RSVP now: Racial reckoning at The Kansas City Star, ‘The Truth in Black and white’
The Kansas City Star recently examined its coverage of race and the city’s Black community over its 140-year history. It included an apology from Mike Fannin, president and editor:
“We are sorry. The Kansas City Star prides itself on holding power to account. Today we hold up the mirror to ourselves to see the historic role we have played, through both action and inaction, in shaping and misshaping Kansas City’s landscape. It is time that we own our history.”
The newspaper – both The Star and its now-defunct sister publication, The Times – had “disenfranchised, ignored and scorned generations of Black Kansas Citians,” Fannin wrote to readers, making special note of fawning treatment of discriminatory developer J.C. Nichols.
The Star has since stripped its masthead and website of references to its founder and first publisher, William Rockhill Nelson, who supported Nichols and his segregationist policies.
In conjunction with the Kansas City Public Library, the Star is hosting a discussion at 6:30 p.m. January 27 of the newspaper’s actions, the impact and the path forward. As a recent letter writer to the editor admonished: “Apologies are a good first step. However, truth and atonement will not be judged by words, but actions.”
Fannin, who has been with The Star since 1997 and served as its top editor since 2008, will be joined by:
Education reporter Mará Rose Williams, whose concerns initiated the project. She contributed to the series’ research and writing.
Michele Watley, the founder of Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet, a political advocacy nonprofit focusing on issues of importance to Black women and families in Kansas City.
Nicole Sussner Rodgers, the founder and executive director of Family Story, a New York City-based think tank working to broaden perspective on family arrangements and models.
And Toriano Porter, a member of The Star’s Editorial Board who writes about race and racism, will moderate the discussion.
RSVP for the event here.
Watch it live at kansascity.com.