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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.
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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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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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In his film The League, Sam Pollard tells the story of the Negro National League, which began in Kansas City: "They brought a different kind of style ... a kind of baseball which Major League Baseball is trying to bring back."
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Call it Kansas City's cruel summer. In July 1993, the Kansas River spilled over near 59th Street and Kaw Drive in Wyandotte County, Turkey Creek flooded Southwest Boulevard, and the Missouri River came close to overtopping the levees protecting the downtown airport. Hundreds of families were displaced.
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Each year, a group of young members of the Cherokee Tribes gets on bikes and retraces the Trail of Tears their ancestors traveled when relocated by the U.S. government almost 100 years ago. They hope to bring more understanding and acknowledgement of the tragic event.
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Jack Snelling hit the road with a mission: Visit every historic courthouse in Missouri.
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Kansas City’s first Pride parade in 1977 was spearheaded by Lea Hopkins, whose organizing sparked a wider gay rights movement that continues today. But it was only a few weeks after that successful event that Hopkins found herself on the defense again, when a prominent anti-gay activist came on a crusade through town.
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Gov. Laura Kelly shot down a proviso in the state budget bill allocating $250,000 for the Quindaro Ruins Archaeological Park in Kansas City, historically an important stop on the Underground Railroad. One of the site’s top supporters, Kansas City Democrat Rep. Marvin Robinson, broke party lines to help Republicans override Kelly's veto of a transgender athlete ban.
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An independent group at William Jewell revealed the college founders’ deep ties to slavery, including the fact that enslaved people helped build Jewell Hall and that the college's namesake Dr. William Jewell did not free all the people he enslaved, contrary to previous accounts.
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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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A 1975 protest at a McDonald’s restaurant in Kansas City emerged from years of escalating tension — between Black community members and their city, and between McDonald’s and the neighborhoods it inhabited. But this particular location was also one of the first Black-owned fast-food franchises in the country, an accomplishment born from its own struggle for inclusion.
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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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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.
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These journalists captured life in Independence in the 1980s. Now they’ve returned for a second lookDan White and Brent Schondelmeyer first embarked on a project to document life and history in Independence, Missouri, in 1985. Almost 40 years later, the two are back at work on new words and photographs of people living in the shadow of a president.
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On Oct. 16, 1923, Margaret Winkler agreed to produce and distribute "Alice Comedies," a new series by Walt Disney, at the time a struggling cartoonist in Kansas City. That contract is considered the founding document of The Walt Disney Company.
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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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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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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.