count Basie and Big Joe Turner, McShann was featured prominently in the 1979 Kansas City jazz documentary Last of the Blue Devils, exposing a new generation to his music. Photo: LaBudde Special Collections, UMKC

1898 - 1979. As the founder and operator of Mrs. Meek’s Mortuary – identified in Kansas City by its pink limousines and building façade – Fannie L. Meek was a trailblazer, one of the few women of her time to go into the funeral business. Born in Georgia, Meek studied botany at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama under George Washington Carver, graduating in 1917. She was first an educator but found herself drawn to mortuary services after moving to Kansas City with her husband, Edward, in 1923. She studied at the Williams School of Embalming and Mortuary Science, opened her funeral home in 1937, and became a community pillar. Meek served as a director of Wheatley-Provident Hospital, member of the board of governors of the Kansas City Urban League, and trustee of the Jamison CME Temple. From 1960 to 1972, she sponsored an integrated American Legion Junior Baseball League team, the Sparklers, in an attempt to integrate competition and increase young black players’ odds of being seen by professional scouts. Also a member of the Second Ward Republican Club and Fifth Congressional District Federation of Women, Meek was elected to the Missouri State Republican Committee in 1967. She retired in 1973 and died in 1979 at age 81. Image courtesy: The Black Archives of Mid-America

First Sergeant William A. Messley (also known as Measley) of Company C, 62nd United States Colored Troops, posed for this portrait shortly after his enlistment in late 1863. The 62nd originated as the 1st Regiment Colored
Infantry, Missouri Volunteers. Messley and his fellow troopers spent most of the war in Louisiana and Texas, guarding the Gulf Coast and preventing Southern efforts to export cotton, a cash crop on which the Confederacy relied for income. Their commander, Brigadier General William A. Pile, described the 62nd as “a well drilled and disciplined regiment and well fitted for field service.” However, Pile’s request that black troops replace some of his ineffective white units was rejected by his superiors.
Image courtesy: Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield

Bettye Miller (1928 - 1977), Milt Abel (1928 - 2006). Bettye Miller and Milt Abel, a husband and wife musical duo reigned over the Kansas City jazz scene from the 1950s through the 1970s. Miller and Abel first met in 1953 at the Horseshoe Lounge at 32nd St. and Troost Ave. where they continued to perform regularly for 10 years. They went on to entertain audiences at other venues locally and nationally. After Miller’s death in 1977, Abel continued to perform for nearly 30 years, sometimes accompanied by his son from his second marriage, Milton, Jr., or Miller’s daughter from her first marriage, Bettyejo.

(1890-1918). The brief yet distinguished life of Wayne Miner was defined by sacrifice and valor. The son of former slaves, Miner was born in 1890 in Henry County, Missouri. He later moved to Appanoose County, Iowa, and was working as a coal miner when called to serve in the First World War in 1917. He was part of the 92nd Division, an African American fighting force nicknamed the “Buffalo Soldiers,” when it deployed to France in August 1918. During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the last major engagement of World War I, Miner volunteered to deliver ammunition to an outpost when no others would step forward.  Private Miner was killed in action on November, 11, 1918, just a few hours before the signing of the armistice that ended the war. The following year, the American Legion Wayne Miner Post 149 was formed in honor of the fallen soldier. The Wayne Miner Court housing development and Wayne Miner Health Center were also named for him. Miner is recognized as a hero and one of the last Americans to die in World War I. He is buried in St. Mihiel American Cemetery in Thiaucourt, France. Photo: Iowa State Historical Society

(1906-2004) Corinthian Clay Nutter was a teacher who fought to expand educational opportunities for her students. She was born in Forney, Texas. Her family relocated frequently as her parents sought work, and Nutter had to drop out of school at age 14. She moved to Kansas City in 1922, managed to earn her high school degree in 1936, and went on to graduate from Western University. In 1938, she obtained her Kansas teaching license and took a position at Merriam’s Walker Elementary School, a segregated institution that lacked indoor plumbing and other modern amenities. When a new school opened in the city in 1947 and African-American students were not permitted to attend, Nutter joined a boycott of the dilapidated school and organized a home school for children in the community. The aggrieved group sued and won a case, Webb v. School District No. 90, that reached the Kansas Supreme Court and opened the doors of the new school to African-Americans. Nutter continued her own education and advanced her career, eventually becoming the principal of Westview Elementary School in Olathe, Kansas. She retired in 1972, and is remembered for her role in school desegregation. Photo: Johnson County Museum

(b.1961) Obama is the 44th president of the United States of America and the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office. Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2004 before winning the presidency in November 2008.  He is an attorney, and early in his career worked as a community organizer on the Chicago southside helping low-income families and neighborhoods address community issues.  His mother grew up in Kansas, his father in Kenya.

