African Americans

City officials, community members and business owners celebrated the grand opening of a nearly yearlong project to transform the corridor into a more walkable public space. It’s part of a $400 million push to revitalize the historic neighborhood.

Heartland Mini Con will welcome all fans of comics, video games, and cosplay, to a space where Black nerds can connect and support one another. The organizer says it’s aimed at counteracting the racial discrimination some experience at bigger, more popular conventions.

Johnson County's Negro Creek runs through southern Overland Park and Leawood, and went mostly unknown and unmapped. But when social justice protests emerged in 2020, people took notice and petitioned to change the name. After years of research and public discussions, the creek will keep its name, but get new signage explaining its history.

Richardson founded an association aimed at advancing the media careers of people of color at a time when diverse voices were not prioritized. ‘His life’s work stands as a testament to the power of representation,’ his family wrote.

Parade Park Homes was once one of the oldest Black-owned housing cooperatives in the country. The redevelopment there includes plans for about 1,100 new housing units, with some reserved as affordable or for senior housing.

The state's new congressional map uses Troost Avenue as a dividing line, and groups majority Black neighborhoods in east Kansas City with rural communities in the middle of the state. Community leaders worry the new divide will mean the needs of underserved urban neighborhoods go ignored.

Edward McCabe helped establish an all-Black Kansas town on his mission to create a state inhabited and run by freed slaves. In a new book, author Caleb Gayle writes about how McCabe earned the nickname of "Black Moses" and what his quest for liberation meant.

Veronica Scroggins of Scott's Kitchen is the latest on a short list of successful female pitmasters in the Kansas City area. She and others say the industry is still dominated by males, and mentors can be hard to find.

Some artists shy away from using AI. Kansas City photographer and digital artist David Morris embraces it. Hear how a local creative harnesses AI to bring his vision to life, and where you can see it. Plus: A Kansas City bookselling icon is retiring after years of tracking down Black books and vinyl. Now, a new generation is stepping up to preserve her legacy.

Derrick Barnes felt there wasn't wide enough representation of Black people in the books he read as a kid. The Kansas City native's new picture book, “I Got You,” is his latest effort to write characters who can "just be human," he says.

Crews of volunteers are digging into the ruins of a 168-year-old mansion in Lecompton, Kansas, that belonged to a territorial governor. The work is done through the Kansas Historical Society's annual archaeological field school. Plus: Children’s author Derrick Barnes from Kansas City is known for books that are all about making Black kids feel seen.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas convened a reparations commission in May 2023 with the goal of recommending how the city could repair harms from racism. Two years later, much of that work has yet to begin.