Civil War

A retired Kansas City fire captain is on a yearslong mission to honor every firefighter in the department's 157-year history who has died in the line of duty. Plus: A Kansas cemetery holds the stories of Black "Exodusters" who moved north after the Civil War.

Sometimes the little places you pass every day hold much more significance than you realize. That's the case for a Stafford County, Kansas cemetery that holds the graves of some of Kansas' early Black residents.

Just southeast of Kansas City is Lee's Summit, Missouri, founded just a few months after the Civil War ended. Now, the city has a historic downtown shopping district, vibrant local arts scene and plenty of green space to explore.

Abolitionist John Brown wasn't born in Kansas, but made his mark during the Bleeding Kansas era before the Civil War. Today, 165 years after his execution, Brown's violent acts and influence are commemorated across the state of Kansas — including the site of the Pottawatomie massacre.

Located about 10 miles north of I-70, Lexington's population is roughly the same as it was in the 1860s. The town's biggest tourist attraction is the Battle of Lexington state historic site, but community members want to draw visitors to the rest of town.

Missouri is one of 16 states that have underfunded land-grant Historically Black Colleges and Universities for decades, according to the leaders of the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Central United Methodist Church will become a satellite for the Leawood-based Church of the Resurrection. Its history says much about Kansas City's, and it's own, past ties to slavery.

Independence, Missouri, was the epicenter of westward expansion in pre-Civil War America. Hiram Young, a formerly enslaved man, became the wealthiest man in the county by building wagons and ox yokes, before almost losing it all.

The Liberty African American Legacy Memorial honors the lives of 761 Black individuals who have been confirmed to be interred, mostly in unmarked graves, in the formerly segregated sections of Fairview and New Hope cemeteries in Liberty, Missouri.

Slavery in Missouri is rarely discussed, but unique geography in its western region helped create a treacherous set of circumstances for the enslaved.

Kansas City was one of the stops for Big Boy, the world's largest operating steam locomotive and the train has rolled into Union Station twice during the past few weeks. Photographer Steve Wilson captured the train with a 19th-Century photographic process used to document the American Civil War.

The story of Cathay Williams, a pioneer in the fight against race and gender discrimination. Growing up enslaved in Independence, Missouri, she disguised herself as a man in order to become a legendary Buffalo Soldier.