(circa 1906 - 1982) Legendary for his play and his personality, Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, the first Negro Leagues player so honored. Born in Mobile, Alabama about 1906, his nickname sprang from his job carrying suitcases at the train station. But it was his pitching that was the stuff of legend. He began his career in segregated baseball in 1926, eventually settling in with the Kansas City Monarchs. In 1948 Paige signed with the Cleveland Indians, the oldest rookie ever in the majors. He played into his sixties and died in Kansas City in 1982. Image courtesy: The Kansas City Star

1920 - 1955. Musical giant Charlie Parker was a key creator of bebop, the jazz style marked by improvisation, quick tempos, and virtuosic technique. Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Parker was raised in Kansas City, Missouri, where he attended Lincoln High School. He devoted several years to practicing 15 hours a day on his saxophone and later played in jazz clubs on the Missouri side, eventually landing a job with pianist Jay McShann’s band. It was while on the road with McShann that Parker got the nickname “Yardbird” or “Bird” after the band’s car ran over a chicken (or yardbird) and Parker retrieved the dead animal lest its meat go to waste. Parker soon moved to New York City and joined the band of Earl “Fatha” Hines, where he met trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, another bebop pioneer. Trumpeter Miles Davis said, “You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.” Though considered too cerebral for the mass audience, Parker’s collaborations with Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell, and Davis had a galvanizing effect on the jazz world. Throughout his life Parker struggled with drug addiction. He died in New York City at age 34 and was buried in Kansas City’s Lincoln Cemetery. Image courtesy: The Black Archives of Mid-America

1912 - 2006. The son of a farmer in Fort Scott, Kansas, Gordon Parks defied racism and his own impoverished beginnings to become one of the world’s great photographers, as well as an internationally recognized writer, composer, and filmmaker. As a photographer Parks moved easily between fashion, portraiture, and gritty studies of African American life. In the 1940s he shot fashion layouts for Vogue; in 1948 he became the first black staff member of Life magazine, where for 20 years he shot fashion, sports and entertainment celebrities, and studies of poverty and racial segregation. In 1969 he adapted his autobiographical novel The Learning Tree into a film, becoming Hollywood’s first major black director. Subsequent films included Shaft (1971), The Super Cops (1974), and Leadbelly (1976). He wrote a three-volume memoir, several books of poetry, and composed jazz tunes, a piano concerto, a symphony, and a ballet about Martin Luther King, Jr. The underlying theme of his work, Parks said, was freedom: “Not allowing anyone to set boundaries, cutting loose the imagination, and then making the new horizons.” Image: Untitled, 1940s, Photograph by Gordon Parks, Courtesy and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation

(1913 - 2005) Parks came to be known as the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement" for refusing to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. This act of defiance sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by a relatively young new minister in town, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The boycott set the stage and example for later non-violent civil rights protests across the South. When she died in 2005, Congress permitted her body to lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda – the first woman to be so honored.

(1870-1962) Dr. J. Edward Perry dedicated his adult life to providing quality health care to Kansas City’s African American community and advancing opportunities for black physicians and nurses.  Perry was born in Clarksville, Texas, the son of former slaves. So intent were his parents that he receive a formal education that his father walked four miles and cut 40 cords of wood per day to pay for his initial schooling. An advanced student, Perry attended Bishop College at age 15 and held a teaching position by age 21. In 1892 he enrolled in Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, and later completed his post-graduate studies in Chicago. Perry opened an office in Kansas City in 1903. Recognizing the need for a professional hospital catering to African Americans, he campaigned with another black physician, Thomas Unthank, to establish General Hospital No. 2 in 1908. Two years later he opened the Perry Sanitarium and Training School for Nurses. The institution was renamed Wheatley-Provident Hospital in 1917 and expanded to a larger facility at 18th & Forest streets. Dr. Perry continued to practice medicine until his retirement in 1945. Through his vision, African Americans in Kansas City had better access to health care services and training. Photo: Black Archives of Mid America

(1945-1992)Peterson was best known for establishing the Black Archives of Mid-America in Kansas City’s 18th and Vine District. He moved to Kansas City from Tulsa, Oklahoma, as a child and graduated from Central High School. His interest in African American culture and reputation as a historian allowed him to collect materials for the archives, which continue to serve the Kansas City community today. Collections include photographs and artifacts from former slaves, the Buffalo Soldiers, and choreographer Alvin Ailey. Image courtesy: The Kansas City Star/Times

