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The landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that outlawed racial segregation in public schools may have played out differently if it hadn’t been for a tenacious group of women in Johnson County, Kansas, who led their own integration lawsuit five years earlier. The case centered around a two-room schoolhouse and included a lengthy boycott, big-shot NAACP lawyers, FBI surveillance — and six very brave children.
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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.
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"The Day After" made use of 2,000 local extras alongside well-known actors of the time. The film's emotional impact made it into the pages of a presidential journal, and is widely credited for putting the brakes on the nuclear arms race.
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Kansas City has its fair share of historic homes, odd churches and menacing mansions, each with their own haunting past. With unsolved murders to unexplained mysteries, these sites are perfectly creepy and fascinating even beyond the Halloween season.
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After dying suddenly under mysterious circumstances, Kansas City philanthropist Thomas Swope became the focus of one of the most publicized murder trials of the early 20th century. It’s long been suspected that Swope’s nephew-in-law murdered him and other members of his family as part of a plot to steal their fortune — but the events remain unresolved more than 110 years later.
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Three St. Louis-area locations have been added to the National Park Service's National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom for their connections to enslaved people.
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On Tuesday, three U.S. House representatives, two Democrats and one Republican, introduced a bill to make the site of the historic town of Quindaro in Kansas City, Kansas, a National Historic Landmark. The town was once a stop on the Underground Railroad and a thriving multicultural community.
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Dred Scott, the enslaved man whose case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, is getting a new memorial monument. The Dred Scott Heritage Foundation is dedicating the monument in his honor on Saturday at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.
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Alvin Brooks has served as a bridge in Kansas City for decades — as one of the city’s first Black police officers, an educator, a civil rights leader, a founder of Ad Hoc Group Against Crime, and almost a Kansas City mayor. Today he’s still on call 24/7 for whenever anyone needs help. As he asks everyone to mark their calendars for his 100th birthday in 2032, he looks back to his earliest days in Kansas City.
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Located about 10 miles north of I-70, Lexington's population is roughly the same as it was in the 1860s. The town's biggest tourist attraction is the Battle of Lexington state historic site, but community members want to draw visitors to the rest of town.
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At the turn of the 20th century, a self-taught caterer in Columbia gained national acclaim with her sought-after biscuit recipe. Fisher’s famous beaten biscuits made it onto the plates of presidents and Hollywood stars alike — making her one of the wealthiest Black women around. But her story may have been lost if not for a few determined Missouri women.
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For more than 30 years, a Monett Times reporter has held an annual vigil in the southwest Missouri town marking the night that a mob of white residents killed three Black men — Will Godley, Pete Hampton and French Godley — and forced the rest of the town's Black residents to flee for their lives.
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Quindaro in Wyandotte County was once a thriving, multiracial community, inextricably linked to the region’s history before, during and after the Civil War. This week, the ACLU of Kansas is releasing a carefully curated, more than 40-page analysis of the former township.
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With more shoreline than the coast of California, the Lake of the Ozarks in mid-central Missouri is a popular tourist destination for land-locked Midwesterners. For decades, it's provided financial opportunities for locals and outside interests alike — but at what cost? The story of how this man-made body of water came to be involves corruption, jail time, communities torn apart, and displaced families.
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As troops took to the battle fields of Vietnam, internal fighting among American service members threatened to weaken the Army's ability to wage war. "An Army Afire" explores how commanders confronted the crisis.
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Peruvian American artist Sarah Zapata, who's based in New York, combines sculptural and textile techniques to create a site-specific installation for Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art’s eighth annual Atrium Project.
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In the days before air conditioning, electric fans were how Midwesterners beat the heat. One local collector is restoring a rare set of antique fans that once cooled travelers in Kansas City’s Union Station.
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Two teams based in Olathe, Kansas, will play in the Granny Basketball national tournament this weekend in Decorah, Iowa. Organizers aim to foster camaraderie, sportsmanship and 'a gentle game' for women over age 50.
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A Missouri bill lays out a plan to let more public schools to teach the Bible, but designing a course that respects students’ First Amendment rights can be tricky.
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New digital billboards that look like "wanted" posters have been popping up around Kansas City. They're the work of a Kansas City writer exploring public memories of the 1988 South Kansas City explosion that killed six firefighters.
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With a small-but-mighty restaurant culture, its own newspaper, and a vision for the future, the neighborhood of Martin City is a cultural hub in South Kansas City.
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Ed and Brad Budde both played offensive line for the Chiefs, and were both first round draft picks — a singular achievement in the NFL.
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The symbolic flower will grace the National World War I Museum and Memorial beginning Tuesday, just as thousands of travelers visit one of the biggest sports events to come to Kansas City.
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Thomas Eakins' oil painting “Sailing” starts a two-month run Thursday at Kansas City's premier art institution. The display comes as the city prepares to host the NFL Draft for the first time.