How a McDonald’s in Kansas City got pulled into the Black community’s fight for justice

Published July 21, 2023 at 10:26 AM CDT

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Protesters on the steps of Kansas City Hall on April 4, 1968, on the day of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral. A few years later, some of those same protesters brought their demands for liberation to McDonald's.

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.

Read more about the Golden Arches in Kansas City from KCUR's Mackenzie Martin.

History

How a McDonald’s in Kansas City got pulled into the Black community’s fight for justice

Mackenzie Martin

This episode of A People's History of Kansas City was reported, produced and mixed by Mackenzie Martin with editing by Gabe Rosenberg and host Suzanne Hogan.