Displaying stories about: Kansas City Black History
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” — Jackie Robinson. Welcome to the 2025 Kansas City Black History Project with a new collection of free booklets, posters and calendars to be shared in honor and celebration of great men and women in our city’s history. Click to learn more and download the project.
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The Jackson County Legislature “wholeheartedly” celebrated the 14-year legacy of the Kansas Black History Project by proclamation at its Legislative Meeting March 19.
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The Kansas City Black History Project has returned with an eight-page booklet and poster set featuring profiles of six area men and women who enriched, entertained, strengthened and even saved lives. See who is featured this year and learn how to get your copy.
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This is the kind of experience Brandie Schmidt had in mind when she created the display of the KC Black History project and books for residents at Kansas City’s Linwood Gardens.
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Raised in Kansas City’s east side, Alvin Sykes would find power in libraries to rise up as a human rights icon, redressing wrongs in the U.S. justice system, championing new investigations into the murders of Emmitt Till and Leon Jordan.
His story is one of eight new biographies that highlight the second edition of the national award-winning publication, Kansas City Black History. Learn more and order a copy by clicking here.
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“It’s rewarding when a national organization that promotes good history (says) your project is important,” said Jeremy Drouin, who manages the Kansas City Public Library’s Missouri Valley Special Collections.
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Kansas City history is making national history. The American Association for State and Local History has named the Kansas City Black History Project as a 2022 winner of its “Award of Excellence,” honoring the work of LINC, the Kansas City Public Library and the Black Archives of Mid-America
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Everything that’s motivated the 12 years of work in the Kansas City Black History Project — the research, the storytelling, the teaching and sharing — has gone fully digital. An enhanced webpage unleashes the stories of more than 80 Black men and women into sortable lists, school lesson plans, poetic video, essays and links to recorded oral history.
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The Jackson County Historical Society will honor the Kansas City Black History Project by the Kansas City Public Library, the Black Archives of Mid-America and LINC at its annual awards dinner this month.
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A 12-year project of gathering the stories of influential Black men and women in Kansas City’s history has won a state wide award for excellence.
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Junius G. Groves, a figure well known to the annual Kansas City Black History Project for his rise from slavery to wealthy landowner and businessman, will be enshrined in the Kansas Business Hall of Fame. Groves became known as “The Potato King of the World” and one of the wealthiest African-Americans of the early 20th Century.
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This fall the annual Black History project marks ten years of celebrating great men and women who forever shaped our city and our nation with a free book compiling the stories, along with contemporary essays by local leaders.
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The public is invited to join in celebrating the launch of Kansas City’s African American Heritage Trail. The event will bring together historians and filmmakers to highlight the online virtual trail that will serve as a dynamic and evolving guided tour the Kansas City’s historic cultural sites.
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Every year the special ed class at J.C. Harmon High School has picked out one of the great men and women featured in the latest set of local black history figures, sparking an educational adventure. LINC, the Kansas City Public Library and the Black Archives of Mid-America have been producing the materials for a decade.
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LINC along with its partners the Kansas City Public Library and the Black Archives of Mid-America is again pleased to produce and share its annual Black History educational poster set and booklets. During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s, African Americans in Kansas City fought with others across the country for full political, social, and economic rights. Empowered by political groups such as Freedom, Inc., local black activists championed legislation for public accommodations and fair housing and demanded equal education and employment.
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