For truth in history education: County legislature honors KC Black History Project
Representatives of the Kansas City Black History Project pose with copies of a proclamation signed by Jackson County Legislators March 19. Pictured, left to right, are Janet Miles-Bartee, President and CEO of LINC; Steve McClellan, LINC Caring Communities Supervisor; Jeremy Drouin, the Kansas City Public Library Manager of Special Collections; Carmaletta Williams, Executive Director of the Black Archives of Mid-America; Marjorie Williams, the Archives’ Board Chair; Patrick Salland, the Library’s Education and Outreach Librarian; Margaret Perkins McGuiness, the Library’s Director of Philanthropy; Pete Browne, the Library’s Board President; and Venessa Huskey, Jackson County Legislator.
The Jackson County Legislature “wholeheartedly” celebrated the 14-year legacy of the Kansas Black History Project by proclamation at its Legislative Meeting March 19.
For the stories the project has told, the inspiration to children and adults and for elevating “the collective pride” of the city, “it is with great pleasure,” Legislator Venessa Huskey said, “that we honor you.”
The Legislature invited leaders in the project — from LINC, the Kansas City Public Library and the Black Archives of Mid-America — to receive the proclamation and to share some of the reasons the partnership has been producing the stories annually since 2010.
Learn more about the Black History Project at KCBlackHistory.org
For information on to get the booklets and poster sets, go to kclinc.org
Through more than 85 biographies, shared in booklets and posters, the project has raised up the achievements of local Kansas Citians who have changed the world in science, education, politics, civil rights, sports, music and the arts.
Click on the image to read the full proclamation.
In particular, the stories have reached into classrooms, libraries, community centers, churches and businesses, inspiring children and adults — annually during Black History month and throughout the year.
“The purpose of this project is to tell the truth about history,” said Carmaletta Williams, the executive director of the Black Archives of Mid-America, “and about the building of Black Kansas City.”
So much of Kansas City’s Black history is well known through its great institutions like the American Jazz Museum and Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in the 18th and Vine District, but there is so much more, said Jeremy Drouin, the director of special collections at the Kansas City Public Library.
“There’s also authors, activists, politicians and poets and other people,” he said.
This year, the project — which is researched by the library and the Black archives and then designed and published by LINC — added the stories of author Vincent O. Carter, legislator and activist Phillip B. Curls, musician and composer Nora Douglas Holt, educator and suffragist Myrtle Foster Cook, health care pioneer Samuel U. Rodgers and musician and poet Annetta Washington.
The project “has been amazing,” said LINC President and CEO Janet Miles-Bartee, “because it gets our history out to the young people.”
LINC’s Caring Communities programs are anchored at 54 sites throughout the area, including in schools in the Kansas City Public Schools and the Hickman Mills, Grandview, Center and North Kansas City school districts.
“We make sure yearly that this project is used in those sites, and that teachers use it in their lesson plans . . . and introduce the students to our history and the people who made amazing contributionss to Kansas City and the world.”
The poster sets have become a common site throughout schools and churches, on bulletin boards and in hallways, with the accompanying booklets.
The stories as well as links to other Black History materials, lesson plans and archives including the libraries recorded oral histories are now kept online at KCBlackHistory.org.
Copies of the current booklet are available at branch libraries and the Black Archives. Information on how to get copies of the booklets and the poster sets is available at LINC, by going to kclinc.org.