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Used by permission. Tom Olin Collection. Ward M Canaday Center for Special Collections, University of Toledo Libraries.Signed 35 years ago this month, the ADA was the world’s first comprehensive civil rights law for people with disabilities — guaranteeing equal opportunity in public accommodations, employment, and more. But it likely wouldn't have passed without the relentless pressure of grassroots activists and Kansas Republican Bob Dole. -
Miles Willis/Getty ImagesBarbecue is as American as apple pie — and a huge part of Kansas City's identity — but the origins of the word "barbecue" is in the Caribbean.
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Kansas City is known as the "City of Fountains," and it's earned the name — with more than any city other than Rome. From opulent displays to more simple spouts, these water features beautify our environment and connect us to the Kansas City of the past. -
Abraham Josephine Riesman’s best-selling book, “Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America,” recounts how the WWE went through an aggressive expansion in the 1980s, including in St. Louis. -
Pfc. Willy F. James Jr. was among seven African American troops unjustly denied the country’s highest military award for valor during World War II. Veterans and service members at James' memorial shared their thoughts on his legacy. -
Conservative legislators nationwide, including in Kansas, have introduced bills to restrict or criminalize certain drag performances. But drag queens haven’t stopped performing. -
Since Kansas City was established, drag in various forms has evolved from entertainment for power and control into a liberating art. Attempts to regulate the practice have also persisted. -
St. Louis County restored the only known remaining African American school in the county. During the 1900s, African Schoolhouse No. 4 held about 20 Black children each school year before it closed in 1950. -
The White Castle chain began in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas, where its ingenious small burgers kicked off a national craze and inspired imitators of all shapes and sizes. But over a century later, White Castle has entirely vanished from its home state. And the story of how it introduced America to the hamburger has largely been overshadowed by its fast food rivals. -
During a span of 71 years, most of the mounds in St. Louis left by Indigenous people from centuries earlier — some of which contained the remains of ancestors — were destroyed to make way for urban development. The ones that remain are left beneath bridges and inside parking garages. -
Spread across two coffee shops and a bookstore, the “Black/Queer Kansas City” exhibit will showcase forgotten figures of local LGBTQ history — and hopefully encourage more Kansas Citians to share their own stories. -
After they first began arriving in Missouri in the 1830s, German immigrants helped shape the state's culture in myriad ways, as detailed in the book “Explore Missouri's German Heritage” and the documentary it inspired. -
A historical marker in Clayton, Missouri, declared that St. Louis County was “first visited by white colonists” in the early 1700s. The sign was taken down this past November, but a professor says it was a missed opportunity for change. -
On Jan. 21, Washington Chapel C.M.E. Church was broken into and a piece of a memorial stained glass window removed. The church was built in 1907 by formerly enslaved families in Parkville, Missouri.
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In the 1970s and '80s, students at the universities of Kansas and Missouri protested on-campus to demand their institutions divest from a racist government in South Africa. Now, they’re asking schools to withdraw funds that support Israel's war in the Gaza Strip. -
Lawrin was owned by Herbert Woolf, the president of Woolf Brothers, one of the most important clothing stores in Kansas City history. Woolf also had an odd connection to political boss Tom Pendergast. -
A pair of exhibits at the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence are inspired by the life and death of Emmett Till, which helped launch the civil rights movement. The work of area textile artists helps connect the 1955 killing to contemporary violence against Black people. -
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum accepted on Thursday the remnants of the vandalized statue. The cleats will be added to an existing exhibit about the first Black American to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier. -
Once seen as a musical relic, audio cassettes have survived the eras of CDs and streaming to win over music lovers of a new generation. That’s in large part thanks to the National Audio Company in Springfield, Missouri, the largest cassette manufacturer in the world. -
Around the Kansas City region, living history museums like Missouri Town and Shawnee Town reveal how people lived in earlier eras, with collections of historic buildings, demonstrations of period crafts, and stories of the people who lived there. -
Matt Stewart's "The Kansas City Royals: An Illustrated Timeline" was a chance to revisit forgotten stories about the team and get them in print for posterity. -
Up until a few weeks ago, Lynette Woodard from the University of Kansas had scored more points in college basketball than any woman ever. But she was never recognized by the NCAA as a scoring champion. -
Oreo is the best-selling cookie in the world today. But few people remember the product that Nabisco blatantly ripped off: Hydrox. A creation of Kansas City’s Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, Hydrox was billed as the “aristocrat of cookies,” with a novel combo of chocolate and cream filling. So why, more than a century later, is Hydrox still mistaken as a cheap knockoff? -
Before Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen made their names as ball-slingers who could also sprint, Bobby Douglass and Steve Grogan were using their legs to find ways to win football games.