(1947 - 1979) Bernard Powell was a leader in local and national efforts to end racial discrimination and increase the political and economic power of African Americans. Powell joined the NAACP at 13, and after graduating from Central High School in 1965, joined Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the March to Selma, Alabama. Later on, he became regional director of the Congress of Racial Equality. In the wake of the April 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Powell established the Social Action Committee of 20 (SAC-20) to provide leadership skills to young African Americans. For these and similar endeavors, he received many honors including the Jefferson Award for Public Service. Powell was shot to death in 1979 at age 32. The Bernard Powell Memorial, a life-sized bronze statue within a fountain in Spring Valley Park, commemorates his life and legacy.

1910 - 1994. Born in Texas, Cloteele T. Raspberry moved to Kansas City at a young age and became a fashion designer and mentor to young women interested in the profession. Raspberry attended Wendell Phillips Elementary School, graduated in 1927 from Lincoln High (where she stood out in her sewing class), and two decades later earned an associate’s degree from Isabelle Boldin’s School of Fashion Design. While doing sewing in her home, she taught night classes at the Brooklyn Center and local YWCA. Later a self-employed dress designer, Raspberry joined the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers and traveled nationwide each year – to cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Chicago – to showcase her work at designer shows. She was chosen as a NAFAD junior leader, guiding girls and young women ages 14-18 who were members of the national organization. They staged their own annual fashion show, with proceeds going toward their “advanced training.” Raspberry also was a 25-year member of Kansas City’s Urban League Guild, and served as a Sunday school teacher for more than 35 years at Paseo Baptist Church. She died at age 83 in March 1994, leaving her husband William, daughter Villa, and a Kansas City legacy of more than 70 years. Image courtesy: The Black Archives of Mid-America

1891 - 1980. Henry Warren Sewing founded the Douglass State Bank, the first bank owned and operated by African Americans in the Midwest. Sewing was born to sharecropper parents in Bremond, Texas, in 1891, graduated from Tillotson College in 1915, and taught in elementary school in Austin. After military service in World War I, he came to Kansas City and found work in the meatpacking and railroad industries before becoming an instructor at Western University in Quindaro, Kansas. Described as farsighted and determined, Sewing began a decades-long career in the insurance industry in 1922 as an immediately successful salesman for the Standard Life Insurance Company of Atlanta, Georgia. Prosperous years followed as the president and founder of his own Sentinel Loan and Investment Company. In 1947, he opened the Douglass State Bank at 1314 N. 5th Street, Kansas City, Kansas, to great ceremony. A motorized parade began at the segregated Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri, and ended at Sumner High School, its Kansas counterpart. One dedication speaker remarked, “Douglass State is a continuation of the things Frederick Douglass fought for.” This so-called “Negro bank,” the product of Henry Sewing’s vision, provided home mortgages and small business loans, and brought economic development to its community until it closed in 1983. Image courtesy: Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries

(ca. 1866-1935) N. Clark Smith was a prominent musician, composer, and instructor and one of the most accomplished African American bandmasters of the early 20th century. Music and military discipline were instilled in the native Kansan at an early age. Born and raised in Leavenworth, he was greatly influenced by his father, a regimental trumpet player in the 24th Infantry. By the time he earned a degree in music arts from Chicago Musical College in 1905, Smith had organized and led numerous bands and garnered international acclaim as a bandmaster touring worldwide with a popular minstrel troupe. After graduation, he served as music director at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and Western University in eastern Kansas, and was bandmaster and military instructor at Lincoln High School in Kansas City from 1916-22.  Although a stern taskmaster, Smith had a gift for cultivating an appreciation for music and developing the musical talents of his students. Several first-generation Kansas City jazz musicians, including Bennie Moten, Julia Lee, and Harlan Leonard, studied under him. As a composer, Smith drew inspiration from black folk and spiritual music and was awarded a Wanamaker Prize in 1930 for his Negro Folk Suite composition. He continued to compose and teach music until his death in 1935. Photo:  Special Collections and University Archives, University of Iowa

