Sectional for sell less than 6mo old no...
$1,234,567 · Kansas City, MO
View Details
3 Beds 1 Bath House for Rent
$795 · Independence, MO
View Details
2 Beds 3 Baths Townhouse
$895 · Kansas City, MO
View Details
See More on Marketplace
English (US) · Español · Português (Brasil) · Français (France) · Deutsch
Privacy · Terms · Advertising · Ad Choices · Cookies ·
More
Facebook © 2018
Sunday, December 02, 2018
TWIN KANSAS CITiES’ CAMARADERIE
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Moving to Kansas City, Missouri, from Washington, D.C. in 1976, after graduating law school, I enjoyed briefly the residue of a once-vibrant conviviality between the twin Kansas Cities in Kansas and Missouri.
What segregation had brought into being, --camaraderie-- integration destroyed d to a large degree.
This schism was not immediately apparent to me. Our Howard University Alumni Association met at members’ homes in Missouri and Kansas, as did our Barristers’ Wives organization. Missouri had Lincoln High School (where I happily volunteer-taught in 1978). Kansas had Sumner High School. Both schools have glorious histories, and to this day, maintain very high academic standards, as before integration.
But as time went on, and the old heads died off, I began to notice fissures and social discriminations based on whether one was from Kansas or Missouri. Certain lesser-educated Missouri folks actually referred to their Kansas cousins as “country!” Galled by this epithet, I asked them why? What made Kansans “country” when compared to themselves? Nothing definite was said, just vague impressions.
In truth, nothing separates Kansas from Missouri but history—Missouri is a slave state. Kansas became a free state after a “Border War” morphed into “Freedom War” a.k.a. “Civil War,” 1861-1865. Years later state line, rivers, and street signs divided Missouri and Kansas. Both states voted for Donald J. Trump overwhelmingly in 2016, and both voted against Barack H. Obama in 2012. Having friends in both states, having practiced law in courts in both states, they still seem to be substantially similar to me.
Thus, my hypothesis about the two states’ nebulous enmity is derived from differences in business and in politics. Black Kansans are traditionally Republicans. Black Missourians began to become Democrats, rather than Republicans, under Harry S. Truman, and conclusively Democrats under John F. Kennedy.
In business, segregation gave rise to “12th Street and Vine;” “18th and Vine” and “Kansas City Jazz” as a global phenomenon. These were greatly enriched by Charley ”Bird” Parker, virtuoso saxophonist, who was from Kansas City, Kansas; who found an outlet in wide-open KCMO in the 1930’s during Prohibition, thanks to Mayor Tom Pendergast, a mover, shaker, and thorn-in-the-side of competing white interests.
Black businesses boomed in both Kansas Cities in the ‘30s-‘50’s say old, black businessmen from both states. Then came integration, alienation, discrimination, thus, nebulous twin-cities’ enmity of today.
#30
Sunday, December 02, 2018
TWIN KANSAS CITiES’ CAMARADERIE
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Moving to Kansas City, Missouri, from Washington, D.C. in 1976, after graduating law school, I enjoyed briefly the residue of a once-vibrant conviviality between the twin Kansas Cities in Kansas and Missouri.
What segregation had brought into being, --camaraderie-- integration destroyed d to a large degree.
This schism was not immediately apparent to me. Our Howard University Alumni Association met at members’ homes in Missouri and Kansas, as did our Barristers’ Wives organization. Missouri had Lincoln High School (where I happily volunteer-taught in 1978). Kansas had Sumner High School. Both schools have glorious histories, and to this day, maintain very high academic standards, as before integration.
But as time went on, and the old heads died off, I began to notice fissures and social discriminations based on whether one was from Kansas or Missouri. Certain lesser-educated Missouri folks actually referred to their Kansas cousins as “country!” Galled by this epithet, I asked them why? What made Kansans “country” when compared to themselves? Nothing definite was said, just vague impressions.
In truth, nothing separates Kansas from Missouri but history—Missouri is a slave state. Kansas became a free state after a “Border War” morphed into “Freedom War” a.k.a. “Civil War,” 1861-1865. Years later state line, rivers, and street signs divided Missouri and Kansas. Both states voted for Donald J. Trump overwhelmingly in 2016, and both voted against Barack H. Obama in 2012. Having friends in both states, having practiced law in courts in both states, they still seem to be substantially similar to me.
Thus, my hypothesis about the two states’ nebulous enmity is derived from differences in business and in politics. Black Kansans are traditionally Republicans. Black Missourians began to become Democrats, rather than Republicans, under Harry S. Truman, and conclusively Democrats under John F. Kennedy.
In business, segregation gave rise to “12th Street and Vine;” “18th and Vine” and “Kansas City Jazz” as a global phenomenon. These were greatly enriched by Charley ”Bird” Parker, virtuoso saxophonist, who was from Kansas City, Kansas; who found an outlet in wide-open KCMO in the 1930’s during Prohibition, thanks to Mayor Tom Pendergast, a mover, shaker, and thorn-in-the-side of competing white interests.
Black businesses boomed in both Kansas Cities in the ‘30s-‘50’s say old, black businessmen from both states. Then came integration, alienation, discrimination, thus, nebulous twin-cities’ enmity of today.
#30
