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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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The Neck neighborhood was in the center of historic Independence and housed the biggest Black community in the city. When the Harry S. Truman Library was built to honor the president, urban renewal policies he put in place destroyed the neighborhood. -
The Great War depleted the states’ National Guard troops, sending them overseas. Missouri was one of the states that backfilled the domestic duties with unpaid volunteers. -
The Strawberry Hill Bakery has outgrown its original location in Kansas City, Kansas, but the brothers who run it promise the povitica recipe is the same one their great, great grandmother brought from Croatia at the turn of the last century. -
The Kansas City, Kansas Street Blues Festival was created as a place for a small group of influential blues artists from northeast Kansas City, Kansas, to share their music with their community. Now, however, so many of these artists have died that the event organizer doesn’t believe he’ll be able to continue the festival. -
Don Henry was a 1930s college kid from Dodge City, Kansas, who left everything he knew to join the fight against fascism. His life moved one music professor to put the story down in song. -
Independence, Missouri, was the epicenter of westward expansion in pre-Civil War America. Hiram Young, a formerly enslaved man, became the wealthiest man in the county by building wagons and ox yokes, before almost losing it all. -
As Kansas City’s first Black-owned housing co-op, Parade Park helped residents pursue the American Dream of owning a home and building a community. But after 60 years, it’s uncertain if it can survive foreclosure and redevelopment. -
The state constitution itself has its roots in the bitter days of Bleeding Kansas. One proposed version that granted the right to vote for free African Americans was rejected by a pro-slavery Congress. -
This isn't the first time Missouri has banned abortions. Residents may have heard ghoulish tales of “Doc Annie” Smith, a physician who looms large in Missouri’s mythology for performing illegal abortions in the early 1900s. Today, the truth about her work has largely disappeared. -
Since Kansas City's right-to-counsel program took effect on June 1, a group of attorneys collectively have taken on 139 new cases of tenants facing eviction. Kansas City sees an average of 9,000 evictions every year. -
Chillicothe, Missouri, has an unusual claim to fame: It’s the town where pre-sliced bread first debuted back in 1928. The state has even declared July 7, Sliced Bread Day, as an official holiday. But despite being less than a century old, the origin of this revolutionary pantry staple was almost lost to history. -
At the height of the space race in the 1960s, Air Force Captain Ed Dwight was chosen to attend a special astronaut training program. He tells the story of what happened next.
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For generations, scientists seeking to learn about prehistoric ocean life have flocked to a place that’s about as far from the ocean as you can get — dry, dusty western Kansas. What they’re finding could teach us both about life in the ancient world and about the future of life in a changing climate. -
Hear the towering – and polarizing – author in conversation about his 4,000-page book, The Oxford History of Western Music. -
July 14th is Bastille Day, the national day of France. It marks the fall of the Bastille prison during the French Revolution, which was a turning point in the war. Celebrate by exploring the music of the Revolution and check these French tunes out. -
Antique collectors from across the country come to Perry, Missouri, searching for everything from celebrity signatures to vintage Cornishware to Civil War memorabilia. -
There's a lot of history buried beneath Kansas City streets, from Prohibition-era passageways and underground caves to the oldest bar in Missouri. -
The project, which goes beyond well-known historical mainstays like baseball, jazz and barbeque, highlights local African Americans who influenced Kansas City, and national, history. -
The Liberty African American Legacy Memorial honors the lives of 761 Black individuals who have been confirmed to be interred, mostly in unmarked graves, in the formerly segregated sections of Fairview and New Hope cemeteries in Liberty, Missouri. -
Henry Ford’s first Model T rolled off the assembly line in 1908, ushering in the age of the automobile and becoming a symbol of America's modernization. By 1927 he'd built more than 15 million cars and trucks . In Kansas City, the KC Chuggers are dedicated to keeping these old Fords running. -
Kansas City played an important role in the early gay rights movement, even predating Stonewall. Here's how you can honor LGBTQ history in Kansas City this Pride Month. -
One national alumni group spent two decades collecting, preserving and archiving material from throughout the history of Lincoln College Preparatory Academy. It's finally open to the public.