(1917-2011) Singer Myra Taylor is recognized as one of the last great performers from Kansas City’s jazz heyday of the 1930s. Taylor was born in Bonner Springs, Kansas, but spent her childhood living in the 18th and Vine area of Kansas City. A natural singer and dancer, she was performing in nightclubs by the age of 15. In Taylor’s own words, “I got the jobs because I could dance, but kept the jobs because I could sing.” Her career took off in the 1930s when she toured the U.S. as a vocalist with the Clarence Love Orchestra and Harlan Leonard and His Rockets. From 1937-1940, she lived in Chicago and collaborated with several legendary jazz musicians. For the next four decades she toured worldwide, performing in 30 countries, and entertained troops during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. Over that time, she wrote and recorded several songs, but is best known for “The Spider and the Fly” and “Still Blue Water.” Taylor’s career came full circle when she returned to Kansas City in the early 1990s, performing in local nightclubs and starting a jazz group called the Wild Women of Kansas City. She continued to entertain audiences until her death at age 94. Photo: The Kansas City Call

(1897-1985) Dr. Earl D. Thomas dedicated his life to education and public service. Born in Kansas City, Kansas, he graduated from Sumner High School and later earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in education from the University of Kansas. Thomas served as a teacher and administrator in the Kansas City, Missouri, school district for 35 years. A proponent of vocational arts, he became the first principal of the R.T. Coles Junior and Vocational High School when it opened in 1936. Thomas later served as principal of Lincoln High School, stepping down in 1963 to run for city council. He won the third district seat, becoming the first African American to be elected councilman-at-large in the city’s history. After retiring from political life in 1971, Thomas remained active in community affairs. He served as president of the Kansas City Urban League, was a charter member of the Kansas City Human Rights Commission, and was an active member of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church. A skilled craftsman who built his own home, Thomas also led efforts to construct affordable housing in the city’s urban core. Photo: The Kansas City Star

(1884 - 1944) Physician, hospital administrator, newspaper publisher and civil servant, William J. Thompkins helped
General Hospital No. 2 in Kansas City, the first U.S. hospital staffed entirely by African Americans. Thompkins’s efforts to improve health and housing for African Americans in Kansas City were adopted as a national model by President Herbert Hoover. He later turned to partisan politics, founding a Democratic newspaper for the black community and serving as president of the National Colored Democratic Association. Thompkins was appointed recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia by President Franklin Roosevelt, a job he held until his death. Image courtesy: Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library

1911 - 1985. Leona Pouncey Thurman was the first African American woman to practice law in Kansas City. Born in Russellville, Arkansas, Thurman became interested in the legal profession after moving to Kansas City in 1931 and working as secretary for attorney James D. Pouncey, whom she married in 1937. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Lincoln University in 1947 and, following the death of her husband, enrolled at Howard University School of Law. She received her degree in 1949 and opened an office at 1505 East 18th Street, focusing on criminal law and divorce cases. Thurman’s distinguished legal career spanned 34 years. She was the first black woman admitted to the Jackson County Bar, and also had a license to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. Thurman was an active member of the community, serving as a member of the League of Women Voters, YWCA, Women’s Chamber of Commerce, and numerous other organizations. She was also involved in efforts to revitalize the 18th and Vine jazz district, purchasing and restoring properties in the area and building a community amphitheater and park. Thurman inspired many other black women to enter the legal profession, and was dedicated to improving the east side community where she worked and lived. Image courtesy: The Kansas City Star

(1859-1914) Lafayette Alonzo Tillman is remembered most for being one of the city’s first African-American police officers. He was born in Evansville, Indiana. After high school, Tillman attended Oberlin College in Ohio and Wayland Seminary in Washington D.C. He focused initially on developing his vocal talents, touring with several successful singing groups and once performing at the White House. He settled in 1881 in Kansas City, where he opened a restaurant and worked as a barber, eventually opening his own shop at 12th Street and Grand Avenue. With his wife Amy, he started a family at their home at 17th Street and Lydia Avenue. Tillman developed an interest in law and enrolled in the Kansas City Law School, but left his studies to join the U.S. Army at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898. He advanced to the rank of first lieutenant before returning from the Philippines to Kansas City. In recognition of his service, a group of prominent citizens secured a position for Tillman with the Kansas City Police Department, and he worked as a policeman until his death in 1914. He was accorded full military honors at his funeral. Image: Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library

(1898 - 1966) Melvin B. Tolson became the first Poet Laureate of the Republic of Liberia. Born in Moberly, Mo., Tolson spent his junior and senior years at Kansas City’s Lincoln High School. He later studied at Fisk University, Lincoln University in Oxford, Pa., and Columbia University. From 1923-1947, Tolson taught English, directed plays and coached the debate team at Wiley College in Marshall, Tex. In 1935, his team beat the defending national champions from the University of Southern California, an incident that became the basis for the 2008 Denzel Washington movie The Great Debaters. In 1944, Tolson published his first collection of poetry, the well-received Rendezvous with America. He also wrote Libretto for the Republic of Liberia, Harlem Gallery and A Gallery of Harlem Portraits.

