Black History

Arrowhead Stadium will be rocking tonight with a sellout crowd for the Kansas City Chiefs’ season opener against the Detroit Lions. Some fans remember what it was like before the team became perennial Super Bowl favorites. Plus: If you were planning a party a century ago in Columbia, Missouri, Annie Fisher was the caterer you’d do almost anything to book.

A new Kansas City square-dancing group is putting a gender-neutral spin on an age old American tradition. Plus: A Kansas historian documents the internal fighting between white soldiers and mistreated Black soldiers that threatened America's war efforts in Vietnam.

At the turn of the 20th century, a self-taught caterer in Columbia gained national acclaim with her sought-after biscuit recipe. Fisher’s famous beaten biscuits made it onto the plates of presidents and Hollywood stars alike — making her one of the wealthiest Black women around. But her story may have been lost if not for a few determined Missouri women.

University of Kansas professor Nicole Hodges Persley's new book illuminates hip-hop’s historical and contemporary significance to musical theater — even beyond "Hamilton."

As troops took to the battle fields of Vietnam, internal fighting among American service members threatened to weaken the Army's ability to wage war. "An Army Afire" explores how commanders confronted the crisis.

Women gained the right to vote in 1920. But Black women didn't get the full right until 1965, even though they'd been involved in the fight since the 1800s. That's the topic of an event in Kansas City this Sunday honoring local Black suffragists.

For more than 30 years, a Monett Times reporter has held an annual vigil in the southwest Missouri town marking the night that a mob of white residents killed three Black men — Will Godley, Pete Hampton and French Godley — and forced the rest of the town's Black residents to flee for their lives.

Quindaro in Wyandotte County was once a thriving, multiracial community, inextricably linked to the region’s history before, during and after the Civil War. This week, the ACLU of Kansas is releasing a carefully curated, more than 40-page analysis of the former township.

Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, one of the highest-ranking schools in Missouri, has a storied history in Kansas City. When a group of parents and alumni noticed that current students were constantly coming up short on resources, they founded the district's first booster club to raise funds for sports programs and after-school clubs.

From their new spot on the south end of the Historic 18th and Vine district, Vine Street Brewing Company’s owners want to create an inclusive, multicultural atmosphere with artwork, community service, music and — of course — beer.

A stone’s throw away from Kansas City’s historic 18th and Vine district sits the 2400 block of Montgall Avenue. The now overlooked neighborhood was once home to some of the city’s most prominent Black figures of the 20th century.

In the 1900s, the Neck neighborhood was the center of the Black community in Independence, Missouri. But by 1969, the neighborhood had been demolished — thanks to urban renewal policies put into place by President Harry S. Truman, who lived nearby. A special episode from the KCUR Studios podcast A People's History of Kansas City.