History
Which Schools Are Integrated?
Lisa Gooden was set on finding the right school for her children in Kansas City. The choices were complex — public, private, charter, signature — but she felt good about all the buildings she visited. There were probably a dozen or so public elementaries within a couple miles of her neighborhood, so she didn’t understand…
Historic Pickwick Plaza Gets Its Landmark Clock Back Just in Time for Grand Opening
By Kevin Collison The historic Pickwick Plaza in downtown Kansas City is back on the clock–literally–after a $65 million redevelopment project. On Wednesday, workers were reinstalling the eight-foot diameter clock mounted seven stories above McGee Street, one of the final touches before the grand opening Friday of the 260-unit apartment development. “That clock is symbolic…
A Powerful Force, Sixty Years Later
Charles Farris endured hurricanes and typhoons during his 28-year naval career. But even so, when the south Kansas City man hears reports of a funnel cloud, six decades melt away, and an instinct kicks in. “Every time I hear a tornado warning,” he said, “I go looking for a shovel to dig myself a hole.”…
‘Tar Baby’: A Folk Tale About Food Rights, Rooted In The Inequalities Of Slavery
The tar baby story in which Bre’r Rabbit outwits Bre’r Fox is a classic trickster folk tale. But like all fables, it is a double-barreled affair, with entertainment firing in tandem with a serious message. The question the story addresses is a fundamental one: Who controls access to food and water? Or, more crucially, who…
KC Preservationists Pursue Campaign to Document Westport Architecture as Development Pressure Mounts
By Kevin Collison New projects in the works for historic Westport are prompting a grassroots effort to survey the district’s buildings to provide a solid planning base for future development decisions. Plans for two apartment projects and a hotel are being reviewed at City Hall for a district that’s been popular destination since before Kansas…
Duncan Hines: The Original Road Warrior Who Shaped Restaurant History
Duncan Hines, traveling salesman and future purveyor of boxed cake mix, considered himself an authority on a great many things: hot coffee, Kentucky country-cured ham and how to locate a tasty restaurant meal, in 1935, for under a dollar and a quarter. By the 1950s, Hines’ name would be plastered on boxes of cake mix;…
Couple Moves On From Silence About Time In Japanese Internment Camps
This weekend marks the 75th anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt’s executive order that led to the internment of Japanese-Americans. We hear from two people who were interned when they were children.
Our Watershed | A History of Brush Creek
From questions of quality — think Flint, Michigan — to questions of access — think the Dakota Access Pipeline — understanding our finite resource of water starts at home. Our story starts with Brush Creek, a landmark in the heart of Kansas City named for the brush that once grew on its sides. Brush Creek,…
Sympathetic Vibrations | Steps Toward Common Ground
Race has been a part of the jazz conversation for much of its history. The genre’s origins are owed to African American culture, but it was adopted and perhaps catapulted — some would say appropriated — into the mainstream by white consumers. During the heyday of the Hollywood Canteen, a serviceman’s nightclub open during World…
KC Clergy Stood Fast With Anti-War Stance
He’s 84 now, and has been retired since 2003 from his role as pastor of a United Methodist Church in northern California, but the Rev. Phillip Lawson vividly remembers all the trouble he stirred up in Kansas City in 1970 by speaking out against the Vietnam War. He went to Hanoi and, in a radio…