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Kansas was years ahead of most of the country in granting women full suffrage. A prank by a few men backfired when Susanna Madora Salter was elected mayor of Argonia, Kansas, in 1887.
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Shawnee, Kansas goes to the polls next Tuesday amid culture wars, lawsuits, and a sexting scandal. Plus: A new choral work commissioned by William Jewell College is helping the institution own up to its fraught racial history.
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William Jewell College has commissioned a new choral work, “The Canon for Racial Reconciliation,” which is part of a broader effort at the college to reckon with the institution's racial history. The music melds Orthodox liturgy with gospel sounds, and is co-written by composers Nicholas Reeves and Isaac Cates.
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Board members of an Overland Park police charity, tasked with assisting the families of fallen officers, used foundation funds to benefit themselves. But it's not clear if they will face any consequences. Plus: How the death of a Kansas City philanthropist turned into the murder trial of the century.
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After dying suddenly under mysterious circumstances, Kansas City philanthropist Thomas Swope became the focus of one of the most publicized murder trials of the early 20th century. It’s long been suspected that Swope’s nephew-in-law murdered him and other members of his family as part of a plot to steal their fortune — but the events remain unresolved more than 110 years later.
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These journalists captured life in Independence in the 1980s. Now they’ve returned for a second lookDan White and Brent Schondelmeyer first embarked on a project to document life and history in Independence, Missouri, in 1985. Almost 40 years later, the two are back at work on new words and photographs of people living in the shadow of a president.
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On Oct. 16, 1923, Margaret Winkler agreed to produce and distribute "Alice Comedies," a new series by Walt Disney, at the time a struggling cartoonist in Kansas City. That contract is considered the founding document of The Walt Disney Company.
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Alvin Brooks has served as a bridge in Kansas City for decades — as one of the city’s first Black police officers, an educator, a civil rights leader, a founder of Ad Hoc Group Against Crime, and almost a Kansas City mayor. Today he’s still on call 24/7 for whenever anyone needs help. As he asks everyone to mark their calendars for his 100th birthday in 2032, he looks back to his earliest days in Kansas City.
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Kansas City is alive with the sound of Robert Russell Bennett's music. Bennett is the Kansas City native who orchestrated many of the most well-known musicals of the 20th century. On this episode of Kansas City Local Feature, Kiana Fernandes and Music Theater Heritage founder George Harter examine the life and work of this often-overlooked theater giant.
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The Chiefs begin their 60th year of football in Kansas City as Super Bowl favorites, but many longtime fans still remember the days when wins were much harder to come by.
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Peruvian American artist Sarah Zapata, who's based in New York, combines sculptural and textile techniques to create a site-specific installation for Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art’s eighth annual Atrium Project.
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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.