Kansas City Black History book project wins statewide award for excellence

An image from the cover of Kansas City Black History shows the 1914 cornerstone laying of the Kansas City YMCA.

A 12-year project of gathering the stories of influential Black men and women in Kansas City’s history has won a statewide award for excellence.

The Missouri Library Association honored the Black History Project with the Excellence in Genealogy and Local History Award at its annual conference Sept. 29.

To see the project and to order a book or download a copy, go to kclinc.org/blackhistory

The Kansas City Public Library, the Black Archives of Mid-America and LINC shared the honor for a collaboration that, beginning in 2009, has shone a light on the many Black leaders from the Kansas City area who changed the world in business, history, education, athletics and the arts.

In 2020, as Missouri celebrated its bicentennial — and as the Black Lives Matter movement rose to new heights — the Black History Project compiled more than 70 biographies from the previous decade of its research into a 44-page book.

The project had already become a reliable source of important local history for schools, churches, community groups and individuals across the nation and even internationally as it produced an annual collection of features, posters and calendars highlighting some of Kansas City’s great achievers.

The book gathered the features into a single volume and added essays from contemporary voices, including Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, reflecting on the power of Kansas City’s Black history today.

The project included a new poem by Glenn North, the executive director of the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural and Heritage Center, and the poet laureate of the 18th and Vine Historic Jazz District.

A video of North reciting the poem — “I Sing Their Names” — accompanies the project online.

An expanded version of the book, with new biographies and essays, will be published in summer 2022. Watch LINC’s KC Black History page for updates.