Luke X. Martin
Race, Culture & Ethnicity ReporterThe Kansas City region has long been a place where different ways of life collide. I tell the stories of people living and working where race, culture and ethnicity intersect. I examine racial equity and disparity, highlight the area's ethnic groups and communities of color, and invite all of Kansas City to explore meaningful ways to bond with and embrace cultures different from their own.
I was born in Manhattan, Kansas, and raised in Wichita where I fell in love with public radio listening to member station KMUW. I got my start pulling early morning DJ shifts at the student-run radio station KJHK while studying English at the University of Kansas.
I was previously an intern for KCUR's Up To Date, and joined the staff as associate producer in 2016. I have reported on government and politics in the Chicago metro area, and national security and defense in Washington. My work has appeared online at UPI.com, The Daily Caller, Politics Daily and The Pitch.
I have a master’s of journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. If you see me along a running trail or track in Kansas City, please offer me some water or a high five.
My email is luke@kcur.org.
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Martin Luther King Jr. spent years before his assassination working to expand access to the ballot box. Today, advocates and lawmakers say they are fighting many of the same fights. -
More suburban school districts are talking about diversity and inclusion, but their Black students say they continue to face racism and discrimination.
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Few foods have such devoted followings as tamales, especially among Latinos. For families all around Kansas City, making them is a chance to embrace their culture and pass down a tradition.
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Fulk Farms has been owned by the same family since 1889, and has sold Christmas trees since the early 1990s. In the last two years, this farm and others in the region have faced new holiday challenges.
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The attorney general's job is to seek justice, not to defend prior convictions, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker told KCUR. "They exploited these victims again," Peters Baker said of Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt's office.
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"The Court's confidence in Strickland's conviction is so undermined that it cannot stand," the judge wrote. Strickland's wrongful imprisonment for nearly 43 years is among the country's longest.
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After 43 years in a Missouri prison, Kevin Strickland's braided hair could be the key to his freedomThe Kansas City man has spent 43 years behind bars for a crime prosecutors now say he didn’t commit. A judge is considering whether to set him free, and Strickland’s exoneration, at least partially, depends on his hair.
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“I feel really good about the case,” Kevin Strickland told reporters as Jackson County Sheriff's officers wheeled him out of the courtroom after his third day in court.
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Prosecutors have said since May that Kevin Strickland is innocent. For the first time in four decades, he got to make his case to a judge.
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After months of courtroom delays, a judge will hear evidence this week in the innocence petition of a Kansas City man who has spent 43 years in prison for a crime prosecutors now say he didn't commit.
