Diana Reese
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Flatland
Kansas City’s central location and easy access to rail travel, along with Missouri’s simplified adoption laws favoring secrecy, attracted prospective parents from around the U.S. Over the first part of the 20th century, more than a dozen homes for unwed mothers flourished, the largest and most well-known of which was The Willows.
Dominick Williams
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Flatland
Eric Lee
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St. Louis Public Radio
Historic Downtown Liberty Missouri
A new episode of A People's History of Kansas City is out now!
KCUR's newsroom and audience development team are hiring for multiple positions, including reporters.
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National Parks ServiceThe Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park is the site of the former Monroe Elementary School, one of four all-Black schools in Topeka before the Brown v. Board decision. Former students will gather Saturday to commemorate the ruling's 70th anniversary. -
Carlos Moreno/KCUR 89.3In their decades-long careers, vocalist Deborah Brown and saxophonist Bobby Watson have lived and performed around the world, but have settled down in Kansas City. They'll perform this weekend with the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra.
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If Missouri voters approve the proposed amendment, it would bar local governments from adopting ranked-choice voting models. But it has has a carve out for St. Louis, which implemented ranked-choice in 2020 for its municipal elections. -
In a rare instance of triumph for Missouri Democrats, an effort to raise the bar to amend the state constitution — a central GOP priority — was defeated. -
Over the past 70 years, Kansas City has tried to fill its empty riverfront with a baseball stadium, an aquarium, an office park and a marina. Now, the Berkley Riverfront is finally getting a makeover, centered around the new Current stadium. -
Mayor Quinton Lucas says the actions of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's rhetoric has led to "violent racist rhetoric" and harassment against female city employees. Bailey this week threatened legal action against Kansas City for publishing, and then deleting, a social media post saying that Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker lives in Lee's Summit. -
Lawmakers sent a very similar measure to Gov. Mike Parson last year. He vetoed it due to a proposal making it easier for people to get restitution for wrongful convictions, and language around expungements. -
Under legislation that cleared the Missouri Senate with virtually no opposition earlier this year, marriage would be banned for anyone under 18. Although it passed out of a House committee this week, Republican leaders said it was too late to place the bill on the calendar for debate before the session ends. -
In a win for abortion rights advocates, Missouri lawmakers admit that a bill making it harder to change the Missouri Constitution looks unlikely to pass this session. -
Only about 5% of college baseball players and coaches are African American. At Kansas Christian College, team leaders have made a deliberate effort to recruit from inner-city Kansas City — boosting Black representation in the process. -
Lead plaintiff Oliver Brown's name rings loudest from the 1954 Brown v. Board desegregation case, but 12 women fought alongside him in Topeka. Kansas Historical Society curator Donna Rae Pearson's "Women of Brown" exhibit helps tell their story.
