Once a stop along the Underground Railroad for people escaping slavery, Quindaro was established before the Civil War by a mix of abolitionists, Black people, and Native Americans. During and after the war, it served as a haven for people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
“Quindaro was unique,” Johnny Szlauderbach, Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area director of strategy and public affairs, told KCUR’s Up to Date. “It is unlike any other town that existed at the time in the sense that you had different ethnic groups working towards a common goal.”
Today, only the ruins remain of what was once a thriving community along the Missouri River.
Despite receiving unanimous recommendation from the National Park Service last year, Quindaro has yet to be officially designated a National Historic Landmark.
A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers, including Kansas Reps. Sharice Davids and Derek Schmidt and Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, are now advancing legislation to secure that recognition.
Szlauderbach says this designation finally would give federal protections and funding to Quindaro, allowing for continued excavation and potentially public tourism in the future.
- Johnny Szlauderbach, director of strategy and public affairs, Freedom’s Frontier
