slavery

Legislators in Jackson County will consider a new resolution calling for statues of President Andrew Jackson to be dismantled and removed from the front of courthouses in Kansas City and Independence. The namesake of Jackson County was a slaveholder and largely responsible for the forced removal of Native Americans, but a previous vote to remove the statue failed in 2020.

Legislators will consider a resolution calling for the statue of President Andrew Jackson in front of county courthouses to be dismantled and stored. Jackson was a slave owner and a supporter of the forced relocation of Native Americans. A county-wide vote to remove the statue failed in 2020.

The bill, Reparations NOW, calls for $14 trillion to Black Americans as compensation for slavery and Jim Crow.

An independent group at William Jewell revealed the college founders’ deep ties to slavery, including the fact that enslaved people helped build Jewell Hall and that the college's namesake Dr. William Jewell did not free all the people he enslaved, contrary to previous accounts.

On Jan. 21, Washington Chapel C.M.E. Church was broken into and a piece of a memorial stained glass window removed. The church was built in 1907 by formerly enslaved families in Parkville, Missouri.

Reparation efforts in urban area are gaining national attention, as both Kansas City and St. Louis study what they can do to make amends for harm inflicted on African Americans. But elsewhere in Missouri, rural areas are taking their own steps toward righting historic wrongs on a neighborhood level.

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 state constitution itself has its roots in the bitter days of Bleeding Kansas. One proposed version that granted the right to vote for free African Americans was rejected by a pro-slavery Congress.

Chris Goode has launched a petition demanding the city change Troost Avenue — named after Dr. Benoist Troost, who owned six enslaved men and women.

Missouri had 114,931 enslaved people in 1860 on the eve of the Civil War. National civil rights groups are calling on President Joe Biden to sign an executive order to begin a process for reparations.

The recognition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday brought more people to Kansas City's festival this year. Attendees and organizers hope the celebration of Black culture continues to grow.

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.