(1797 - 1883) Truth was an American slave, abolitionist and women’s rights activist.  Born Isabella Baumfree, she gave herself a new name in 1843. Truth gave a famous speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” in 1851 to a women’s rights convention in Ohio.  During the Civil War she worked to gain support for black Union soldiers, and after the war she continued to advocate for the rights of blacks and women.

1871 - 1944. Bishop William T. Vernon served twice in leadership positions – including president – at Western University, the first African American college founded west of the Mississippi River. Born in Lebanon, Missouri, he went on to become valedictorian of his graduating class at historically black Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1890 and later earned a degree in theology from Wilberforce University in Ohio. In 1896, Vernon was appointed president of Western University in Quindaro, Kansas. Under his administration, Western developed its industrial training curriculum and acquired financial support from the state legislature. Vernon left the school in 1906 to serve as register of the U.S. Treasury during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidential administration. He was consecrated a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in 1920 and worked for four years in South Africa. After his return to the United States in 1924, he continued as a bishop in the Midwest. Vernon returned to Western University in 1933, serving as superintendent of its industrial department until 1938. Image courtesy: Library of Congress

(1924 - 1980) Bruce R. Watkins was an entrepreneur, public official, and community leader. Born Bruce Riley in Parkville, Mo., Watkins was adopted by his mother’s second husband, Theron B. Watkins, co-founder of Watkins Brothers Funeral Home. During World War II, he served with the Tuskegee Airmen, the renowned African-American combat aviators. After the war, Watkins joined the family business, where he played an integral role for 30 years. In 1966, Watkins became the first African American elected to the City Council, where he served two terms. He also was twice elected Jackson County circuit clerk and ran for mayor of Kansas City in 1979. His legacy is memorialized by Bruce R. Watkins Drive and Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center, as well as The Spirit of Freedom Fountain that celebrates the contributions of Kansas City’s African-American community.

(1901 - 1981) Roy Wilkins led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1955 to
1977 and today is recognized as a giant of the civil rights struggle. Born in St. Louis and raised in Minnesota, Wilkins in 1923 joined the Kansas City Call, where the young newsman chronicled racial injustice and championed civil rights. In 1931 he went to New York City, succeeding W. E. B. DuBois as editor of the NAACP’s magazine The Crisis. Under his leadership the NAACP grew from 25,000 to more than 400,000 members, earning this “senior statesman” of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement the respect of millions. Image Courtesy: Minnesota Historical Society Photographer: Cecil Layne

(1910 - 1981) Among the greatest female jazz musicians, Mary Lou Williams was a piano prodigy and became a professional performer while in her teens. With her husband John Williams she moved to Kansas City in the late 1920s and shattered barriers in the male-dominated jazz scene with her immense talents as a piano soloist, composer and arranger. Leaving Kansas City in 1942, she formed her own small group, later joined Duke Ellington’s band, retired briefly, but remained active into the 1970s. A section of 10th Street between The Paseo and Woodland is named “Mary Lou Williams Lane” in her honor. Image courtesy: The Kansas City Star

(1925 – 1965) Malcolm X was an African American Muslim minister who helped develop a black nationalist movement in the U.S. by promoting the Nation of Islam. He was among the more controversial but highly influential African American leaders. He was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska and was assassinated in 1965 in New York City. His life story was detailed in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published the year after this death.

(1859 - 1912) An inspiring teacher and passionate communicator, Josephine Silone Yates devoted her life to fighting racial prejudice. The first African American certified to teach in Rhode Island public schools, she later headed the natural sciences department at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. Moving to Kansas City in 1889 she became the first president of the Women’s League of Kansas City and the second president of the National Association of Colored Women – positions that gave her a national forum from which to speak and write on the betterment of her people. She ended her career teaching at Lincoln High School in Kansas City. Image Courtesy: Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-134336

(1812 - 1882) Hiram Young was born about 1812 in Tennessee. In 1847, Young obtained freedom and with his wife moved to Independence, Missouri. Taking advantage of his location near the Oregon and Santa Fe trails, he built wagons for western emigrants. By 1860, Young was turning out thousands of yokes and between eight and nine hundred wagons a year. As Civil War tensions mounted along the Kansas-Missouri border, Young and his family fled to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1861. He returned to Independence at the war's end to find his business sacked and destroyed. Nevertheless, Young succeeded in building a school for African-American children in Independence. Trying without success to recoup the losses he had suffered during the war, Young died in 1882. Image courtesy: Jackson County Historical Society