Black Archives of Mid-America

The holiday celebrating freedom for black people in the United States traditionally involved parades, festivals and cookouts in various parts of the Kansas City metro, especially in the Historic 18th and Vine district.

Segment 1: How black cultural institutions can serve as a place for community healing.It's no secret that Kansas City still bears scars of redlining and…

Segment 1: Kansas City photographers William Fambrough and Matthew Washington captured the African-American experience in Kansas City. For a long time…

Lincoln Cemetery. Western Baptist Bible College. Wheatley-Provident Hospital.Compared to the 18th and Vine area, these are among the little-known…

Segment 1: Cultural shifts in smoking and vaping.With smoking banned in most public places — and vaping on the rise among teens — we look at the changing…

Levi Harrington was lynched on April 3, 1882, in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, Missouri.That may seem like a long time ago, but after 136 years, the…

“Let the world see what I’ve seen.”These were the words of Mamie Till Mobley, mother of Emmett Till, when she allowed the media to use an infamous photo…

The poet Mbembe Milton Smith wrote some provocative words about a Kansas City suburb:“There are uncharted places like Overland Park, Kansas or Greenwich…

When Makeda Peterson was growing up, history was personal to her.Her father, Horace Peterson III, founded the Black Archives of Mid-America. He also…

A local musician on the surprisingly complex history of the trumpet, then a look at the iconic stores that defined a time, a place and a way of life in…

After 122 literary agents rejected her work, Kansas novelist Bryn Greenwood finally found a publisher in August for All the Ugly and Wonderful Things. She…

Next week, KU will host a Black Arts Poetry Conference, which will feature readings by poets Frank X. Walker and Kevin Young at the Black Archives of…