Kansas City History

A fall film series gives viewers a chance to watch classic films surrounded by beautiful landscaping and historic graves. Cemetery preservationists say it helps raise awareness — so long as the weather cooperates.

A cemetery full of gravestones and mausoleums isn’t your normal movie theater, but these film lovers in Kansas City say "it's a good creepy." Plus: A new book reveals the long history behind a Native American tribe’s fight to save a sacred burial ground in Kansas City, Kansas.

Lyda Conley's legacy of Native activism has been the subject of much recent reporting and research. But the battle she waged with her sisters to save the Wyandot National Burying Ground began well before their 1906 decision to take up residence over their parents’ graves.

The cemeteries are scattered across the county — 18 in total, with tens of thousands of graves. That’s unusually high compared to the rest of the state and even the country. The abundance poses a financial challenge for the county government.

The Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri, attracts lovers of the macabre, odd and supernatural for its eerie exhibits. But its founder, longtime state hospital employee George Glore, wanted to document how far the field of mental health care had advanced in the hopes of combating negative stereotypes.

A new historic marker pays tribute to the former site of Soakie’s, the Black queer bar that once operated out of the basement of an Italian sandwich shop. The nightclub regularly hosted drag performances, and served as a home to the local LGBTQ+ community.

After the USDA admitted in 1997 that its programs had routinely discriminated against Black farmers, tens of thousands of them sued the federal government. A judge ultimately ruled in their favor, and farmers were promised nearly $2.2 billion in compensation. But all of these years later, some victims — including in the historic town of Nicodemus, Kansas — still haven’t received anything.

Despite memorials and commemorations, some observers fear the tragedy is fading from memory as the nation marks 25 years since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Harry Houdini was a master of escape. He was also a self-promoter who once performed a stunt in downtown Kansas City to draw an audience to his shows. We'll learn about the Houdini escape that originated right here in Kansas City.

Harry Houdini's connection to Kansas City started out by accident, but it lasted throughout his legendary career. A new historic marker will commemorate the debut of his first escape from a straitjacket while suspended in midair.

The biggest natural disaster ever to hit Kansas City struck 75 years ago. The Black Friday Flood of 1951 is remembered as bigger, nastier and worse than you can probably imagine.

The 1951 Black Friday Flood on the Kaw River destroyed Kansas City's Stockyards and meatpacking industry, did $12 billion worth of damage and displaced 750,000 people.