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"We are grateful for how far we’ve come. We are humbled by how far we still have to go."
This morning, @KCStar publishes a six-part series investigating our own racist history. First, a letter to readers from @kcnewsfan https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247928045.html
This morning, @KCStar publishes a six-part series investigating our own racist history. First, a letter to readers from @kcnewsfan https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247928045.html
First in the series, @marawilliamskc looks at the way The Star and the Kansas City Times covered a 1977 flood that killed 25. The papers' coverage centered on property damage on the Plaza and overlooked the devastation in Black neighborhoods. https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247164484.html
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II, then-VP and founder of the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference chapter, accused federal agencies of discrimination in administering relief to Black residents.
There were no stories investigating his claims. https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247164484.html
There were no stories investigating his claims. https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247164484.html
Next from @eadler: For The Star's first 80-plus years, including "the wide-open jazz and bebop epoch that has since become part of Kansas City’s proud legacy — The Star and Times ignored most of Kansas City’s Black culture as if it were invisible." https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article246722461.html
On the 1st Black woman millionaire, Sarah Rector:
“Such is the transformation, that an unexpected discovery of oil has brought to this 10-year-old negro, ignorant, with apparently limited mental capacity and no idea whatever of what it all means to her.” https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article246722461.html
“Such is the transformation, that an unexpected discovery of oil has brought to this 10-year-old negro, ignorant, with apparently limited mental capacity and no idea whatever of what it all means to her.” https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article246722461.html
. @kcmikehendricks digs into The Star and Times' failings during the civil rights movement. The papers barely covered a seven-week boycott of downtown department stores over their whites-only dining rooms. The opinion pages were silent on it. https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247769015.html
“We don’t need stories about these people,” Roy Roberts, the cigar-smoking top editor reportedly told cub reporter Giles Fowler when he killed Fowler’s story about the boycott. https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247769015.html
Part 4 from @eadler: ‘Brutes’ and murderers: Black people overlooked in KC coverage — except for crime https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247235584.html
After Emmett Till was lynched, the Times wrote two front page stories: one on Carolyn Bryant Donham's claim that Till "seized" her and one on the acquittal of Till's murderers.
"No photo of Till ran. No photo of his grieving mother." (from @eadler) https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247235584.html
"No photo of Till ran. No photo of his grieving mother." (from @eadler) https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247235584.html
Back to @marawilliamskc on how Kansas City Public Schools remained segregated long after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that was illegal. And The Star looked the other way. https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247821130.html
"There were no stories about the textbooks with broken spines, discarded from the schools attended by mostly white children and handed down to schools attended by mostly Black children." https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247821130.html
A science teacher was moved from the mostly-Black Southeast High to the mostly-white Southwest and replaced by a "janitorial services" teacher. https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247821130.html
Finally, from @Cortlynn_Stark: J.C. Nichols’ whites-only neighborhoods, boosted by @KCStar's founder, leave indelible mark https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247787885.html
Nichols' & Nelson's relationship lasted a decade.
"But its legacy rippled across the decades in Kansas City, laying the foundation for a system that denied Black families access to a housing market that created wealth for generations of white families." https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247787885.html
"But its legacy rippled across the decades in Kansas City, laying the foundation for a system that denied Black families access to a housing market that created wealth for generations of white families." https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247787885.html
This has been an eye-opening 2.5-hour read, the culmination of truly hard work by @marawilliamskc, @eadler, @Cortlynn_Stark, @kcmikehendricks, @KCStarShelly, @kctammy2009, @Magnusichi, @ChrisOchsnerKC, @bturque and @Sharonakc.
The Star also announced today creation of an advisory board "to ensure that our coverage of Kansas City’s communities of color is fair, expansive and all that this city deserves." Story from @Trey3Williams https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247950270.html
